Choosing a Version

Pick One and Stay There

RF Online changed across its life in ways that make each version its own game rather than a patch of the previous one. You pick one, get the client for it, and run the server for it. Mixing does not work and does not half-work, which game clients covers.

The setup is identical whichever you pick: same archive layout, same config file, same launcher. What differs is the content below, and the client you need.

Every one of these is our own server code. The content is the version’s, and the formulas, the balance and the drop rates are ours, so this choice is about which game you want to play rather than about which of them is the most faithful reproduction.

At a Glance

1.0.5 and 1.5 are missing from this table. 1.0.5 predates the numbering these columns compare, and 1.5 is a rework rather than a step in the same line. Neither has figures we would print as fact. Their own sections below say what we do know.

	Giga 4 Pt2	2.1.5	2.1.6	2.2.3.2	4.15
Level Cap	55	55	55	65	80
Late-Game Maps	Novus core	+ Beast Mountain, Outcast Land	+ Kartella Bio Lab	+ Bio Lab 2nd Basement	+ Novajan, Caravan, Jetso Island
Race Units	MAU, Siege Kit	+ Red MAU, Red Siege Kit	+ Blue MAU, Blue Siege Kit	full line	+ High Gold MAU, new Siege Kit, Animus 71
Endgame Dungeon	Hora Darkhole	Dark Hall	Dark Hall	three Battle Dungeons	not confirmed
Notable System	Chip war, Archon	Archon powers, guild reform	PvP points, Superior armour	Gold Points	Quest markers, auto-tab targeting

We have 4.15’s feature list and its level cap, but we have not stood in its endgame to check what the dungeon rotation became, so that cell says so rather than guessing.

The Versions

1.0.5

The oldest client we support: a Korean build dated December 2004, from before RF Online’s versions were numbered the way the rest of this page numbers them. Which release it belongs to is genuinely unknown. The reference material we have for it records the version number and nothing else, so we call it 1.0.5 and leave it there.

The server for it is a first prototype rather than a version you would settle into. A real 1.0.5 client connects to it, makes a character, enters the world, moves, fights, chats and uses forces. A great deal that the later versions have is either missing or untested, and the release notes for the build you download are the honest list.

Pick this one if the December 2004 client is the one you have, or if the earliest shape of the game is the part you are interested in. For playing RF, the numbered versions below are the better answer today.

Giga 4 Part 2

The last version of RF Online before the cash shop arrived. Three races at war over one mine: Bellato mechs, Cora magic and Accretia gunmetal, with the chip war on a timer and an Archon elected to run each race. Level cap 55.

We hosted this one until Golden Age took over, so it comes as a download to run yourself rather than somewhere to log in.

2.1.5, Red Army

Adds Beast Mountain and Outcast Land as level 49+ and 51+ zones, the Dark Hall dungeon with its level 50 relic and Leon weapons, and the race-exclusive Red MAU, Red ISIS and Red Siege Kit at the cap.

The bigger change is political. The Archon gains real authority over a race: tax collection, deputies and a council, and the ability to call in a nuclear strike. Guilds were reformed at the same time, with the member ceiling cut from 150 to 50 and honour badges added.

2.1.6, Secret of Holystone

Red Army’s direct successor. Adds the Blue MAU and Blue Siege Kit alongside the Red line, Kartella Bio Lab as a third late zone, and the Superior armour line built by converting HolyStone into Crystal Talic. Animus summons go up to level 55 and follow new summoning rules.

It also adds a PvP point system with temporary and permanent points, a last-hitter bonus in the chip war worth 30% attack and defence, and a quest journal that holds 20 quests at once.

2.2.3.2, Golden Age

The version most people mean when they say RF Online, and the largest content set here. Level cap 65, with the Bio Lab second basement opening at 61 through Cartella Gate.

Its headline system is Gold Points: a currency you earn from hunting and from Gold Boxes during the chip war, spent at faction NPCs on high-tier weapons, accessories and armour coupons. It also adds three Battle Dungeons across levels 45 to 65, and new skills for the warrior and ranger lines at 40+.

This is the one we host, so it is the RF version you can play without standing up a server. One setting has to change on the client first, and the download says which.

4.15, Age of Patron

The one that is easiest to misread as another episode. It is not one. Age of Patron was a single update rolled out across every RF Online service after 2.2.3.2, so the same patch landed on the Korean, Indonesian, Philippine and Thai, American, European, Taiwanese and Japanese versions rather than forking a new line. That is also why its level cap depends on where you played it: 80 on most services, 70 on the Indonesian remaster. Ours is an 80.

What the update added:

• Four maps. Novajan, Caravan, Jetso Island, and the Elite Training School.
• New race units. The High Gold MAU, another Siege Kit, and the Animus at level 71.
• Daily quests, and the item tier that comes with fifteen more levels of cap.
• The quality-of-life pass it is actually remembered for. Auto-tab targeting, quest markers over the head of whatever the quest wants, and tooltips on your target. Age of Patron is the first RF Online that tells you where to go.

Our client for it is the RedFox build, the American service on that list, and the last 4.15 CCR ever signed.

There is nothing to download for it yet. Read this section as a note about what is coming rather than as a version to pick today.

1.5

A relaunch rather than a step forward in the line above. The version number went down while the game went on: 1.5 arrived in 2011, after 2.2.3.2, with a rebuilt interface and whole systems the numbered versions never had. It ran for a few years, was published in English by GamesCampus, and was shut down. It is the RF that almost nobody here played.

Our server for it is among the least proven of the set, and the one client it speaks to is the GamesCampus 1.5b build. Pick it because that client is the one you have, or because the version interests you, rather than to settle in and play.

If You Just Want to Play

Take Golden Age on rf.oldschoolops.com. It is running right now and needs nothing but the client.

To host one yourself, pick the version you want, check you have the right client, then follow installing a server.