Free to Play, Not Pay to Win

Burned by free games that end up charging you for everything? It makes sense to ask before you install: is Valdoria pay to win? No. The orcs vs. elves MMORPG is free to play from start to finish, with no subscription, no loot boxes, no premium currency and no in-game purchases, and the only paid content is six optional races that give no levels, gear or items. Here's what you pay for, what you don't and why paying won't make you win.

• 60 levels without paying a thing
• 98 free quests
• 6 optional races, no advantage
• 2 races you can only earn by playing
• 0 subscriptions, loot boxes or premium currencies

Truly Free: From Level 1 to 60 Without Paying

Downloading Valdoria and playing all of it costs nothing. Without paying, you get both factions, orcs and elves, with five classes each; all 60 levels and 98 quests; the Dusk Fortress, Windrock Castle and six caves; all six world bosses; the bank, the mail, player trading and the auction house; guilds; both modes, Original and Hardcore; and the Training Grounds.

Your account keeps one character for each class of each race you have, so with orcs and elves you already have ten characters without spending a penny. Zones, dungeons, quests, gear and gold are the same for players who pay and players who don't. Everything the game offers is in the free MMORPG guide.

The Only Paid Content: Six Optional Races

The Store lists six races, three per faction. The Undead, Gargoyles and Crowfolk fight with the orcs; the Tigerfolk, Mantis and Tauros fight with the elves. Each one brings five new characters, one per class, starting from level 1, on top of the ones you already have. It isn't a skin for an existing character or a race change: your current characters stay exactly the same.

They're coming to Steam as one-time-purchase DLC, priced in your currency, and each race will stay on your account forever: it covers its five characters, including any you create a year from now.

Racials of Equal Value: Why a Paid Race Gives No Advantage

Because what changes is the look and the racials, and the racials are worth the same. Characters of a paid race start at level 1, in their faction's capital, with the same classes, abilities, talents, weapons, armor and quests as orcs and elves. The active racials make it clear:

• Granite Skin (Gargoyles) and Bravery (Tauros) do the same as Moon's Gift, the elf racial: for 15 seconds you take 5% less damage.
• Carrion Feast (Crowfolk) and Predator's Instinct (Mantis) do the same as Clan Fury, the orc racial: 5% more damage and healing for 15 seconds, at the cost of receiving half the healing.
• The Undead use Clan Fury itself, and the Tigerfolk, Moon's Gift.

The passives follow the same yardstick. Sturdy Frame, from the Tauros, gives 1% more health, like the orcs' War Blood, and Mantis Reflexes gives 1% more dodge, like Elven Agility. Where a race swaps a passive, it swaps it for one of the same size: Orcish Grit makes stuns from other players 10% shorter; Raucous Caw, from the Crowfolk, does the same for silences; and Unstoppable, from the Tauros, for roots and slows. You'll find them all in the guide to the ten races.

And PvP is measured: at level 60, no damage or healing class wins less than 48% or more than 67% of its duels, and no one can attack a character more than five levels apart. More in the PvP guide.

Try Every Race for Free in the Training Grounds

You don't have to buy blind. In the Training Grounds, which open from the main menu, you can play any paid race, at any level, before you buy it. You pick the race, class, talent tree, a level from 1 to 60 and Basic, Medium or Full Gear, then duel the AI or a friend. That way you can check in combat that its racials don't break anything, and nothing that happens there affects your character.

Two Races You Can't Buy: Earn Them at Level 60

Veteran Orcs and Veteran Elves aren't in the Store and can't be bought: you earn them by playing. Your account earns each one, forever, when any of your characters from that faction reaches level 60, whatever their race, paid ones included. Their motto says it all: “Their armor isn't forged or bought: it's hunted.”

The hardest things to get in Valdoria can't be paid for: you earn them by making it to the end. See them on the home page.

No Subscription, No Loot Boxes, No Premium Currency

The things that usually turn a free game into pay to win aren't in Valdoria:

• No subscription: no monthly fee and no renewals.
• No loot boxes: you never pay for a random prize.
• No premium currency: gold is earned in the game, through quests, loot and trading with other players.
• No in-game purchases: levels, gear and items are never for sale.

Good gear is earned by playing: through quests, in the Dusk Fortress and from world bosses. Vorathar, the Dusk, gives every participant an epic piece for their class, gold and a shot at one of its six epics. None of it is sold for real money.

Start Playing for Free

1. Download the Valdoria launcher and unzip it into a folder. You need 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 and a DirectX 12 graphics card; the first download is about 1.9 GB, and the installed game takes up about 2.3 GB.
2. Open Jugar.cmd. If Windows warns you about an unrecognized app, click “More info” and then “Run anyway”. After that, the launcher only downloads what changes in each version.
3. Create your account on the website or in the game, choose orcs or elves and a class, and jump in.

If you ever want another race, you'll know exactly what you're getting. And if not, the whole game is still yours, for free.

More Valdoria Guides