Things I Like About Albion Online: S.A.F.E. Portals
We continue our "things we like about Albion Online series" today with one of my favorite solo activities in the game: S.A.F.E. Portals. These transportation networks are a fairly new addition to Albion Online and are located in the portal city areas that connect the Royal Continent to the Outlands (Black Zone). They were implemented as a way to encourage solo players to safely enter the outlands undetected, and to provide a mechanism in which to easily travel back home once they were done with their solo adventures. We will discuss the mechanics of these portals in detail as they are important to understand if you want a safe and successful trip to the high risk / high reward region of the Outlands.
As mentioned above, to enter the S.A.F.E. portal you must go to the portal city area of whatever Royal Continent city you wish to enter from. Note: Once you enter the portal city areas of a particular city, you are bound to that city for a short period of time, meaning, you can only enter the Outlands from that city. You can unlock your bind either by manually traveling through the outlands to another city's portal, or by using a once-a-week manual unlock which allows you to bind to another portal city instantly. You will find the S.A.F.E. portal by following your mini map to the massive blue gateway that you will find in each city's portal city.
Once you click on the S.A.F.E. portal, you will be given the option to randomly be transported to one of the zones within the perimeter of your portal area for a fee based on the quality of the gear you are bringing to that area. The good news is, that this fee is a round-trip cost, meaning, that once you enter the portal, you can use the portal again in the zone you were transported to in order to head back home to the safety of the portal city at no cost. The S.A.F.E. portal stays up for 1.5 hours, leaving you ample time to adventure in the area before it disappears.
The zones the S.A.F.E. portal transports you too can be anywhere between T5 to T8 zones, so some areas may be too difficult for you to manage if you did not bring high enough gear power or gear that is not good at farming PvE mobs. While it is random the zone you get sent to, it does not mean that these areas are not without risks of PvP. When you enter the Outlands, you are entering the black zone where all of the guilds of Albion Online have likely laid hideouts in whatever zone you ported too, meaning, there is a home for other players to live out of. That means you will have to carefully farm PvE or gather resources to ensure you do not get caught.
It is recommended that as you get use to this content that you stay close to your S.A.F.E. portal because you can use that as an exit from danger assuming that you did not put yourself into combat trying to escape a gank. Your S.A.F.E. portal is only visible to you on the mini map and will only be revealed to others who may be chasing you if you are nearby the portal. Because of the high risk / high reward Outland maps that you will be traveling too, it may be smart to initially wear cheaper gear so that you ensure your losses are not too high if you get caught and killed by a player. In fact, some of the best money I have ever made has been made in T4 sets with a nature staff, simply farming the mobs and earning back the cost of my set many times over.
The S.A.F.E. portal does not disappear for 1.5 hours, even if you decide to move to another zone temporarily or enter the mists, a dungeon, a corrupted dungeon, or other form of instanced content while you are in the Outlands, This allows you to decrease your risk while you are out there in case you do see some increased activity on your mini map counter that states a higher amount of hostile players in the area. I often am not too worried when I see 1-5 hostiles on the mini map, but start to get concerned when there are 6-15 and often times decide to either enter a form of instanced content, or farm near my S.A.F.E. portal to ensure I can escape back to the safety of the portal cities.
For solo fame farmers and gatherers, I personally believe there is no better content than the S.A.F.E. portals for progressing your character in a meaningful and profitable manner. It is imperative that you work within your budget and experience, only using gear you can afford to lose in those areas. Starting with a T4 set if you are entirely new to the experience will help you get the hang of things without losing much if you happen to die. You will eventually see why they call them the S.A.F.E. portals after you get the basic mechanics down, because it really does make black zone farming as a solo player much safer than simply walking out of the portal city exits where many gankers await those foolish enough to do so. The cost savings of being able to enter the S.A.F.E. portal to return back home at no additional cost when you have a pack full of loot from your adventure is a massive cost savings, and that alone is why gatherers especially love this content. I look forward to showcasing more of the S.A.F.E. portal mechanics live on stream today.
Until next time,
Blackboa