Houses in Tikal aren't claimed by walking up to a free door — they're won at a weekly gold auction, kept by staying Premium, and charged weekly rent so a fat purse still has somewhere to go.
¶ Requirements
- Premium account — required both to place a bid and to keep a house afterwards.
- Gold in your vault — bids are held (escrowed) from your temple depot, not your backpack.
- No level or guild requirement.
- One house per character. You can't hold two at once.
¶ Step by step
- Get Premium, if you don't already have it.
- Deposit gold in your vault. Minimum bids start at 150,000 gp; larger houses cost more (roughly 6,000 gp per interior tile, floor of 150,000). Raises go up in 15,000 gp steps.
- Find Balam, the Vault Keeper — the banker NPC in a city's temple vault.
- Talk to him and say (or choose) "houses" to open the House Auction board.
- Browse the open listings and place your bid. Tap a listing to see a small map preview showing exactly where that plot sits, so a bare "House 8" is never a mystery. The gold is held from your vault until the auction closes — you're not charged unless you're still winning at settle time.
- Wait for the weekly settle: Sunday at 20:00 (Mexico City time). The highest bidder who is still Premium and doesn't already own a house wins the listing. Every island closes together — a bid on Uxmal, Nakum, or mainland Tikal is awarded that same Sunday, even if you are hunting on another world or offline. You do not have to stand at the door.
- Once you own it, you can open/close your own door, and buy furniture and a Return to House Scroll (teleports you straight to your door) from Balam. Tap/look at any house door in the world to see which house it is and who owns it (or that it is still unclaimed).
Doorway camping: if someone is standing still in a one-tile house entrance (or any narrow tunnel) blocking your way, you're not stuck — press and drag their character onto a free tile beside them to shove them aside. It's a deliberate action (never automatic just from walking into someone), so it won't happen by accident in a crowded plaza.
¶ Keeping your house
Weekly rent is 3% of what you paid at auction (never below the house's listed minimum). A 150,000 gp house is 4,500 gp a week; a 1,000,000 gp house is 30,000 gp a week. Rent is taken at the Sunday settle from your vault first, then your backpack.
- Pay on time — the house stays yours.
- Miss one week — you keep the house for a week's grace. The in-house panel warns you and offers Pay rent (vault + backpack).
- Miss two weeks in a row — the house returns to the auction board. Pay during the grace week and it stays off the block.
- If your Premium lapses, the house is still flagged to return to auction at the next Sunday settle (that is separate from rent).
You (the owner only — guests never see this option) can also voluntarily give it up early with the Relist option from the in-house panel if you no longer want it; tapping it asks you to tap again to confirm, explaining exactly what will happen, so it's never an accidental one-tap mistake. Tapped it by mistake, or changed your mind? Tap it again before the next settle — it says "Cancel relisting" while pending, and the panel shows a clear warning the whole time your house is marked to go back up for auction.
¶ Furniture & storage
Buy furniture from Balam (tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, bookshelves, rugs — plus Premium skins). Drop it on your house floor to decorate. Tap a bed to rest (Well Rested regen). Tap a Storage Chest to open it like a backpack — items you put inside stay with the house and survive a server restart, just like everything else left on your house floor. Empty the chest before picking it up. Guests you invite can use the door, floor storage, and chests too.
The Patron's Loom crafts purely decorative Premium pieces from materials earned in play: Jade Lantern, Obsidian Candle, Tikal Champion Banner, Quetzal Mosaic Tile, Patron's Serpent Throne, and Moon Jaguar Rug. Each has its own item art and recipe; none adds armor, damage, regeneration, or another combat advantage.
Jade Lantern can also be equipped in the ammunition slot (Premium). Worn, it casts a jade-green light around you and does not burn out like a torch. Dropped on a house floor it still glows.
¶ Hunt trophies
A few hunts can drop a rare house trophy (about 0.10%). They are not sold in shops — drop them on your house floor to decorate.
¶ Where to find houses
Right now, ownable houses exist in every city on the live hunting islands (Tikal, Uxmal, Nakum, and the Premium isles). Bid through Balam in that city's plaza — the auction board you open is for the island you are standing on. Mainland Tikal has nine cities (Palm Haven is the capital); each city has a ring of houses. Mayahuel's Stone Terrace is the tutorial village and has no player houses.
Older guides named only Yaxalún and K'iibal Cha'an — those towns are gone from the map.
Found a specific house's exact price, size, or location? Register an account and add it here!