Hello, this is DEV Allanon.
Mornings and evenings have turned quite chilly, and it finally feels like fall is here.
In today's Developer's Note, I'd like to give you an early look at what we're preparing for the November update.
This update will introduce a new Raid Boss, Morphessa, and an epilogue cutscene to bring Season 4 to a close. It will also include a Seal overhaul, streamlined cinematics for Redeemers and Raids, improvements to Shadow's Castle, and Character Utility Improvements.
Let me walk you through each change.
New Raid Battle - Morphessa & Season 4 Epilogue
Season 4's sixteenth episode takes players to Falias, the final stop in the Forgotten Land, as they search for Lia Fail: The Throne of Fate. The Raid takes place at the summit of Rocky Mountain, where sacred ruins bearing traces of an ancient past stand. Guarding the site is Morphessa, the fourth filidh and an elderly knight, who appears as the new Raid Boss.
■ Battle Concept: Hammer and Lightning
When designing Morphessa, we focused on making the fight easy to read. His heavy hammer and lightning are the two main cues.
When lightning gathers around his hammer, it signals that a powerful area attack may be coming. Since his lightning can also reach players at a distance, both melee and ranged players will need to watch his movements closely.
As part of our effort to streamline Raid cinematics, cutscenes will play only at the start of the battle. The fight will continue without cutscenes interrupting the flow of combat.
■ Core Mechanic: Magnetism
Every player will enter the Morphessa Raid with a Magnet. You can use it to switch between north and south polarity.
When Morphessa activates a magnetic effect, your polarity determines whether you are pulled toward him or pushed away. If a close-range attack is difficult to avoid, choose the polarity that pushes you away. If an attack comes from a distance, you may want to move toward the boss instead.
We want this mechanic to reward reading the situation and making a choice, rather than simply avoiding attacks. Through internal testing, we've refined the fight so the experience changes depending on Morphessa's polarity.
■ Season 4 Epilogue
After the battle with Morphessa, players will see an epilogue cutscene that brings Season 4's story to a close. The companions who have made it this far together will finally travel to the Constellation of Aketrav. The cutscene will run for about 10 minutes and conclude with Season 4's end credits.
We'll leave the rest of the story for you to discover. We hope this will be a meaningful finale for everyone who has been with us throughout Season 4.
■ New Equipment Items
(Please note that the English names of new items are not finalized and may change in the actual update.)
You can earn Eriu Boots, the Dominion Coil, and two new Enchant Scrolls from defeating Morphessa. Each item will have its own drop rate.
One scroll is a suffix Enchant for weapons, while the other is a suffix Enchant for Head and Leg Armor. Both can be used on equipment at level 115 or higher. We'll share details such as entry requirements and item stats in the patch notes on update day.
Seal Overhaul: Seal of Journey
(Please note that the English names of new items are not finalized and may change in the actual update.)
When monitoring your play patterns, we found that one thing clearly stood out: players who mainly run Ardri and Orna Raids can spend a long time reaching Uaithne gear. Most Uaithne crafting materials are currently tied to Uaithne Raids and the its Seal Shop, leaving only a few ways to gather them through the battles they're already playing.
That's why we're consolidating the Seals of Ardri and Orna into 'Seal of Journey.' Our goal is to let you continue playing the battles you're already doing and progress naturally toward Uaithne equipment.
■ Key Changes
- You will be able to earn Seals of Journey by completing Ardri Raids, Orna Raids, and Red Moon's Energy.
- A new Seal of the Journey Shop will sell Uaithne Fragments, Uaithne Crystals, and other materials needed to craft Uaithne equipment, including essences from Uaithne Raid bosses.
- Items currently sold in the Ardri Seal Shop and Orna Seal Shop will move to the new shop, and both existing shops will close.
- After the update, you will have eight weeks to exchange any Ardri and Orna Seals you own for Seals of Journey.
The Seal of Journey is designed as a stepping stone to Uaithne equipment. The shop will focus on materials needed to craft Uaithne equipment for the first time.
To avoid giving players who have already progressed a reason to repeat lower-tier Raids, it will not include advancement materials or high-value currencies. We'll share the full shop lineup and prices in the patch notes.
■ Seal of Dedication Acquisition Changes
As part of the Seal overhaul, we're gradually consolidating the different types of Seals. This update is the first step: Seal of Dedication will no longer be obtainable from new sources.
- You will no longer receive Seal of Dedication from the seal vending machine in the Guild Hall, party-member revival rewards, item incineration, mission seal selection boxes, or other listed sources.
- When using the vending machine or incinerating items, the chance previously assigned to Seal of Dedication will be redistributed among the other existing Seals according to their current weighting.
- Mission seal selection boxes will let you choose from Seal of Bravery, Honor Medal, and Festival Trophy. This change will also apply to boxes you already own.
- You can continue to use any Seal of Dedication you already have at the Seal of Dedication Shop.
Some Seals, including the Festival Trophy, are planned to be consolidated when older battle content is reorganized next March. We believe it makes more sense to retire those Seals alongside the battle content they're tied to, which is why this overhaul is being rolled out in stages. We'll share more details when they're ready.
Streamlined Cinematics for Redeemers and Raids
Cinematic camera sequences can show off a boss's personality the first time you see them, but we've heard that they interrupt the flow of Raids when repeated. In this update, we're streamlining cinematics across the Ardri, Orna, and Uaithne Raids, as well as Redeemers.
We originally announced these improvements for the December update in a Developer's Note and DevTalk. Since many of you have been waiting for them, we're bringing them forward to the November update.
■ What's Changing
- We will remove in-battle camera sequences that pause combat and character control.
- Simply removing the camera sequences would leave players exposed while bosses perform long actions, which could make fights too easy. So, alongside the cinematic changes, we plan to shorten the boss actions themselves during phase transitions and similar moments.
- Long mid-battle cutscenes in Redeemers will be significantly shortened or made skippable.
- For example, Brigid's armor sequence will go from 17 seconds to about 4 seconds, while Balor's dismount animation will shrink from 18 seconds to about 3.
■ Redeemers Boss Grab Attack Changes
When a Redeemers boss grabs a player, the sequence will no longer continue as a long cinematic.
Instead, the final hit of the combo will deal powerful damage that ignores defense. This change shortens the wait while preserving the tension of a dangerous attack pattern.
Shadow's Castle Improvements
Shadow's Castle was designed to let you challenge higher DPS as your character grows and earn rewards to match. However, we've heard that issues unrelated to your stats, such as bosses crossing the arena to chase ranged characters, can make the battle frustrating. Therefore, rather than adding new rules we're focusing on removing friction so you can concentrate on your DPS.
■ Key Improvements
- Boss Aggro and Movement Adjustments: Bosses will prioritize the player closest to them and make fewer unnecessary trips across the arena. To keep ranged characters from having too easy a time, bosses will periodically use attacks to pressure players who stay far away.
- New Top Reward Grade "RS": More players have reached S I, the current top grade, and we expect that number to grow after the Morphessa update. To give top players a new goal before the level cap rises to 130, we're adding six RS tiers above S I, covering DPS scores from 280,000 to 500,000, along with exclusive reward boxes.
We also plan to make additional adjustments, including changes to boss turn speed.
Character Utility Improvements
At our November update, we're improving Dodge skills for Dodge-based characters, along with some features for Hurk.
■ Dodge-Based Character Improvements
Guard-based characters gain various benefits when they successfully Guard, such as cooldown reductions and counterattack opportunities. By contrast, Dodge-based characters often gain little beyond Stamina recovery—even when they execute a Just Dodge at exactly the right time.
We're tuning the baseline performance of Dodge-based characters and adding rewards for a successful Just Dodge that connect to each character's core playstyle. We want a well-timed Dodge to make it feel smoother to continue your attack.
■ All Dodge-Based Characters
- The Just Dodge timing window will be slightly more forgiving.
- Dodge duration will be standardized to its maximum-rank value, regardless of skill rank.
■ Just Dodge Improvements by Character
- Belle: A successful Just Dodge grants one additional stage of Nature's Might.
- Lynn(Battleshade): A successful Just Dodge restores SP. The timing for following a stationary Dodge with an attack will be moved forward to match the timing of a normal Dodge.
- Lynn(Glaive): A successful Just Dodge reduces the cooldown of Active: Flying Swallow Strike.
- Tessa: A successful Just Dodge grants one Gem.
- Vella(Twin Chainblades): A successful Just Dodge grants two stages of Composure. The awkward stationary-Dodge animation will also be revised.
- Sylas: A successful Just Dodge reduces the cooldown of Active: Extinction Roar.
- Letty: A successful Just Dodge reduces the cooldown of Swift Recoil.
- Hurk(Teide): A successful Just Dodge loads two Enhanced Bullets in addition to the two regular bullets loaded by a normal Dodge. If your regular bullets are already full, two will be converted into Enhanced Bullets. Enhanced Bullets will load at the front so you can fire them right away.
- Kai(Cross Gun): A successful Just Dodge reduces the cooldown of Active: Enhanced Bolt.
- Kai(Bow): For a short time after a successful Just Dodge, you can use Magnum, Rapid Fire, and Charging Shot at maximum charge without charging them first.
■ Hurk – Stonewall and Onslaught Improvements
These changes are some follow up improvements to what we plan to apply in the next October update.
- When Stonewall activates, parrying an instant attack will no longer consume SP. This will make it easier for Hurk to use Active: Spirit Slash and help his damage rotation flow more naturally.
- The issue where Impenetrable failed to apply to the Smash following a successful parry—leaving Hurk vulnerable to damage—will be fixed. We'll also change how Onslaught is applied to reduce cases where network conditions delay the effect and cause it to be lost before the next Smash.
Other Planned Changes
■ Special Dungeon Boss Changes
To bring some variety to the Special Dungeon, its two bosses will change to Aodhan and Marject. Both have appeared in previous Special Dungeons. Their stats, entry requirements, and rewards will stay the same, but the recipe reward will be changed to a new recipe for a standard Outfit.
■ Shadow's Castle Reward Changes
To coincide with the Morphessa update, the grade reward boxes will include the new Enchant Scrolls and the Eriu Boots. With the new Enchant Scrolls joining the box contents, the drop rates for existing Enchant Scrolls will be adjusted.
■ Partholon Expedition Stat Effects Always Active
The stat effects granted by the Partholon Expedition will now be active at all times. You will no longer need to manage them separately to benefit from the Expedition bonuses.
That wraps up our preview of the November update. Please note that some details may change before the update goes live. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on the planned changes.
With temperatures fluctuating so much as the seasons change, please take care not to catch a cold and stay healthy.
Thank you.
