Hello, Adventurers.   This is Developer H.   We hope you have all been doing well and are finding ways to stay cool (or, for our Adventurers from the Southern Hemisphere, warm!) as summer is in full fledge. The Sky of a Thousand Seas (SOATS) update is almost here, bringing a wide range of new content, including new progression systems, dungeons, and changes that will shape how your characters grow throughout the season.   As such, it is now time to say goodbye to the Sunken Depths season. Before we part, however, we thought it would be nice to look back on our time in Sunken Depths through some interesting data results.

 

Sunken Depths Recap

 

The meta has spoken!

 

 

Did you know? If you took 107,268,508 steps, it would allow you to walk around Earth approximately 2 times!

 

 

... Is your → key alright?

 

 

Godspeed...!

 

 

Alms... Alms for the poor!

 

 

What a queen!

 

 

We all know that this is based on just friendships too, right?

 

 

Which did you choose and why?

 

 

Delezie lives up to its notoriety...

 

 

A full 9-hour working-day's worth of Raiding!

 

Did you find anything from the data that was particulary interesting to you? Whether you agree with the statistics or not, we hope that our Adventurers will look back on Sunken Depths with fondness as we set sail for newer horizons.

 

Now, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at what awaits in the Sky of a Thousand Seas update.

 

 

Sky of a Thousand Seas Synopsis

 

Previously...

In the fierce battle against Delezie, just when all hope seemed to be lost, the God of Mist arrives at the most opportune of moments. She neutralizes the 6th Apostle's power of immortality at the cost of her own life, leading to the weakened Delezie finally meeting its untimely, yet long-awaited demise at the hand of the Adventurer.

 

 

Now...

Upon the defeat of Delezie, Keldon Xavi is able to seal the power of the Apostle within Xavi's Compass, albeit in an unstable state.

Although Inae has somewhat returned to its former state of affairs, and despite the chance collaboration of the Maleficents and Delezie in Sunken Depths, it seems nothing is a coincidence in their next destination as Vanitas schemes in the shadows.

With the Apostle of Plague finally defeated, once and for all, the Adventurer must now go and search for Archmage Myre - to the place where it all began: Sky of a Thousand Seas.

 

 

Easier to Dive Into

 

The new Sky of a Thousand Seas update is finally here! As such, a whole new region will be added. Explore the Sky of a Thousand Seas' lower levels and its 3 new towns of Final Sanctuary, Godforsaken Plaza, and Bridge of Ruin.

 

A Streamlined Start

Before we get into the details of the new season itself, we want to introduce some new features that will ease the process of our Adventurers in starting your SOATS journey. Starting from this season, some quest prerequisites have been removed or improved so players can enjoy the new content.

For example, each town will be accessible upon reaching their respective levels, and quests that had to be cleared in order to access specific towns will be removed. The entry requirement quests for Sunken Depths content will be removed as well, requiring only the base level to be attained.

 

Another new feature to help Adventurers that are newer to the season will be the Adventurer Story. Characters can now Awaken and enter the content as soon as they reach the required level without completing an Awakening quest on the side.

The Awakening stories, which were previously only partially available in the Quest Book, have been moved to a whole new Adventurer Story menu, where the full stories can be viewed.

The original Awakening quests can still be replayed at any time through Episode Replay in the Quest Book.

 

We hope this allows all players, whether new, returning, or a vet simply making new alts, to start accessing content more smoothly.

 

 

Begin Your Odyssey!

Speaking of quests and stories, another feature to enhance the narrative side of DFO will be added: the Arad Odyssey.

Arad Odyssey will be a new progression mode focused on the experience of seeing your character grow naturally alongside the now long story that has been accumulated through the years.

 

Odyssey-exclusive equipment needed for progression will be provided, so you can focus on the story and combat without having to think about equipment optimization.
To offer a combat experience distinct from the existing progression path, battles against monsters from the original story will also be reworked for this mode.

 

Choose between the Odyssey Mode for a more streamlined and faster introduction to the stories of DFO, or create a character via the Scenario Mode for the original, full-length, independent gearing experience!

 

Next, let's get into the less story-focused side of the update.

But before we start talking about all the new dungeons that will be added, first we'd like to introduce the main equipment system that will be the reason Adventurers will be entering said dungeons: the Oath system.

 

 

New Equipment System: Oaths

 

The Oath system will replace Fusion Stones as the main equipment system in the SOATS season.

Under the existing system, Fusion Stones are attached directly to individual equipment pieces, which can make the overall setup rather unintuitive. With Oaths, these effects will instead be managed through a separate set of equipment slots. Adventurers will equip one Oath and up to 11 Oath Crystals, making it easier to see how each item contributes to your character’s build. Each Oath and Oath Crystal will provide Oath Points. By collecting items from the same set, Adventurers will gradually build toward stronger effects and unlock the set options tied to that Oath.

 

As can be seen already, there will be different types of Oath items. Items within the Oath system will consist of Oaths (Light Oaths and Mist Oaths) and Oath Crystals.

 

Light Oaths will serve as the core of an Oath setup. Only one Light Oath can be equipped at a time in the middle Oath slot, and it will provide a large amount of Oath Points for a specific equipment set. The equipped Light Oath will therefore play an important role in determining which set your character will primarily develop.

 

Mist Oaths will share a similar, albeit less powerful, role with Light Oaths. They make up for their lower power with the fact that they can be shared across the account and provide Common Oath Points. This is because the Mist Oath will be replacing the previous Mist Assimilation system. Think of it as the default Oath intended to provide a baseline level of progression for secondary or newly developed characters while also serving as a long-term, account-wide progression route. As such, it cannot be unequipped unless it is replaced with a Light Oath. Also, if a Level 115 character does not have a Light Oath equipped, the Mist Oath will be applied automatically. Mist Oath effects will become stronger as its level grows, and this level will carry over from your previous Mist Assimilation level. For example, if you have reached Mist Assimilation Level 30, this will be translated into a Unique-grade Mist Oath.

 

Oath Crystals are items that can be equipped in the remaining Oath slots and will support the equipped Oath by providing additional stats and Oath Points. Unlike the previous Fusion Stone system, multiple Oath Crystals belonging to the same set can be equipped without being restricted by equipment part. Much like previous Sunken Depths equipment, Oath Crystals can also be Tuned to increase their Oath Points and Promoted to higher rarities.

 

Lastly, Common and Distinct Oath Crystals will provide Common Oath Points, which are applied to the set with the highest dedicated Oath Point total. They cannot be Tuned or Promoted; however, Distinct Oath Crystals have access to an exclusive upgrade system.

These auxiliary Oath Crystals will offer more flexible support across different setups and help ease the transition from Sunken Depths equipment into the SOATS Oath system.

 

 

Oath Points

The main goal of the Oath system will be to accumulate Oath Points for the specific equipment set your character is utilizing.

 

• Before reaching 2,550 Set Points, Oath Points will instead be converted into Common Set Points. Once your character reaches the Primeval stage at 2,550 Set Points, additional Oath Points will begin contributing to Oath progression.
• At 25 Oath Points, Oath Blessing will activate and begin providing Overall Damage, Buff Power, and Adventurer Fame. These effects will continue to improve as more points are accumulated.
• At 1,200 Oath Points, Oath Blessing will also provide +18.5% Skill Cooldown Reduction and +15% Skill Range.
• Finally, reaching both 2,550 Set Points and 1,200 Oath Points will unlock the Oath Set Option.

 

Each set will offer one Distinct Option and two Special Options, and Adventurers will be able to select one out of the three. However, the Special Options will only be available when the equipped Oath matches the character’s equipment set. The Oath Set Option will also grow stronger as more Oath Points are accumulated, progressing through the usual Rare, Unique, Legendary, Epic, and Primeval tiers.

 

 

Guaranteed Progression Mechanisms

Of course, one of the reactions we've noticed from our community upon the release of this system on the Korean servers was that Oath farming would once again be based on RNG elements. To assuage these concerns, we have added the following features to reduce the frustration caused by unfavorable drops compared to the Sunken Depths season.

 

For starters, Light Oaths already held in the inventory or registered in the Armory will be removed from the drop pool. The probability within the same rarity will then be redistributed among the remaining uncollected Oaths, meaning the final missing Oath of that rarity will eventually be guaranteed. Once every Light Oath of a rarity has been collected, further drops will be replaced with Mist Oath EXP items instead.

Next, several routes will provide Light Oaths outside normal dungeon drops:

 

• An Oath Crystal Collection system that allows unwanted Crystals to contribute toward a selected Epic or Primeval Crystal.
• A consumable called Orderkeeper Scales through which you can use Souls to create Oath Crystals from a rarity of your choice.
• Trace of Splendor acquired after completing a quest unlocked by registering Primeval Light Oaths in the Armory can be exchanged for a Primeval Tome of Revelation, which lets you select a Primeval Light Oath from a set of your choice.

 

• Mist Oath Levels 40, 60, and 80 will grant Legendary, Epic, and Primeval Will of Splendor, respectively. Will of Splendor are items that, when used, will provide a random Light Oath of the corresponding rarity while excluding Light Oaths that have already been obtained.
• After Mist Oath reaches its maximum stage, continuing to accumulate EXP will provide a route to obtain a selectable Oath.

 

Lastly, Oath Crystals will no longer be tied to specific equipment parts, meaning multiple Crystals from the same set can be equipped in any slot (except for Primeval Crystals, of which only three can be equipped in the slots below the Light Oath). This removes the need to obtain the correct set, rarity, and equipment part all at the same time.

 

Aside from the mechanisms above, Oath Crystals will also retain the deterministic progression systems familiar from Sunken Depths equipment, including Tuning, Promotion, and Conversion. We hope these elements will help to ease the stress from less than favorable RNG while farming for your Oath setup during the SOATS season.

 

All in all, we aimed to create a system where auxiliary equipment (e.g., the previous season's Fusion Stones) is easier to understand while also giving Adventurers more room to shape their own builds. As such, we hope the Oath system will give Adventurers a clearer sense of progression and more flexibility when deciding how to grow each character.

 

Now, let's move on to how to obtain these Oaths and Oath Crystals by talking about the main new dungeons.

 

 

New Dungeons

 

Endkeeper of Order

The Endkeeper of Order will be the Hell Party content for the SOATS season. Through this dungeon, we aimed to preserve the easy and accessible nature of Hell Party content as much as possible while enhancing the visual presentation of the new drop items. Endkeeper of Order will also share the same traits as Disciple of Doom, such as seamless re-runs, periodic free entries, special rifts, and Mystical Fortune.

 

As with the Disciple of Doom, the Endkeeper of Order will also act as a standard for expected reward ratios for other content. Accordingly, the Disciple of Doom-based expected reward ratios will be adjusted to add rewards based on the Endkeeper of Order as well.

 

The newly added Omen of Order system will build on this direction, occasionally providing an additional reward on top of the standard rewards.

 

In addition to the base Hell Party dungeon, an enhanced version of it will also be added called the Verge of Order.

This dungeon will act as the previous season's Verge of Doom dungeon, similarly requiring entry items called Weight of Order of different rarities to enter a dungeon with the corresponding rarity. As such, content that provided Doom Doorplates as rewards will now provide Weight of Order of the same rarities instead during the SOATS season.

 

Verge of Order will provide the same base rewards as the Verge of Doom in addition to a guaranteed Light Oath that has the same rarity of the consumed entry material, and Oath Crystal Pots of random rarities.

 

 

Advanced Dungeons

Next are the Advanced Dungeons. Grand Constellation Turtle Library and Castle of the Apostate will be added as the 2 new Advanced dungeons for this season.

Grand Constellation Turtle Library will have a straightforward structure that can still offer a different experience depending on your character's specs.
At each crossroads, you can choose to fight a mid-boss. Defeating it grants a buff that will help you in the final boss battle. Alternatively, you can skip the mid-boss and face a stronger version of the final boss within a time limit. Ultimately, these choices will affect the final difficulty of the last boss.

 

As such, we hope these choices will give Adventurers a customizable experience depending on how they approach the dungeon and character progression status.

 

The second Advanced Dungeon is Castle of the Apostate. This dungeon will have a relatively short and simple structure, allowing you to focus mainly on battling the main bosses and monsters.

You will be able to choose between two skills, Judgment Spear of Splendor, and Mercy Shield of Splendor to use during combat in the dungeon.

 

The Judgment Spear of Splendor will make the player charge in the direction they are facing. When used at the right moment, it can interrupt a monster's attack. Meanwhile, the Mercy Shield of Splendor will block enemy attacks and can deflect attacks when used at the right moment.

In single player mode, you can choose either skill based on whether you prefer offense or defense. In party play, each member can choose their preferred skill or strategize within the party on which skills to take.

 

Through each of these dungeons' respective gimmicks, we aim to provide a more varied and customizable farming experience to all our Adventurers who each have different gameplay preferences and are in different states of character progression.

 

 

Labyrinth of Paradox

Next is this season's new Special Dungeon.

The Labyrinth of Paradox is an account-wide dungeon that will let Adventurers explore its expansive depths and earn a variety of account-bound rewards.

Using the Labyrinth Entry Tickets issued each day, you will be able to uncover more and more of the map as you explore. Through this exploration, you can discover dungeons that can offer various rewards such as Epic and Primeval Equipment as well as the new Subjugation Tickets and Oath Crystals.

 

Although the sector map may seem daunting at first, think of it simply as a board full of hidden rewards. You can first use the 2 Labyrinth Investigation Tickets issued daily to scout which nodes hold which rewards, then use either Main Gateway Tickets or Outer Gateway Tickets to enter the Main Gateway or Outer Gateway nodes. 1 of each ticket is given daily as well.

However, make sure to check the overall rewards that are present in the current map through the reward information shown in the bottom-left side of the screen before venturing forth! If the rewards are not to your liking, it may be worth considering skipping this sector and using only the minimum amount of Investigation Tickets and Entry Tickets to move on to the next sector. 

 

As you can choose your own path and rewards in this content, we hope that our Adventurers will utilize the Labyrinth strategically to receive helpful, account-wide rewards in an auxiliary capacity.

 

Strength in Numbers - Mercenary Group Effect

Keep in mind that dungeons in the Labyrinth will become more difficult the deeper you go. Thankfully, the Mercenary Group Trait system will also be available to help you on your exploration.

 

Up to 20 characters can be registered to this system, and the higher the sum of all their Oath Points, the higher the level of your Mercenary Group. Helpful perks will be available for your Labyrinth gameplay based on this level.

 

Help You, Help Me - Dispatch Buffers

Some of these perks will be related to the new Dispatch Buffer system that allows Buffer characters to be dispatched to help other players with clearing SOATS Advanced dungeons. When a Buffer is hired, the Adventurer who owns that character will receive a hiring fee as a reward.

 

This system is intended to provide Adventurers with Buffer characters additional benefits while also helping other Adventurers progress through dungeons more reliably.

 

One-Click-Clears! - Subjugation Tickets

Lastly, let's go over those Subjugation Tickets mentioned as this content's rewards.

Subjugation Tickets can be used through the new Subjugation system to allow any of your characters (provided they meet the Fame requirement) to receive clear rewards for certain Advanced Dungeons or Daily Dungeons immediately with a click of a button! We hope that this new system will reduce the burden of repeating the same dungeons and make it easier to progress with alt characters.

 

These will be the main new dungeons added to start off the SOATS season. New Normal Dungeons and currency farming dungeons will also be added, so be sure to try them out after the August 4th update.

 

 

New Dungeon Battle Mechanics - Overpower & Hold Chain

Along with these new dungeons, a new battle mechanism called Overpower will be added.

When an Overpower gauge appears, using skills with Overpowerment will reduce it. These skills will be highlighted on the quickslot, and Overpowerment can also be checked in the skill tooltip.

Overpowerment will mainly be given to Hold skills that normally have little effect against boss monsters, along with several other skills so that every class can make use of the system.

 

The Hold Chain system will work alongside this during certain groggy phases. Using skills with Overpowerment will extend the monster’s groggy duration, giving you and your party more time to continue attacking.

 

Through these systems, we wanted to give Hold skills a clearer role in boss encounters and create more moments where skill timing and party coordination can make a difference.

 

Other Changes Include...

 

New Features - Skill Chain & Equipment/Buff Score

Speaking of skills, as more and more of them have been added over time, we know that fitting everything into a limited number of skill slots has become increasingly difficult.

To help with this, we will be introducing the Skill Chain system. Up to four skills can be assigned to a single shortcut, and pressing that shortcut will use the first available skill based on the order you set. You will also be able to adjust how quickly the slot returns to a higher-priority skill once it becomes available again.

The system can be used after achieving a character's Second Awakening and can be configured while in a town or within the Training Center. However, please keep in mind that Awakening skills and some other specific skills cannot be registered, and this new feature will be unavailable for use in the Arena or by Side Story characters.

 

We hope that this system gives Adventurers a way to enjoy as much of a character's skills as possible within the set limits of skill slots that are currently available.

 

Equipment Score and Buff Score will also be added.

DPS	Buffer

Equipment Score will depict a value that provides an objective estimate of your character’s expected damage based on their current equipment progression. For buffer characters, this value will be replaced with the Buff Score.

Please keep in mind that Equipment Score and Buff Score is a system based on Lv. 115 content, and may not be calculated properly when equipment below Level 115 is/are equipped.

 

 

Improvements and Renewals

Lastly, a slew of visual/QOL improvements, including changes to character sprites and UI like the following, will be added as well. We hope these improvements will create a more immersive and convenient gameplay experience.

 

Battle Focus Setting / Sprite Change

 

Base UI Renewal / Character Page / ESC Key Functions

 

Avatar Inventory / Community UI Improvements

 

Security Reward Renewal

• Security Keeper's Gift Box will be changed to Security Keepers Seal Box (50)
• Security Seal Boxes will be sent to your mailbox for each daily login.
• Security Seals can be used to purchase various items in the Security Seal Shop
• Shop items include The Awakened Ones Avatar Selection Box (Look), Master Contract Package, Doom Oracles, Repair Coupons, and more!

 

Of course, there will be many more new content and changes added during the SOATS update, but we just wanted to introduce the main points through these notes first. If you are curious as to the entire details, please make sure to check the update notice that will go live on August 4th!

 

And one final notice before we move on!

DFO will support DirectX 11 on PCs with operating systems of Windows 10 and beyond, starting with the August 4th update. Our client will thus be changed to run based on DirectX 11, starting with the update on Tuesday

 

PCs of operating systems lower than Windows 10 can still run the game as before the change was applied, but in such cases, we highly recommend to check the "Play with DirectX 9" checkbox in the client before playing. More details regarding this change will also be available in our update notice next Tuesday.

 

Events and Sales for August 4th!

 

We won't be going into too much detail of the new events or sales that will also be added with the new content (so that our DFO ExStream will have something to talk about!). However we did want to bring to your attention some improvements and changes that were made. (For those of you reading this note later who would like a more detailed explanation, we also recommend checking out our livestream!)

• First, the Adventurer Fame limit for characters allowed to use Starter Boost Capsules in level-up events will be increased to 63,257 starting with the event that will start on August 4th.
• Next, the Arad Pass will be renewed to match the new season. Rental Equipment will be upgraded to provide a Legendary Weapon and full set of Unique Dimension Set Equipment
• New items such as materials for upgrading Delezie Armor will be added as Arad Pass rewards.
• Lastly, changes to Mystical Arcane Box items will be made. These will include items such as a +13 Reinforcement Ticket Box and a chance to get more Mystical Arcane Boxes as extra rewards. As such, probabilities will be shifted around for the content items due to the addition of various rewards.

 

While we are on the topic of the Arcane Box, there are a couple of changes for its Mystical Arcane Shard Shop as well.

We're well aware that Adventurers have always shown a lot of interest in the availability of older Avatars. We've previously explored new ways to make them available again, such as through surveys, but this method lost effectiveness the more it was repeated. This led us to explore a variety of new approaches for making these Avatars available.

 

Starting with the August 4th update, we'll be selecting Avatars that have been out of sale for a relatively long time and offering them as items in the Mystical Arcane Shard Shop. We'll leave it up to you to find out which Avatars have been selected once the update goes live! Also, the Avatars sold in the Mystical Arcane Shard Shop will continue to rotate on a regular basis. If the Avatar you were hoping for wasn't selected this time, don't worry too much as it will be included in a future rotation!

 

We're always listening to Adventurers' feedback on Avatar availability, and we'll continue to closely monitor whether additional methods are needed going forward.

 

Lastly, some Adventurers may have already gleaned from our prior upcoming changes notice that another item will be added: the Super Megaphone! The new Super Megaphone item will replace the previous Echo Megaphone, allowing Adventurers to let their words ring through both Cain and Sirocco servers. Additionally, any Echo Megaphones in your possession can be exchanged for their new Super counterparts through Seria.

 

Summer Package Has Arrived!

And of course, summer is coming to DFO! Before we move on from events and sales, we wanted to showcase the new Tropical Vacation Package. And yes, it will be accompanied with the new BiS Aura Avatar, but please note that this Aura will be offered as a First Purchase Benefit! We hope these summer Avatars help you beat the heat in Arad.

 

We want to make it clear that, unfortunately, the new class and advancement that was available when this package was released in the Korean server will not be added on the August 4th update. However, their respective Cutscene items will still be available through this package.

As for the stars themselves, we are preparing the Female Monk and Tidebreaker to be presented as large-scale content updates to meet our Adventurers' expectations, and their related events will not be scaled back in any terms compared to what was shown in the Korean server.

This summer package is scheduled to end before Female Monk and Tidebreaker are released. However, we hope our Adventurers will keep in mind that we are considering making this year’s summer package Avatars available again through a rerun or another method so that both classes can equip them after they have been released.

 

Speaking of Cutscenes, we noticed that some Adventurers were curious as to whether some Cutscenes that were provided in the Korean server but have not been yet added to our server could be attained somehow.

We want to preface this by letting you know that some items distributed through offline events or merchandise in other regions are difficult to provide in DFO due to various conditions such as differences in publishers of service and regional aspects.

However, we will look through available options that are unaffected by such conditions but have not yet been made available to our DFO Adventurers. Regarding this situation, for now we must ask our Adventurers for your kind understanding and patience.

 

 

Future Plans

 

Last but not least for today's notes will be our roadmap for the second half of 2026.

The most notable updates are as follows:

• September 1st - Apocalypse (Legion Dungeon) Update
• October 6th - The Final Trial (Advanced Dungeon) Update
• November 17th - Imperial Guard and Female Monk Update
• December 1st - Arcana Avatar

 

For this roadmap, we chose to reveal the dates of their scheduled releases to better allow our Adventurers to prepare for certain content.

 

Additionally, although not mentioned in the roadmap above, we are also deliberating on a date for releasing the Mysterious Sewing Machine sales. We plan to bring back the Sewing Machine during the second half of this year. However, scheduling the exact date has proven difficult as we also need to consider the upcoming new characters. That being said, we will strive to provide you with the Sewing Machine sales as soon as possible while taking into account such matters.

 

 

Before We Part...

 

And that is all we have for today's developer notes! The new season is finally here, and we are excited for Adventurers to experience everything we have prepared for Sky of a Thousand Seas.

 

The weather has been especially hot lately, so we hope our Adventurers stay cool and take care of yourselves this summer. Maybe pay a visit to a nearby beach, or easier yet, dive into not just one but a Thousand Seas in Arad?! 

 

Jokes aside, we thank you for all the support our Adventurers continue to show DFO. We hope everyone enjoys the new season, and we will see you in Arad after the update.

 

Sincerely,

- Developer H