Greetings Guardians,

Thank you once again for your interest in the user conference held a few weeks ago. Though it was held as a Korea-exclusive offline event, the conference was live-streamed as well, and we saw the growing interest from our Guardians around the world. And we wanted to share the development plans and upcoming revisions mentioned during the Q&A session of the user conference with more details added with our aspiring global community as well. 

Please do note that the dates mentioned below are for the Korean server and global release dates may differ. 

Development Plans and Revisions
 

1. Plans to bolster New Guardian

• With the March 25th update (set April 5th for global), Beginner Mission rewards were increased and some new missions were added. 

• This trend will continue and more new Beginner Missions are expected to be added with the April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global) along with certain Game Guides added as well. We will continue to support our new guardians. 

2. Guardian Level and Sweep revision

• We are currently analyzing the Guardian Levels of new players and based on this data, we are planning to apply certain changes regarding the Guardian Level function with the April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global).

• With this update we expect unlock level requirements for Sweep unlocks to be changed as well. As the level requirements will decrease, we will offer Beginner Missions and more ways to guide new guardians to get more accustomed to the game and fully understand the gameplay and system. 

• Also to allow more active participation of Guardian Base Camp, with the March 25th update (set April 5th for global) we have increased the Guardian Point Production Rate. With the April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global), the Guardian Base Camp guide will be revised.

3. Plans to support Returning Guardians

• We are currently working to launch an in-game Shop and exclusive missions to accomplish for Returning Guardians within May of this year.

• Benefits offered to Returning Guardians will be carefully analyzed as not to make the existing guardians feel like losing out. We are currently looking to offer the changes for Returning Guardians who have not logged in within 14 days as of March 19th, 2022 (the date of user conference).

4. Changing the price of Legend Weapons offered via Mileage Shop

• From April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global), Legend weapons will be sold for 100 Mileage.

• Legend weapons currently sold will be removed temporarily from Mileage Shop from April 7th update (expected April 19th for global). 

• Please note that any mileage spent on purchasing Legend weapons from the past will not be reimbursed.

5. Upgrading Multiplayer contents

• First of all, random matching will be added to Friendly Match (in Arena) within April, and spectator mode is currently in development for launch within the first half of this year. 

• The 3 vs 3 death match as suggested during the user conference is also in development for launch within the second half of this year. This is just the start; we are looking to offer various multiplayer contents.

6. Addition of new modes to Friendly Match in Arena

• As noted in the previous answer, random matching, spectator mode, and 3 vs 3 death match are currently in development.

• There are no other new modes exclusive to Friendly Match planned for addition. Instead of working on content exclusive for Friendly Match, we want to focus on adding new modes to regular contents. Afterwards we will consider adding new modes sequentially to Friendly Match.

7. More Heavenhold Special Comics

• The next Heavenhold Special Comic is expected to be added with the April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global). This comic narrates the story of a new hero and we have put much effort into creating it, so we hope for your interest. 

• In addition the comic series that is currently in publication in Japan server will be revealed as a 4-frame comic strip in the official community (for Korea; unconfirmed for global at the moment).

8. Launching Visual Novels

• The first visual novel is planned to be offered as a collection reward claimable from the new Expedition content. Starting with this, we have plans to offer more outlets for Visual Novels to be claimed within the game..

9. Rare hero balancing and rare hero evolution

• With the March 25th update (set April 5th for global), we added the second Legend weapon for the Knight and applied rare hero balancing. 

• A new system which allows rare heroes to be evolved into unique heroes is planned for the second half of this year. Besides Hero Evolution, we will continue to monitor and offer hero balances to 2-star heroes.\

10. Season Achievements and fame rewards

• In the second half of this year, we are planning to offer Season Achievement rewards which will only be claimable for missions cleared and seasonal achievements completed during a certain period of time. Season Achievement rewards will consist of limited costumes, frames, emojis, and fame-related rewards which do not boost hero statistics. 

11. Expedition content

• The new Expedition content as announced during Direction Sangwon Kim's presentation is geared for launch in May. 

12. Boosting Evolution Stones 

• We are planning to showcase this along with the Expedition content launch.

13. Heavenhold Farm

• Heavenhold Farm is also currently geared for launch in May. However, as we have a lot of content planned for May, we are planning to update the production functions of the Heavenhold Farm first, then add decorating and other activities sequentially.

14. Heavenhold Themes

• We believe the new decorating functions offered with Heavenhold Farm will offer alternatives to Heavenhold theme changes. After offering this new decorating content, we will continue to monitor your feedback. 

15. Social functions

• A new Friend System that can be utilized during Friendly Match (in Arena) or Co-op is planned to be introduced in the second half of the year.

16. Artifacts more suitable to Hero types during Co-op (Defense Mode)

• With the March 25th update (set April 5th for global), revisions were made to the options and appearance rate of low-grade and mid-grade Artifacts so that artifacts that do not match your current hero type will appear less.

17. Kama-ZONE and Bottle Cap Shop improvements

• Within the first half of this year, we are planning to change the round duration of Kama-ZONE rounds from 3 days to 1 week. 

• We have found that offering beyond x2 fast forward options could cause issues during testing so we will not be offering a higher speed option. We apologize for not being able to provide this.

• We are also looking from many different perspectives to relieve the fatigue that can build up from Kama-ZONE and any updates to come will be shared via future patch notes.

• Currently there are a generous amount of Bottle Caps obtainable from Kama-ZONE even if you do not complete the stages thoroughly, allowing you to obtain enough Awakening Stones when exchanging. As there are many Bottle Caps leftover due to this however, we have added highly-priced costumes to the Bottle Shop. Please take these costumes not as a necessity but as an additional bonus you may eventually obtain if you have enough Bottle Caps saved up even after acquiring all the awakening stones you need.   

• We believe offering additional costumes or newly exchangeable items to the Bottle Cap Shop without having relieved the initial problem of fatigue being built up from Kama-ZONE will only add onto it. After we make the necessary improvements to alleviate this, and after we have enough purchase data showing that the highly-priced costumes have been exchanged with the Bottle Caps, we will add more items.

18. New Guild Raid bosses

• New bosses that have not made an appearance in Guild Raids before will be added respectively. Starting with this, new bosses will be added to PvE contents gradually as well. Currently we are working on bosses exclusive to new contents first, so we believe we can progress with new guild bosses from July on.

19. Practice mode added to Guild Raids

• We are planning to add practice mode that can be entered during off-seasons of Guild Raids some time in the Q2 or Q3. 

• To offer various ways for testing for various environments, options to set HP of Guild Raid bosses to 50% over and under will be offered.

20. Revisions and Quality of Life changes to Guild Raids 

• To reduce the issues from the final hit of bosses and boss avoiding issues in the beginning of battle, we are preparing an option to carry over the remaining time for defeating a boss to the next battle if you defeat a boss with your party early. This will be offered once per party.

• Additionally we have found that some guilds are manually recording damages inflicted to the bosses separately to measure each guild member's contribution. To resolve this inconvenience, we will offer a 'guild raid sheet' where you will be able to check the participation and damage records and we are planning to launch this within Q3.

• Ranking board podiums visually represent Ranking in Guild and General Ranking based  on contribution and fame in the Guild Conquest will also be added to Guild Raids. This is also expected to be added within Q3.

21.  Weighted value added to damage dealt during Guild Raids and reducing the Guild Raid duration

• There are no plans to add weighted value to damages dealt in Guild Raids  or reduce the Guild Raid duration.

• Setting Guild Raid damage weighted value (giving high damage records to most avoided bosses) will create a gap between what the developers should set as the weighted value and what the players believe it to be. If the players run a separate sheet to record damages again, this system should not be offered in the first place.

• Guild Raid rewards are set for a duration of 14 days currently. As Guild Raids are regular, periodic content offered in-game, reducing the Guild Raid duration and keeping the rewards constant could damage the game economy and this is something we cannot progress with. Reducing the duration of the Guild Raid would mean reducing the rewards offered; and keeping the current period and rewards the same may be something received differently by players. Instead of changing the duration, we are focusing on improving Guild Raids as a whole by reducing inconvenience and gameplay fatigue.

22. Quality of Life changes to Guild Conquest matches

• With the May 5th update (expected May 17th for global), we are planning to present the newly-improved Guild Conquest. 

• Overall difficulty will be considerably lowered, normal nodes will become normal battles, and special nodes will become boss battles. With this change we plan on reducing the cases that arise of you being unable to fight a boss that fits your hero type that appears midway through the nodes. We expect guild members of lower specifications will also be able to take a strategic part in the higher-level areas of the conquest. 

• In addition QoL changes like recon ticket display function, pop-up notification to prevent simultaneous participation among guild members, a claim-all button for rewards, and improved touch entry will be added, then gradual improvements will be offered.

23. Expansion of Tower 

• Expansions are planned focusing around Heavenhold Tower first and we plan on explaining Heavenhold Tower to 100 stages. Expansion on Tower of Horizon will follow.

24. Option to surrender during Arena and Colosseum

• Option to allow surrender during Arena and Colosseum is still in discussion as of now. We ask for your deep understanding and patience as we cannot disclose any details now. We will share more details once confirmed with a future announcement.

25. Practice mode added to Colosseum

• The development team believes that it is a fun factor for an Attack Party and the Defense Party to go up against each other in an auto battle when both sides do not know who will have the advantage given the limited attack opportunities in the Colosseum. 

• We believe adding a  practice mode or a friendly match to Colosseum will gradually fade out the meaning of a Defense Party as the top rankers in Colosseum can work with a wide pool of heroes. If the chance for a successful defense goes sharply down and chance for successful attack increases, only the specifications of heroes and luck will decide on the winner instead of various hero party combinations. This does not match our original intentions and may ruin the fun in Colosseum, so we have decided not to provide practice mode to Colosseum.

26. Allowing previous records to be visible in Colosseum

• This is still under discussion. Hiding the Attack Party and Defense Party will resolve the issue of your strategy being exposed. We are aware that this was suggested by the Guardians to prevent abuses. But allowing you to look at previous battle records will not directly prevent abuses and only promote discord among Guardians without having the intended purposes achieved. Therefore, we believe there needs to be a more direct method to resolve the issue as we did with limiting attack counts allowed with the same opponent. However as these direct improvements can affect gameplay and strategy, we are carefully reviewing in the direction that will bring about the least issues. Once we have decided on a direction, we will share more with a future announcement.

27. Presets added to Arena and Colosseum

• Colosseum presets are being prepared for addition in May. Arena presets are currently difficult to prepare, but in order to make up for this we are planning to expand the Equipment Presets allowed some time in April or May.

28. Tie games added to Arena

• To prevent any abuse, both sides taking part in the Arena do not receive scores in the event of a draw.

• Even if your opponent is not your guild member, players going into battle where both players will not be making any moves and just gain up on records is definitely not the way we want the players to enjoy this content. There are many cases where ties can occur which means it's equally easy to intentionally create tie games. As we see abuses arising from this we will leave the current system as is.

29. Chance to try out unique heroes

• A new function to try out Pickup Heroes will be offered within the first half of the year.

30. Guild versus Guild contents

• If a GvG content is added, it will apply pressure to the players to raise heroes geared for PvP upon joining a guild when they are already expected to raise heroes suitable for Guild Raids. We do not hope guilds to be a place of demands and pressure applied, so we do not have plans to develop GvG content.

31. New World Exploration stages, new Merch, and diversifying strategy

• New World Exploration stages and new Merch are expected to be added after May.

• We are also looking into diversifying effective strategies to tackle the stages. In addition to adding new stages, we will work on the previous stages for you to try different ways to beat the content. 

32. Non mainstream Merch balancing and reducing the gap among different Merch

• Within May, we plan on improving Merch that is not currently used much. We will continue to make adjustments through event rewards or beginner missions to maintain an appropriate level of distance between paying users and non-paying users as well as new players and returning players.

33. New Co-op mode

• Co-op Mode (Defense Mode) and new Co-op contents are constantly in research. However adding new modes to Co-op may mean extending the intervals or rotations of co-op modes coming around so we are planning to launch this as a separate content. As nothing is set in stone, please understand that we cannot provide much details with this announcement and we will reveal more details with future announcements.

34. Lowering difficulty of Co-op, adding hard mode to Co-op

• We are aware that moderate levels of difficulty can lead to fun. But we are wary of excessively increasing difficulty levels for harcore players as this can lead to reducing overall reward supply and demand. We continuously check the clear rates so that appropropriate levels of difficulty can be set. 

• Also as for hardcore modes, there are various opinions on it internally as well so we are reviewing in various perspectives. Currently we are discussing it to be connected with the Season Achievements but we cannot give a definite answer on this at the moment. We will disclose more details when we announce Season Achievements later on.  

35. Revisions to Mirror accessories and option change function

• We are planning to slightly increase the stats of element-type mirror accessories and adjust the difficulty of option changes with April 21st maintenance (expected May 3rd for global). 

• However, although it can be obtained most definitely, the difficulty of option changes will be increased very slightly as to consider the original intentions of option changes being difficult for mirror accessories and for the fairness with those who have already made the option changes.

36. Extracting Mirror accessories 

• We have reviewed a system that will allow extracting mirror accessories to obtain Mirror Shards. We are currently issuing mirror accessories via Bingo events to alleviate the barrier entry of New Guardians, but the items like Captain's Mirror Shield and Martyr Mirror Necklace are intended to motivate you to collect Mirror Shards through Mirror Rift play. So there are no plans to allow extraction of Mirror Shards at the moment.

37. Earth Necklace balance and new accessories

• Legend accessory similar to Earth Necklace is planned for launch within May. However, it will be balanced to provide different stats compared to Earth Necklace.

• For new high-level accessories, how to use them and where they can be obtained needs to be considered and, we will share more details once confirmed with a future announcement.

38. Lowering the difficulty on the 57th floor of Heavenhold Tower.

• The difficulty will be lowered with April 7th maintenance (expected April 19th for global).

• Range of damage that can be inflicted on monsters will increase slightly and the number of monsters will decrease as well. Also movement speed of some monsters will be reduced so that your progress to after the monsters will not be affected even if you make small mistakes.

39. Visibility improvements to monsters' laser skill sand ranged skill explosion effects

• User Interface will be improved within the first half of the year to allow you to check the point-of-attack and range of wide-ranged attacks from laser towers and bosses that extend outside of the screen while the attacks are cast. 

40. Help and game system guide improvements

• Some improvements will be made along with Beginner Mission upgrades with the April 21st update (expected May 3rd for global).

• We are contemplating in various ways for our guardians to learn the system naturally without being forced to do so, and we'll continue to make improvements. As the players have shared in the user conference, we are also looking into using external methods to assist with this.

41. Damage Reduction option change

• Damage Reduction options will be all changed to a different option for all hero awakenings within the first half of this year.

42. Fire-type hero balancing

• A new fire-type hero that can be utilized well in Guild Raids is set for launch some time in May. Besides new hero launches, we will continue to apply character balance changes to allow various use of element types in each content provided in the game.

43. Return of Slayers NEXT Collaboration

• The collaboration will return for 2 weeks near the end of the year. Lina Inverse and Xellos will be available as pick-up heroes and Gourry Gabrieve and his exclusive weapon will also appear in an event. The Short Stories will also be available in this same period. 

44. Collaboration hero and other hero balancing

• Additional balances to change collaboration heroes is difficult due to contractual issues. We are aware that Xellos is one of the more difficult heroes to utilize, so we will try to discuss giving him additional balance changes. However making additional balance changes to heroes that are currently unobtainable is problematic, and there are no plans to make general hero balancing unless it is something applied commonly to all heroes of Guardian Tales. 

• As for Lina, this hero outperformed in the Colosseum beyond what the development team has expected. We are aware that the Colosseum meta has been changed with Lina and we will rebalance existing heroes and introduce new heroes as adjustment methods.

• In addition, the development team is aware that the popular Colosseum party may have changed with the release of Lina, and we will continue to rebalance existing heroes and introduce new heroes to keep the right balance among heroes.

45. New Team Combination skill

• As for Team Combination Skills, and as we have mentioned in the user conference, Director Sangwon Kim puts post-its on his own monitor to put this first and foremost. This is definitely a topic of much contemplation for us, and we will share more details once confirmed with a future announcement.

 

*Director Sanwon Kim's monitor