EXP Rewards:

• Standard EXP rewards for thread progression changed from (5 EXP * Player's Tier) for every 30 words to (Word Count / 10) * (Player's Uncapped Tier) * (Group Factor).
  • Group factor table:

    Group Size	EXP (Group) Factor
    1 player	100% (1x)
    2 players	70% (0.7x)
    3 players	60% (0.6x)
    4+ players	50% (0.5x)

     
• Staff-run events and raids may award lump EXP bonus rewards scaled to tier instead of standard EXP rewards.
• Dungeons now reward EXP upon completion instead of per wave. Players gain EXP based on their uncapped tier. Players must participate in all waves of combat in order to be eligible for dungeon EXP rewards.
  • Dungeons and their mobs will continue to scale to the highest party tier.
  • Dungeon completion EXP reward table:
     

    Uncapped Player Tier	Dungeon EXP Reward	Uncapped Player Tier	Dungeon EXP Reward
    1	150	11	4950
    2	360	12	5760
    3	630	13	6630
    4	960	14	7560
    5	1350	15	8550
    6	1800	16	9600
    7	2310	17	10710
    8	2880	18	11880
    9	3510	19	13110
    10	4200	20	14400

     

  • Previous Dungeon EXP Reward Table:

    Dungeon Tier	EXP
    	Wave #1	Wave #2	Wave #3
    1	100	250	400
    2	250	450	850
    3	500	750	1500
    4	1250	2500	4500

     

• Field Bosses now reward its combat participants with EXP based on whichever is lower: the Player's Tier or the Field Boss' Tier (previously was a static 500 * Field Boss' Tier as long as the Player's Tier was lower). Players must participate in the full duration of combat in order to be eligible for field boss EXP rewards.

  • Field Boss EXP reward table:    
     

    Uncapped Player Tier	Field Boss EXP Reward
    1	100
    2	240
    3	420
    4	640
    5	900
    6	1200
    7	1540
    8	1920
    9	2340
    10	2800

     

• Systems & Development Comments: After the 3.1 update, levelling was very quick due to the fixes to the levelling curve and standard EXP reward. By reducing the standard EXP rewards and increasing the EXP rewards for other contents, we hope that it will incentivize more engagement with content and normalize the standard EXP rewards.

Social Threads & Early Closure:

• Players are now permitted to close purely social threads without having to reach a 20 post minimum and get standard thread rewards as long as they meet the following criteria:
  • A minimum of 10 posts.
  • Must involve at least two characters (may belong to the same player)
  • Each player must provide at least three 150 word posts per page to obtain standard thread rewards as normal.
  • The thread cannot have any systems mechanics (eg. combat, quests).
• Systems & Development Comments: Narrative pacing and a 20 post minimum does not always match each other. Allowing early closure of purely narrative threads should hopefully alleviate players from drawing out a thread just to get standard thread rewards.

Labryinth Searches/Labryinth Guardians:

• Blank Dungeon Maps can no longer be used to increase Scouting party maximum from 4 players to 6 players.
• All players participating in a Labyrinth search must be at least of tier in relation to the highest unlocked floor (e.g. Tier 4 to search floor 32).
• Reduced number of posts required before parties can begin searching for the Labyrinth entrance from 20 posts to 10 posts.
• Reduced cooldown for individual players searching for the labyrinth from 5 posts to 4 posts without the Reveal mod and from 3 posts to 2 posts with the Reveal mod.
• Changed how the cooldown for labyrinth searching works: individual players can now search every x posts instead of needing x posts between each searching attempt.
  • Ex: Players with the Reveal Mod used to need 3 posts between each search attempt (search, filler 1, filler 2, filler 3, search, etc). Players with the Reveal Mod can now search every other turn (search, filler, search, etc).
• Players are now responsible for keeping track of LD roll contributions for the purpose of the additional EXP rewards given to the first and second player who contributed the most to the LD pool (still +10%/+5% EXP bonus).
• Players must now follow post rotation order as if they were in combat and must make search rolls when eligible.
• Labryinth Guardian fights now cap at a total of 8 players fighting the Labryinth Guardian at any time.
• Defeating the guardian and/or hosting the raid prep meeting will no longer convey any systems-based bonuses during the raid.
• Searching now causes additional events based off of the following table:

Systems & Development Comments: These Labryinth search changes hopefully make things easier by effectively reducing the cooldown between search rolls by two and more interactive by having a player's search rolls affect the thread in a larger way.

Performer Debuff Changes:

• Changed Performer Debuff Songs Hypnosis, Lullaby, and Misperception effects lasting from one battle to two turns.
• Revamped Incarcerate:
  • Previous Effect:
  • Effect: Applies to a single enemy. When played, all active DoTs on the enemy gain an Incarcerate effect causing them to deal double their damage for their duration. DoT effects applied afterwards do not gain this effect, but this effect will persist when the DoT is refreshed.
• Revamped Perpetuate:
  • Previous Effect:
  • New Effect: Applies to a single enemy. When played, the user can select and refresh any number of active debuffs on the enemy. Reminder: DoTs and their non-damaging effects are considered Ailments per the current site guide.
• Systems & Development Comments: Incarcerate and Perpetuate, ever since they were made to be non-stacking, have been pretty much redundant. In fact, the best damage still lied with Incarcerate rather than Perpetuate. We hope that these changes will make using performer debuff songs more interactive, while making Perpetuate have some niche.

Hiding Skill/Mechanic Changes:

• Players in stealth are now vulnerable and can be targeted by mobs performing AoE attacks and environmental effects.  Being hit, suffering damage, or other effects while in stealth will not break stealth.  
• Players performing AoE attacks cannot target entities in stealth unlike mobs performing AoE attacks.
• Players no longer need to make rolls to maintain stealth after an initial successful roll. Actions which previously broke stealth (eg. attacking) continue to do so.
• Hiding Skill:
  • Blindside Mod has been removed. Players are immediately refunded the 4 SP at no additional cost.
  • Untraceable Mod will now grant users an additional +1 Stealth Rating.
• Systems & Development Comments: There was a potential for the issue with players being able to maintain stealth and be invulnerable. We also looked for Quality of Life changes in the stealth mechanic such as reducing the number of necessary rolls to use stealth and reduce the number of effective mod slots that were needed.

Miscellaneous Changes:

• Reduced the damage multiplier of the RAW-A collected sword art from x3 to x2.
• Reduced the number of extra skill slots required to use the Block skill from 2 extra skill slots to 1 extra skill slot.
• Reduced Charge's base damage bonus from 5 to 3.
  • Systems & Development Comments: Largely due to power balance and comparisons between Surprise Attack Assassin and Charge. Buffing Assassin would prove clunky since it would require changing Trickster as well to compensate for the power balance. We are seeking more ways to carve out niches to hopefully reduce the tension and back-and-forth nature between many builds.
• Paralytic Venom (Defensive) enhancement has been removed from play.  Players with this enhancement on an item may select another valid unique or standard enhancement as a free replacement.  Affected items must be submitted for approval in the player's personal evaluation thread before they can be used.

Custom Skill Playtest:

• A new Custom Skill system is being introduced for playtesting. This new Custom Skill system aims to maintain a non-exclusive catalog of Custom Skills that players can pick from or propose new Custom Skills to. More information can be found in the playtesting Eternal Hunt [v3.1.2] thread and below.
• Custom Skill mechanics will not be allowed in staff-run events or boss raids to alleviate issues of keeping track of several Custom Skills and specific interactions.
• Custom Skill mechanics will trend away from pure damage to ease balancing issues and the consistent arms-race of buffing one's own damage. Custom Skill mechanics will be balanced around the idea that, when implemented, these Custom Skills will cost around 10 SP.
• Players at the current level cap (level 32) may participate in this playtest until May 15th, 2022 by creating Custom Skill playtest threads and including 'CSPT' in the thread title (eg. [PP-XX-CSPT]). No new Custom Skill playtest threads may be created after May 15th, 2022. There is no SP cost of using Custom Skills in these playtest threads and players may switch and try out different Custom Skills between different Custom Skill playtest threads.
• Everyone is encouraged to provide continuous feedback in the #systems channel in our Discord. We would like to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and experiences regarding this seemingly cursed mechanic.
• Custom Skill Catalog:
  Spoiler

  ► Achilles
  Passive
  Requirement: Combat Mastery [Mitigation], R5 Heavy Armor Skill, Must be wearing Heavy Armor
  Effect: Direct final damage dealt to the user is reduced by 10%.
  Drawback: Disabling effects remove the damage reduction effect for their duration, but cannot stack this negation. DoT effects will tick for an additional turn.

   

  ► Battōjutsu
  Active: Passive
  Requirement: R5 Weapon Skill [Katana], Focus [Katana] addon and Charge skill; Must be wielding a Katana.
  Effect: After a successful ST-B attack, you may choose between regaining (2*Tier) energy or reducing the cooldown of the Charge skill by 1 turn.
  Drawback: While Charge is on cooldown, your EVA is reduced by 1.

   

  ► Bloody Slaughter
  Passive
  Requirement: R10 Cooking Profession or Large Pockets Mod
  Effect: The user gains a stack of Bloody Slaughter for every 4 loot-minimum mobs killed. The user must land the killing blow against these mobs for them to count towards generating Bloody Slaughter stacks. Each stack increases its user’s max HP capacity by 50 and max EN capacity by 2 until the end of the thread, up to a maximum of 5 stacks. Once the user has at least 1 stack of Bloody Slaughter, they may gain one of the following benefits each time they defeat a loot minimum mob, though each benefit can only be obtained once per post. 

  • Regains [Tier * 1] EN for each mob personally defeated; or
  • Regains [Tier * 5] HP for each mob personally defeated; or
  • Gains +[Tier * 2 MIT] until the end of the current combat rotation.

  Drawback: Bloated. When the user has at least one stack of Bloody Slaughter, their capacity to heal and be healed both, through any source, will be halved.  Every two stacks (round up) of Bloody Slaughter reduces the wielder’s EVA by 1.

   

  ► Darkness Blade
  Passive
  Requirement: R5 Weapon Skill (any), Fighting Spirit active
  Effect: User ignores 20% Mitigation on all successful attacks.  This effect can stack with the Phase Enhancement. 
  Drawback: Critical hits against you gain the benefits of the Phase enhancement (ie. attacks ignore 50% mitigation).  If the attack already benefits from Phase, it ignores an additional 20% of your mitigation instead.

   

  ► Dual Blades
  Active: Post Action
  Cooldown: 5 Turns (Shared with Quick Change)
  Requirement: Quick Change, R5 Weapon Skill(s) (Any).  Only weapons of the matching skill(s) may be used.  

  Effect: The user must have equipped two weapons instead of one, but remains limited to standard three standard item slots.  Unless using Dual Strike (see below), the user can only make use of one weapon at a time when resolving attacks.  The weapon used must be specified in the attack’s description in the roller.  

  Dual Strike:

  Activating this skill adds a surcharge of +8 EN (even on a miss) and can only be triggered when using the ST-II or AoE-II sword arts.  Any target hit by this attack suffers normal damage for the sword art used, but applies the enhancements from both of the user’s equipped weapons.  This skill shares a cooldown with Quick Change.
  Drawback: Once this skill has been used, neither weapon used to make the Dual Strike may be unequipped until the thread ends.

   

  ► Duelist
  Passive
  Requirement: R5 Weapon Skill (Any), Focus or Ferocity (matching R5 weapon skill) addon
  Effect: Increases BD by 1. The user gains the benefits of both Focus and Ferocity addons when wielding a weapon of the corresponding skill.
  Drawback: Your energy costs for striking multiple targets with an AoE sword art increases by 1 per target hit.

   

  ► Double or Nothing
  Passive
  Requirements: Must have the Hyperactive mod active 
  Effect: When activating the Hyperactive addon, the user of this custom skill may apply it to also transfer all of their EN regeneration for this round to the target, keeping none for themselves.  This effect cannot cause the target to exceed its maximum EN pool.  Any excess EN is lost.  When applying Hyperactive with this CS active, the cost of Hyperactive is reduced to 0 EN.
  Drawback: The user cannot benefit from battle healing while Hyperactive is on cooldown.

   

  ► Holy Blade
  Passive
  Requirement: Parry Extra Skill and at least one Parry mod must be active to benefit from this custom skill
  Effect: Parry becomes a free action. Justified Riposte now applies Paralyze or Stun, at the user’s discretion, while the reflected damage from Vengeful Riposte gains Phase.
  Drawback: EN cost of Parry is expended immediately upon activation, and remains spent even if the effect does not trigger.  Parry and its mods only last 2 turns, but their skill cooldowns remain unaffected.

   

  ► Infinite Wield
  Active: Free Action
  Cooldown: 3 Turns 
  Requirement: R5 Weapon Skill (Any), Any Shift, Quick Change
  Effect: You may temporarily change to a different shift, applying its benefits and costs until the cooldown of this skill is complete.  Your native Shift is unavailable while you have changed to another.  This ability shares a cooldown with Quick Change.
  Drawback: Using a Shift other than your native one adds an extra +2 EN surcharge to the standard Shift cost.  Your native Shift reasserts itself automatically at the end of the cooldown.

   

  ► Inquisitor
  Passive
  Requirement: R5 First Aid Extra Skill and at least one First Aid mod must be active
  Effect: User and fellow party members regain an additional 2 energy at the beginning of each of their turns. When the user activates skills or uses consumables that restore hit points to themselves or their party members, the benefits are increased by 20%.
  Drawback: Users of this custom skill cannot select Hiding as an active Extra skill or benefit from any of its mods.

   

  ► Shadowed Path
  Passive
  Requirement:  ST-Shift, R5 Hiding Extra Skill, Vanish mod and one Surprise Attack mod must be active
  Effect: Allows the user to activate Vanish as a Free Action in the same post after an attack without needing to slay a mob. EN costs for Vanish and Surprise Attack (both) are reduced by 2 EN.
  Drawback: A player cannot make AoE attacks while possessing this custom skill.

   

  ► Strength of a Mountain
  Passive
  Requirements: Rank 3 [Leadership]; R5 Block, Forgotten King's Authority Extra Skill and the Steadfast Leadership Art must be active
  Effect:  This skill enhances the Steadfast mod, and reduces its cooldown to 0. While Steadfast is active, two instances of any given status effect must be applied to the user before it takes effect.