Hello, Heroes of Arkesia Henry here with another episode of Patch Notes with Henry. Today we're going to dive into the July Cool Retreat Update that releases on July 17th. This update is built to help players just have fun in the Arkesian sun. A little summer fun; full of progression updates, new events, Solo Mode raids, and a ton more. We're going to dive into all of that in the patch notes and give an overview of a lot of those systems, but if you want the full nitty gritty details, make sure to read the full written out patch notes on the website. Let's dive right in. So one of the biggest pieces of content arriving this month is going to be the Solo Mode: Dungeons and Raids. Solo Mode enables you to challenge Lost Ark's main endgame content: raids and dungeons alone. We're super excited about the flexibility that this gives to players who want to practice raid mechanics, before attempting them with a group or just those who have difficulty navigating Party Finder. Solo Mode is going to support raids, starting with the Valtan Legion Raid all the way to the Ivory Tower Abyssal Dungeon. Even though the gold amount is going to be less than the normal raids, they'll still give gold and progression materials so that players won't have too much progressing alone. However, once players pass a certain item level, they won't be able to receive gold or materials from Solo Mode. But it's a way higher item level. It shouldn't impact anyone that's really trying to use these to progress. For example, you can no longer earn the gold from Valtan and Vykas Legion raids once you're 1600. Keep in mind that those raids start at 1415 and 1430. Kakul Saydon is going to be 1610. Brelshaza Legion raid is 1620. And for Kayangel, you can't earn gold from the Solo Mode once you're 1640 or above. One of the big things that Solo Mode has to help you play alone, since it's such a different experience than the normal way you raid in Lost Ark, is by layering in special effects to help different class play styles and support classes play by themselves. Solo Mode is going to be categorized as endgame content, and it shares the number of gold rewards and the number of free additional rewards for endgame content. It also shares the number of entries and gateway progress. One important thing to note is that the level of difficulty at the time of clearing the first gate, within a raid, is also applied to the subsequent gates. So, for example, if you clear the first gate in Solo Mode, you can't clear the remaining gates on normal or hard difficulty. So let's talk a little bit more about the buffs and how those work within Solo Mode. This new system is called The Scale of Fate, and it gives you support where you can select one of a variety of buffs to help in battle. These are actually going to replace the Procyon's Protection Buff and starting Novice Adventurer Buff in Solo Mode. So when you enter a raid, you're going to be able to select a support buff. The selected buff will be applied during the boss battles within the raid. There are certain buffs that are specific to various raids and also buffs that can only be selected by specific classes. A separate support buff is applied when selecting the "This is Me" buff, which drops a character right into the raid with no buff if you really want to go in and you know have a more challenging experience. You can enter Solo Mode without selecting a support buff and are able to change the selected buff via a change button that's up at the top left of the game screen. However, once the boss battle starts, the support buff cannot be changed. Once you defeat the boss, though, you can change buffs in the next combat zone and battle station before heading into the next boss battle or the next gate. Solo Mode is also going to bring a new currency, which is called Clear Medals. Regardless of the difficulty level, you can receive a clear medal when you clear the content that comes with the Solo Mode. Clear medals can be exchanged for various items through the Solo Mode exchange NPCs in major cities, and items that were previously exchangeable for special currencies from the Legion Raid Exchange NPC can now be exchanged through the Solo Mode Exchange NPC. Since some of those items are the same, if you already redeemed them, you can't earn them again with the clear medals, since you've already purchased the one per roster or one per character that you already have, but you'll be able to purchase any of those past ones with clear medals heading forward. One important thing to note if you clear Solo Mode, the gold received is lower than the normal difficulty. The full values are going to be shared in the gold rebalancing section of the release notes. So if you're curious about every single one of the gold values, you know, that's going to be coming in Solo Mode. And also some of the rebalancing that we'll touch on in a little bit, make sure to read that section in the release notes. We have every single one listed out for each of those raids. However, the other rewards received are equal to those received in normal mode, you'll get the same amount of honing materials, gear crafting materials, gear upgrade materials that you would if you were just doing normal mode with a party in party finder. However, you cannot obtain honor rewards such as the Brelshaza horns or sidereal energies from the Solo Mode of the raids. And also with the introduction of Solo Mode, we have removed these special difficulties for certain Legion raids that we had before because Solo Modes serve that same purpose of kind of allowing players to practice the Raid, but now layer in the ability to earn those progression materials and earn gold. However, you cannot obtain honor rewards such as the Brelshaza horns or sidereal energies from the Solo Mode of the raids. And also with the introduction of Solo Mode, we have removed these special difficulties for certain Legion raids that we had before because Solo Modes serve that same purpose of kind of allowing players to practice the Raid, but now layer in the ability to earn those progression materials and earn gold. So they should just be a better learning experience for anyone that wants to check out those raids. So that's our overview on Solo Mode raids. We're super excited for the opportunities that this brings for players to learn the raids, and also just play Lost Ark in kind of their own way and at their own pace. I think it's a really cool experience that Lost Ark didn't really have before. Being able to do these really cool end-game pieces of content alone can, you know, help attract a whole new type of player or, you know, just relieve some of the stress of raiding on lower alts that might have had a hard time finding a group in party finder. I'm super excited to do these on some characters that I haven't played in a while and just hop in, get a feel for the class again, and get some practice in. All right, up next, let's talk about events. We have an absolute ton of events arriving in the Cool Retreat update. There's a ton coming, but it also heralds the end of a previous batch of progression events with the previous super Mokoko Express, Extra End content, Clear Reward event, Honing Event Mission, Endgame Acceleration Mission, and Chaos Assault all drawing to a close, but it brings in a new wave of events for players to ease the grind this summer as we head towards tier four. While we previously announced that there would be a progression event to help end game players, we decided to release a new event Powerpass, an updated Super Mokoko express event to help new or returning players prepare for tier four, or engage players to add a new class to their roster or boost a current alternate character. I'm super excited for this one. Just made a Reaper so that I can try that out finally. Fun interactive class that I've been wanting to try out for a while, but, with the previous events, I had to make a Breaker and Souleater. Just made a Reaper so that I can try that out finally. Fun interactive class that I've been wanting to try out for a while, but, with the previous events, I had to make a Breaker and Souleater. So with no new class, I'm excited to check one out that I've always wanted to. And we're excited for this opportunity for new and returning players alike. So first off, just wanted to share that we're also going to be getting A Voldis Event Powerpass. This is going to drop players off in Voldis at item level 1520. Powerpasses can be claimed and used until September 25th, at which point it will expire if the Powerpass has not been used. We also were able to revamp the Event Powerpass delivery process. Players now receive Event Powerpasses in the Server Selection screen, and can use the Powerpass when creating a new character. Requirement information to receive the Event Powerpass is also provided at the Powerpass selection menu. I think this one will be just a good user flow update. I know we had some player, players express kind of frustration with the way it used to work: log in, claim it, redeem it, then go back out to the main menu; some players couldn't find it, so we're super excited for this to be a more streamlined experience. And thanks for all the feedback that you were able to provide to help us revamp and create a better user flow for this system. Up next, let's talk about the Super Mokoko Express that's coming in: pairs really well with the Voldis Powerpass since that drops you off at 1520 item level, players are going to be able to designate a character between item level 1520, and 1600 on their account. To participate in a new version of the Super Mokoko express. You're going to have discounted honing rates, discounted gold requirements, and earn honing materials to quickly level up to item level 1600 with a ton of reward chests that include everything from silver, gold, Akkan gear even, honing materials, level eight gems, engravings and a ton more. To participate in a new version of the Super Mokoko express. You're going to have discounted honing rates, discounted gold requirements, and earn honing materials to quickly level up to item level 1600 with a ton of reward chests that include everything from silver, gold, Akkan gear even, honing materials, level eight gems, engravings and a ton more. While the honing buffs end at 1600, additional chests up to item level 1620 will help you power up your character with even more materials, elixirs, transcendence materials, and even some advanced honing tempering materials. Really quick, I'll run you through some of the boosts that this is going to provide. We're going to get a honing percentage boost from 1520 to 1580 of 100%. Then from 1580 to 1600, we're going to get an additional 50% base honing chance boost. So for honing materials, there's going to be a discount from 1520 to 1580 of 70% and then from 1580 to 1600 of 40%. For honing leap materials, it's going to be the same. So for honing materials, there's going to be a discount from 1520 to 1580 of 70% and then from 1580 to 1600 of 40%. For honing leap materials, it's going to be the same. So 1520 to 1580 is 70% reduction, 1580 to 1600 is a 40% reduction. That reduction is also going to apply to the gold required to hone. We're going to get into it in a little bit in the progression update section, but no gold is going to be required to hone up to 1540. So from 1540 to 1580 you're going to have a 70% gold cost reduction when honing. And from 1580 to 1600, that'll be a 40% gold reduction cost on honing. On top of all the, like, ton of rewards that this is going to give, there's also some of the previous systems that Super Mokoko Express passes have brought in, like the combat style setting support options for players to easily set skills and engravings through presets, and get item support for accessories with relevant stats and ability stones. And from 1580 to 1600, that'll be a 40% gold reduction cost on honing. On top of all the, like, ton of rewards that this is going to give, there's also some of the previous systems that Super Mokoko Express passes have brought in, like the combat style setting support options for players to easily set skills and engravings through presets, and get item support for accessories with relevant stats and ability stones. So that will all be included as well. The Super Mokoko Express event will last until September 25th, and it's important to note that once the character receives a honing buff, you can't change the target character. So make sure you get that locked in before you start honing. Next up, let's talk about the extra end-game rewards event. An updated version of this event is going to arrive very similar to the one that we just took out of the game, but it's built around rewarding players for the- for clearing current in-game content and helping players prepare for tier four. The extra rewards are going to include protection and obliteration stones, leap stones, and honor shards corresponding to the item level of the activity. The extra rewards are going to be granted when clearing the following activities: Kayangel Abyssal Dungeon gate three, hard mode only; Akkan Legion raid gate three for both normal and hard mode, Ivory tower Abyssal Dungeon Gate three: both normal and hard mode. Thaemine Legion raid gate three normal and hard mode and the Echidna Kazeros gate two both normal and Hard mode. These rewards are going to be available to all characters on a player's roster, so no need to designate a character for this event. And that one is also going to last all the way until September 25th. This was one of my favorite events that we added into the game when it came out a few months ago. Just getting those extra boxes when clearing a raid felt really great, especially if you were kind of done bonus rolling that raid or something like that. That little boost, I think it was a lot of fun, and we're excited to just kind of continue that throughout the summer with that theme of, you know, kind of relaxing, getting a ton of materials and getting ready for tier four before things kick up a notch. And we really hit the ground running with tier four. So in that theme of celebrating summer in Arkesia, we also have the Maharaka Festival returning with all new activities. You can celebrate the summer on Maharaka Paradise Event Island, located east of Luterra. Players are going to be able to hit the pool and participate in an event race, transforming into a pirate Mokoko to jump, headbutt, and dash their way through a swimming race before attempting to defeat a giant rubber duck. A race will be held every hour and participation is limited to once per day. Participants can choose which pirate Mokoko they want to transform into and finish the race to save Maharaka Paradise from the Duckaneers. You can earn pirate Mokoko tokens and trade them for special items at the event shop. The event shop is going to have an enormous cache of valuable rewards to help player progression, along with some fun summer cosmetics such as trail effects, some stronghold structures, and some transformation toys. You can head to the Maharaka Festival in game when it drops and see all the wonders that are going to await you. And don't worry, we're going to have an event feast because we know players love that whenever there's an event. Next up, another fan favorite event is going to return. We're bringing back daily playtime rewards. They're going to return with a few updates. This will also run until September 25th and rewards players for the time they spend playing Lost Ark. Every 15 minutes of playtime is going to grant players with the gift of key progression materials from silver to honing mats, cards, event tokens and now honing fusion materials. And the final daily grant is gifted at 90 minutes of daily play. Last up. This isn't exactly an event, but we're also going to be sending out a gift to players alongside the update, with key progression materials to help boost endgame progression in the game. The gift is going to include an epic elixir supplies chest, legendary elixir supplies chest, five wishful amulets, five hopeful amulets, a dark fire chest, and some ancient sound stones. So while there's a ton of events that will give you materials as you play them and as you progress, this will just be a fun boost as soon as you log in and check out the update. To wrap up the events, there's a few just general notes to touch on as well. There's going to be a few new Fever time events throughout the month, and of course, a new daily login reward track has been added to the game. Up next, let's take a look at some of the new cosmetics arriving in Arkesia this summer. These were just announced in Korea and just released in Korea. And we know players were super excited when they saw the new swimsuit collection. And we're really, really glad we were able to pull this in for summer in 2024. We know you're super excited for these, so let's take a look at them. All right, so you saw the new 2024 swimsuit collection, the pet, mount and wallpaper. I think we're all awesome. Definitely gonna be picking up that collection, for a few characters on my roster. Up next, let's talk about the huge batch of progression updates that are arriving along Solo Mode raids to improve the experience of leveling and progressing through Lost Ark's extensive end game for both new and active players alike. All right, first up. Tier three engraving support is going to arrive in this update. We added engraving support that can be activated and used on all tier three characters. The system is going to provide players at item level 1250 or higher, with the ability to use five engravings at level three. Once a character is at that 1250 item level or higher, the system will appear in the bar next to the minimap within the in-game UI/HUD. When activated, the engraving support will replace the engraving effects assigned to your accessories and ability stone. Engraving support can be disabled if you feel that the effects on your accessory and ability stone is already better, so if you have geared alts don't need it, you can feel free to deactivate. If you have alts you haven't touched in a while, or maybe are still on relic accessories or something like that, then you can activate this. Or if you're new, you just get that five by three engraving support that used to just come with Super Mokokos permanently, which is perfect when you're picking up a new character or starting that new Super Mokoko Express. The level of the engraving effects is going to be fixed at level three, and the engraving support status will be saved to the current gear preset whenever you replace engraving, support or equip a different gear piece. All right. Up next, let's talk about the basic growth boost that's been expanded to Brelshaza gear. We replace the gold requirements to silver for tier three gear Brelshaza gear when honing between level one and level 15; Item level 1540. We also expanded the basic growth boost up to Brelshaza Gear Honing Level 20 1580, which increased the basic success rate of honing by 100% up to that honing level of level 20. Honing levels between 1 and 20 now have a -50% honing breakthrough cost, which is the honing materials and gold needed. Please note that the previous discount was 40%, so it's effectively another 10% discount added to take it from 40 to 50% discount. And then on top of that, honing levels between 1 and 20. That's 1580 once again, that's going to be a -40% XP required for honing. We've also adjusted some of the gear crafting and upgrade costs. We reduce the cost of gear creation, set level upgrades, and ability stone upgrades. When crafting Valtan and Vykas Weapons, the crafting cost was reduced from 1000 gold to 50,000 silver, and for armor that was reduced from 500 gold to 25,000 silver. Valtan and Vykas gear will now start at zero quality rather than a random value. That way, you can't kind of cheese the system by creating infinite amounts of those pieces until you, with silver, until you get a high value, but it still allows newer players to not have to spend gold when you create that. I think that works well, especially with the new processed chaos stone system where there's some - we give out some of those free quality taps. Players should be able to increase that low quality rather quickly at this point. Brelshaza. Let's talk about Brelshaza gear now. The weapon crafting cost for Brelshaza gear was reduced from 3000 gold to 1000 gold, and armor crafting cost was reduced from 1500 gold to 500 gold. For Akkan, the weapon crafting cost was reduced from 4000 gold to 2000 gold, and the armor crafting cost was reduced from 2000 gold to 1000 gold. All right. Next let's talk about set level three upgrade reductions. The weapon upgrade was reduced from 3000 gold to 1000 gold, and the armor upgrade was reduced from 1500 gold to 500 gold. On top of that, the cost to upgrade your ability stone has been decreased by 50%. All right, next let's talk about elixirs, the legendary elixir cost reduction, which will be applied to newly created elixirs after the update, is going to come into effect with this update. We know players have been providing a lot of feedback that elixirs are a bit too expensive in their current iteration, given just the amount of RNG and the number that you might need to cut. So we're super excited to pull this update in to ease that ease the progression through that system, especially with our goal of having a fun summer where we just get to prepare for tier four. So with that, the catalyst cost is going to be reduced from 5 to 3 every time you click on your elixir and then the gold cost for those legendary ones was reduced from 280 per click to 140, so cut in half. On top of all that, we doubled the clear awards of Ivory Tower and the extra rewards that you receive for elixirs and the other required materials to create them, and that will take place everywhere other than the loot auction. We also doubled the weekly creation limit of Epic and Legendary elixirs from 10 to 20. So not only will they cost less, but you'll also have more opportunities to get those faster, so hopefully it won't take players as long of a time to max out that system, especially if they're creating new characters or looking to get up to speed for tier four. Similarly, we applied some of those principles to the transcendence system, so we reduce the cost related to armor transcendence. The restoration gold cost has been reduced from 1850 gold to 925. So cut, cut in half and then we decrease the elemental use gold cost from 230 to 140, so almost cut in half. Top of that, we doubled the dark fire clear rewards and deleted the weekly creation limit of ancient sound stones. We also replaced the ancient sound stone rewards in the loot auction found within Thaemine with dark fire. So once again, the system will be cheaper to use and maximize, and we'll also have more opportunities to level it up faster. The next section is going to get really in the weeds, so I'm going to give you just kind of a brief overview of it. And if you want to see all the value changes feel free to dive into the full release notes. But if I read everything out, it would take a little bit of time. So the next thing that we did was a Pheon reduction. Pheon consumption for a ton of items have been reduced, including gear, amulets and accessories. So make sure if you're curious about those very specific Pheon changes to go check that section out in the release notes. So up next, we've expanded the boundaries for Procyon's Protection and Arcturus' Touch. Arcturus' Touch has been expanded up to the Ivory Tower of Chaos Hardmode and Procyon's Protection has been extended up to the Ivory Tower of Chaos in normal mode. On top of all that, we've also added character bound gems. This is going to allow players to have level five tier three bound gem rewards that will now be granted to players for completing the Punikka World Quest. Level six and level seven bound gems can also be exchanged after meeting the following item level requirements: 1415 for level six and 1540 for level seven. I think these bound gems are a great way of helping new characters or new players alike have a little bit of that boost without having to invest too much gold in your character. So I'm super excited for this system and what it means for the new players and players that wanted to make a new character in Lost Ark. This also doesn't, you know, impact players that already have bought gems because that gold isn't lost and those can be transferred or sold and, won't impact the economy too heavily. But also allows players to prepare some of the gems on their further characters for that conversion when we get to tier four. The next section of progression updates are new growth missions. We added a new growth quest type to the guide mission system. This is going to help guide players through various types of content earlier in their Lost Ark journey. These new missions to help players reach up to Item level 1600 and help them navigate the massive amount of systems within Lost Ark. The requirements to unlock these quests is reaching Combat Level 50 and completing the quest after "Image of Fracture". So these missions will help players reach item level 1600 and provide growth opportunities on a daily basis. Various missions are provided sequentially depending on the character's item level. There are also daily, weekly, and roster missions that are automatically given to players under 1600. For example, like a Chaos Dungeon daily mission that will explain that system to players and guide them through it, so that they kind of understand these core fundamental systems. You can also skip missions, and it will go to the next mission sequentially. There's a few more general updates we want to touch on for progression. We increase the number of materials granted in the initial clear boxes for tier one and two Guardian raids. Gold rewards have been removed from fate embers below the South Vern Void two stage and we added a new stronghold research tier three required XP for honing level four. Also, the Mokoko challenge has been removed. New progression, adjustments and events will replace those quests like a ton of the other systems that we just talked through. All right, let's talk about Raid gold changes. With the removed and reduced early gold costs, the gold rewards have been rebalanced. With gold being reduced from some earlier activities, but increased for Akkan. Overall, ivory tower gold will stay the same, despite gate three being removed to help player progression toward tier four and through other end game systems like elixirs, transcendence, Advanced Toning, etc. The gold values and extra reward costs have been updated for a ton of raids. There's a huge chart in the full release notes, with all of those listed out for raids, starting with Argos going all the way through Ivory Tower. So if you're curious about what those have been updated to. Feel free to find that chunk of the release notes and read through all the updates there. But it would take me quite a bit to read through it since it is every single one of those raids. That is also where the gold values for Solo Mode can be found. So if you're curious, highly recommend going to check that out. Up next we have the Echidna Epilogue. You can experience a new story in the lingering read sent Echidna after story quest which can be acquired from the NPC Luterran Messenger in Ele.me. There are two prerequisites before receiving the quest: completing the crimson red floral scent of Temptation Quest and defeating Covetous Master Echidna in either Normal or Hard mode. Should be a fun way of tying the bow on Echidna, while still progressing through some of those re-clears as you work to do some advanced honing before tier four. And speaking of Echidna, we're also adding in the Echidna Community Art contest winners as loading screens into the July update. So this will let, people kind of celebrate the community's ongoing battle against the Covetous Master Echidna. Let's take a look at the three winners now. And to round it out, just a few more general notes. The Echidna Sign and Epilogue quest have been added to the memory tome. Also, Ivory Tower gate three has been removed, but the overall gold granted by the raid will stay the same to help player progression. All right, we got through a lot, but that is everything that's going to be arriving in the July Cool Retreat update. We really hope all these events and progression updates help Summer feel fun in Arkesia; help fel a little relaxed before we head into tier four, and all the crazy new raids and systems that will arrive in the fall. We're super excited for that, but definitely want players to feel like they have time to prepare and get ready to brace for that new chunk of Lost Ark's Endgame. So to close things out, would love to leave you with a community question. I mentioned earlier, I'm planning on making a Reaper for the new super Mokoko express and taking that through with all these new progression systems, level - leveling it up, trying it out. We'd love to hear in the comments for the community question, what class are you going to make for the Super Mokoko Express and Voldis Powerpass? Let us know! Excited to see what the - some of the popular ones are right now that you've been, you know, itching to try out. And as always, if you could throw a like, subscribe or even a comment with feedback, we really appreciate it. It helps us know what's going right, what we need to improve. And also, just if you generally like the content that we're producing and is something that we should support heading forward. But regardless, we appreciate it, appreciate the feedback and appreciate all of you. We'll see you in Arkesia.