To celebrate the release of battle sprites and other exciting, new features, the Haven Treasury is hosting a special giveaway and Supply Depot sale!

From now until 12:00 PM PDT on August 14th, 2013, we're giving away free Companion Prize Boxes to every knight each day just for logging in!

Each Companion Prize Box contains special sprite food for your new battle sprite, Sparks of Life, and a bonus chance for rarities! Items found inside Companion Prize Boxes are based on your knight rank. Companion Prize Boxes are delivered bound.

Today, many exciting changes have arrived to Spiral Knights! These changes include the release of all-new missions, Battle Sprites and new rarity class items!

There's a lot to see and do and you can now do it all for FREE. That's right, elevators will no longer charge energy to operate!

Be sure to read over the extensive patch notes for more info on all the new features. See you in the Clockworks!

Battle Sprites are new combat companions that all players can acquire by completing a new series of Rank 2 missions upon reaching Haven. These missions teach players about Battle Sprites and allow them to try out each of the three starter sprites before ultimately choosing one to keep.

The three starter Battle Sprites are the fiery Drakon, the divine Seraphinx, and the shadowy Maskeraith; each with their own unique powers that will become more powerful as the sprite levels up and evolves! Just remember to feed them materials or food crafted from the Lab so your sprite can level up faster, evolve and gain new skills.

Visit the Supply Depot to get a great deal on all-new rarity class items!

Use Sparks of Life to revive in combat and unleash a powerful energy blast, craft powerful weapons and gear with Orbs of Alchemy and level up your items and unlock special bonuses with the Forge. Best of all, all of these new items can be found within treasure blocks in the Clockworks!

Items that acquire heat will no longer automatically level up when enough heat is required at the end of a level. Instead, a new type of item called ‘Fire Crystals’ must be used within a new interface called ‘The Forge’ in order to level up your items.

The Forge can be accessed in town or at any arsenal station. When an item is ready to level up, open the Forge and select the item. The item will require a certain number of a specific fire crystal to level up. However, in some cases there is a chance the forge will not succeed and the fire crystals will be lost. No heat is ever lost due a failed forging.

Additionally, players have the option to add more than the requisite fire crystals in order to improve the odds of a successful forge as well as the chance to gain a special bonus.

Fire crystals may be purchased in stacks in the Supply Depot, acquired via missions or found as loot in treasure blocks.