Shadow Arena News

Here are the updates made to Shadow Arena during the maintenance on March 25 (Fri).

* Patch Size: Approx. 538.95 MB

Check out the details below, and we will see you in the Arena!



[h3]■ Deathmatch [/h3]

- Added Deathmatch as one of the main game mode.





| How to Play

- The match will begin when 2 players enter the arena.
> A total of 10 players can enter after the match begins.
> Players can no longer join if a team scored more than 100 points or if 8 minutes have passed since the match began.
- Players will be assigned to Red/Blue team based on the order they have joined.

- Players will be able to respawn after 8 seconds even if they lose all their HP and collapse.
> Players can change their hero while waiting to respawn.
- Players will be in Black Spirit form when they respawn, and they can move around for 5 seconds in invincible form. Press LMB to disable Black Spirit form.
- The shop (B) will not be available to purchase items.

- 5 points are obtained when you defeat an opponent player.
> If you defeat an opponent player consecutively, you obtain 2 bounty points and those bounty points reset if you die. (E.g. If you kill an opponent player with 3 consecutive kills, you’ll earn a total of 11 points. Base Points (5 pts) + Bonus Points (6 pts) = 11 pts.



| Objects

- Tree Spirits appear in four directions (north, east, south, and west) and you can recover up to HP +3,000 if you go near a standing Tree Spirit.
- As a player’s HP is recovered, the NPC falls to the ground due to losing its power. It can then recover a player’s HP again after a minute has passed.


| Victory Requirements

- The team that wins the required points first or achieves more kills at the end of the match wins.
> If the winning points are tied at the end of the match, the team that defeats an opponent player from the opposing team will win the match.



| Rewards
[Dev Notes]

As mentioned previously from the Developer Notes, Deathmatch will now be available as one of the main game modes.
In Deathmatch mode, teams will be assigned, and they’ll fight each other in a small arena. Players won’t be as frustrated from dying in Deathmatch compared to Solo/Trio mode. We believe this mode is also beneficial since it’ll allow players to hone their skills by trying out different heroes in a short period of time.
We hope you look forward to this unique Deathmatch game mode!




[h3]■ Hero

[/h3]
| All

- Adjusted the HP of all heroes to the following.



- [Kick] Changed the skill command key from F to X.

- [Sit/Prone] Changed the skill command key from Z, X to [S + Space].



- Added “Quick Reflexes” as a general skill for all heroes.

> Skill Command Key: Z
[Dev Notes]

The number of inherent skills for heroes have increased to 5 leading to an increase in combo duration and damage as well. As a result of that, we’ve increased the HP of all heroes.
Quick Reflexes was added as a general skill to allow players, who are not familiar with combos, to evade dicey situations during battle. However, this isn’t limited to inexperienced players, as seasoned players can also can use this skill to get out of unfavorable situations.
The defining feature of Quick Reflexes is that it can be used even when a player has been knocked down. We believe this skill, which is similar to Dark Shift, can be used as a survival skill to turn around a situation in one’s favor.

| Skill Reworks


- Combat/Sub mastery has been temporarily removed.

- Adjust the number to 5 inherent skills for each Hero.

> With this, key command for skills pertaining to each hero have been changed.



| Black Spirit Skill

- Changed the effect of Black Spirit skills to the following.

[Dev Notes]

The Black Spirit skills were changed to diversify options in game play.
Taunt was removed since it was a skill that wasn’t used often. We changed how Dark Shift works that make it a more suitable as a survival skill, and made various changes to other skills as well.



| Stamina

- Decreased the stamina used when sprinting (Shift) by 90%.

- Decreased the stamina required to perform sprinting from more than 50 to 20.





- Added non-combat sprinting.

> Requirement: 50 stamina or more

> Non-combat sprinting will activate if sprinting (Shift) for more than 5 seconds.

> Sprinting will stop if there is less than 10 stamina.



- Changed to no longer use/restore stamina when performing basic attacks or skills.

> However, some skills (charge, movement, gathering) will use stamina.




[h3]■ Content[/h3]


- Added two spawn locations of Light of Ascension.

> The spawn location of the Dark Fog, Ancient Relic, and Shadow Lords has been changed as a result of the changes made to Light of Ascension.

> Light of Ascension location are as follows.



[h3]■ Monsters [/h3]


- Changed so Margord dissipates when the Light of Ascension appears.

- Fixed the unnatural motion of Margord being applied natural damage.

- Decreased Margord’s HP by approximately 12%.
[Dev Note]

Margord (Shadow Lord) was conceived with the purpose to create unexpected events such as by intervening in a situation where only players are fighting each other or to provide a powerful buff that’ll determine the victor of the match.
But because of Margord’s high HP and defense, Margord would continue intervening battles even after the Light of Ascension appeared.
As a result, Margord will now disappear when the Light of Ascension appears, and its HP was also reduced making it slightly easier for players to defeat Margord.


[h3]■ Item [/h3]


- Changed the price of Essence of Ornette from 300 Tokens to 800 Tokens.
[Dev Note]

Although Essence of Ornette cannot be overlapped with the HP Potion, it did not disappear even if was used, and for this it was considered at high value due to its advantage of being able to sell the HP Potion.
However, if you obtained duplicates, its effects could not be overlapped, resulting in players having to sell it at a relatively low price.
With this, we adjusted the selling price of Essence of Ornette so that a larger number of tokens can be acquired for players even if duplicates are obtained.


- Changed the below item effects to the following.




- Added a new item Catalyst to the Shop (B).

> Price: 300 Token
[Dev Notes]

In the last update, bombs were added to bring diversity in game play. But the effectiveness of the bomb fell a little short in terms of its usability. The reason for this is because it took some time before the bomb automatically exploded, a.nd the one who planted the bomb found it difficult to determine when the bomb would explode.

For those reasons, improvements were made to the bombs, and a new item Catalyst was added to increase its usability.


[h3]■ UI

[/h3]
- Changed the location of alert notifications that appear at the top.




[h3]■ Fixes & Improvements

[/h3]
- Fixed the issue where certain Blackstar Fragments and Monsters would appear in abnormal locations.

- AI bots can now use Quick Reflexes (Z).

- AI bots can no longer use Mastery skills.

- [Orwen AI Bot] Changed to no longer use Explosive Trap (F) in combat.




[h3]■ Fixes and Improvements to the Pearl Abyss Website [/h3]
* The fixes and improvements listed below were applied during the March 23 (Thu) maintenance made on the Pearl Abyss website.

- Fixed an issue where authentication would fail intermittently.



▶ Check out Currently Known Issues


Click the link above to view the known issues that are currently being investigated by the developers. We are currently working to resolve these issues, and we will update players through the linked page as soon as an issue is resolved.

Thank you.

Greetings, this is the Shadow Arena Development Team.

It seemed like just yesterday that it was the beginning of a new year, and no sooner, spring has sprung as we approach the last week of March.
We are glad to greet our players with the discussions we had from the last developer notes announced at the beginning of Beta Season 8. In this developer note, we would like to share the issues that we have been facing and possible solutions to these issues with our players.

1. Add Deathmatch as a main mode
> Reduce frustration that arises from dying / Sense of shared achievement on victory with your team

2. Skill Reworks
> Remove Mastery (Combat/Sub) and adjust the total number of available skill slots to 5.

3. Changes to Stamina/Recovery Management
> Changes to playstyle with the introduction of a new style of battle.



[h3]1. Add “Deathmatch” as a main mode [/h3]
Reduce frustration that arises from dying / The sense of shared achievement on victory with your team.


One of the most mentioned feedback we got from players was that the gameplay was difficult for new players to get adjusted to. And for this, we implemented changes such as introducing AI bots, improving tutorials so that players could get a better gist of the feel for combat. And with this, Death Match which was available only on Custom mode will now be set apart as a main mode.

Previously, deathmatch mode was beneficial as players could: try out various Heroes in a short amount of time, engage in teamwork-focused play rather than flying solo in claiming victory, and avoid matches concluding abruptly due to making one wrong move. We have considered ways to maximize the positive aspects but were hesitant due to increasing its access to possible issues such as matching not proceeding smoothly if Deathmatch/Solo/Trio were set apart as separate main modes. Thus, these features were limited to Custom mode.


However, the beneficial elements of death match mode were considered to relieve the frustration on dying and allow beginner players to experience excitement through claiming victory through teamwork, then naturally adjust to the overall gameplay in the end. So going forward, Deathmatch will now be available for access in the main lobby. We hope that players can get a lot of use of this feature to ones liking.


[h3]2. Skill Reworks[/h3]
Remove Mastery (Combat/Sub) and adjust the total number of available skill slots to 5.

This element may be one of the most important changes announced in this developer note.
We will temporarily remove the Combat/Sub Mastery feature in this update.

Many players have mentioned the problematic aspects of the Mastery.
The Mastery was initially designed to maximize the fun in strategical gameplay in battle through the picking and choosing of skills that fit each Hero’s characteristics with various situations in mind. However, although the selection of skills granted flexibility, switching of skills was not available during a match, which lead to players selecting the “most versatile skills.”

So, we decided to temporarily remove the Mastery skills to bring on a smarter solution. This change will add more flexibility to skill usage and relieve the up/down compatibility issue that exists in the current state of the game.

But we understand that the defining feature of Shadow Arena is the action-packed fun and thrill that comes from performing powerful combos.

Although we are removing Mastery skills from the game, we thought of ways to retain elements of Shadow Arena at its unique best. So, we came to the solution of adjusting the number to 5 unique skills for each Hero.

We believe these changes will bring more excitement to psychological battles unique to Shadow Arena, and make performing combos even more exciting.

Lastly, a new skill “Quick Reflexes,” will be introduced as a general skill.
This skill can be used on a similar note to “Dark Shift,” where players can evade and turn around a dangerous situation into an opportunistic chance to overpower the opponent.


[h3]3. Changes to Stamina/Recovery Management[/h3]
Changes to playstyle with the introduction of a new style of battle

Stamina is used for sprinting, jump sprint, sprint jump attack, skills, and various actions performed by heroes in the game. But it was difficult to calculate the exact amount of when and how stamina was used. As a result, the only way to gauge stamina was through gameplay. We realized that it was a source of inconvenience, and decided to take the following steps to improve on this matter.

> All Jump actions will use the same amount of stamina
10 stamina will be consumed when performing all jump actions: jumping on the spot, jumping when moving, and jumping when sprinting. Currently, the amount of stamina consumed within each type of jump was different even though they were all a part of the jump action. And a different set amount of stamina was consumed when stamina was below a certain level. This update aims to eliminate the inconvenient aspects of unnecessary stamina use by unifying the consumption levels.

> Stamina no longer recovers when using skills
Currently, stamina is recovered even when heroes use the same skills (charge, slash, etc.) and some skills do not recover stamina.
This system was originally designed after having considered the unique traits of each hero. However, with the balance patches being performed, we felt that it made things unfair between heroes. So we have come to the solution that heroes will no longer recover stamina when using skills.

> Cover more grounds with less stamina
Players will now only use 1/10 of their stamina when sprinting compared to before, which will allow them to cover more grounds. Also, players will switch to a non-combat sprint (tentatively) when sprinting for a certain amount of time to move faster.

We believe that stamina management will play a big role in battle outcomes when these features get added.



This concludes the concerns and the solutions on these matters.

We decided that these changes needed to be thoroughly evaluated, and the reason why the maintenance was postponed to March 25 (Fri).

We understand that large changes in the middle of the season can be inconvenient. But as announced earlier at the start of the season, our focus is purely on introducing more diversity to the Arena, so we ask for your understanding in this matter.

The Shadow Arena team will continue working towards bringing out the best qualities of our game.

Thank you.

We will be undergoing maintenance on March 23, 2022 (Wed).

During the maintenance, you will be unable to access the following services.



[h3]■ Web Maintenance[/h3]
- Maintenance Target: Pearl Abyss Account Website
- Maintenance Period:
> March 23, 2022 (Wed) 02:00 - 04:00 (PDT)
> March 23, 2022 (Wed) 10:00 - 12:00 (CET)
> March 23, 2022 (Wed) 12:00 - 14:00 (MSK)
- Maintenance Impact:
> Unable to use any service on the Pearl Abyss Account Website.
> Unable to log in to the launcher.
* You will be limited from logging in to the launcher while the Pearl Abyss Account Website is under maintenance. However, your connection to the game will not be influenced if you began playing Shadow Arena before the maintenance started.


[h3]■ Fixes and Improvements to the Pearl Abyss Account Website (Updated)[/h3]

- Fixed an issue where authentication would fail intermittently. 




Thank you.

We will be performing our scheduled maintenance on March 25, 2022 (Fri) for our game and website services.

※ The maintenance that was originally scheduled on March 23 (Wed) has been postponed to March 25 (Fri) due to internal circumstances.
We'll be sure to share more details through the Developer Notes scheduled for announcement on March 23 (Wed) March 24(Thu)(Extended).
Thank you for your cooperation.

During this time, the services undergoing maintenance will be temporarily unavailable.
Please refer below for more information regarding the maintenance.



[h3] [/h3][h3]■ Game Maintenance[/h3]

- Game Maintenance Target: All server
- Game Maintenance Schedule:
> March 24, 2022 (Thu) 19:00 - 23:00 (PDT) March 25, 2022 (Thu) 02:30 (PDT) (Extended)
> March 25, 2022 (Fri) 03:00 - 07:00 (CET) 10:30(CET) (Extended)
> March 25, 2022 (Fri) 05:00 - 09:00 (MSK) 12:30 (MSK) (Extended)

- Game Maintenance Impact : Unable to access the game


[h3]■ Web Maintenance[/h3]

- Maintenance Target: Official Website
- Maintenance Schedule :
> March 24, 2022 (Thu) 19:00 - 21:00 (PDT)
> March 25, 2022 (Fri) 03:00 - 05:00 (CET)
> March 25, 2022 (Fri) 05:00 - 07:00 (MSK)
- Website Maintenance Impact: Unable to access all services within the official website






Thank you.

We have completed the stabilization measures for our Pearl Abyss website.

The following change was made during this time:

We will continue to do our best to provide better services.

Thank you.



We would like to inform you that the Pearl Abyss Website will undergo a stabilization process on March 16 (Wed) from 18:00 to 19:00 (UTC+9).
Please understand that logging in through the launcher may not be seamless during this time.

We will do our best to provide you with a more stable service.

Thank you.