Heroes of Arkesia,

We have a few topics we wanted to share updates on, so this team update will focus on weaving together items and thoughts for the next few months. Roxx will join you for Eye on Arkesia later this week to cover most of the major details for the March Update, but we will start off by discussing one additional update for March.

There will be a few changes coming for Paradise Season 3, which will be fully shared in the upcoming release notes. There is one update we wanted to provide some advanced notice for. We have decided to remove the 1580 Hell Keys from the Paradise system. With the introduction of Rimeria Powerpasses being given out to all players for progression events (taking players to the 1640 Hell Key bracket automatically), there are extremely few players even using 1580 Hell Keys. While the removal of this bracket will have a very small impact on participation in the system, we will still monitor and work to ensure that the removal of these Hell Keys won’t have negative effects on player progression.

We are planning an upcoming wave of server merges in May, and cannot have a Powerpass running during the merge. The merge will layer a few worlds into each other to consolidate the number of servers in both NA and EU regions. We’ll have more information and details as we head toward the merge, and will share the full policy closer to May, but wanted to mention it to give some advance notice.

Finally, on Friday, we shared a link to our latest Lost Ark survey. The responses we’ve received in past surveys has been instrumental and directly led to some major game changes. As an added bonus, we’ve set a community goal. If we receive 3,500 survey responses, we will share a code that all players can use on the website to claim a gift that includes:

• Aura of Resonance Recovery Brew (14 d.) x2

• Rest Bonus Recovery Brew (14 d.) x2

• Collective Battle Item Selection Chest x3

• Epic Hell Key of Destiny (Season 3) x1

We’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure to help the community reach the goal! The survey will run until Friday, March 6, and can be found here.

We’re excited for the March Update, which includes new events, new stories, and a new season of Paradise. Make sure to checkout our last team update if you want some additional information about the update, tune into Eye on Arkesia later this week, or the full release notes next week. In the meantime, we’ll see you in Arkesia.

Heroes of Arkesia,

With a variety of new and returning players fresh in their journeys along with veterans beginning new journeys on Guardianknight or other classes, the beginning of February has been an exciting time in Arkesia. We’re working to keep up the momentum by ensuring March is an impactful update, so we wanted to share some updated information about what to expect next month based on player questions we’ve seen in the community. You’ll find some highlights we’ve seen player interest in below, but there will be even more quality of life changes in the full release notes available before the update.

We’re working to craft a progression event for March to help progression as players continue to push into the endgame. The target group will be players who are working to progress in the end-game, either on a current event character or those who are looking for a boost for another favorite character in preparation of the next endgame Raid, Serca, arriving in April. The working title for the event is ‘Guardianknight Challenge’, but the event is still in development as we collaborate with Smilegate and monitor player progression. We’ll provide updates as we head toward the update, either in Eye on Arkesia or in the release notes— as soon as we have the final details locked in.

In Korea, Smilegate recently released a balance update. We’re committed to working with Smilegate to releasing balances updates as quickly as possible for players looking forward to key adjustments to their classes. We will have this balance update prepared by the March Update, to release alongside all the other key changes and content.

Guardian Raids will receive significant convenience improvements in the March update. The character revival limit will be removed (except for Trial Guardian Raid Hanumatan), and Guardians will feature a Target Information UI, always be visible on the mini-map, no longer move between areas, and feature smaller combat zones. A Combat Support buff will be applied to parties without support classes, and HP scaling for solo and 2-player runs will be reduced. All Guardians will use a new Stagger system that permanently increases damage taken with each successful stagger (a stackable buff). With these changes, several Battle Items (Flares, Brilliant Flares, Pheromone Essence, and Repair Shop Portal Scrolls) will be removed and converted to Functional Battle Item Chests. These changes will help speed up and simplify the experience.

The Kazeros Raid Act 4 and Kazeros Denouement: Final Day will receive multiple adjustments across their gates and difficulty modes to improve gameplay experience in the March update, some which ease attacks, better telegraph, and adjust HP. In Gate 2, Kazeros will also die when reaching 0 HP bars in the first section of the fight. Additionally, Act 3: Night of Storms and Darkness Gate 1 will end immediately when Thaemine or Infernas' HP is fully depleted across all difficulty modes. The full list of specific changes will be available in the March Release notes.

We previously announced these changes in the Roadmap, but wanted to provide a quick reminder:

The story marking the end of Chapter 1 of Lost Ark in what has been a multi-year battle against Kazeros and his forces will draw to a close in the final story quest, titled “One Who Confronted Abyss’s End”. It’s a continuation of the story directly after the last cutscene in Kazeros Denouement, and features a final battle against Kazeros in Petrania. We don’t want to share any other spoilers for those excited to experience it firsthand, but it will serve as the conclusion to Part 1 of Lost Ark’s story. It’s a pretty lengthy quest, so a Knowledge Transfer will be added for it as well. Make sure to be ready and have completed the story beforehand!

Paradise Season 3 will kick off with the March update, so remember to make a final push and use all your Hell Keys before Season 2 ends on March 4. We’ll continue to be on the lookout for feedback throughout Season 2, and are excited for the continuation of the system in Season 3.

As a final note, we are preparing another survey to measure progress and collect feedback. The responses we’ve received in past surveys has been instrumental and directly led to some major game changes. Please keep an eye out for the survey in the near future.

We can’t wait for these impactful changes to arrive in March, and hope you’re enjoying the journey in the meantime. Thanks for your ongoing passion and support, we’ll see you in Arkesia!