City of Villains Pre-Order
The pre-order version of City of Villains was made available two weeks before the game's 3-day Head Start on October 27th, 2005 (in conjunction with the release of Issue 6. The pre-order boxes themselves contained no version of the game, but did include a pre-order code that granted the player the use of one of four exclusive Arachnos helmets as a costume piece (see below). It also allowed access to the City of Villains closed beta and the 3-day Head Start of the CoV official release (which required the game to be downloaded, as no game disc was included with the pre-order boxes). In addition, the price of the pre-order box was deducted from the purchase of the full version of City of Villains when it was officially released.
The code from this box granted the following:
- Access to CoV Beta
- Access to CoV 3-day Head Start (play CoV and reserve your character names 3 days ahead of anyone who did not purchase this code*
- A CD-ROM that included City of Villains videos, art, wallpapers, screenshots (but not the game itself)
- An exclusive Lord Recluse versus Statesman poster
- A map of the Rogue Isles (the first one ever printed for City of Villains)
- 1 of 4 in-game Arachnos Helmet pieces (depending on where code was purchased)
- EB Games = Crab Spider Battle Helmet (male)
- Gamestop = Helmet Of The Blood Widows (female)
- Best Buy = Arachnos Mystic Helm (male)
- All other U.S. retailers = Wolf Spider War Helmet (male)
These boxes retailed for $5 at most stores, and $10 at BestBuy.
Note: Only one City of Villains pre-order code can ever be used on any single account. In order to access all four of the Arachnos Helmets on one account, one must earn the 51 Month Veteran Reward - "Tried and True".