The 4th Generation Pioneers of Iria, the titled new Mabinogi expansion which has been confirmed to be released sometime late in February will offer all Mabinogi players new races, new skills, new magic, a exploration system, dungeons, towns, and a completely new region Iria, which is three times larger than the current continent of Ulad. In fact this sure is a big patch--G4-6 in one patch. You can consider Pioneers of Iria to be Nexon's way of giving the players Generations 4, 5 and 6 all at once if you like to focus on Generations.

WarCry Network posted a "Pioneers of Iria Fact Sheet" that provides detailed information on this new expansion.

New Map

Iria is a new continent, about three times larger than Ulad, which is the original continent in Mabinogi. Iria features three areas which will be released in the Expansion Pack.

The first area is called Rano, which has plains, desert and rain forest climates. There are mustangs and ostriches which run through certain routes and players can ride like subways trains to go different places. This would be considered a human area and is where humans arrive in Iria. Look out for monsters, such as the Desert Dragon, Plains Dragon, or giant sandworms.

The second area is called Connus and this land is mostly desert. It's Longa desert is filled with sand storms. Here is where players will find Filia, the first Elf town. This town is where players who create an elf character begin in Mabinogi. Another special feature from this area would be the underground maze, or ant pit, which lies underneath Longa desert. Players will need to find their way out of this maze and can find hidden doors which can only be opened by special requirements. Players will be able to leave this dungeon by using teleport items like Wings of Goddess or Waxen Wing, but players who look around enough might find a room filled with treasure boxes featuring rare items which are can't be found anywhere else in Mabinogi.

The third area is called Physis and the entire area is filled with snow and can be quite windy. The Reus River is often frozen and surrounded by valleys and mountains. Giants can stomp the ground near Reus River and break the ice to go ice fishing. This is also an area where the field bosses, Mammoth and Yeti appear, so players will need to be alert..

All of these areas are connected through Mana Tunnels. Mana Tunnels are teleporters that work during the morning. Unlike the moongates in Ulad, these tunnels will take players to any other tunnel.

New Races

Elf - While their appearance looks similar to humans, elves have pointy ears and usually pale skin. Their fashions are elegant and swift compared to any other races. As a main choice of weapon, they use bows. The best thing about elves is that they can shoot monsters while riding horses and shoot two arrows at once. They also run about 1.3 times faster than human or giant. They live in Connus and if they spot a giant or their supporters, they will attack without mercy.

Exploration

Over 600 Exploration Quests are being added.
Players can obtain exploration EXPs by finding relics, statues, hidden dungeons and monsters. There are various ways to do this. Players can sketch them, get a piece of them, and find them by changing the land shape or using an L-Rod. These EXPs will be accumulated to count the exploration level, and per one exploration level up, players will obtain one AP just like a normal level.

The whole continent of Iria is filled with hidden artifacts and relics. It's the player's job to explore them!

Items and Titles

Three new Armor sets and other clothes for Human characters are available. There are new titles related with exploration and Iria such as "Friend of Horse and Ostrich."

There will be weapons, clothes and titles exclusively for Elf and Giant characters.

Dungeons

There are three discoverable dungeons and instead of passes, players can drop a part of the monster. Players get these pieces by hunting monsters to enter high level dungeons. There are more than 30 different types of drop parts players can get, which make the diversity of dungeons much deeper than the usual dungeons found in Ulad.

Ant Pit - This is a static maze-type dungeon which has areas only accessible to certain people who meet the requirements. This dungeon is accessible by using an L-Rod and finding a hole on the ground in the Longa Desert which players can fall in. There are valuable treasures and the raid field boss monster within this area is Ifrit.

New Skill

There are also going to be tons of new skills and abilities to make fighting or exploring the world more interesting.

Ice Spear - The Middle Level Magic Skill for Ice is now finally released. If players wanted something else than Fire Ball or Thunder, Ice Spear is the skill players love! This skill freezes the monsters that are on the way and have splash freeze attacks after the first impact until there's no monsters left to be spread.

Final Hit - This human skill allows warriors to hit the monster infinite times without normal delay for a limited skill time. If a person is holding two swords, (dual wielding) he'll be able to slash the monster as much as he wants. If a person is not dual wielding, every time he hits a monster, the monster will be knocked down, making it impossible to fight back. Also, this skill is highly beneficial at PVP for warriors, as if a person uses this skill, he can instantly teleport to the enemy within certain distance, still shorter than the range of an archer but very effective against archers.

Stomp - Giant Skill. Bashing the ground to attack multiple monsters and make them freeze for a short period of time. Players can use this skill on the Reus river at Physis to break the ice and do ice fishing or even plow the snow on the field to discover something.

Mirage Missile - Elf Skill. Shoot the arrow with Mana and periodically decrease their HP. It works like poisoning the enemy and spreads to nearby monsters once attacked.

Full Swing/Elven Magic Missile - Special attack skills to be used when transforming from Elf or Giant.

New Contents

Wedding Between different races - Human and elf or giant can marry each other. While Elf/Giant can't marry, all other combination of marriage is allowed in Mabinogi. If human, don't forget to support spouse's race. Humans can hold two swords at once while Giants can hold two blunt weapons at once and elves can shoot two arrows at once.