Greetings from the Summoners War Dev Team!

We've received lots of feedback from Summoners since the reveal of the RELOADED major update pre-registration. There were some interesting ideas and some correct predictions about the update! We are incredibly grateful for your reaction and feedback and hope to deliver an exciting update.

Yesterday's RELOADED update showcase previewed the Summoners War update news. We sincerely appreciate all Summoners who participated both on- and offline.

In today's developer's note, we would like to introduce the upcoming updates revealed in the RELOADED update showcase.

Please follow the link below to watch the showcase again!

[Link]​

Naturally, there were numerous changes to Summoners War throughout its 9 years of service, such as the playstyle and tempo. We felt it was necessary to revisit and improve existing content to ensure Summoners War continues to develop as a game and be enjoyed by Summoners for many years to come.

The RELOADED major update will be held in two parts.

The 1st update will be on Jun. 30th, and the 2nd update is planned for late August, which includes a Dimension Hole revamp and 2nd awakening versions of Living Armor and Frankenstein.

This developer's note will cover the details of the 1st update. 

Please check below for the summary of the update!

▶ v8.0.0 1st Major Update (Planned for late June)

■ [Rift of Worlds/ Cairos Dungeon] Battle Content Farming Revamp

ㄴ [Rift Dungeon] Now only drops Enchanted Gems.

ㄴ [Rift Raid] Now only drops Grindstones.

ㄴ [Cairos Dungeon] Added a new dungeon where existing Rift Dungeon Runes can be obtained as a reward.

■ [Cairos Dungeon] Key Changes

ㄴ New dungeon! Added Spiritual Realm.

ㄴ New seasonal dungeon! Face a stronger boss in the Abyssal Floor.

ㄴ [Giant's Dungeon/Dragon's Lair/Necropolis] dungeons have been compressed from 12F → 10F.

■ Rune Revamp

ㄴ New Runes! Added Seal and Intangible Runes.

ㄴ Runes will be instantly powered up without failure. 

ㄴ Improved the Rune default grade display. 

ㄴ Added Rune Essence, a 6★ Legend Rune crafting material obtained from selling Runes.

■ Artifact Revamp

ㄴ No more upgrades! Artifacts will now drop in the +15 power-up condition.

ㄴ Revamped certain underused sub-properties. 

■ Monster Progression Structure Revamp

ㄴ Removed the Monster evolution condition that requires reaching the MAX level.

ㄴ Improved the QoL for easier power-up and evolution.

■ Battle System Revamp

So, without further ado, let's look at the first set of upcoming changes in more detail!

▶ Improved farming in the [Rift of Worlds].

Too many different types of items were being dropped in the existing Rift of Worlds, including Runes, Gems, and Grindstones. This caused a low expected return for obtaining the desired reward to make farming fun. It was also tricky for new Summoners to find where each item dropped. We revamped the reward structure as follows to address these issues.

① [Rift Dungeon] now only drops Enchanted Gems.

② [Rift Raid] now only drops Grindstones.

The drop rates of other reward items dropped from the Rift of Worlds, such as Rainbowmon and Mana Stones, will not be changed. Thus, we have increased the drop rates of Gems and Grindstones to compensate for the items removed.

Gems and Grindstones are now available separately from Rift Dungeon and Raid, and we hope to make farming more efficient, especially in the Rift Dungeon as Enchanted Gems will now drop in separate sets.

Now, what will happen to Runes that are dropped in the existing Rift Dungeon?

The 5 different Runes dropped in the Rift Dungeon have been moved to the Cairos Dungeon, the trademark farming site of Summoners War.

③ Added a new dungeon to [Cairos Dungeon], dropping Fight/Determination/Enhance/Accuracy/Tolerance Runes as a reward.

First of all, it wasn't appropriate to reallocate the Rift Dungeon Rune to the existing Cairos Dungeon.

Given the number of different Rune sets that are already being dropped in the existing Cairos Dungeon, and the impact of the addition of drop item rewards, we decided to keep the existing Cairos Dungeon and add a new dungeon that drops the 5 Runes in Rift Dungeon, Fight/Determination/Enhance/Accuracy/Tolerance.

We also felt that Cairos Dungeon needed a fresh and positive change having been stagnated for so long. While the new dungeon brings new challenges, the fun of building new decks is also an integral part of Summoners War. We hope to see lots of interesting comps and new Monsters that have been underused previously.

So there it is, the revamped details of the Rift of Worlds that link to the Cairos Dungeon. 

Runes are obtained in the Cairos Dungeon, and Grindstones and Gems in the Rift of Worlds, making content-specific rewards more intuitive and easier to target specific rewards when farming.

Next up, the new dungeon in Cairos Dungeon!

▶ New dungeon in [Cairos Dungeon], Spiritual Realm!

First, let's take a look at the image!

Spiritual Realm is of Wind attribute, consisting of 1-10F. Each floor has a 4-wave battle, including a mid-boss.

The dungeon features a female Wind attribute boss with strong spiritual powers. Just like the name, the boss evokes a mystical atmosphere. This is a change from the previous bosses in Cairos Dungeon, where only the top half of the boss is visible.

Now, let's find out what kind of skills the boss uses!

The boss of Spiritual Realm has a unique skill effect, a passive skill called [Ancient Crystal Orb]. 

[Ancient Crystal Orb (Passive)] fills up the crystal orb with magic power every time you receive a non-crit attack. It attacks randomly according to the number stored in the crystal orb. Also, the [Spiritual Pact (Passive)] skill reduces your Monsters' Critical Rate by half at the start of the battle. Including a Monster that applies Increase Critical Rate or uses attack skills that guarantee Critical Hits in your team is essential!

Use critical attacks to stop the boss' crystal orb from being filled up with magic power and triumph in the battle!

The following rewards are dropped when you clear the Spiritual Realm.

We mentioned that the 5 Runes (Fight/ Determination/ Enhance/ Accuracy/ Tolerance) from Rift Dungeon will be moved to the Cairos Dungeon. In addition to these 5 Runes, a new Rune called Seal has been added as a reward!

There was lots of discussion about the introduction of new Runes.

While many Summoners were excited about new Rune set effects, there were also concerns about their impact on the game.

We've spent much time collecting and reviewing ideas about new Rune sets. After careful consideration and discussion, we've added 2 new Rune sets to this major update.

Here are the specs of the first new Rune, the Seal Rune.

Seal Rune is a 2-set Rune that disables the Rune set effects of 7 Runes (Despair, Vampire, Violent, Nemesis, Revenge, Destroy, Seal) equipped by the opponent.

It doesn't apply to Rune set effects directly influencing Monster stats such as Energy or Fatal.

Seal Runes can disable effects activated by the opponent's Violent or Revenge Runes in 1vs1 situations such as the World Arena, or PvP content like Siege Battle to turn the tide of the battle. 

In addition to the new dungeon, many other changes are coming to the Cairos Dungeon!

▶ Added a seasonal dungeon in [Cairos Dungeon], Abyssal Floor.

Abyssal Floor is a seasonal dungeon that operates in a 6-month cycle and changes every new season.

Firstly, [Giant’s Keep/Dragon’s Lair/Necropolis] will be recompressed from B12 to B10. The new B10 will have the same rewards as the existing B12 but with a reduced energy of 8 and a slightly lowered difficulty to make it more accessible than before.

Abyssal Floor comes in two difficulties, Normal and Hard. The first update will add [Giant's Keep] and [Dragon's Lair], but other dungeons will also be updated in due course.

Abyssal Floor will retain the skill concept of the existing dungeon boss but will gain an enhanced skill every season.

Here's how the boss' skill will be enhanced.

The Giant's fist that slams down every 7 attacks will attack not one but all Monsters on the Abyssal Floor.

Apply Increase DEF to allies and Glancing Hit and Decrease ATK to the boss to minimize the damage taken!

(Abyss) We also have the Dragon's Lair skills.

Of course, the rewards should be improved as the bosses get stronger and change every season.

By default, the Abyssal Floor has a slightly higher chance of obtaining better Runes. But we're still working on the balance, paying close attention to the difference in the farming efficiency in existing dungeons.

A special reward can only be obtained on the Abyssal Floor.

It's no other than the second new Rune set, the Intangible Rune.

[Abyssal Floor Reward]

Intangible Rune completes a Rune set when you're 1 Rune short of activating a set effect.

For example, you would only receive the Will set effect if you have 3 Violent and 2 Will Runes. Equipping an Intangible Rune will activate the effect of the Violent set, granting you both the Violent and Will set effects. 

※ Intangible Rune Additional Notice

: Cannot be appraised.

: Enchanting is only possible with [Intangible Grindstone/Immemorial Grindstone], [Intangible Gem/Immemorial Gem].

: [Intangible Gem] and [Intangible Grindstone] can be obtained from the Rift Dungeon and Rift Raid, respectively, with a low chance.

Intangible Runes are exceptional Runes because they change to any set effect. We want to ensure that this Rune will be an exciting new feature but, at the same time, not undermine the value of existing Runes. There are some concerns about the strengths of the Intangible Rune overwhelming many other Runes.

That's why this Rune is only dropped on the Abyssal Floor, obtainable with a lower chance than other Rune sets, and restricted from using Reappraisal Stones.

While we hope you will enjoy these new Runes, we will monitor them to ensure they settle into the game properly!

We introduced 2 new Runes in the Spiritual Realm and Abyssal Floor. Check out the overview of the Rift of Worlds farming revamp and Cairos Dungeon in the table below!

Seal Gems are dropped with a certain chance from the Wind Beast, and Intangible Gems can only be obtained from the reward that drops upon clearing any Rift Dungeon with an SSS rank. Intangible Grindstones can only be obtained at Lv. 5!

[Season Guide]

Excluding the Giant's Keep and Dragon's Lair which will be updated first, the rest of the dungeons will be updated in due course. The 6-month season of each dungeon will begin from the month it was updated.

It's also worth noting that you cannot use the same Monsters in a battle or receive help from a friend or mentor's Monster!

Cairos Dungeon is a core farming site. But it's a shame that it has stagnated, void of any changes in strategy or decks as it once had. However, changing the existing Cairos Dungeon to create the fun of building new decks will be even more disruptive.

We've been considering how we can keep the existing farming relevant and provide fun without making too much change or disruption.

A seasonal dungeon was designed to allow Summoners to build a new deck at least once every 6 months, but it would still be clearable by switching 1 or 2 of the key Monsters in the team.

We hope this revamp will liven up the Cairos Dungeon, and we will continue to improve in any lacking areas!

We're sure lots of Summoners are overwhelmed by the changes we've made. 

But, there's also a surprise revamp to the Rune system. 

It's one that all Summoners will be excited to hear!

▶ Revamped the Rune system. 

■ Rune power-up will no longer fail, and Runes can now be instantly powered up to the desired level.

In previous updates, we attempted to reduce the time and effort required to power up Runes as the amount and speed of Rune farming have increased. Even with the addition of auto power-up, it's still not enough.

Moreover, the fun of Rune power-ups is no longer about successful or failed power-ups, but checking which sub-properties have been enhanced.

So, we're removing the power-up failure chance to eliminate the unnecessary time and effort consumed and bring a new sense of enjoyment from instantly powering up to the desired level. 

This is the new power-up screen.

Select a desired power-up level from 3/6/9/12/15 and tap Power-Up to instantly complete the power-up. You can also adjust the power-up level with the [-]/[+] buttons.

Previously, the Mana Stone cost varied for each power-up due to the failure chance. But the cost will also be fixed now that power-ups are completed instantly. Mana Stones required for each Rune grade are as follows.

In addition, the auto power-up system will be removed when the instant power-up is updated.

■ Improved the Rune default grade display.

The default grade will now be displayed on the Rune info page that appears when you tap a Rune. It'll be much more convenient than before when you had to go to the Power-up > Reappraisal page to check a Rune's default grade.

■ Added a 6★ Legend Rune crafting material.

Rune Essence has been added, a 6★ Legend Rune crafting material that can be obtained by selling Runes.

Rune Essences can be obtained by chance along with Mana Stones upon selling 6★ Rare+ Runes. Selling 6★ Legend Runes will guarantee a Rune Essence drop!

Many times, you were probably left frustrated that unused Runes only sell for Mana Stones. Now that 6★ Legend Runes can be crafted with Rune Essences, selling Runes will be more valuable than before!

Next up is the Artifact revamp.

It's also getting a huge makeover!

▶ Revamp of the Artifact system.

■ Artifact power-up has been removed and will be dropped in the +15 state.

Artifacts will now be dropped in the MAX power-up state, available for use without the need to power up manually. Since they're maxed out from the start, we're adding a UI that provides detailed information on which sub-properties have been powered up.

Here's how they appear when you pick them up after a battle. 

All Artifacts will be maxed out from the start, removing the +15 sign, and showing the Artifact's default grade, and the final sub-properties.

Let's take a look at how you can see the detailed stats of your sub-properties 

① Tap the Artifact's property area to open the UI ② where you can check the range of properties.​

② This menu shows the Artifact's stats range by property and how many times each property has been powered up. Sub-properties can be powered up a maximum of 4 times. This screenshot shows that 2 sub-properties have each been powered up twice.

③ Since Artifact power-up has been removed, the Power-Up button has been changed to the [Convert] button, which allows you to convert the Artifact's sub-properties.

You may also be wondering about what will happen to the Artifacts owned before the v8.0.0 that still need to be fully powered up. 

We've replaced Power-Up with [Refine], where you can instantly max out Artifacts without spending Mana Stones.

After the v8.0.0 update, previously obtained Artifacts that have not been fully powered up will be marked with (!). Refining an Artifact with this mark will instantly show the result.

We've also prepared a menu where you can refine multiple Artifacts at once. 

① Open the Artifact management menu and tap the ① button to activate the Refine menu. 

② While the menu is activated, you can tap Artifacts individually to refine, or tap the ② [Select All] button to select all Artifacts that have not been maxed out at once.

③ Once you've selected all the Artifacts to refine, tap ③ [Refine All] to refine them. If you're refining multiple Artifacts at once, the results will show 1 Artifact at a time.

If you close the window in the middle of refining a large number of Artifacts, only the Artifacts whose results have been checked will be refined, and you can refine them again later.

■ Removed and combined certain underused Artifacts.

One of the biggest challenges in preparing for the Artifact sub-property revamp was finding sub-properties that Summoners find useful. We tried to keep as many of your favorite sub-properties as possible in the game.

- 5 sub-properties will be removed.

- 6 sub-properties will be combined into 3 and changed as follows.

We revamped sub-properties of certain underused Artifacts. 

After the v8.0.0 update, the properties above will no longer appear when obtaining a new Artifact or refining an existing Artifact. (If you refine an existing Artifact with the properties above, there is a chance that they will be powered up)

Any Artifacts or Engraved Conversion Stones that include the sub-properties that will no longer appear will still be available for use. 

- 1 new sub-property will be added.

- The amount of [Conversion Stones] required for Artifact conversion will be adjusted.

Currently, the required quantity of Conversion Stones for Artifact conversion can increase to 2,000 depending on the conversion count.

Mana Stones will now be used to alleviate the burden of conversion while reducing the amount of used Conversion Stones by a great amount. The max required quantity will be changed to 50 and adjusted as follows.

With the adjustment, you can convert Artifacts that were adjusted before the v8.0.0 update once, regardless of the total Artifact conversion count.

For Artifacts that fall under the category above, you can convert them by spending 10 Conversion Stones and 200,000 Mana Stones.

We hope you feel less pressure from performing Artifact Conversions.

This major update has many changes aside from Runes and Artifacts.

To make the farming process more enjoyable, we'll expand the Rune, Gem, Grindstone, and Artifact slots.

-The maximum slots for Runes/Gems and Grindstones/Artifacts will be expanded as follows.

The play count for farming Runes exceeds Artifact farming by about 10 times. There could be various reasons, such as farming priority or differences in dungeon difficulty, but improving intuitiveness was our objective.

As Artifacts come with many more sub-properties than Runes, it's been difficult to get the desired sub-property and tell which sub-properties were more viable.

Moreover, the overall process of deciding their usage, depending on the results you get after powering up, makes Artifacts less intuitive. 

By reducing the kinds of sub-properties, integrating underused sub-properties, and allowing you to check the final value when Artifacts are dropped, this will allow you to customize Artifacts with Conversion Stones. Ultimately, these improvements will make Artifacts more intuitive.

Through this revamp, we hope Summoners will be more interested in Artifacts and have fun customizing them.

We've covered Runes and Artifacts, the core gear of Summoners War. Let's move on to the Monster progression.

Significant convenience updates have been made for Monster progression. Let's go!

▶Monster progression system will be revamped.

[Monster Evolution Improvements]

■ Monsters no longer have to reach MAX Lv. to evolve.

■ Monster level is no longer reset after evolution.

■ Materials and convenience for Monster evolution will be improved.

You no longer have to use Monsters of the same grade as evolution materials. Depending on the evolution grade, the Monster now requires a certain amount of evolution points.

You can fill the evolution point with material Monsters. You can use Monsters of the same grade as the target Monster and/or all Monsters of lower grade. For example, you can use all Monsters from 1-4★ as evolution material to evolve a 4★ Monster to 5★.

[Monster Power-up Improvements]

■ The required EXP for Monster level-up will be changed.

Since the Monster's level is retained even after evolution, you no longer have to repeat the process of leveling up the Monster from Lv. 1. With this change, the required EXP amount to reach Lv. 40 has increased (based on 6★ Monster).

■ Battle EXP acquisition method changed for Monsters

(As-is) EXP acquisition of 1 Monster = EXP acquired/number of Monsters in battle

(To-be) EXP acquisition of 1 Monster = EXP acquired/number of Monsters that aren't MAX Lv. in battle

■ The UI of the Power-up Circle will be changed.

The menu UI of the Power-up Circle has been improved so you can evolve and power up Monsters quickly and conveniently.

With the updated Power-up Circle, you can register more multiple Monsters than you can now and use Monster evolution and power-up. Additionally, the Auto Select feature only available in the evolution menu will allow you to select the conditions of material Monsters and register them at once.

You can now use multiple material Monsters at once. As we expect that more Unknown Scrolls that summon Monsters of low grade will be used more for Monster progression, a menu that allows you to summon 100 Monsters at once will be updated for the Power-up Circle.

I'm sure you've been feeling this way - you had to go through multiple processes to progress a Monster to 6★ MAX Lv. We believe in leveling up material Monsters to MAX Lv. creating material Monsters has been a repetitive and tedious gameplay experience.

We'd like to make the Monster progression process easier by revamping an outdated system and improving its convenience.

As Summoners War is a game serviced live, many game elements are valuable, such as all the values and materials included in the progression process. For example, we believe Unknown Scrolls will be more useful for evolution. You may consider our approach a bit bold since the pre-existing values could be shifted.

However, in the long run, we believed we needed a drastic change.

We'll keep monitoring and listening to your feedback to ensure no balance issues.

All these changes are big, and you may be surprised by them.

Last but not least, we revamped the battle system. As this is closely connected to the Monsters' usages, we carefully approach this matter.

▶ Battle system logic will be changed.

We'd like to unify battle logic and awkward movements. Additionally, we'll be adjusting the skills of Monsters that are affected by this update.

■ The logic for Monsters that gain turns will be changed.

When Monsters gain a turn, their Attack Bar will be filled to 100.

For example, if Fire Chimera gains a turn by using [Unleashed Fury], it gains a turn with a full Attack Bar, but Water Polar Queen starts a turn with 0 Attack Bar after gaining a turn with [Frost Rush]. After the update, Water Polar Queen will gain a turn with 100 Attack Bar when gaining a turn with [Frost Rush], just like Fire Chimera.

■ Attack Bar Absorption logic will be changed.

Attack Bar will now increase according to the actual amount of Attack Bar absorbed from the enemy.

We'll be adjusting the skill balance of Monsters affected by this change.

■ Despair Rune set effect activation condition will be changed.

The set effect of Despair Rune will now activate on the first attack regardless of landing a Glancing Hit.

■ Crushing Hit will be removed.

We'll be adjusting the skill balance of Monsters affected by this change.

■ Skill motions that changed according to the Crit Hit zoom-in animation will be fixed.

This issue occurred in certain situations and for skills such as Wind Harp Magician and Wind Joker. Due to the miscalculation of the distance between Monsters with the Crit Hit animation, the order of Monsters wasn't consistent. We'll fix this by making it work based on the status of not landing a Crit Hit.

Skills would sometimes work differently depending on Monsters, even if the skill descriptions are the same. As it's been over 9 years since Summoners War was released, more Monsters have been added, and unexpected motions and situations have grown depending on battle situations. Some ended up being implemented into the game as they are, as we missed them.

We could not address some of these issues since we were afraid making changes to them could nerf Monsters.

We're aware that these inconsistencies are causing confusion to new Summoners and veteran Summoners who have a deep understanding of Summoners War.

We'd like to apologize for our lack of measures taken to resolve these issues.

We'll closely monitor them to make the battle system more stable and prevent confusion.

We'll keep monitoring the Monsters affected by the major update and other Monsters subject to future balance adjustments to ensure the updated battle system becomes stable.

That's the end of the Dev Note we prepared for today!

I'm sure you're all anticipating and/or worried about all these significant changes. We had many concerns and discussions while preparing for this update and were very worried. Nonetheless, we had to make changes.

Rather than just improving the preexisting content and adding new content, we believed we needed to refine our game in the long run.

Some changes we made for the update may not function properly, but improving them to make a better game is our job.

We'll keep listening to our Summoners' suggestions and feedback to do what's best for you.

(The developer’s note is intended to help you understand the upcoming update in advance. As development and testing are still underway, we ask you to understand that the actual update may differ from what we shared in this note.)

We hope you enjoyed this Dev Note! All the shared changes will be applied in the v8.0.0 update scheduled for the end of June. Please keep supporting us!

The pre-registration event will be held until the update goes live. Make sure you claim the pre-registration rewards!

[Go to Pre-Registration]

Also, please check below for the coupon codes we revealed during the showcase and enter them for rewards!

■ RELOADED Showcase Live Coupons

> Coupon 1: Mystical Scroll x5

Coupon Code: 2023UPDATE7F1W

> Coupon 2: 9-Year Special Scroll x10

Coupon Code: SW23RELOADED

> Coupon 3: Devilmon x1

Coupon Code: THX2SUMMONERS2X9L

> Coupon 4: Legendary All-Attribute Scroll x1

Coupon Code: SUMMONERSLEGEND4E5P

* Coupon Collection Period: Until Jul. 30th 7:59am PDT

* Only the accounts created before Jun. 23rd 8pm PDT can use these coupons.

The next developer's note will cover the Dimension Hole revamp and new 2nd awakening Monsters Living Armor and Frankenstein scheduled for the 2nd RELOADED major update.

This concludes the developer's note.

Thank you for playing Summoners War. ★