Hello, this is Director Lee Jong-joo.

First of all, I wanted to say that we are aware of the trends surrounding Extrem Difficulty. We evaluated the trend and metrics related to Extrem Difficulty, discuss on how we can improve them and looks for viables methods and timelines for applying these improvements.

Because of this, we had to delay the posting of the Director’s Note.

Before addressing the problems stemming from the Extrem Difficulty, I'd like to first mention the Borgeid bug.

When the main skill of Borgeid is used while his origin weapon is equipped, the skill's area of effect for burn status is applied correctly, but the area of effect for damage decreases.

This issue has been present since Borgeid's release, and we discovered it later than we should have.
We sincerely apologize to all players who used Borgeid since his release and experienced inconvenience due to this bug. While the bug was fixed in this week's patch, we are currently discussing internally how we can compensate players and what criteria we should use.

We will provide more details once a decision has been made.

Next, let’s talk about the issues that have arisen related to the Extrem difficulty.

The main objective behind the introduction of Extrem difficulty content was to provide a sense of challenge, growth, resource farming, and new equipment farming. As the maximum level expanded, the intent was for players to gradually level up, farm new equipment, and clear stages step by step. However, we failed to provide an appropriate balance for the majority of our players.

- Leveling up through stage rewards
- Appropriate difficulty for certain stages
- A balance between long-time players and new players
- Managing player fatigue

Balance is critical—it shouldn’t be too easy or too hard. Unfortunately, we seem to have failed in maintaining this balance. We also needed a way to differentiate between players based on their progression, and it turned out that players’ understanding of the game was often beyond our expectations.

This, along with concerns about rapid content consumption, influenced our balancing decisions and, ultimately, led to issues that negatively affected the player experience.

Additionally, because the materials used for leveling up, heroes that are obtainable from other contents, including Extrem difficulty, was not enough despite the increase in difficulty, players gave up on heroes that they use in other contents, including Abyss or Guild Raid, and focused on a few select heroes to grow.

This led to players abandoning heroes who had been effective in those modes and focusing instead on leveling up a select few heroes.

While we anticipated some level of selective hero growth due to the limited availability of growth reset resources, it was never our intention for players to feel that their teams were growing weaker or that their progression was being hindered.
Given this, we believe the situation requires action. To meet the original goal of striking an appropriate balance, we will make the following improvements:

1) Additional gold and experience will be granted upon the first clear of the extrem difficulty.
The reason for the small difference in basic rewards like gold and experience between "Hard" and "Extrem Difficulty" stages was to avoid creating extreme gaps in growth based on chapter difficulty.
While we will maintain the current rewards for subsequent clears, we will provide additional gold and experience upon first clear to make it easier to level up.
Players who have already cleared the stages will receive compensation via mail after this week's maintenance.


2) Removal of Stamina Deduction Penalty upon Surrender or Defeat
With the introduction of the Extrem difficulty, the number of retries has increased significantly compared to previous difficulty levels, and the deduction of stamina required for growth may have been felt more acutely by players.
We will implement system improvements to remove the stamina deduction penalty in adventures.
This update will be applied in this week's patch, and as a general compensation, we will be distributing 30 Walnut Bread Baskets and 100 Sweep Tickets.


3) Addition of gold and experience dungeon stages and enhancement of abyss experience rewards.
We will add levels 14 and 15 to The Golden Island of Bale and Sanctuary of the Water Tribe which are responsible for gold and experience dungeons, to make it easier to obtain daily gold and experience.
Additionally, we will enhance the experience reward intervals in the Abyss from floors 101–150, which will be included in this week's patch.
(Current: 1 experience reward every 10 floors -> Change: 2 experience rewards every 10 floors)

This will bolster the supply of resources needed for leveling up.


4) Reduction of difficulty for stages 3 and 8 in each chapter.
In the Extrem Difficulty, we added stages where hero placement is critical. These monsters were designed for challenge stages, and since they have high status immunity and knockback resistance, players may often face frustrating and unfair situations.
Rather than making broad reductions in difficulty, we will lower the difficulty of stage 3 and 8 in earlier chapters.
For higher chapters, many players have already invested significant time and effort to clear these stages, and we want to preserve the challenge aspect for these stages. Therefore, we will maintain the current difficulty levels.
The chapters targeted for difficulty reduction: Chapters 1–8.


5) Addition of Smithy Tier 3
We will be adding Tier 3 to the Smithy, allowing for overall team growth, which will help you overcome challenges and make farming smoother than before.

This concludes today's update.

I cannot say with certainty that these changes will resolve all current issues. This is a first step, and if further action is needed, we will continue to adjust through additional improvements or events.
I apologize for causing concern to many players.

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Usage Period: Until November 16th, 14:59 (UTC+0)
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