An EverQuest server
Classic through Rain of Fear, one year at a time. Harder than you remember, and slower on purpose.
playhomecoming.comHomecoming runs on the Rain of Fear client. Three steps, once, and you are done.
You will need the RoF2 client instead. Titanium and Secrets of Faydwer have no files for Highpass Hold — a main travel route between the Karanas, Kithicor and High Keep — so they cannot cross the middle of the world here. RoF2 is a free download, and it is a far better client besides.
Daybreak removed several classic zones from the client before RoF2 shipped, and rebuilt two more in place, under the same name. Homecoming runs the originals.
Removed outright, restored by the archive: the Plane of Hate, West Commonlands, Toxxulia Forest, Misty Thicket and Lavastorm. Without them you cannot enter those zones at all — there is no error message, the client simply refuses and nothing appears to happen. Erudites, Halflings and anyone travelling east out of Freeport need them to leave home.
Rebuilt in place: Nektulos and Lavastorm. Your client holds both versions and loads the newer one unless the .eqg is moved aside. Skip step 3 and you will walk around the rebuilt zone while the server describes the old one — NPCs buried underground, zone lines dropping you through the world.
Highpass runs as Highpass Hold, the later version. That one is not a choice we made: Daybreak rebuilt it in a format with no way to load the old geometry, and the classic version is absent from RoF2 entirely. Every other classic zone on the server is the original.
You fall through the world, or NPCs float and sink. You did not run SETUP-RoF2.bat, or you ran it from the wrong folder. It must sit beside eqgame.exe. Running it twice is harmless.
Nothing happens when you zone. Missing required files, or they went into a subfolder. They belong beside eqgame.exe.
The client tries to patch and fails. You launched without patchme.
No server in the list. eqhost.txt did not get copied across. It is in the required archive.
Map labels name things that are not here. Brewall's maps are drawn against modern live EverQuest. Harmless.
Raid bosses hit harder and have more health — ten percent on the straightforward ones, five on those with mechanics, whose abilities also come round faster. Everything in Fear, Hate and Sky is tuned up, along with the giants guarding Nagafen and Vox.
Raid targets drop half their usual gear when an expansion opens, rising through the year until they drop half again as much as normal once the next expansion lands. The intent is that turning up early is hard and coming back late is worth it.
Contested raid bosses return on a five to nine day window — three to five for the Plane of Sky, which is a climb rather than a single fight. Nothing worth having is farmable daily.
Not the 2003 revamp. Innoruuk, the Maestro and the full council, in the zone as it was — which is why the client files matter.
Where Daybreak later rebuilt a zone, Homecoming uses the original. Innothule Swamp, Steamfont, the Commonlands tunnel and Freeport are the versions you remember rather than the 2010 replacements. Several of those zones were stripped out of the modern client altogether, which is the whole reason the required download exists.
One exception: Highpass runs as Highpass Hold. Daybreak rebuilt that zone in a format with no way to load the old geometry, and the classic version is not in the RoF2 client at all. It is the only zone here that is not the original.
The melee tome vendor and the Melee Augments gemcrafter both stand in the East Commonlands tunnel, alongside the berserker tome merchants who were always there. You do not need to cross the world for them.
An augment vendor also waits at the bank in every starting city, next to the Oathkeeper. Augments begin at level ten and step up every ten levels after that.
Augments are not classic — they arrived with Lost Dungeons of Norrath. They are here because melee has almost nothing else to scale with at these levels, and that is a deliberate departure rather than an oversight.
Raid leaders can set distribution in the raid window — leader only, group leaders, or a nominated set of looters. Use it or ignore it; anyone not in a raid loots exactly as normal.
The contested world is untouched. Instances run alongside it, not instead of it.
A Portal Keeper stands at the entrance to each raid zone — Lavastorm, Everfrost, Feerrott, Dagnor's Cauldron, and Butcherblock for the planes that have no door. Gather six or more, level 46 and up, then hail him and name where you would go — the passage is yours to lead for six hours.
Grow the raid through the expedition window, then say enter and he opens the way. Wipe and it simply expires; nothing is held against you — though the Keeper opens at most one passage per person each half hour.
Each raid target locks for six days once it dies, and the zone's lesser creatures for three. Kill Dread and Cazic Thule is still yours to take. Return before a lockout is up and that boss will not be there, and its underlings will carry nothing.
Whoever leads sets the state. Anyone joining takes on whatever the raid is already locked to.
Hardcore is entirely optional. Ignore it and nothing changes.
Most who pass through here mean to live forever, and most are wrong.
Find an Oathkeeper at the bank in any starting city. Hail him and he will lay out the terms. Say oath and it is done: your name is announced across the server, and you carry the title the Unyielding for as long as you live.
A bad zone line, a disconnect, a train you did not see — all of it counts. That is the whole point, and it is why the title means something when you are still wearing it at fifty.
There are no exceptions and no appeals. Swear it with your eyes open.
The whole server hears it — their name, the level they reached, and what took them. Nothing is confiscated. The character walks on with everything it earned, a veteran of a run that ended rather than a loss. The only thing gone is the right to the name.
At the bank in every city where a character can begin. Three stand together — the Oathkeeper, a Melee Augments gemcrafter, and the melee tome merchant.
| Antonica | |
| South Qeynos | 346, -458, 7 |
| The Qeynos Aqueductsrogues — by Bait Masterson | 867, 91, -38 |
| Surefall Gladerangers and druids | -5, 63, 5 |
| North FreeportFreeport's bank is in the north | -26, -223, 4 |
| Halas | 184, 119, 6 |
| Rivervale | 103, -158, 8 |
| The Rathe Mountains | -1715, 490, 1 |
| Oggok | -20, -242, -6 |
| Grobb | 462, -559, 14 |
| Neriak — Commons | 30, -930, -51 |
| Neriak — Foreign Quarter | -200, -395, 8 |
| Faydwer | |
| KelethinGreater Faydark | -187, 718, 118 |
| Northern Felwithe | 1, -213, 4 |
| North Kaladim | 605, 198, -31 |
| Ak'Anon | 1312, -707, -24 |
| Odus | |
| The Erudin Palace | 773, 834, -12 |
| Paineel | 1035, 728, -79 |
Coordinates are the Oathkeeper's, written the way /loc reports them; the other two stand a few paces either side. Where the bank was too tight, one steps aside — the tome merchant in Ak'Anon (1313, -741, -24), Erudin (808, 839, -12) and Oggok (-13, -230, -8), and the gemcrafter in Grobb (459, -551, 17).
Qeynos and Surefall Glade have no gemcrafter at the bank — theirs stand elsewhere in the city, where they always did. Tomes and augments are also sold together in the East Commonlands tunnel.
One Oathkeeper to a city, not to a zone. If you began in North Qeynos, South Kaladim, Southern Felwithe or the Erudin outskirts, he is in the other half of your city.
Every placement was walked to by hand, but Norrath is full of awkward corners. Find one standing in a wall, sunk into the floor, or simply absent — say so in Discord and it will be moved. That is our mistake, not yours.