Rappelz is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game is developed by the Korean company nFlavor, and published by the Californian company Gala-Net Inc. As of October 2008, Rappelz is also being published by the South East Asia based game publishing company AsiaSoft, as RappelzSEA. Rappelz is set in a medieval fantasy world, dominated by three races: the Deva, who represent light, the Asura, who represent darkness, and the Gaia, humans that possess an affinity with nature. Each major installment of the game is referred to as an "Epic", similar to Lineage II`s "Chronicles". The current installment is called "Epic 6: Navis Lamia".

The Open Beta version of Rappelz launched on October 2, 2006, with two separate servers available: "Tortus" , the normal PvE server, and "Pantera", the more PvP/PK-oriented server. Those who had previously downloaded the Closed Beta version of Rappelz were not required to re-download the Rappelz client to play in Open Beta; however, extensive automatic patching was done by the client before Closed Beta players could enter Open Beta. Closed Beta ended on September 26, 2006. Closed-beta characters were deleted at the beginning of Open Beta; however, characters created during Open Beta were not deleted prior to the game`s release. Open Beta ended with the official release of the game on November 03, 2006. There are currently seven servers in service namely, "Bahamut", "Tortus", "Yeti", "Lydian" and "Pantera (PVP).", "Salamander" and the newest (opened on August 14 2007) - "Tanda", named after the game`s head Game Master. The US test server for Epic 4 testing was called "Siren".

The Story - The oldest race is the Gaia, and to assist them, the gods of Creation and Extinction brought two more races into the world. They were the Deva who represented the Light and the Asura who represented the Darkness. With this, there was a period of peace and stability in the world. As the ages passed by, there was one among the Gaia who called herself "The Witch". Over time, she grew in tremendous power and with a ruthless ambition, rallied the people of Gaia to rebel against the world. Not all the people of Gaia heeded this call, however, and the world was thrown into chaos. It was only through the combined efforts of the three races of Deva, Asura, and Gaia that "The Witch" was finally captured and burnt alive. It was a victorious outcome of a unity between the three races. Now at the present time, the three races continue to co-exist with each other in the world of Rappelz but dark rumors have surfaced about the second coming of "The Witch" and the return of her terrible forces. The backstory plays a substantial role in the game itself.

A Lak is magical energy from monsters and can be obtained by defeating monsters while wearing the appropriate necklace. This necklace will be available fairly early in the game. Gathered Lak can be consumed if the player dies, preventing him to lose experience points (the amount of Lak consumed increases with the level of the character), or can be traded at any Lak Trader for either chips or in-game currency, rupees. Lak Traders also provide the option to buy chips with rupees. However, it is more cost-efficient to obtain chips via Lak. There are three types of chips: Force Chips, Soul Chips and Luna Chips. These chips are items that characters can use to significantly affect a battle by increasing the amount of damage the target takes for a limited amount of time. They come in different ranks which allow different levels of users to use chips. Force Chips increase physical damage, Soul Chips increase magical damage, Luna Chips affect both physical and magical damage, but cost slightly more than Force and Soul chips.

Equipment in the game have their own level and can level up by means of upgrading. Items that are able to do this display a section at the bottom of their status window showing the upgraded status effects, allowing players to know ahead of time the quality of the equipment. By visiting a Blacksmith, which is available in every town, players are able to upgrade their currently equipped (and upgradeable) equipment for a fee. In addition, combinations of equipment with the appropriate enchantment cubes can further increase its potency, and as is the case with weapons, even be reflected graphically through a glow effect. This is called `enchanting` an item. A weak weapon or armour can be formed into a stronger item without having to sell it and buy a new one. This can also substantially increase both the item`s in-game market value. The only non-equipment item that can be enchanted is the skill card. Items can also be improved by `socketing` Soul Stones. This is done by visiting a Soulcrafter. Soul Stones are drop items that cannot be bought from any NPC. When socketed, they will increase one of the primary stats of one`s character, if three conditions are met: the equipment with the Soul Stone is equipped, the Soul Stone`s level is lower than or equals the character`s level, and the Soul Power of the equipment is charged. Soul Power can be charged at the Soulcrafter of each town, and will be paid in Lak. Most equipment has two sockets for Soul Stones, however two-handed weapons have four.