Solo Leveling: ARISE shared news about the new alternate-form Hunter Lee Joohee and the challenging content "Monarch's Corridor" during its August Developer Live stream. The stream also introduced the new Water-attribute weapon Spirit Blade: Snowstorm, accompanying balance overhauls, and the future direction of upcoming updates.

[Redeem Codes and Additional Rewards]

- 260825_LIV3 : 3 Mana Solvents, 500 Amplification Media, 500 High-Grade Mana Stones

(Until September 17, 2026 at 8:59 AM KST)

- K3YF0R_QNA26 : 300 Dungeon Entry Keys, 1 Workshop of Brilliant Light Invitation, 1 Entry Code

(Until September 17, 2026 at 8:59 AM KST)

- N3W_W3AP : 20 Custom Weapon Draw Tickets, 10 Artifact Enhancement Reset Tickets, 2 Hunter Exclusive Weapon Designs

(Until September 17, 2026 at 8:59 AM KST)

- An additional 20 Artifact Enhancement Reset Tickets will be distributed via mail upon update

■ Pilgrim of the Labyrinth Lee Joohee Release

Pilgrim of the Labyrinth Lee Joohee, a Light-attribute Buster alternate Hunter, is joining the roster. After losing her companions in the Double Dungeon and being trapped in the labyrinth, she now illuminates the darkness while fighting on the front lines. Previously a Healer, this alternate version functions as a Damage Dealer and attacks enemies using an effect called Prism. Prisms follow the trajectory of her movements to attack, or she can concentrate the power of Light to deliver sustained damage.

Landing Joohee's Q skill and Core Attack triggers an additional hit called Lucent Beam, which inflicts both damage and a debuff on the target to maximize damage potential. When the buff stacks accumulated through Basic Skills and Core Attacks reach critical mass, an empowered skill activates, enabling additional damage dealing.

Recommended partners include Akari Shimizu and Antoine. Because Busters require a Stacker, Antoine offers excellent synergy. As an older Hunter, Akari Shimizu is scheduled for a major remake with this update. Additionally, while the SR-rank Lee Joohee restores 400 Mana to allied Hunters, the alternate version contains an easter egg that retains this exact effect.

■ New Challenge Content 'Monarch's Corridor'

This content unlocks for players who have cleared the highest difficulty of the Workshop of Brilliant Light. Notably, the existing difficulties of the Workshop of Brilliant Light (excluding Monarch's Corridor) will be significantly lowered, making Monarch's Corridor the new premier endgame challenge for top-tier players.

It features a different concept from Proof of Strong. Featuring three Workshop of Brilliant Light bosses, players select their own constraint effects to customize difficulty and strategy rather than following a fixed tactic. Players can increase enemy attack power, reduce time limits, or decrease healing to focus more heavily on Extreme Evasion. There are also mechanic-enhancing constraints, such as increasing the difficulty of reflecting Surt's fireballs.

Points increase based on the active constraints, allowing players who tackle higher difficulties to achieve higher leaderboard rankings. Constraints are divided into Common, Boss, and Seasonal constraints, offering fresh gameplay experiences even against the same boss. The three featured bosses will rotate each season and are not limited to Monarchs. For example, the first season features Surt, Vulcan, and Yogumunt as Monarch's Corridor bosses.

Players can also attempt Monarch's Corridor without selecting any constraints; unconstrained bosses are tuned to a difficulty similar to the former Tier 10 bosses. Because applying constraints can lengthen fights, battle durations in Monarch's Corridor are longer than in the standard Workshop. Players who have just cleared the newly adjusted Workshop Tier 10 should still be able to complete the Corridor with moderate constraints.

The Corridor is not designed around maxing out every constraint. Instead, the enjoyment comes from finding the right balance of constraints matching your gear, playstyle, and skill level to achieve a higher score. Leaderboard rankings award prestige items such as frames and titles. The dev team will continue gathering feedback and discussing features, such as allowing players to select weakness attributes.

The first season will run for two weeks starting September 3, with Water and Light as the weakness attributes. Please note that if the maximum floor limit of the Workshop expands in the future, players will need to clear the highest floor to unlock Monarch's Corridor.

■ New Water Weapon 'Spirit Blade: Snowstorm'

This is a Water-attribute infusion weapon. Its combo strikes using blade and scabbard freeze a wide area in front of the user. It also possesses a synergy effect that boosts damage for skills with Freeze triggers, regardless of whether the target actually gets frozen. As a result, players can deal massive cumulative damage even against Freeze-immune bosses using Freeze skills. Triggering Overload activates an enhancement for an additional powerful strike. Skadi is also slated for a weapon buff and naturally features Freeze effects, creating great synergy between them.

■ Balance Adjustments

Among Hunters, Akari Shimizu undergoes the most significant changes. While her first rework in May added Overload-related buffs, this second revamp completely transforms her into a Light-attribute Buster Support. Her former mechanic required stacking Sacred Flame to trigger Annular Eclipse, which was clunky to stack; this has been streamlined into a more intuitive debuff structure. With the added ability to build Overload stacks and inflict Unhealable debuffs, she pairs exceptionally well with Lee Joohee.

Regarding weapons, Skadi sees the largest overhaul. Its skill "Finishing Hunt" has been changed from simple ATK-proportional damage without damage type judgment to Normal Skill damage. This allows it to trigger critical hits and receive various buffs, such as effects from the Designer set, significantly enhancing its actual performance. The "Skadi's Blessing" buff now stacks up to 4 times when equipping two Water-attribute weapons, and "Skadi's Curse"—which previously had no effect beyond triggering Finishing Hunt—now grants new effects that boost overall DPS. Furthermore, Sung Jinwoo's weapons Winter Fang, Key to the Void, Winchester Roke, and Moonshadow, as well as Hunters Laura Walker and Antoine Martinez, are scheduled for buffs.

For Artifacts, Team Fight Mode-exclusive effects receive buffs. Previously, these provided team-wide stat buffs in Team Fight Mode; the system has been improved so that equipping an Artifact on its matching class grants bonus values exceeding the previous stats. This encourages equipping class-appropriate Artifacts for a combat advantage.

■ Successor Auto-Battle Improvements

Auto-battle performance for Miro is being improved. While the Monarch of Shadows auto-battle performed reasonably well, Miro suffered from a difficult skill rotation and awkward mobile controls, leading to underperforming auto gameplay. Although it won't match situational manual control, the system has been optimized to execute skill cycles according to recommended skill orders, delivering around 90% of maximum potential firepower.

For instance, Miro previously held her Ultimate until the end, but will now align with the current meta by using her Ultimate mid-combat to weave in follow-up attacks. This logic adjustment will apply not only to Miro but also to future Successors.

Some players question the necessity of auto-battle improvements in an action game. While manual control is fundamental to the action genre, many players enjoy casual play on mobile devices. Therefore, the team requests understanding that manual play for challenging endgame content and auto-battle improvements are being developed as separate focus areas.

■ Laura Walker's New 'Nightwear' Skin

Laura Walker is receiving buffs alongside Antoine and Shimizu. Following the summer event, a new skin featuring a different aesthetic from her usual combat-ready look has been prepared.

■ Combat Power Overhaul, Farming Normalization, Diverse Action Experiences, and Guild Revamp

The team is fully aware of concerns regarding the lack of motivation to raise Combat Power (CP), as well as situations where players exceed the recommended CP displayed for content yet still fail due to overtuned difficulty. CP will be adjusted to serve as a meaningful indicator rather than an arbitrary number. Specifically, exceeding recommended CP will grant distinct combat advantages to provide a tangible reward for meeting requirements. Conversely, falling short of recommended CP will feel noticeably more challenging through structural adjustments. For example, CP indicators are currently categorized into Red CP, White CP, and Blue CP; for Blue CP, the shade will deepen as the power gap grows, making advantages more visually distinct.

The ranking system is also undergoing an overhaul. Currently, ARISE primarily relies on Trophy Rankings, which functionally serve as a race to complete story stages quickly rather than a meaningful measure of strength. Rankings will transition to focus on Combat Power and endgame content, enabling Hunters to showcase their strength and earn prestige rewards. Even as Trophy Rankings are phased out, Essence Stones will still be distributed based on total accumulated trophies.

Major improvements will address the lack of loot excitement in Daily and Weekly Dungeons. However, farming content will not be redesigned to increase player fatigue, maintaining a clear separation between challenge content and farming content.

To branch out from gameplay centered purely on solo damage-dealing dungeon clears, new modes are in development: "Deep Isolation Zone," a 4-Hunter Team Fight mode, and "Infinite Battlefield," an event mode where players clear endless relay boss waves to set high scores. 4-Hunter team compositions offer a fresh experience for players. The team is preparing new combat mechanics including mid-battle Hunter tagging and 4-Hunter combination attacks, alongside mutated monsters and anomaly effects to enrich gameplay.

Finally, regarding Guilds: while Guilds held immense importance in the original IP, their in-game functions have been largely restricted to Guild Boss battles and shop access. A comprehensive Guild overhaul is currently underway to foster a stronger sense of belonging. Alongside updates emphasizing CP, joining a Guild will directly boost player CP, increasing the value of Guild membership. Additionally, while Guild Buffs are currently selected unilaterally by the Guild Leader for all members, players will soon be able to select their preferred individual buffs. Discord integration will enhance communication, and multiple cooperative Guild content modes will be added, designed so that requirements can be fulfilled simply through standard gameplay without adding fatigue. These changes will roll out sequentially starting from the 2.5 Anniversary update.

Furthermore, rather than distributing identical rewards to all players, reward structures will be tailored to individual progression to make them more meaningful, alongside more engaging event designs. Quality-of-life updates will include cutscene speed-up options during story auto-play, reducing Simulation Gate stages, and introducing full auto-play. Detailed specifics will be announced through future Developer Notes and broadcasts.

Q. When will alternate Lee Joohee and Diana Lopez, who appeared in the story, be released?

- Lee Joohee is being unveiled during today's broadcast and will be updated on Thursday, August 29. Diana Lopez is being designed as the first Hunter to wield heavy weaponry and is scheduled to debut in the September update.

Q. The Workshop of Brilliant Light is too difficult.

- The dev team is aware of this issue. Because the newly added "Monarch's Corridor" is intended for players who have cleared Tier 10, the baseline Workshop difficulty will be lowered. While the original Workshop of Brilliant Light was balanced around top 1,000 to 3,000 players, the overall difficulty will be significantly reduced so more players can enjoy the content. Players who exceed gear requirements will gain bonus CP, making clears easier. This over-spec CP bonus will be implemented starting from lower Workshop difficulties before expanding across all Workshop tiers and eventually all game content.

Q. Please add Blessing Stones that synergize with specific Artifacts so Sung Jinwoo can fulfill roles more flexibly.

- The team has been brainstorming and planning options internally. Priority is currently on developing synergies with the Designer set, and to expand options further, 5 Amplification-type and 2 Survival-type stones are being considered. Details will be revealed once preparations are complete.

Q. Closing the stream of pop-up banners every time I log in is tedious.

- Recognizing that excessive log-in pop-ups occur, plans are in place to display tailored banners based on each Hunter's current progression status.

Q. When will the next story chapter update?

- Story updates arrive on a 3-month cycle. Preparations are moving forward diligently to maintain this schedule without delays.

Q. There isn't enough playable content upon logging in.

- Content roadmap slides will cover this topic in greater detail during the presentation.

Q. Breakers remain continuously underutilized.

- New content planned for the second half of this year is being designed around 4-Hunter team encounters, which will provide a dedicated space for Breakers to shine.

Q. Daily routine content takes too little time.

- There are no plans to expand daily routines. The objective is to keep daily tasks quick and light so players can dedicate more time to challenging content.

Following the introduction of the Sweep feature, clearing the highest difficulty previously left little reason to replay content. Moving forward, new challenge difficulties will be developed alongside Sweep functionality.

Q. Beyond high difficulty, daily tasks and general content need appealing rewards to keep players engaged.

- The dev team is carefully considering appropriate rewards alongside new difficulties, aiming to deliver a gratifying sense of achievement.

Q. The renewal of Battlefield of Time is approaching its fourth month. When will it take place?

- Content that isn't functioning well is temporarily closed for comprehensive reworks before re-release. An improved version is currently in development.

Q. Please make Guild growth smoother.

- Guilds are scheduled for a major near-rework level overhaul by the end of this year. More details will be covered in the update slides.

Q. Why was the Raid Rage meter reduced?

- Under the former system, once a threshold was passed, Rage would escalate uncontrollably, so a mitigation policy was applied. The intention was not simply to lower numbers artificially; in the case of the Queen Ant, Rage values dropped even lower than intended, so re-adjustments are under consideration. Additionally, work is underway to standardize Rage variance across different boss types.

Q. Equipping and unequipping Artifacts is too tedious.

- Using presets is recommended, as the development team's design direction aims to minimize the frequency of swapping Artifact sets on Hunters.

Q. There seems to be a severe lack of endgame challenge content for top-tier players.

- The 2.5 Anniversary update is being prepared on a scale comparable to the 2nd Anniversary. Challenges and rewards will be structured meaningfully, and updates will continue to be shared through Developer Notes.

Q. Are there any plans to buff characters like Yoo Soohyun?

- To answer carefully, once work on the current slate of Busters is completed, development will shift back toward Strikers. The direction involves alternating between Busters and Strikers to lead combat, alongside separate content tailored for each class to excel. Releasing another brand-new class after Busters could overburden players. Therefore, revamping existing Strikers and releasing complementary Hunters to restore their viability was determined to be the best approach.

Q. Please give more consideration to paying players.

- Expanding difficulty tiers in challenge content aims to allow paying players to tackle higher difficulties and receive greater rewards. Additional content will continue to be provided.

Q. Is Sung Jinwoo's Simulation Gate still not ready?

- Development is ongoing and has not been canceled. Although slightly delayed, it will definitely be introduced within this year.

Q. When will Kamish's Wrath be released?

- It will be updated in November.

Q. Please quickly release the remaining Hunters from the webtoon.

- There are not many Hunters remaining from the original webtoon. Sharing feedback on which Hunters players wish to see would be greatly appreciated.

Q. There is a lack of content that lets high-end players feel their growth progression.

- This issue is being given serious consideration and will be addressed through upcoming content updates.

Q. The motivation and appeal for spending money have declined.

- While the game does not aggressively force microtransactions, making spending feel appealing and worthwhile remains a key priority. Player suggestions will be shared with the design team for discussion.

Q. Gold has accumulated too much with nowhere to spend it.

- Because newer players frequently ran short on Gold, increasing the overall Gold supply led to high-end players accumulating excess reserves. However, adding heavy Gold sinks could abruptly starve players of Gold again, requiring careful deliberation.

Q. Please expand Guild Boss weakness attributes back to three.

- The team will discuss this suggestion.

Q. Sung Jinwoo's Ultimate Skill feels weak again.

- New Runes and skills are currently in development.

Q. Boundary of Phantasms is too easy.

- Boundary of Phantasms is currently tuned around former Battle Class standards. However, sharply raising difficulty all at once could prevent players from clearing stages they previously completed, so adjustments will be made gradually.

Q. Are there plans to release Siddharth Bachchan?

- Siddharth, a Hunter from the original webtoon, is currently in preparation and included in the update schedule.

Q. How about making bosses or Monarchs playable on PC?

- It will be considered. However, making bosses playable requires implementing all playable character mechanics, making it a challenging task.

Q. Will the EXP cap be raised during the Guild overhaul?

- When the Guild overhaul is implemented at the 2.5 Anniversary, the EXP cap will be raised. Levels up to 30 will be made faster to reach.

Q. I hope to see more cool characters from the webtoon released as alternate forms.

- While full details cannot be shared yet, an alternate-form character will be released in the October 2.5 Anniversary update.

Ryen-goo Kim, Planning Team Lead : It was great sharing various updates with all Hunters. Extensive preparations are underway to deliver fresh enjoyment, including Monarch's Corridor, so please look forward to the first season launching on the 3rd. Following today's update roadmap, development news will continue to be shared through Developer Notes, so please review them and leave your feedback.

Dong-hyun Shin, Balance Lead : We presented Lee Joohee's combat gameplay, Spirit Blade: Snowstorm, and balance changes. You will find them even more enjoyable when playing firsthand. Please share your feedback on areas needing improvement or future updates for Hunters like Yoo Soohyun or Sung Il-hwan. Additionally, the team is aware of issues regarding Shadow Step duration and will carefully consider optimal solutions.

Sung-geon Jin, Executive Producer / PD : The development studio is currently pursuing a mid-to-long-term direction to restore the game to a healthy state. While we aim to communicate openly and engage in candid conversations, live streams present real-time challenges. The dev team is working extraordinarily hard, and we ask for your continued trust. We are striving for sincere communication, and we acknowledge and apologize for the insufficient care provided to top-tier active players. We will make every effort to accommodate both player segments, so please continue sharing your interest and feedback so we can reflect it in future updates.