A new Palia update is on the way, and it builds on the Maji Market. The Luna New Year update makes the previous festival space more bustling and busy, with new activities, rewards, recipes, and quests. It is a much beefier take on the previous Maji Market event, and it shows how developer Singularity Six is iterating and expanding on the existing world.
Palia is a life simulator game set in the cozy Kilima Valley, where there’s an idyllic settlement of elf-like folk called Majiri. The Valley is disrupted when the player awakens — they represent the return of humanity, a species that had once built a massive civilization before vanishing in some kind of magical catastrophe. As a newcomer to Kilima Valley, the player gets the opportunity to build their own home, cook, hunt, fish, and befriend their new neighbors.
The Maji Market is a night market that ran for a limited time last year. The original Maji Market’s quest event could be finished in a sitting or two; after that, players only returned to participate in the Chapaa Chase to earn event tickets and get new rewards. The Chapaa Chase will return with the Luna New Year event, but it’s no longer the sole attraction.
The Luna New Year iteration on the Market will be far more substantial, with three core quest lines. In addition, there are two new activities. One is dying a ribbon to represent a desire and pinning the ribbon on the wish tree, to hopefully have that wish granted the next day. The other is spinning Zeki’s Prize Wheel and collecting a little treat.
The most interesting addition is the Hotpot Card Game. Four players gather around a communal hotpot to play a mahjong-style game, with tiles representing each ingredient of a tasty hotpot. It’s semi-competitive, but the game’s pacing is quite chill — it’s the sort of thing that’s perfect to play while lounging with pals in Discord.
Competing in activities will reward players with lucky envelopes, an event currency that can be traded in for Luna New Year rewards that players can place around their plot. Players can also buy new ingredients like bok choy and green onion, as well as seeds to plant their own supply of these new vegetables, and tasty recipes that require those ingredients. There’s also the option to just chill out and watch the fireworks.
The Luna New Year Maji Market is expected to go live on Jan. 30, and it will close on Feb. 27. Palia is free-to-play on PC and Nintendo Switch.
