Happy Dece– ehh, New Yea– err, mid-January, right! Due to many, many unforeseen circumstances, our Holiday patch, as well as the January patch, were delayed by a significant amount of time. As a lot of our staff did spend a lot of time on this event, we didn’t want you to be left without it! So, without further ado, let’s get started! Don’t forget to skip to the end for the regular Monthly Maintenance and some other General Updates.

Santa’s Updates

This year, Santa went and fully modernized his factory, after purchasing a brand new AI system:
[W]orking
[I]nternal
[S]ervice
[H]elper

In short: W.I.S.H.! With the help of this new AI system, production of Santa’s Factory has gone through the roof, while the Elves were able to go on their long overdue vacation as well! But all is not as it seems… Find out what happens on this year’s quest!

This year’s event introduces a variety of new updates and tweaks:

• Added a brand new storyline quest with unique reward.
• A new Secret quest.
• Re-introduced the Riddle Quest as part of the Green Giftbox Piece (8~10 per mission) methods. This quest can be completed up to five times per day.
• New rewards added to nearly every aspect of the event, with a lot of updates to the Christmas Giftbox.
• An updated Factory Instance following the new storyline. Read below for more!
• Every minigame, apart from the Riddle Quest, now gives Red Giftbox Pieces and had their amounts vastly increased.
• Snowman Building and Amazing Ragna Race now alternate hourly.
• The Farming Maps now follow the logic of the Melodia Festival:
  • You can now earn up to 60 Green Tickets by farming per day.
  • Easy Map with 2.25% droprate of Green Tickets. However, the counter to reach the cap counts twice on this map.
  • Intermediate Map with 5.25% droprate of Green Tickets. The counter only counts once here.
  • Party members, up to 3, will also get the Green Ticket in their inventory when you pick one up.
  • Dual clienting is no longer possible in these maps.

The event will stay online until Saturday, January 27th.

Event Instance Ruleset Updates

• After reviewing the feedback of the Halloween 2023 Survey, several changes have been made to the Instance Ruleset that was first demoed at the Halloween 2023 Instance. These changes are as follows:
  • Removed Rules:
    • Bowmath formula is no longer disabled.
    • CRIT Shield Mechanic restored back to default.
    • Steel Body reverted back to default.
    • Piercing Shot, Spiral Pierce, and Union reverted back to default.
    • Dispell no longer has a Cooldown.
  • Adjusted Rules:
    • Attribute Table strengths now scale by 50% and 25% instead of 25% and 10%.
    • Attribute Table resistances now scale by 50% and 25% instead of 75% and 50%.
  • New Rules:
    • Spiral Pierce and Piercing Shot now have a 0.4 Second Cooldown.
    • DEF and MDEF now cap at 90 instead of 99 (making it mirror Steel Body). Every Hard DEF/MDEF earned after 90 will add 1% MaxHP or 1% MaxSP accordingly.
  • Bug Fix:
    • Player Reflect doesn’t function. Monster Reflect still works as expected.
      • Forgot to mention that this rule existed in the Halloween 2023 Instance.
• For Reference Sake, this is what the Instance Ruleset now looks like:

• 1) An updated Element Table will be used.
• 2) Opponents will always say the name of the skill they are about to cast. This should make it a lot easier to know how to plan for certain opponents.
• 3) Opponents will never break your items! Furthermore, you can still inflict the strip effect with breaking effects on mobs!
• 4) GTB Card, Osiris Card, Vanberk Card, and Valkyrie Card’s Dispell have no effect.
• 5) Earthquake is Earth Element instead of Neutral Element. This will make it a lot easier to reduce combined with the updated Element Table.
• 6) DEF/MDEF Bypass/Reduction through cards and equipment have no effect. Examples include Thanatos Card, Vesper Card, and Executioner Sword. Critical Hits still ignore DEF.
• 7) Hard DEF/MDEF cap at 90 instead of 99. Hard DEF/MDEF obtained after 90 becomes MaxHP and MaxSP + 1% each.
• 8) Fling lowers enemy HIT by (5 * coin amt)% Instead of reducing DEF.
• 9) Spiral Pierce and Piercing Shot have a 0.4 Second Cooldown, Spellbreaker has a 1 Minute Cooldown, and Land Protector has a 10 Second Cooldown.
• 10) Land Protector lasts 10 Seconds at all levels.
• 11) Player reflect doesn’t function (monster reflect is unaffected).

Xmas Instance Updates

• General:
  • Added a Leaderboard.
  • Now has the Instance Ruleset mechanic that was previously demoed at last year’s Halloween Event Instance. All changes to this mechanic mentioned in General Updates are introduced here as well!
  • An access item is no longer required to enter the Instance.
  • Players may now enter the instance an infinite amount of times instead of access going on cooldown. This should make it easier for players to play together with their friends that haven’t collected rewards yet.
  • Instance Return Mechanic is now the Party Bound version. Players can return up to 5 times before nobody else can enter.
  • Now has the Revive Limit Mechanic. Each player may be revived up to 10 times.
  • Increased Spawn Rates across the board for Grunt spawns as well as the fixed balcony Guard spawns.
  • When Grunts are killed in Floors 1 and 3, they will now respawn. This does not apply to Guard mobs.
  • Updated Skills and Stats for all monsters in the instance.
  • Guards and Elite Guards can no longer see players that are hidden.
  • Monsters no longer drop items. Instead, the Boss Treasure Chest mechanic has been introduced for each boss when they are defeated. The loot in these Treasure Chests are representative of the boss that it’s connected to. Like the Halloween Instance last year, each unique player can loot these chests and it will go on cooldown which resets at Midnight Server Time.
  • Increased amount of Crystal Puzzle Hint Notes to 16 Total.
  • Changed what happens when interacting with Crystal Puzzle Hint Notes:
    • You must now be within close range before you can interact with the Note.
    • You will no longer get a fixed message with the hint hidden away inside the message. Instead, you will have to do 1 of 5 minigames successfully. These minigames and their hints are randomized every time the instance is created! Upon completion, a vague hint will be displayed for a specific segment of the puzzle. Upon failure, Elite Guards will spawn and must be killed before trying again (will be a different puzzle when trying again).
      • When a note’s minigame has been successfully completed, every time you interact with that specific note again, the hint will show up and you will not be forced to do the minigame again.
• Floor 1:
  • Greatly increased Loreto’s Detection AoE Range.
  • Adjusted Santa Statue Detection AoE Range.
  • Grunts will now spawn in a much wider AoE when players are detected by the Santa Statues instead of being so close together.
  • Loreto now moves around the map normally instead of teleporting several cells forwards like before. Furthermore, Loreto’s movement speed can increase up to two times when players are detected by the Santa Statues.
  • Added Pathfinding to Loreto’s spotting mechanic. This by extension means players can now hide behind walls and objects to avoid being caught!
  • Players can now use Hiding, Cloaking, or Chase Walk to prevent being spotted by Loreto as long as they are not moving!
  • There is now a forgiveness mechanic when players are spotted by Loreto before they are officially caught. This mechanic gets progressively harder each time players are spotted by Santa Statues.
  • Changed the method that players escape from the Prison Cell after being caught. Furthermore, if players disconnect while in the Prison Cell, and they return to the instance, they will return to the Prison Cell instead of the normal return location.
  • There is now a different reward and a different challenge when attempting to do the optional left and right prisoner breakout side content in Floor 1. There is now a time limit and backlash for failing as well.
  • You no longer have to do a Guess the Number segment after breaking the Boss Door open with the Crowbar.
• Floor 2:
  • The Middle, Left, and Right Warp Mazes are now randomized every time the instance is created.
• Floor 3:
  • The Crystal Puzzle is now randomized every time the instance is created.
• Floor 4:
  • Updated Instance Skill backend in order to fix an issue where Instance Skills would sometimes stop functioning in previous instances (such as Halloween 2023).
  • The Floor 4 final boss can now be Antonio or Adriano at random!
  • Antonio’s Giga Freeze:
    • Like in the version of the instance from several years ago where Antonio last appeared,
      • This skill’s damage can be completely avoided by being inside the Land Protector skill.
      • 1 Second after players are Frozen; if they are still frozen, they are killed instantly.
      • Antonio can use this skill both when he’s actively attacking and when he’s at the desk.
    • Now considers Freeze Resistance for the Freeze part of the skill instead of just Freeze Immunity.
    • When players resist the Freeze portion of the skill, they will now have their Movement Speed reduced by 50% for 30 Seconds and take 75% MaxHP damage (up from 50%). This Speed Reduction can’t be avoided with the Land Protector skill!
  • Adriano’s Shattering Shot:
    • Like before, Adriano can only use this skill when he’s actively attacking players.
    • Overhauled the skill AoE to now have a large Cone Shape which gets progressively wider from Adriano’s current location up until the farthest back it can go. It now has a warning shot where it will be before Adriano starts casting the skill.
      • This skill now closely resembles Zarevok’s Flamethrower from the Halloween 2023 Instance for reference.
    • Improved the AI for determining what direction the skill should go in.
    • Each unit of this skill now inflicts 75% MaxHP damage and completely drains player SP.
  • Carpet Sweep:
    • Like before, this skill can be used both when the boss is actively attacking and when the boss is at the desk.
    • Added a clearer warning shot for where the AoE of each Carpet Sweep Unit is, which is represented by an expanding purple circle. As long as you aren’t inside that circle, you will be safe from damage.
      • For reference, the units are 7×7 AoE each.
    • Now summons 5 instances of this skill at a time evenly distributed on the map, instead of 1 randomly located Carpet Sweep at a time. Like before, this occurs 5 times in a row before it ends.
    • Can now be Vertical or Horizontal, instead of just Horizontal.
    • Can now go Left to Right or Right to Left.
    • Will now sometimes shift their position slightly to throw people off occasionally who aren’t paying attention.
  • Summon Grunts & Desk Heal:
    • Increased the amount of Grunts that are spawned at a time compared to before.
    • The combination of Grunts that are spawned are now completely random, instead of being even between all the Grunt types.
    • When Bruhdolfs are spawned during this phase randomly instead of Grunts, increased the amount of Bruhdolfs from 4 to 6.
    • Healing now occurs every 4 Seconds instead of every 2 Seconds.
    • Healing now restores the boss’s HP by 1% of their MaxHP value per interval, instead of using the literal Heal Skill.

Monthly Updates

• Our new TamTam’s Odyssey region is: Morroc Pyramids.
• GMC Box Rotation:
  • Large Sorcerer Crown Costume [21144]
  • Walking Lady Tanee Costume [21234]
• Wave Challenge Box Rotation:
  • DJ Kitty Costume [21249]
  • Clock Casket Costume [20709]
• The January Monthly Box has arrived and is full of brand new goodies as well as some classics. The contents are as follows:
  • Jellyfish Costume [Lower] [30396]
  • Tengu Katana Costume [Garment] [30404]
  • Adventure Cat Backpack Costume [Garment] [21759]
  • Cat Doll White Costume [Garment] [30389]
  • Cat Ear White Hair Costume [Lower] [30395]
  • Evil Eyes Costume [Lower] [30407]
  • Sound of Catbell Costume [Lower] [30416]
  • Wolf Helm Costume [Upper] [30417]
  • Chung E Shinyon Cap Costume [Upper] [20887]
  • Fluffy Heart Earmuffs Costume [Middle] [20952]
  • Mecha Cat Ears Costume [Upper] [21124]
  • Kobold Archer Cap Costume [Upper] [20678]
  • Full Bloom Hairpin Costume [Upper] [21016]
  • Helm Of Dragon General Costume [Upper] [20795]
  • Pagdayaw Costume [Upper] [20510]

Limited Edition Costume

For a duration of one week, you can now purchase these [Visual] Winter Night Bells Costume and [Visual] Lutie Night Sky Costume at the Talon Shop for 5500 Talon Cash! They go in your Garment slot.

Disclaimer: even though it’s sold for a limited time, it may or may not return in the future to cater towards players from different timezones. Additionally, keep in mind that these visual effects only show up when effects in-game are enabled.

General Updates

• Fixed GetDPS displaying damage as twice the intended amount. Includes a general cleanup of the command code.
• Reworked and hopefully fixed the return mechanics on OGH instances.
• Fixed skills being usable on BG Emperiums.
• Fixed class Figures from the BG shop not being storable.
• Fixed Thief Figure not getting the Hit% bonus.
• Fixed out of bound cell errors in thor_v03 and Elysian Garden Sanctuary.
• Added new BG armors to Enchant NPC list. Also made NPC grey out any items you currently do not have in your inventory.
  • Striking Mail
  • Trainee Suit
  • Wolf Gi
• New costumes were added to the Costume Swap Fairy NPC:
  • Jellyfish
  • Evil Eyes

Thanks everyone. Happy gaming!