A Sandstorm has arrived, and all Global Agenda Agents should prepare to escape Dome City and explore the vast terrain of the Sonoran Desert.

Tomorrow, July 22, 2010, Hi-Rez Studios launches phase II of the Global Agenda:Sandstorm expansion, introducing the Sonoran Desert Open Zone, 10-Player Defense Raids, new Special Ops missions and much more. This release builds on the previous phase of Sandstorm, which brought a new loot system, over 30 new Epic Weapons, new PvE gamemodes, new PvP maps and gamemodes, and much more.

The Sandstorm expansion is free to all players of the game. Players are reminded that all content in Global Agenda is available to everyone that purchases the game, with NO MONTHLY FEES.

Major Highlights

• SONORAN DESERT ZONE: Players may step outside Dome City into the Sonoran Desert Open PvE zone. Designed primarily for those between Levels 5 and 15, players within the Zone may accept missions from NPC’s in order to progress a story-arc, learn more about the neighboring Desert Dweller and Recursive Colony factions, and earn loot and experience. Note that players must visit Dalton Bancroft inside Dome City (and run the Bancroft missions) before they can enter the Sonoran Desert Zone.

• 10-PLAYER DEFENSE RAIDS: Facilities around Dome City are key targets of the Recursive Colony faction. When the Recursive Colony attacks, alarms sound within Dome City and the RAIDS mission type will become activated on your MISSION screen. Join the Raid queue solo, or as a pre-made team of up to 10 players, to be matched into a ten-person defense team and transported to an area that needs to be defended. Note that these missions are designed to be difficult and are available only to players Level 30+.

• NEW SONORAN DESERT SPECIAL-OPS MISSIONS:  New co-op PvE instances have been introduced for characters between Levels 5 and 19.  These missions are accessed thru the MISSION screen (Hotkey = "M") under Team/Medium Difficulty.

• CONSUMABLES: Players may now craft Consumable items that can be used once while in a combat mission to give a short-term boost. Once used, that item is consumed. In order to equip a consumable, you must have a Consumable in your inventory, and fill the Consumable slot on your Equip screen. Only one consumable may be equipped at a time.

• SALVAGE: Weapons and Armor that you do not desire to keep may be salvaged by clicking the Salvage button while the item is selected on your Inventory menu. When a weapon or armor piece is salvaged, you will receive a component loot drop put into your inventory (many of the components gained through salvage are useful when crafting consumables).

• TOKENS: Major changes to the token system have been implemented. See TOKENS section below for more information.

• CREDITS: Credits are now at the player level instead of the character level. Existing credits have been rolled up to the player level based on the total credits owned by all of our characters.

All players are encouraged to read the FULL PATCH NOTES prior to play, as there are many other important changes.

Server and Feature Availability

• The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on THURSDAY, JULY 22 2010 from approximately 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM US Eastern (14:30 to 21:00 GMT) while the patch is deployed. Follow GAServerStatus on Twitter for up-to-date server availability information.
• The European and North American Agency-vs-Agency Zones will be closed on THURSDAY, JULY 22. The Zones will open as normal on FRIDAY, JULY 23.

Five Ways to Survive the Future

The recently released trailer  “Five Ways to Survive the Future” features footage from the Sandstorm expansion.