Inven Global

On Thursday, October 29, the special Lost Ark broadcast previewed in the previous stream aired. The stream was organized as a dialogue to address the growing issues that culminated with 'Mordoom Extreme'. Tentatively dubbed "Is Lost Ark Okay Like This?", the broadcast delivered a wave of major news, including Director Jae-hak Jeon's resignation, the appointment of Overseas Operations Lead Byung-tak Lee as the new Director, a near-reset revamp of progression content, and the new Companion System.

Former CCO Kang-sun Keum, who hosted the stream, explained the purpose behind the broadcast, stating that he wanted to "clearly explain the intentions behind the updates, what went wrong, and which direction we aim to take moving forward."

Newly appointed Director Byung-tak Lee expressed his ambition, saying, "I will work hard to fix every wrong element one by one so that everyone can smile and enjoy the game." He also teased an additional communication session in mid-November alongside the upcoming 8th-anniversary broadcast.

First, the difficulty and development intent of the controversial Extreme Raid were addressed. Director Jae-hak Jeon clarified that the previously mentioned "drawing the line" applied exclusively to Extreme difficulty rather than standard raids like Belgardin. Extreme was designed as content requiring high specs to provide challenging excitement for top-tier adventurers.

However, as required specs escalated, performance gaps between classes expanded far beyond what internal data had anticipated. While the development team originally set the benchmark around 9,000 points, actual gameplay environments yielded unexpected results. He also mentioned that easing difficulty diluted the rarity of the "Harbinger of Death" title. While acknowledging that Extreme Raid was a failed piece of content, Director Jeon stated there are no plans for additional nerfs.

Newly appointed Director Byung-tak Lee questioned the fundamental necessity of Extreme content itself. He explained that content requiring high specs cannot easily be made simpler, and limited-time challenges also pose issues. Director Lee shared his view that a single prestige challenge like "The First" is sufficient for top-tier players.

The development direction starting from the Kazeros Raid was also discussed. The team opted to increase the quality of each gate while reducing gate counts, but as a result, time required for a single raid grew longer, leading to higher player fatigue.

To address this, features like a single revive were introduced, and development proceeded somewhat as intended up through Belgardin.

Director Byung-tak Lee announced that future content will focus on maintaining momentum and rhythm. He set a goal of delivering 4 raids per year. While preparing Shadow Raids, Mid Raids, and new End Raids, single-player content will also be significantly expanded.

Regarding class balance, utility disparity alongside damage output gaps was identified as a core issue. Although developers previously balanced classes by narrowing damage output variance, this created "hexagon classes"—classes with rich utility that became disproportionately advantageous.

An evaluation of the Arc Grid system followed. Introduced to provide a new endgame goal, the system functioned positively for roughly six months post-launch, but failed to fulfill its intended role afterward. It was noted that rigid build metas ended up hindering future balance updates.

Director Lee declared that hexagon classes will be actively rebalanced, pursuing normalized balance by narrowing performance gaps. While the new Female Sharpshooter class will release first, development resources next summer will focus on improving existing classes rather than releasing a new class.

Major changes were announced for party synergies. "Multi-Crit" will be introduced to utilize Crit Rate exceeding 100%. For instance, with a 120% Crit Rate, players have a 20% chance to trigger a Multi-Crit, displayed in red damage numbers to distinguish it from standard crits.

The first balance update is scheduled for November 18. However, there are currently no plans to introduce Class Change Tickets, including base class changes.

Long-standing concerns over support reliance were also brought up. According to developers, support battle contribution has reached up to 44%. Consequently, required proficiency and fatigue for support players surged, while DPS players became overly dependent on support quality and skill.

Director Lee committed to lowering support dependency starting with the Winter update. In the November 18 balance patch, ground-based Attack Power buffs for Bard and Artist will be changed so stepping on them once retains the buff for its full duration.

Paladin and Valkyrie will see major buff skill cooldowns re-aligned for better operational ease. Brand effect durations will also increase by 50%. Additional efforts to lighten support execution burden and improve party contribution structures will follow.

A diagnosis of the game's economy followed. Director Jeon acknowledged that entering Season 3 caused significant damage to the economy, recognizing that many players felt disappointed with progression and market conditions.

Regarding paid monetization (BM) packages, data showed the actual impact was even lower than the 2.6% mentioned in the previous stream, with figures indicating package influence is minimal. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that even if economic impact is small, psychological burden and player expectations are affected.

Excessive rewards in Paradise were also addressed. High rewards—including Fusion Materials—were placed in Paradise to aid onboarding and growth for new players. However, concentrating rewards into specific content ended up distorting the overall game economy.

As a result, Paradise reward weight will be reduced. Key rewards will drop from 3 to 2, and acquiring keys repeatedly after the initial clear will be restricted.

Director Lee stated that Lost Ark's progression elements have reached saturation. Going forward, the team will focus on creating intuitive, transparent progression structures and streamlining complex stats and mechanics. Rather than simply stacking new systems, the revamp will push changes through a transfer (near-reset) system.

First, gear honing levels will remain, but progression benefits will transfer into new gear slots. Players will receive new gear reflecting the value of their existing equipment.

Gems will be unified account-wide across the Roster with tier extensions. Owning just 11 gems will enable all characters on the Roster to share them, drastically reducing the burden of gearing every alt separately.

Cards will transition into a Codex format, removing the concept of equipping cards. Stats for infrequently used cards will be adjusted. Relic Engravings will retain their current structure.

Ability Stones, Karma, and Gear Quality will be removed from the existing system. Ability Stones will transfer into new progression components, with high-tier stones (such as 9/7 stones) receiving corresponding bonus values. Karma and Gear Quality will also be removed, with new progression materials awarded as compensation.

Bracelets and Accessories will be evaluated based on value and transferred into new progression elements. Adventurers possessing end-game items will be credited with near-maximum completion levels under the new system.

Sidereal Weapons will keep their current form without incurring additional progression costs, with no further upgrade tiers like "Elpa-Elpa" being added. Arc Grid will also remain, with no updates planned this winter.

Discussions regarding the Roster-wide 6-character gold earning limit are ongoing. Director Lee explained that two revamp proposals are currently being reviewed internally.

Because gold acquisition limits tie directly into the economy, the team is taking a cautious approach. Balancing between relieving player inconvenience and managing economic shocks from gold supply shifts, specific revamp details will be shared in the next stream.

In Lost Ark Part 2, a new adventure unfolds centered on the Sea of Aldebaran. The new sea area features 17 islands and 4 Adventure Islands, with existing Adventure Islands converted into single-player content played alongside AI NPCs. New marine resources and landmarks will also be added.

Lasamoa in the Sacria continent will serve as the primary central hub going forward. Rather than introducing additional capital cities, the team will utilize existing hubs, with the next season subtitled "War of the Gods."

As a key feature of Part 2, "Companions" will be introduced. Key characters met across Arkesia can be recruited and upgraded, serving as party members in Single Raids, Rifts, Hourglass of Hal, and Cube. Players can also manually trigger Companion Awakening skills.

"Guardian Frontier", content where players battle Guardians alongside companions, will be added. It introduces "Igmatan", an enraptured version of Hanumatan, along with competitive elements for high-level players. Additionally, "Companion Expedition", an idle content feature where companions dispatch to auto-claim rewards, will be introduced.

Daily activities such as Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids will be integrated into "Adventurer Requests". Rifts and Hourglass of Hal will also be organized, restructuring daily homework on a Roster-wide basis. The "Golden Compass", providing bonus rewards based on weekly activities, will also be introduced.

A new World Boss format will allow all players to participate simultaneously, offering channel-based competitions, real-time DPS trackers, and MVP systems. The Adventurer's Tome will be revamped on a continent scale, alongside Sea Fishing content where players log species and sizes to compete for titles.

Event content will expand as well. Mini-games can be enjoyed via "Peyto Members" and "Toypia", along with play content tied to Tika Tuka.

This winter, an overall UI overhaul and skin system improvements will arrive. One dye slot will be added, and bleaching issues where base colors fade during dyeing will be fixed. Legendary skins and a Pyjama-themed skin will launch in December, followed by new skins released continuously from January to March.

On November 4, an Auto-Resonance feature for Paradise will be added, along with a fix for the shared cooldown issue between Adrophine Potion and Awakening Potion. A quality-of-life improvement removing mount-mounting animations was also teased.

Celebrating the 8th anniversary, the "Spooky Arcland" and "Lost Ark Horror Story Collection" events were revealed, where players can earn rewards through bingo boards. During the broadcast, the coupon code "1029라이브방송보상" was distributed, offering Legendary skins and various rewards.