The first selection of Gods, held on Saturday, July 11, has concluded. While some servers maintained their existing rankings, others saw dramatic turnarounds at the final moment when rankings were hidden. Even after the selection ended, servers began spending massive amounts of Nine to defend their positions and maintain their influence.

A new Dark Horse has emerged, seizing the opportunity after the massive war of attrition. In preparation for the next fierce selection, a balance patch and new skills for each class were added on Wednesday, July 15. In addition to class care and new events, various improvements were applied, including equipment balance adjustments, alignment system reforms, and Nine Core changes.

At 20:00 on Saturday, July 11, the first selection of Gods concluded. Gods are categorized into General Gods (server), Main Gods (world), and Absolute Gods (entire game) based on Nine consumption, but this selection only involved the General Gods who govern each server. As a special perk for this inaugural selection, General Gods were granted the right to vote on update directions—a power originally reserved for Absolute Gods—making the competition among users even more intense.

Various issues arose, including dramatic turnarounds during the hidden ranking period and delayed selections on some servers. Starting at 19:00, one hour before the selection, the Nine consumption rankings were hidden, sparking a psychological battle among candidates. While the incumbent 1st-place players held their ground on most servers, the Lindel 5 server saw a turnaround: Wolha (Team Wolryeong), which was 4th as of 18:00 (720 million Nine consumed), overtook the Zeus Guild to be selected as God. This result overturned a gap of over 1 billion Nine during the hidden period. Meanwhile, selection delays occurred on the Lindel 4, Ibras 5, Richard 3, and Regina 4 servers, leading to official notices.

Detailed schedules for the upcoming Main God and Absolute God selections have not yet been released. However, as new selections are scheduled every two weeks, the competition for Nine consumption among server factions to seize or maintain divine power is expected to continue.

Since the first selection ended, each server has shown different trends. While some servers are rapidly increasing Nine consumption from the start to secure divine power, others have entered a lull, recording relatively low consumption after the first selection.

Amidst this, new users have appeared on servers where only competition between streamers was expected. Sin-in-eun-geon on the Caltheon 5 server surpassed the new candidate Sa-ttang, consuming over 200 million Nine to take 1st place on the server. They have emerged as a new Dark Horse by rapidly increasing consumption immediately after the first selection.

Sa-chun-gi on the Lindel 4 server also rose to 2nd place by consuming 100 million Nine. Although there is a fivefold gap compared to the current 1st-place consumption of 500 million Nine, it is notable that they broke the existing standoff to take the 2nd-place spot. Attention is focused on whether these new users can maintain this momentum and secure divine power.

To limit abnormal play that negatively impacts the in-game economy, the crafting requirements for Nine Core have been reformed once again. Following the previous patch, which removed the weekly limit of 5 per account and adjusted it to 10 per week for characters level 40+ and unlimited for level 50+, the July 15 (Wed) update further tightened the conditions. The minimum level requirement for crafting Nine Core has been raised from 40 to 45, and the quantity has been adjusted to 10.

User reactions are mixed. Some evaluate that raising the barrier to entry through level and production limits will preserve in-game value and stabilize the economy, while others argue that since there is little use for Nine Core outside of skills, the price will continue to fall regardless of the limits.

With the reform of the alignment system, the 'Chaos-farming' meta—where players intentionally lowered their alignment to gain damage buffs—has changed. Previously, becoming 'Chaotic' by lowering alignment reduced defense but increased damage in stages, leading some users to take risks for PVP. However, this update completely removed the attack power buff in the 'Destruction' state.

With this patch, characters with 'Destruction' alignment now only suffer from a defense-reducing debuff without any offensive performance gains. As a result, the benefits of intentional 'Chaos-farming' have disappeared, leaving only the existing penalties of increased item loss probability upon death and the risk of Nine looting, along with the defense reduction effect.

Five new skills have been added to strengthen class identity. For Knights, 3 types were added, including Guardian Vital, Guardian Spear, and Iron Howl II, which increase potion recovery efficiency. Rangers received 1 trap-type skill, Trap Shot, and Mages received 1 attack skill, Arcane Thunder. All can be purchased from Skillbook Merchants, but they require significant resources, priced at approximately 3.5 million gold for Unique grade and 21 million gold for Epic grade.

Along with this, balance adjustments were made to improve the performance of existing skills. For Knights, a Magic Defense +8 option was added to Guardian Armor II. For Rangers, Mystic Bolt's damage was increased, and Flash's MP recovery was significantly boosted. For Mages, the MP recovery of Guardian Mana I and II was increased, which is expected to partially alleviate MP shortages.

Stat adjustments were made to increase the value and efficiency of Epic and Legend grade equipment. Damage increase stats were added to Epic and Legend gear, which previously had small performance gaps compared to Unique gear, enhancing the merits of farming, enchanting, and reaching level 50. Additionally, El's Attack/Defense Bracelets, which were often criticized for low efficiency relative to enchantment difficulty, had their stat growth increased for +5 and higher, and a PVP damage reduction option was added to compensate for the value of high-level enchantments.

To supplement the survivability of the Knight class, a 'Shield Block' stat was added to shield items. Shield Block, which triggers with a certain probability to reduce incoming damage, is applied differently based on equipment grade. Unique shields provide 2%, Epic shields 5%, and Legend shields 10% Shield Block.

The system has been improved so that new stats are granted whenever specific enchantment levels are reached in each trait tree. Previously, only fixed stats increased for each tree (Attack, Defense, Recovery), but with this update, reaching certain enchantment levels grants new bonus stats that contribute directly to character stats in addition to the fixed ones.

Looking at the detailed additional stats by tree: the Attack tree adds 'Damage' stats from +3 enchantment, increasing by 1 to 5 per stage. The Defense tree grants 'Physical Defense' from +5 enchantment, increasing by 1 to 5. Finally, the Recovery tree applies 'CON' and 'WIS' stats, which affect HP and MP recovery, from +7 enchantment, increasing by 1 to 3.

10m and 20m minimum distance options have been introduced to the auto-combat range settings. Many users requested improvements because the existing auto-combat range felt narrow, and characters often strayed far from the hunting area even when set to 30m. The July 15 (Wed) patch added the minimum hunting distance option.

Reactions since the introduction of the options have been mixed. While there is positive feedback that hunting ground management has become easier because characters stray less, there is also negative feedback that if the range is set too narrow, the AI malfunctions, causing the character to get stuck or move erratically. As the new option was introduced for convenience, it seems that further fine-tuning of performance will be needed for smoother hunting.

A new event dungeon, 'Lindel Island Hunting,' has appeared for users level 45 and above. Available for 30 minutes daily until the maintenance on July 22 (Wed), this dungeon allows for fast hunting with the exclusive 'Chain Lightning' buff. In particular, you can obtain a large amount of Enchant Scrolls through dungeon hunting. According to user reviews, lucky players can obtain a large amount of Samgyetang and over 30 Enchant Scrolls after 30 minutes of hunting. Additionally, the 'Sealed Absolute God's Sword' equipment enchantment event has been extended until July 22 (Wed), providing an opportunity to complete collections more cheaply than before.

New limited-time packages have been released to contribute to hunting convenience and Nine savings. The 'Infinite Health Potion Package' and 'Infinite Acceleration Potion Package,' sold until the maintenance on July 29 (Wed), provide unlimited consumables that can be used until August 26 (Wed). While the Infinite Acceleration Potions and Elixirs have the same options as existing consumables, they are considered highly efficient as they save approximately 287424 Nine per day (11976 Nine per hour) and reduce inventory weight burden.

Two packages purchasable with Diamonds are also on sale until the maintenance on July 22 (Wed). The 'Sage's Trait Package' offers 20 Trait Stones for 1500 Diamonds (previously 5 for 3k Diamonds), showing about 8 times the efficiency, and the 'El's Bracelet Package' provides three +3 Bracelets for 1200 Diamonds. Both packages include 10 Premium Draw Tickets, and since +5 and higher bracelets were buffed in the July 15 patch, these are useful options for those aiming for high-level equipment and trait growth. Currently, there is an error where +5 bracelets cannot be packaged for trading after crafting, and a fix is in progress. Users experiencing this issue should contact the 1:1 customer support center for faster resolution to avoid losses.