Greetings Adventurers, This is Developer H.   The year of 2026 has started anew, so I would like to start off by saying:   Happy New Year, Adventurers!   As the new year begins, we hope you will also stick with us as new stories unfold, new challenges await. We remain committed to listening closely and communicating transparently as we build more enjoyable DFO experiences for everyone.   On that note of transparent communication, I'd like to mention a few things that our Adventurers have been asking about before diving too deep the content for the JAN 20 update. Let's start today's notes with some topics suggested by our Adventurers.

 

First of all, we know there have been many questions regarding when more Void Souls would be given out in DFO due to recent rewards in other services. As such, we are happy to announce that it is planned for the upcoming JAN 20 maintenance! Check out this surprise notice for the actual details on the Void Soul rewards and more.

 

 

Secondly, we have noticed some inquiries regarding recent and future sales plans for DFO, notably those regarding Package sales plans and the Mysterious Sewing Machine.

 

We wanted to let our Adventurers know that we are giving careful consideration to both the package sales schedule and which Avatars are included in each package. Packages are currently sold approximately four times per year. Among these, some Avatars—such as last year’s Phantom City Avatar—are first revealed through DFO, while summer Avatars are released simultaneously across services.

 

As a result, the release order of certain Avatars will sometimes be inevitably pushed back. We know that this may be frustrating for our Adventurers, but we ask for your understanding as sometimes, there are underlying reasons for some Packages having drastically different release windows from other services.

 

As such, for Avatars that have not yet been introduce to DFO, all we can say for now is that we are continuing internal discussions regarding the appropriate timing for their additions. That said, as these Package sales cycles are not short, we want to be straightforward with our Adventurers and say that we are not planning to introduce some of the Avatars in questions in the immediate future and we ask for your patience regarding this matter.

 

On the bright side, we plan to unveil a new Avatar that has not yet been revealed in other regions this March, so we hope this will meet your dressing needs in the meantime!

 

And as most of you would have already guessed, the long-awaited Frost Kingdom Package will be released on the JAN 20 update. We hope you enjoy the winter season in DFO with these sometimes icy, sometimes cozy Avatars.

 

 

Next up, the Mysterious Sewing Machine. We noticed many Adventurers commenting on its absence and confusion regarding why it was not available this time of the year. As the Sewing Machine sales is ultimately a system that requires real-money purchases to obtain items, we determined that releasing them right after the sales-dense October and November's Halloween and Black Friday season would place a significant burden on Adventurers, leading to us deciding not to proceed with their sales. 

 

However, if our community continues to provide feedback and shows demand for the Sewing Machine and their Avatars, we are open to expediting preparations to revisit these sales.

 

 

Lastly, we have heard from our Adventurers that the update interval between DFO and other services seems to have grown.

 

Originally, during the Sunken Depths season, we aimed to deliver updates at the shortest possible intervals. However, through this process, we found that the stability of these updates tended to suffer as a result. In particular, for updates that received additional changes and fixes post-update in other services, we have had to deliberate on how to add the most stable version to our service, which sometimes led to unavoidable delays.

 

Looking ahead to 2026, we want to make clear that our goal is to provide updates at intervals of approximately three to four months, while ensuring a higher level of stability and overall quality.

 

 

We hope that this covers some of the questions our community had in recent weeks, and wanted to let you know that we will uphold our promise and goal of maintaining transparent communication with our users in 2026 as well. 

 

Then, shall we wrap up our New Year’s greetings here and take a look at what’s actually waiting for us in the year ahead?

Let's dive into our main topic for the first Developer's Notes of this year: Inae Dusk War!

 

 

Inae Dusk War

 

Previously...

The advent of Delezie comes to fruition in the Fount of Tribulation, thanks to the power of the Mirror of Longing held by Venus, Goddess of Beauty.

 

At the most crucial moment, it is none other than the power of the God of Mist that saves the day, albeit it is only enough to protect the main areas of Inae. The Adventurer enters the God of Mist's memories in order to find a way to combat the overwhelming power of the Apostle of Plague.

 

After confronting her suppressed memories with the help of the Adventurer, the God of Mist fully reawakens her powers from when she had been Nabel and successfully expels the influence of Delezie covering Inae.

 

However, aside from the areas protected by the God of Mist, the outskirts of Inae have already become utter ruin from being exposed to Delezie's influence.

 

The central point of Inae is occupied by the creatures of plague, formed from Delezie's powerful malice while the Maleficents and Vanitas join in to further add to the ensuing chaos.

 

The Adventurer must now set out to save Inae, before both dusk and the city fall.

 

Old and New Adversaries

Race against time to battle against the forces behind Delezie, before they cause the collapse of Inae!

 

You might recognize a few faces while others may be a bit unfamiliar. Some enemies from the past seem to have been revived, others seem to have taken on a new form, while still others we have yet to meet. Some have been directly influenced and are driven by the power of the plague while others have merely joined the battle for an unknown cause.

 

Whether it's to further their own objectives, or to serve the Apostle of Plague, all have united under the banner of the destruction of the City of Promise.

 

Now...

Just as the Maleficents and Vanitas have come together for their sinister purpose, the Adventurer and company must, in turn, collaborate with one another in order to defend against the unified front of the enemy!

 

Although Inae has been spared as a whole, the toxins of Delezie have devastated much of the city. Amidst the wake of human casualties and ruin, the Adventurer must navigate the now dangerous terrain to fight back against the multi-pointed assault.

 

As the army of plague works in unison to fell the airship city, in this most dire of situations, the Adventurer's party must unravel the mysteries behind the workings of Inae, ascertain the schemes of the enemy, and swiftly maneuver as one to counteract the opposing forces, before all hope is lost.

 

 

Content

 

Dungeon

Inae Dusk War is a raid designed for up to eight players, featuring a unique structure that breaks down the typical boundary of parties. This is implemented by dungeons that allow dungeon play between players that are not parties, along with a Phase 2 in which all 8 members must fight all together (Along with the added ability to intervene in ongoing battles by other party members!).

 

It's a bit more complicated than that, but we will get into those details further down the line of these notes. 

 

Inae Dusk War is composed of five distinct regions, each housing powerful boss monsters. In each region, one of three bosses - Bold Scar, Infecting Sponger, and Omma - are activated during the first half of the encounter, followed by two additional bosses - Mahnarval and Lundior - in the latter half as Phase 1 of the raid progresses. 

 

During your battles, make sure that at least 1 player is dealing with each boss as failing to keep it engaged will result in the time limit being continously depleted. Also, someone will also have to keep an eye on the movements of the pesky Piper who, while continously popping up on random locations in the raid map, will provide various harmful or helpful effects depending on whether he is defeated or not. Defeating all bosses across every region within the time limit is required to successfully clear Phase 1.

 

Additionally, Every week, the energy of disease will converge in one of the following areas: the Mainspring Research Facility, Gear Workshop, or Merchant Guild. When this occurs, the boss in that region becomes empowered, presenting a significantly greater threat, but also providing a bigger return for being defeated. Afterwards, all Raid Group members must gather to defeat the final remaining boss and complete Phase 2.

 

As such, this Raid is unique in the fact that, sometimes, individual players will be isolated in these regions during Phase 1, and also in that all 8 players can duke it out with bosses in one dungeon all together! (A bit too much going on in your screen? We definitely recommend using the Party Silhouette settings to remedy this quickly and while in-game.)

 

Also, in order to quickly help out other players and parties spread across the regions, the Inae Dusk War Raid also introduces a special mechanic known as Intrusion.

 

During the battle, players can earn opportunities to intervene, allowing them to directly join battles taking place in other regions by using the Tab key or the Stathmos airship. Timely Intrusions can decisively shift the tide of battle in your favor as they will disrupt any attacks or gimmicks the boss is currently enacting. Not to mention you'll feel ike a superhero when you see your character diving into the fray to save a whole party from a team-wipe attack! Another tip on using Intrusion is to use it immediately to help attack another boss after defeating the Piper, as he grants you the Neo: Awakening Skill effect of the strongest Buffer in your group and you wouldn't want to miss out on a single second of DPS with it. Intrusion can be enacted through Stathmos or by earning chances upon defeating the Piper or the Strengthened Boss.

 

Upon successfully clearing the raid, players will be guaranteed to obtain the rewards listed below. First, let's start with the guaranteed rewards.

 

Rewards

Dusk Rubble will be the main guaranteed reward and material obtained from Inae Dusk War, which can be used to buy items from the NPC Scholar Rora Shop. These include items that will help you fine-tune your Armory and current build more through items such as Conversion Scrolls, Equipment and Fusion Stone Pots, and other content mateirals.

 

But you may also notice some less familiar items, such as the Soul Denaturant Pot and Doom Doorplate items. These are also a part of the random rewards, so we'll go over them next.

 

Along with the usual Sunken Depths gear and Auction Coin rewards, these Denaturants and Doorplates are newcomers as of the Inae Dusk War update.

 

Denaturants are items that will allow you to, for a set fee, exchange items in your Armory for Void Souls. This exchange is irrelevant to the Void Soul purchase limit in the Mystical Grimoire shop. Of course, if you have not maxed out your monthly Void Soul purchase limit from the Grimoire, you might want to save your Denaturants for later when you really need the extra Void Souls.

 

As for Doorplates, these are new Entry Material items for the next newly added content we will discuss: the Verge of Doom.

 

Finally, there will be a new array of Normal and Special auctions rewards for you to bid over, so make sure to use your Auction Coins every week!

 

Before we move on to that very content, we just wanted to finish off this segment on Inae Dusk War by saying that we hope our Adventurers enjoy this new action-packed, 8-person content and its rewards to help boost the strength of your roster of characters!

 

 

Verge of Doom

 

Now, back to the topic of these Doorplates. As mentioned just now, they will be required to enter the Verge of Doom, which is a content that is similar but more guaranteed-reward focused than Disciple of Doom.

 

In Verge of Doom, you will be guaranteed an equipment from the same tier or higher as the Doorplate used. Also, you will have a chance to get greater rewards (similar to the Mystical Fortune lucky rewards in the normal Disciple of Doom). Of course, the base rewards of Silver Coins and Abyssal Doom Oracles can also be obtained.

 

We hope you feel the "gaze of a powerful being" upon you in the Verge of Doom!

 

 

Farming Improvements

Along with Inae Dusk War rewards and the Verge of Doom acting as new ways to help out with your farming, we will also be introducing improvements to previous farming routes. 

 

Void Souls will now always be on sale, being moved from the Limited Tab of the Mystical Grimoire Shop and additionally benefiting by having the monthly purchase limit being carried-over to the next month for Legendary and Epic Soul purchases as well. The amount of Void Souls purchasable with Silver Coins will also be increased from 100 to 120 per month.

 

Additionally, the new "Set Fusion Stone Upgrade Transfer Ticket" item will be fast-tracked and added to the Mystical Grimoire Shop. Using this item allows you to upgrade a Distinct Unique Fusion Stone into a Distinct Epic Fusion Stone by consuming a Set Epic Fusion Stone. Although it can be used on any part, please keep in mind that it can only be used between equipment obtained from the same content! (Venus to Venus or Nabel to Nabel).

 

Lastly, there will a fast-tracked Fatigue Point reduction to some important, frequently-accessed dungeons as can be seen in the table above. The adjustments are quite noticeable (a 50% reduction for each!), so we hope this allows our Adventurers to farm more freely.

 

There are other farming improvements awaiting you as well, such as new items being added to the Courier Bannibou Shop and the aforementioned Void Soul Extraction System (via Soul Denaturants), so make sure to check out the update notice for all the details on each improvement when it is posted on JAN 20!

 

 

Character Changes

 

Next are some character balance changes. Expect to see all of the following for the corresponding Advancements.

 

 

VP Improvement Patch	Skill Changes	Buffer Balance Patch
Brawler (M) Brawler (F) Mechanic (M) Ranger (F) Mechanic (F) Elemental Bomber Summoner Shaman Shadow Dancer	Blade Master Brawler (F) Grappler (F) Ranger (F) Dimension Walker Witch Cursader (M) Shaman Kunoichi Elven Knight Dragon Knight Skirmisher Dragoon	Crusader (M) Crusader (F) Enchantress

 

There will be many adjustment to various Advancements' damage numbers in addition to those mentioned above, so please read the update notice next week for all the details for every advancement!

 

Additionally, there will be some changes to Special Object Damage options and damage, along with an exhaustive list of improvements to Weapon and Set Equipment that will be available through next week's update notice.

 

 

Will of Transcendence

Lastly, the Will of Transcendence Loot Shop will be fast-tracked to be added simultaneously with Inae Dusk War.

 

Will of Transcendence will be a new raid reward system that we hope will help reduce the need to play the older God of Mist Raid content. By playing only the Inae Dusk War and Nabel Raid, you will be able to max out the obtainable Will of Transcendence points per character.

 

Will of Transcendence can be used to purchase Doom Oracles or obtain various rewards through its Crafter system. All rewards obtainable through Will of Transcendence are account-bound, and can be freely distributed and used on the characters of your choice so don't forget to check it out every week as crafting chances are reset every Tuesday.

 

 

That is it for all we wanted to mention through our notes for the Inae Dusk War update, but we are sure our Adventurers are curious as to what lies ahead for us after that. So let's take a look at our update plans for the first half of 2026!

 

 

Update Plans

 

The World Boss update is planned for March, while Delezie Raid (along with the Dark Templar renewal) is scheduled for this April. Additionally, the Hard Mode for Delezie Raid will also be updated during the first half of 2026.

 

As the prelude content for Delezie Raid, we hope the Inae Dusk War update will offer our Adventurers new and important insight, along with in-game gearing opportunities, for the upcoming final battle with the infamous Apostle of Plague!

 

 

Before We Part...

 

This now truly sums up our Developer's Notes for the JAN 20 Inae Dusk War update. Once again, we would like to thank our Adventurers for your continued support and love for DFO, and we hope you enjoy the new update next week. Good luck and have fun! 

 

Happy New Year and Long Live DFO!

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Developer H