Masters of the Book,

This patch, Blackaria, Arbiter of Life and Death, joins the battlefield. 

Once a merciful healer, she now wields the legendary bow “Snow Savage” as a ruthless judge. She embraces both life and death powers after accepting the abyssal darkness. 

In addition, Ancient Giant Season 2 opens, challenging players with party compositions that meet set conditions. Challenge scores can be tracked instantly, allowing for party and guild growth. The Recommended Hero System allows you to easily view knights used in major content to aid party composition, while Journey in Memory is revamped with better rewards. 

We’ve also got a couple of surprises in store for the game’s 2nd Anniversary! 

For more detailed information, please see below:

■ Knights of Veda
* Let her be the judge, 5★ Knight of Veda Blackaria arbitrates between life and death in this Call of the Stars!

“Do not worry—I am right here”

Once revered as the “Divine Healer,” she was a beacon of grace who mended the broken with a touch of kindness. But amidst the visceral carnage of war, she was forced to witness the fragile boundaries of her own mercy.

Consumed by a tempest of sorrow and rage at the sight of unyielding death, she inadvertently awakened the forbidden entropy hidden on the other side of life—the “Darkness of the Abyss.”

No longer just a weaver of wounds, she has ascended as an Arbiter, a dual-natured being who commands both the warmth of benevolence and the glacial cruelty of the darkness. She now stands at the threshold, the one who coldly dictates the divide between life and death.

- Blackaria is a Darkness/Poison dual-type ranged DPS who wields a small bow, building stacks with each strike to accelerate her ATK and Movement SPD until reaching maximum stacks, where her ATK surges into a devastating torrent; her Normal Skill, "Still-Life Arrow," enhances her Normal ATKs and amplifies her damage output, while her Signature Skill, "Shadow of Blight," summons a relentless shadow that pursues enemies, inflicting Verdict to weaken those it strikes.

- Blackaria, alongside her Signature Weapon “Snow Savage,” can be obtained via Call of the Stars. While her Signature “Conviction of Death Halo” and her Signature “Awakened Beast El Cid” can be obtained via “Mark of the Sworn Loyalty” and “Fragments of the Painting” respectively, which can be found on the “Guidance of the Goddess” menu.

■ A new Ancient Giant season awaits!
- Ancient Giant Season 2 will be updated with this patch, featuring bosses with dual attributes, encouraging the use of Knights of recommended attributes and positions in addition to granting score bonuses.
- Highest scores will be recorded; current scores can also be compared hourly with best records to guide party composition.

* Ancient Giant is still on the weekends!


- Ancient Giant runs every Saturday and Sunday, featuring four dual-attribute bosses that rotate every two weeks.
- Recommended Roles and Attributes grant higher scores when conditions are met; requirements that change weekly. 

* What’s the other changes from Season 1?
- The ATK and DEF of the Shadow Giant bosses have been adjusted, with greater emphasis on DEF. As a result, scores may be significantly lower when using the same Knights as in Season 1.
- All records from Season 1 will be reset upon the start of Season 2.

* Separate records for each of the bosses, letting you check how your Knights are performing on each of them.


- Scores will be tracked for each boss and you will always be able to see your current score alongside your all-time high.

* Your All-time high will also be visible to you while on a run! Hit those targets!


- You will be able to track your current score in real-time and have your all-time high score visible while you’re on your current run!
- If you do surpass your all-time high, congratulations! The game will also let you know thru a notification when you do so~

* View your recent run records on the Ancient Giant Records page!


- The game stores up to twenty (20) records for each boss, which you will be able to view on the appropriate menu located at the Ancient Giant content main page.

* Select a specific run to get more information about it.


- Selecting your run records displays both the specific record and the all-time high in a more visual form.
- It will also give you an overview of the gear equipped on both runs so you can get an idea on where to focus to improve their performance.

* Some additional quality-of-life changes have been made


- You can now access Ancient Giant directly using a dedicated button added to the menus.
- The number of daily attempts has been increased to five (5).

■ Shadow Waters Season 2 Ranking & Rewards


- New season, new rankings, new rewards!
- Ancient Giant continues to be active from Friday to Sunday, from 06:00 AM UTC / 11:00 PM PDT to 05:50 UTC / 10:50 PM PDT the next day. The ten-minute gap between the end and start of the Ancient Giant day will be for the settlement period, after which the Ranking Rewards will be distributed and the new boss introduced.
- Weekly Rankings and Rewards have been removed, with their rewards now being integrated into the daily rewards. This is in addition to an increase of the daily rewards itself.
- Upon the end of the 03/26 Maintenance, all previous scores and ranking records will be reset.
 

■ A Recommended Knights of Veda system has been added, allowing quick reference to commonly used knights in major content.


- Party compositions and Knights of Veda used by top-ranking players are displayed per content.
- Top parties used in Guild Siege, Shadow Waters, Ancient Giant, and Nightmare of the Abyss are shown, with the rest of the gamemodes to be added in the future.

■ Balance
* Another batch of Knights of Veda will be up for adjustments.


- In this update, the Knights of Veda Bianca, Atterisee, Nec, and Sarka will be adjusted.
- Going forward, we plan to make these Knight of Veda adjustments more regularly through our monthly updates.
 

* Some adjustments to Battlefield of the War Gods and Guild Siege will be made.
- To prevent prolonged matches on both mentioned content, we’ll be making some adjustments on the attack balance.
- We’ll continue to monitor the changes to these gamemodes so please don’t hesitate to give us feedback. 

■ Content & System Improvements
* A new Journey in Memory awaits you this update!


- An improved Journey in Memory comes to you in this update, letting you try out newly introduced Knights of Veda with preset abilities.
- Completing challenge goals during trial play grants rewards based on completion level, while simply participating also provides rewards.
- Higher completion levels yield additional bonuses, such as useful dishes for the featured Knight of Veda.

* Higher! Celestial Trials will now reach up to Floor 85!


* Some quality-of-life additions for Mythic Promotion

- A “Do Not Show Again” option has been added to Mythic Promotion notification popups. This includes Mythic Promotion for Knights of Veda.
- If selected, the popup will no longer appear again until you switch to another Knight of Veda or move to a different page.

■ ASTRA: Knights of Veda celebrates its second year!


- Celebrate the second anniversary of the game with us! Login during the event period and get the Knight of Veda Blackaria as a token of our appreciation!
- The “Arbiter of Life and Death” event will run from after the 03/26 Maintenance until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* Fourteen Days, Fourteen Generous Rewards!

- A login event for the second anniversary will be held, where you can obtain fourteen rewards just by logging in for fourteen days during the event period! This includes Ancient Echoes!
- The "2nd Anniv Attendance" event will run from after the 03/26 Maintenance until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* Pop! Pop! Join us in the festivities with the "Pop! Pop! Happy 2nd Anniversary Party!" event.


- Collect the 2nd Anniversary Cakes and earn rewards based on how many you have! These cakes can be obtained by clearing Adventure Stages during the event period. 
- These 2nd Anniversary Cakes can also be used as dishes for when you do any other content.
- The "Pop! Pop! Happy 2nd Anniversary Party!" event will run from after the 03/26 Maintenance until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* Did you think we forgot? No, this is our promise!


- Complete missions we’ve prepared and get the rewards we’ve specifically chosen for our second anniversary!
- The "A Promise Beyond Two Years" event will run from after the 03/26 Maintenance until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* Crystals for Echoes? A fair deal I guess?

- We’ve got something for our Masters of the Book looking to strengthen their current Knights and have some extra Crystals of Fate or Crystal of Destiny to throw around.
- During the "Ancient Echoes Exchange" event, you can do so on the Shop! Check it out!
- The "Ancient Echoes Exchange" event will run from after the 03/26 Maintenance until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

■ Events & Seasonal Content
* Go All Out with Pickups All Out… extended!


- To celebrate the 2nd anniversary, the [Pickup All-Out II] event will be extended.
- You can access the event by checking “Call of the Stars” and selecting the Knight or exclusive weapon you wish to summon. Your selection will then have an increased summon rate.
- Crystals of Destiny will be used when summoning for this Call of the Star, and will also have a separate Grace of the Holy Grail from other Call of the Stars.
- The Pickups All-Out II - Knights of Veda & Exclusive Weapons event will now run until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* Same thing for Halo and El Cid!


- Did you really think we’ll forget the Signature Halo and El Cid? They’re also extended!
- The Pickups All-Out II - Halo & El Cid event will now run until before the 04/23 Maintenance.

* The Tower of Trials returns!


- The Tower of Trials event will run twice during the event period:
  - 1st Period: 03/26 after the maintenance - 04/09 03:00 AM UTC / 04/08 08:00 PM PDT
  - 2nd Period: 04/09 06:00 AM UTC / 04/08 11:00 PM PDT - 04/23 before the maintenance.
- During the active period, you can enter the Tower of Trials via the Celestial Trials icon on the World Map

- During the event, completing missions will unlock the Tower of Trials Pass, which offers generous rewards. It will be open only during the first period. We kindly ask for your understanding regarding this.

* Join the ‘Simon’s Amazing Gifts’ event! Work together with your Guild members to defeat treasure chests and claim exciting rewards.
- The “Simon’s Amazing Gifts” event can be participated in every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 08:00 PM during the event period, at the Guild Territory.
- Treasure chests obtained during the event contain various rewards, and you may reselect a treasure chest once per attempt.
- “Simon’s Amazing Gifts” will run from 04/02 to 04/19.

* A new “The Fruits of Adventure” Daily Attendance event is upon us!
- Receive various rewards depending on the number of days you logged in.
- “The Fruits of Adventure” event will run from 04/01 06:00 AM UTC / 03/31 11:00 PM PDT to 05/01 06:00 AM UTC / 04/30 11:00 PM PDT.

* The "Blessing in Adventure" event is back to shower everyone with more rewards!
- During the event period, you can earn double the rewards from Adventure Dungeons up to the daily limit.
- The double rewards event for Adventure Dungeons will run from after the 03/24 maintenance until 04/09 03:00 AM UTC / 04/08 08:00 PM PDT.

* Veda’s Nightmare deepens as the rewards for braving its halls increase, the “Blessing in Nightmare” event returns!
- During the "Blessing in the Nightmare" event, you can earn double rewards from “Veda's Nightmare” and on “Nightmare of the Abyss” up to the daily limit. 
- The "Blessing in the Nightmare" event starts on 04/09 06:00 AM UTC / 04/08 11:00 PM PDT and will end before the regular maintenance on 04/23.

* A new Reward Decree season will start.
- The new Reward Decree season will begin on 04/01 06:00 AM UTC / 03/31 11:00 PM PDT until 05/01 06:00 AM UTC / 04/30 11:00 PM PDT.
- When you purchase Neejarem’s Reward Decree you will be able to obtain up to Ruby x2,280, Crystal of Fate x30, Solvent of Prayer x2, and much more!

* A new season of Arena will begin.
- During this Arena Season, you can earn rewards such as Emotes and Insignia based on your progress.
- This Arena Season will end before the regular maintenance on 04/23.

* Battlefield of the War Gods gets a much-needed refresh!
- Battlefield of the War Gods rankings will be reset, and season-highest ranking rewards can once again be obtained!
- This season will end before the regular maintenance on 04/23.

* A new season of Nightmare of the Abyss will be starting.
- With the new season, a new set of Abyss Trials will be applied to each stage.
- The new Nightmare of the Abyss season will end before the regular maintenance on 04/23.

* A new season of “Beast Battlefront” arrives.
- A new featured boss will arrive in this refresh of Beast Battlefront!
- "Beast Battlefront" content will be held twice during the season. The schedule is as follows:
 - 1st Round: 03/26 06:00 AM UTC / 02/25 11:00 PM PDT ~ 04/07 06:00 AM UTC / 04/06 11:00 PM PDT
  - Settlement until 04/09 06:00 AM UTC / 04/08 11:00 PM PDT
 - 2nd Round: 04/09 06:00 AM UTC / 04/08 11:00 PM PDT ~ 04/21 06:00 AM UTC / 04/20 11:00 PM PDT
  - Settlement until 04/23 06:00 AM UTC / 04/22 11:00 PM PDT

* A new event, "Call of the Ancients" will be introduced.
- Spend Rubies to participate in the Call of the Ancients event, giving you more ways to get Ancient Echoes.
- The reset period for this event is twenty-eight (28) days.

■ Store
* A new set of store packages have arrived to help you on your journey!


- The following 2nd Anniversary Package comes with this update and will be available for purchase until 04/09 03:00 AM UTC / 04/08 08:00 PM PDT.

■ Bug Fixes
- An issue where the category names on the reward screen for Ancient Giant does not display correctly has been fixed.
- An issue where after changing the language in settings, some Shadow Water information menus did not display correctly has been fixed. 

■ ASTRA celebrates its 2nd Anniversary
Thanks to the great interest and support of our Masters of the Book, ASTRA: Knights of Veda has reached its 2nd anniversary.

If the two years spent together with ASTRA: Knights of Veda have brought even a little joy to our Masters of the Book, we are truly grateful.

We sincerely thank our Masters of the Book for watching over ASTRA: Knights of Veda, and we promise to always strive to be a game that continues to grow and improve.

Thank you.