Hello, this is Director Lee Jong-joo.

The Director’s Note is delayed due to organizing the contents discussed last time, the ongoing progress, and internal discussions on how to resolve current game issues, as well as summarizing the items that need to be patched this week.

It may sound like an excuse, but writing the Director’s Note takes more time than expected. What you all want is not just the Director saying what they want, but rather understanding the current trends among players and bringing solutions or improvements to current issues. These aspects are important.

Here are the tasks I believe need to be addressed in the current game:

1. The issue of not being able to fully experience a sense of growth due to delays in content release.
Our game is designed to provide growth rewards through various content, allowing players to grow further and challenge more difficult content. However, when content is not released smoothly, the desire to challenge decreases, and growth stagnates. The sense of growth players felt from initial rewards weakens as the game progresses, and more users are no longer able to acquire Garnets from adventures.
Although Garnet can still be acquired from daily/weekly missions, Hall of Heroes, Threat of Gagharv, Temporal Rift, and Guild Raid events, most of these are distributed as periodic rewards, which makes the daily feedback on growth feel relatively low.

Since growth experience is central to RPGs, we are very cautious about this.

Developing content takes time, so we also need some time to address this.
To tackle this, we aim to introduce content that allows for consistent growth experiences, independent of adventures. The concept of this content involves utilizing episodic heroes or forming multiple parties, similar to Infinite Abyss or the improved Guild Raid. Three types of such content are being planned, primarily focusing on farming Garnet, and will be introduced sequentially.
In October, we plan to add these contents, a higher difficulty level, a Halloween event, and a new Guild Raid (Scotia).


2. Over-reliance on Certain High-Performance Heroes
Some heroes are frequently mentioned in this regard, and while we've tried to avoid nerfs, the issue remains that certain high-performance heroes are used in many areas, which diminishes the value of other heroes and causes a sense of loss.
We plan to address this by adding more content where a variety of heroes can be utilized and adjusting the balance of underused heroes.


3. Restrictions on Using a Variety of Heroes (Growth Reset, Primal Ether)
We understand that while players are encouraged to use different heroes, resources required for growth (evolution, potential, skill upgrades, rank-up) are not easy to obtain, and the environment does not allow easy use of growth reset tickets.

You might be wondering, "Then why block it in the first place?" While heroes need to grow using various upgrade materials, once you gather enough, the value of those resources diminishes. If heroes are reused through growth resets, the core essence of an RPG—feeling the progress of growth—inevitably diminishes as well.
However, I agree that there should be some degree of relaxation on this.

We will increase the monthly growth reset limit from once to twice and provide more opportunities to acquire additional reset tickets.

Next, let me address the major points in this week’s patch.

First Balance Patch
As planned, the first balance patch will adjust the balance of Transcendent Mile, Captain Thomas, and Elenoa. The detailed skills and stats are still being tested and will be revealed tomorrow. Here’s an outline of the balance adjustments:
- Transcendent Mile: The concept will change from a sub-dealer to a main dealer, with the corresponding changes to the Origin Weapon effect.
- Captain Thomas: Adjustments will make him more useful in content like Hall of Heroes, with changes to his main and passive skills.
- Elenoa: She will change from a magic type to a defense type, making her a 3-star tank with changes to her main, sub, and passive skills. Due to the type change, we will provide a Advanced Book of Harmonization as a push reward tomorrow.

Transcendence Buffs
In a previous Director's Note, I mentioned the plan to increase the value of hero growth.
The rarer the hero, the harder it is to develop them, but they should display performance that matches the effort put into their growth.

However, the benefits of transcendence, one of the most difficult growth elements, currently seem insufficient, so we are making the following adjustments:

If higher transcendence levels had significantly greater stats, the benefits of lower levels would be greatly diminished. Therefore, we have set the stat increases to be uniform across all transcendence stages.

These changes will apply to all heroes from main characters to 3-star heroes (including The Legend of Gagharv), though the rate of increase will vary by star level.
The detailed figures will be revealed after testing is complete and will be included in tomorrow’s Balance Patch details.


Soul Stone Store

The previously mentioned Soul Stone Store will be added.

In the dismantling system, you can now dismantle Soul Stones. Only Soul Stones from heroes who have reached the highest level of transcendence can be dismantled, and the results will vary depending on the hero's star rank.

Dismantling results:
- 1–2 Star heroes: Soul Fragments
- 3 Star heroes: Advanced Soul Fragments
- Heroes from The Legend of Gagharv: Legendary Soul Fragments
These Soul Fragments can be exchanged for various items in the shop.

Each item has a purchase limit and the shop resets monthly.
As there are currently very few users with Legendary Soul Fragments, items related to this will be added in the future.

Addition of the Blue Garnet Shop
As more in-game currency is distributed, the perceived need for spending tends to decrease. Therefore, a shop utilizing Blue Garnet, which can only be obtained through purchases, will be added. However, the Blue Garnet Shop will not sell any items that cannot be obtained within the game.
Details of the items available in the shop will be included in tomorrow's patch notes.

Guild Raid Improvements

Guild Raids will resume this Thursday.

After reviewing the previous season, we have identified areas that need improvement and will be implementing changes in this patch.

The updates include:
1st Team and 2nd Team Parties Feature: Instead of only using one party, players can now deploy two parties to utilize a wider variety of heroes and earn additional points. The points from both the vanguard and rearguard parties will be combined to determine achievement rewards and season rewards.

Shortened Raid Cycle: Previously, Guild Raids had a cycle of one week of play followed by one week of guild maintenance. However, the downtime was too long, leading to boredom and reducing the sense of progression. To address this, the cycle has been shortened to one week.
- Monday: Guild maintenance and result calculation.
- Tuesday–Sunday: Guild Raid participation.

Unlimited Participation: The previous limit of three participation attempts has been removed. Initially, this restriction was in place to encourage strategic planning among guild members to achieve higher scores. It also aimed to balance time investment between heavy and casual players. However, we now believe it is more beneficial to encourage the use of a variety of heroes, increase score potential through experimentation, and reduce penalties for mistakes. Hence, we have removed the participation limit.

Threat of Gagharv Ranking Rewards
We will add ranking rewards, including Garnets and Rank-Up Material Selection Boxes, based on ranking tiers. Details will be provided in tomorrow's patch notes.


Hall of Heroes Adjustments
The First Achievement reward and weekly Tally Rewards will be raised.
In the case of the first achievement reward, it will be doubled compared to the previous one, and the rewards already obtained will be corrected and will be sent via mail during this week's maintenance.
To allow for more points to be earned in the Hall of Heroes, the purchase limit for Hall of Heroes entry tickets will be removed, and the price will change from 50 red garnets to 10 red garnets.

For those who previously purchased entry tickets for 50 red garnets, the difference will be compensated and sent via mail during this week's maintenance.

New Guild Station Missions Added
A total of 46 new dispatch quests have been added:
- 21 quests for A Tear of Vermilion (Easy, Normal, Hard)
- 25 quests for A Cagesong of The Ocean (Easy)

Guild Station Mission rewards include various currencies. As special rewards, you can also obtain the following items:
- The Swordmaster Volume 1
- The Swindler Mr. Fraud Volumes 1 and 3
- The Doll Knight Volumes 3, 7, and 11

New Performance Scene for A Cagesong of the Ocean
A new feature has been added where you can perform the songs you obtained during the scenario progression.

This can be accessed via performance stages in certain towns.

New Pickup Hero Revealed
The fresh-faced pharmacist Filly will be the featured pickup hero in this week's patch.

Based on feedback from the community, Filly’s illustration has been adjusted to better reflect the pure and innocent charm of the original concept.

Filly role is a supporter, and she is a hero from Prophecy of The Moonlight Witch episode.

While pickup heroes are not typically revealed through developer notes, the illustration update is an exception in this case.

There seems to be a lot to cover today, making this post quite long.

Every time I work on developing and servicing the game, I realize that communication is one of the most challenging areas. I also feel my own limitations, and it’s truly difficult.

I’ll be posting a separate piece regarding the direction of the story soon.

See you again tomorrow.

Thank you!

Director Note Surprise Coupon
Coupon Code: MKPBF
Reward: 5 Hero Summon Tickets
Valid Until: October 24, 14:59 (UTC+0)