Update: More context has been added to the 'Outfit Dismantle System' currently under review.
Hello. This is DEV Allanon.
Through the extensive feedback from various regions, we have come to deeply understand that for many, the game has become a source of burden rather than enjoyment.
We sincerely apologize for the fact that Vindictus, which should be a source of fun, has brought boredom and emptiness instead of satisfaction, and that the anticipation of new challenges has been replaced by pressure and exhaustion.
Our plans and visions have led to a different result than the enjoyment everyone expected, and it is entirely our fault that we failed to close this gap in a timely manner.
Therefore, today, I would like to talk about the changes we are preparing to correct these misjudgments and build trust.
First, we will ease the burden of growth.
In our last Dev Talk, we announced plans to shorten the max level expansion cycle to one year and the raid battle update cycle to three months.
Our intention was to alleviate the boredom of repetitive play by introducing new battles more frequently, and to provide the joy of rapid growth by lowering the hurdle for acquiring items.
However, the results were different from our expectations.
Contrary to our belief that the quantity and speed of content would bring joy, each new content revealed did not meet up to expectations, and the lowered item acquisition hurdle was difficult to perceive.
The reality was a sense of pressure to "keep up or fall behind," and a growing fatigue from having to prepare for the next battle before even feeling the joy of growth.
We believe this has caused exhaustion for many users, and we sincerely apologize for the unsatisfactory experience.
Based on the feedback after our last announcement, we will revert the max level expansion to the previous 1.5-to-2-year cycle.
This is not just a simple retreat, but more of a process of giving you back the time to fully enjoy a piece of content while pouring affection into your characters.
Furthermore, it is a decision to create an environment you can enjoy long-term by improving the balance between the sense of growth and the satisfaction from rewards relative to the time and money you invest.
We believe that sharing a concrete plan, rather than vague promises, is the first step toward regaining trust.
First, the next raid battle will be updated on the Korean server this October.
And starting with that update, all subsequent raid battles will return to the previous 4-month cycle.
This change is to create a sustainable environment by improving the balance between satisfaction from growth and rewards relative to your investment.
In other words, we believe this will ensure that each update provides enough content and rewards, giving you ample time to prepare for the next content.
To help you formulate long-term growth plans, we are also pre-releasing the main rewards for the next raid battle.
The main rewards to be introduced in October are as follows:
- New Equipment: Weapon (Fine), Legs Armor (Legendary)
- New Enchant Scroll #1: Head/Legs Prefix (Obtained from the new raid boss battle)
- New Enchant Scroll #2: Totem Prefix (Added to the Lucian boss battle)
We hope you find this useful in planning your equipment progression.
The raid battle after that is scheduled on the Korean Server for February of next year.
For the North American & Europe Region, we will update these pre-announced raid battles with upmost priority as soon as the localization and stabilization process is complete.
In the future, we will always consider the optimal interval that does not burden your equipment growth and share more update plans and cycles at a later date.
Second, we will focus on the promises we must keep before making new ones.
We are well aware that there are many items we promised to improve or review through past Dev Talks, Developer's Notes, and the Korean Anniversary Event that have not yet been fulfilled.
Below, we have organized our thoughts on these unfulfilled promises.
[Key Points Being Prepared for an Update in the Second Half of 2025.]
1. Easing Full Force Strike Acquisition Conditions
To provide the joy of growth through powerful skills to more players, we are working on easing the excessively high acquisition requirements and plan to apply this change soon.
2. Mitigating Redeemers Brigid's One-Hit-Knockout Pattern
We will ease the activation conditions for specific instant-kill patterns that detract the fun of the encounter and improve it to provide more room for counter-play.
3. Adjusting Space-Time Distortion Patterns
We will prioritize fixing certain patterns that feel unfair during battle to enhance the legitimacy of the challenge.
4. The Gap Between Dodge and Guard Characters
We are preparing a structural improvement that redefines the 'dodge' defense mechanic.
The direction will be to add depth to control and increase play satisfaction, and we will provide more details through a separate developer's note.
5. Mitigating Server/Client Response Delay
We promised to improve this issue within the first half of the year, but we ultimately failed to keep that promise: we are deeply sorry for not meeting up to expectations.
The process of optimizing by directly modifying Vindictus's old engine was far more difficult and complex than we anticipated.
Solving one problem would cause unexpected issues in other areas, requiring a more cautious approach rather than a hasty application.
However, we believe that this is not an issue we can give up so easily, since it is directly tied to the comfort of gameplay.
As much as we have delayed the improvement, we are proceeding with development with a greater sense of responsibility and are focusing all our development resources on showing you an improved state by the end of the year.
We once again apologize for not keeping our promise.
[Areas with a Change in Direction]
1. Adding Content to Bridge the Gap Between Space-Time Distortions and Raids
We also recognize the gap between these two contents.
However, we judged that in the current structure where raids are released periodically, adding an intermediate battle may only lead to increasing gameplay burden.
Therefore, instead of adding a whole new battle, we have chosen to naturally mitigate the gap by improving the growth experience and adjusting the supply of growth materials.
We ask for your generous understanding of this change in direction.
2. Adding Jordra Attack Motions and Adjusting Patterns
Rather than adding new patterns to Jordra, we plan to proceed with the second-half update by prioritizing the correction of unreasonable patterns to improve play convenience.
The position of Jordra as the top-tier Space-Time Distortion battle will be replaced by Usurper’s Throne: Which we will explain below.
We ask for your great anticipation and understanding.
[Promises that Require More Time]
1. Outfit Dismantling and Exchange Function
The Outfit Dismatle system is currently still under review.
This feature would allow players to dismantle duplicate outfits or those obtained from events. In exchange, players would be able to receive special tokens.
These tokens could then be used to acquire other items from the exchange shop, functioning as a recycling system for your unused outfits.
To be clear, we want to assure you that this system is completely irrelevant to any form of Outfit Compositing or Combining.
However, implementing this feature is a rather complex matter. It is deeply intertwined with the game's overall economy, including past resale policies and our commitment to preserving item value.
For these reasons, we are approaching this with great caution.
We will announce a concrete plan and its feasibility as part of our 2026 roadmap.
2. Redeemers Hell Mode Motion and Pattern Enhancement
We believe the true fun of 'Hell Mode' comes not from simply harder patterns, but from a strong motivation of 'why this challenge must be undertaken.'
We've determined that adding patterns in the current structure would be difficult to make the battle fundamentally ‘fun to play.’
After deeper consideration, we will, again, present a new direction at the time of the 2026 roadmap announcement.
3. Improvements to Expertise
With many changes made during the Lv. 120 expansion last year, this issue had become a task that requires more time than we expected to revise and update the system.
We have previously made the promise to improve areas where Expertise was related, but this also has been significantly delayed during determining priorities.
We will also share a detailed review of this at the time of the 2026 roadmap announcement.
4. Mood Improvement
Based on our judgment that the most important and urgent issue is to fix the fundamental systems of the game mentioned above, we have decided to put the Mood improvements on a temporary hold.
We sincerely apologize to those who have been waiting.
In the second half of the year, we will focus on improving existing inconveniences rather than on new content.
We will do our best to improve the game's core stability as we promised at the beginning of this year.
Third, we would like to share the first result of our new direction.
Under the promises made above, we have completely re-evaluated the direction of the Space-Time Distortion Hell Mode we were preparing earlier.
We determined that simply offering a more difficult battle to those of you who have been fighting Jordra for the past year would not be enough to become the ‘Next Goal to Achieve.’
Therefore, we have decided to move beyond Hell Mode and introduce a new top-tier Space-Time Distortion battle that succeeds Jordra: "Usurper’s Throne."
If the previous battle with Taros in ‘Usurper’s Fortress’ was a prelude, here in the Usurper’s Throne you will experience a battle that completes the narrative, where all his power and the distorted truth are unleashed.
As the new top-tier Space-Time Distortion battle, all players will be able to depart three times a week.
For players who have completed Power Infusion on their existing gear, they will be able to depart Space-Time Distortion Battles up to six times a week: including one run each of Usurper's Fortress, Hall of Fallen Knights, and The Watcher's Temple.
A final phase where the true power of 'Taros' is unleashed will be added in Usurper’s Throne.
The initial phase of the battle will unfold with patterns similar to the existing Usurper's Fortress, but some attacks that cannot be guarded or dodged will be added with clear precursors to avoid being unfair.
Also, we are adding a Berserk system where the difficulty of the final phase is determined in proportion to the number of times you are hit by these new attacks.
When the final phase begins, the boss enters a Berserk state, and its ATK increases by a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 50% depending on the cumulative number of hits taken by the new attack patterns.
Furthermore, in the final phase, Taros will be armed with a new weapon and new pattern, with a concept of light and darkness.
You will be able to experience a challenge of surviving against glints of swords in pitch-black darkness and breaking through a concerto of light and dark that splits the battlefield.
We have prepared honorable rewards, including bracelets and bracelet gems of the highest grade, Artifact Prefix/Suffix Enchants, and four titles that will serve as a symbol of the conqueror.
And to aid your challenge, we plan to add a feature to the Practice Mode that allows you to adjust the boss's HP for more efficient strategic research.
A feature to start from a specific phase is also currently under review, but we are facing several structural difficulties: We will share an update once the review of this feature is complete and will do our best to find a solution so it can be implemented with the other updates.
What we've shared today is more than a simple update notice; it is our reflection and our new promise for future directions. From now on, we will listen more closely to your voices and walk this path together.
Please leave your feedback on the upcoming Usurper’s Throne on the #vindictus-feedback channel on our official Discord Community, and we will review it thoroughly in the next developer's note.
We will be back with another developer's note as soon as things are organized.
Thank you for your continued support.
