I think that's how it's spelled, and that is almost all of the Chinese I know. That means, "Happy New Year" in Chinese and according to their ancient lunar calendar it's that time.

For the Chinese it is a time to relax and to go meet family. My wife and I were in Singapore last year for CNY and that city was Closed. There were plenty of things for us to do there, but the shopping was pretty limited. Still, I liked it enough to go back again for a second trip last year.

In terms of the game, Acclaim has given us another hat item and it's pretty good. It gives +10 all attributes, 500 HP and VE and a nice critical dodge number. How you get that hat isn't all that clear. There are three quests you can do, and they start with a new fortune-teller NPC in Hefei. Just go look for the crowd.

You have to buy a bunch of keys from him and then try to be the first to open the various chests that spawn in front of him. The fortune teller was Grand Central Noob Station this morning when I did it. You use the keys to open the chests and collect the fortune letters. Letter number 3 actives a quest that in the end only gives you 200 gold. At the end of that quest you have to tell three words to the Black Market mask seller. The three words are the name of the item you picked up from the first NPC. You can do this quest repeatedly.

To get the hat you need to get fortune letter number 7. Then you get a chain-quest where you talk to a whole bunch of Hefei NPC's. Eventually you end up where you started the quest and you'll get the Ox hat. Uhm, I might get a deco to cover it up. It's pretty noobish.

There is a third quest and you have to be really patient with it. You need fortune letters 2 and 9, and two copies of fortune letter 0. That triggers a quest from the fortune-teller, and I think that gets you a +500 HP buff that lasts 60 minutes. I'm not sure if you can re-do that quest so I haven't started it yet.

The hat can be put into storage, so all of your characters can use it. This also means we need to watch carefully for a sign that the New Years event is ending soon, so that we can all go make a new hat. The one I got today lasts until the 4 of February, almost 3 weeks!

I got a dumpling ambrosia drop while grinding today. I suspect we'll see a few of those in this event. Dumplings are a traditional New Years food item, and these ones are going to make Hybrids and Nukers particularly happy. Each ambrosia gives you 500CK damage for 10 minutes.

And lastly, there is a new in-game drop. It's a red envelope with cash in it. It is traditional in Chinese families to give children a red envelope with money in it, for New Year's, or for their birthdays. I got a few of them today on the grind and NPC'ed them for 120 gold each at the clan map. I'm not sure if there is another use for them, but it's a nice touch that is based on a real tradition.

If you want another tradition? Wear something red for New Years. It's supposed to be lucky. And don't touch the dust in your house. You would be sweeping your luck away.

Did you find anything else in the event?

- SpearDriver