Hello, Masters of the Book, this is Youngmo Kim, Director of ASTRA: Knights of Veda. We sincerely appreciate your love and enjoyment of ASTRA: Knights of Veda, despite its various shortcomings. We apologize for the delay in our communications through developer's notes, as our priority has been to address urgent issues. Today, I'd like to provide further details that were not fully covered in my initial letter. Frequent Feedback on the Balance of Knights of Veda After the adjustment of the [Ignore DEF(%)] stat on April 18, we are preparing for further stat adjustments on May 2. We ask for your understanding in advance and aim to provide an early explanation of these adjustments. Many of you have commented on the change to the [Ignore DEF(%)] value on April 18. High-level players, who primarily farm mobs with high defense (higher levels and grades), have found that [Ignore DEF(%)] provides up to three times greater efficiency than [Attack Power(%)], reducing the value of other options. This imbalance necessitated a prompt revision. It was a necessary step to refine the balance of current and future Knights of Veda and their equipment. However, the significant adjustments disappointed many players, and we sincerely apologize for not explaining these changes adequately beforehand. As previously mentioned, when a specific stat or capability becomes overly dominant, it undermines the relevance of other options, making rebalancing necessary. Ideally, these issues should have been identified and addressed during testing. We apologize for this oversight and assure you that we are committed to preventing similar issues in the future. Upcoming Adjustments on May 2: The issue where the stat increase of the [Elemental ATK] on rings was inadvertently set to half of the intended amount will be corrected. Additionally, a problem where the [Movement SPD] and [ATK SPD] stats were not being properly combined will also be fixed. For rings increasing in [Elemental ATK], the base value for [ATK] was initially set to double that of [Attack Power], but the stat increase was mistakenly set to match that of [ATK]. This will be corrected to reflect the intended design of doubling the stat increase of [ATK]. Unlike [ATK], [Elemental ATK] does not benefit from the [ATK(%)] option, hence it has a higher base value. If [ATK(%)] is kept below a certain threshold, [Elemental ATK] proves to be more efficient, and if it is above that, [ATK] becomes more efficient. Cap Limitations: Furthermore, we will implement caps on the stats for [Guard Rate] and [Reduce Veda Energy Consumption]. The cap for [Guard Rate] will be set at 80%, and for [Reduce Veda Energy Consumption], it will be 30%. [Guard Rate] is an option available only to Knights of Veda who have 'guard' type heavy attacks. These knights inherently possess a certain level of [Guard Rate], making it one of the easier stats to enhance. While achieving 100% is relatively simple, at this level, guarding consumes no stamina, which could lead to unexpected behaviors and problems in various content, hence the need for adjustment. Considering the limited number of knights that can use the [Guard Rate] stat and to maintain competitiveness with other option stats, we have decided not to significantly reduce its effectiveness. Instead, we are setting a cap at 80%, allowing Masters of the Book to select this stat up to the cap or choose other options as needed. As for the [Reduce Veda Energy Consumption] stat, setting it to 100% could prevent any Veda Energy usage, which might lead to unintended gameplay issues. Exceeding specific thresholds could also undermine the effectiveness of other game mechanics like 'Sync Rate,' 'Skill Effects,' and 'Relic Set Options.' To avoid these issues, we've decided to cap this stat at 30%. We understand that reaching this cap may be difficult for some players, but maintaining a balanced and diverse strategic environment is crucial for enhancing the gameplay experience. Character Balance: Furthermore, we will proceed with balance adjustments for specific Knights of Veda in the upcoming May 2 update. Details of these adjustments will be provided in the patch notes. Our aim is to minimize the frequency of balance changes and to focus more on buffs rather than nerfs to ensure a fair and enjoyable game environment for all players. Xanthia 1. Cooldown for teleportation (dodge) will be reduced. 2. The damage from the normal skill "Law of Gravity" and Signature Skill "Event Horizon," was previously distributed evenly, will now be segmented into early, mid, and late stages. The initial damage will be more potent, decreasing as it progresses to the later stages. Albert 1. The base damage threshold on Defense-based Knights will be adjusted to increase the damage ratio (applies to all Knights of Veda with Defense-based damage) 2. The third strike of “Power of Earth” (normal attack) will be changed to defense-based damage. 3. The Veda Energy cost of the Signature Skill “The Roar of the Golden Lion” will be reduced. Atterisee 1. Cooldown for teleportation (dodge) will be reduced. 2. Roll, Roll, Roll! (Normal Skill) - When the animated bear charges, the interval between hits will be reduced, allowing it to push targets more effectively. Damage during the charge will be adjusted accordingly. 3. The Strong Attack charge time will be reduced, and a movement speed reduction effect will be added. 4. Research Pays Off (Signature Skill) will have the “Reduce Incoming Heal” replaced with “Decreased Defense”. - Before: (1) Reduces ATK, (2) Reduce Incoming Heal, (3) Reduce All RES - After: (1) Reduces ATK, (2) Reduce DEF, (3) Reduce All RES 5. The duration of debuffs granted by “Research Pays Off” will be increased. Lucian 1. “Holy Sword of Blessing” (Normal Skill) will have its cooldown reduced and its duration increased. Andrei 1. The range of “Red Meteorite” (Normal Skill) and “Narcissistic Flame” (Strong Attack) will be increased. 2. The damage of “Red Meteorite” (Normal Skill) and “Narcissistic Flame” (Strong Attack) will be increased. Yanko 1. Scaling for “Mechanic Arrow” (Basic Attack) will be increased. 2. Scaling for “Weakness Calculation” (Strong Attack) will be increased. Orlik 1. The base damage threshold on Defense-based Knights will be adjusted to increase the damage ratio (applies to all Knights of Veda with Defense-based damage. 2. The third strike of Orlik’s Strong Determination (Normal Attack) will be changed to Defense-based damage. Leon 1. The base damage threshold on Defense-based Knights will be adjusted to increase the damage ratio (applies to all Knights of Veda with Defense-based damage. 2. The third strike of Leon’s “Justice!” (Normal Attack) will be changed to defense-based damage. Arena Balance: Additionally, since launch, many Masters of the Book have enjoyed participating in Arena, and we have been closely monitoring the sentiment that Melee Knights of Veda are at a disadvantage compared to ranged Knights of Veda. The matches between melee and ranged are finely balanced, with the low stagger and tenacity of ranged Knights vs the high stagger and tenacity of melee ones playing a key role in balancing between the two. However we are aware of the disadvantages that melee Knights of Veda can run into, especially when facing highly specialized and effective ranged knights in the active 3v3 arena. Currently, we are balancing the tenacity values of melee Veda Knights, and we are considering reducing the duration of stagger when it occurs repeatedly upon being hit. We are striving to obtain balanced test results, and update as quickly as possible. Once again, we feel a heavy responsibility for not predicting these situations earlier, and apologize for any inconvenience caused. The 50/50 Issue We’ve received a lot of feedback regarding the topic of the 50/50 not being shared across pickup character banners. The development team heavily underestimated the impact that having this focused on one character instead of both would have. We have listened to your feedback, and the 50/50 will be shared across multiple banners starting from the May 2 update. Inconvenience associated with forming parties We plan to introduce an automatic matching feature to streamline party formation without needing friend requests, allowing for quick re-invitations of previous party members. We aim to launch this update by May 16 and will provide a detailed schedule in due course. We sincerely apologize for any shortcomings and assure you of our commitment to continually enhancing the game. We are dedicated to promptly addressing your feedback and understand the frustration and disappointment caused by ongoing issues and balance adjustments. To address this, we have prepared a small login event as follows: From April 24 to May 2, participants will receive 200 Starstones daily, amounting to a total of 1,600 Starstones over the eight days. Thank you for your understanding and support. Best regards, Youngmo Kim

Hello, Masters of the Book. I'm Youngmo Kim. Entering the third week following the launch of ASTRA: Knights of Veda on April 2nd, I want to emphasize that delivering excellent content and service remains our utmost priority. Despite our efforts, both the development team and our publishers HYBE IM acknowledge there have been shortcomings, particularly in addressing user inconveniences and our communication. We are committed to attentively listening to every piece of feedback provided by our players on Discord and other community platforms. While we wish to respond to everyone's feedback individually, some responses and decisions require more time, and we apologize for any delays in communication. We apologize for the recent update that decreased the efficiency of the ignore-defense option and reduced the capabilities of Capecchi. We understand this has caused significant frustration for users who invested time and resources into developing their characters. In a game where collecting characters is key, it is our responsibility to ensure thorough testing, and we regret that we fell short. We will issue further details on the adjustments to character balance, options, and stats through an additional developer's note this week. Unlike previous practices, we will provide these details well in advance of the next update, ensuring there's ample time for community feedback. An upcoming developer note will also address the heavily discussed topic of the Character rate-up events, and the potential improvements we can make to them. Additionally, the upcoming developer's note will address the frequently discussed topics of the 50/50 system on the Event Call of the Stars and potential improvements we can make to it. Actions speak louder than words. We are committed to addressing the areas of discomfort you've experienced and will continue to make visible improvements, even if progress seems slow at times. We promise to do our utmost with all the resources at our disposal. This coming update on April 25th will focus on implementing changes based on the continuous feedback we've received. We are always doing our best to improve your experience with each update we roll out. The maximum number of shoes will be increased from 160 to 240, and the recharge time for one shoe will be reduced from 8 minutes to 6 minutes. The support Knights will also be modified, bringing the level range from -5 to +2 up to -5 to +5. We also intend to make some changes to Veleno, the Knight of Veda added last week. ● Regular attacks and signature skills will be modified so she doesn’t track backwards. ● The projectile range of Veleno’s strong attack will increase by 33%. ● Veleno’s Strong attack will penetrate one target when charged to the second stage. ● During Auto-battle, the Knight of Veda 'Veleno' will maintain a certain distance from the target and use normal skills. Changes to Option Stats: ● The baseline value for DoT damage will increase by a factor of 2.33 compared to its previous value (Example: 9%>21%). Additionally, there are a lot of things that we can improve on, such as the shortcomings of the party system, lack of content, insufficient on-time rewards and the lack of events. We want to make corrections and improvements as quickly as possible, but we will prioritize the most important issues and then work through everything sequentially. We’re working hard to prepare announcements of major content updates that we have planned for the future, and once we’re ready, we will make sure to announce it without hesitation. Once again, I apologize for the shortcomings of ASTRA: Knights of Veda so far, and we want to ensure that we can live up to your enthusiasm for the game. Thank you

Hello, Masters of the Book, I am Youngmo Kim, the director of ASTRA: Knights of Veda. We apologize once again for the delay in addressing the various issues that have inconvenienced your gameplay experience since our launch. The volume of issues and the potential side effects they could cause have necessitated careful and thus time-consuming corrections. The maintenance on April 11th focused on addressing the most urgent issues and critical errors that could impact game balance, identified since our launch. Despite our previous notice, we've had to make difficult decisions regarding errors causing some Knights of Veda to operate differently from our development intentions. These changes, we know, affect the gameplay you've become accustomed to, and after much deliberation, considering the long-term service of the game, we found it necessary to proceed with these corrections. Once more, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Going forward, we are committed to resolving errors as swiftly as possible and will continue to offer satisfactory service through regular character balance patches and updates. We will announce the regular update schedule and further details shortly. We're closely examining all community feedback and game data related to character balance to align with a direction that you, our players, find reasonable. Moreover, we will intensify our internal testing to prevent balance issues caused by bugs. While we initially announced that the first regular update was scheduled for April 25th, we've opted to advance it to April 18th. Further details will be shared as soon as they're available. To express our gratitude for your patience as we work through these issues, we've arranged a small token of appreciation: - Adventurer's Shoes: 160 - Adventurer's Records: 20 - Weathered Refining Stones: 20 - Starstones: 200 * You have until Wednesday, 4/17 7:59 AM (PDT)/ 02:59 PM (UTC) to collect the rewards. We're excited to unveil new content updates and reconnect with you on April 18th. Thank you.

Masters of the Book, This is Flint’s development team for ASTRA: Knights of Veda. As winter fades and a new season approaches, we're thrilled to share the forthcoming launch date for "ASTRA: Knights of Veda." We sincerely appreciate the patience and excitement that all of you who are eagerly anticipating the game's release have shown. Today, we're here to update you on the final development strides, particularly regarding improvements to the economic system and rewards. Enhanced Farming Location Information In "ASTRA: Knights of Veda," materials required for improving your characters and weapons are crucial for progress. As these items are scattered across the lands of Planis, we've prioritized making this information more accessible. Through the ‘Adventure Guide’, you can now easily see drop information for all areas. Clicking on any item in the Adventure Guide will take you to the stages you can get them, streamlining your farming experience. We've also refined the routes to align with character progression, ensuring a smoother and more engaging leveling experience. Adjustments to the drop rates and quantities of key items aim to minimize grinding stress, offering multiple ways to obtain materials. This flexibility allows for a tailored farming strategy based on your character's current development stage. Material Acquisition Through Event Dungeons In addition to regular adventures, you can acquire various materials through event dungeons that occur frequently in the Adventure Zone. Gold can be acquired through the Calydon dungeon, and ores can be obtained through the mine dungeon. Make sure to check these event dungeons out, as we work on preparing even more event dungeons for you to explore in the future. Material Acquisition Through Various Missions There has been a lot of feedback that the rewards for missions are insufficient and the types of rewards are the same, making the choice meaningless. In response, we've diversified the rewards for different types of missions and increased the quantities so that players can choose missions based on the materials they need. Multiple Ways to Earn Starstones In "ASTRA: Knights of Veda," Starstones are a very important resource for acquiring characters and equipment. The feedback was that the first clear rewards for adventure dungeons were insufficient. In response, we’ve placed Starstones as rewards for clearing a stage for the first time and Starstones can also be earned by collecting trophies from adventure dungeons. You can also earn Starstones by completing a variety of achievements. Increased Drop Rate for Relics and Addition of Relic Enhancement Materials We recognized that it was difficult for players to collect and enhance relics, one of the key items in "ASTRA: Knights of Veda," due to their low drop rates. To improve this aspect of the game, we've boosted the drop rates of relics and added specialized enhancement materials, simplifying the process of setting up their relics. Additionally, we've converted essential materials from random drops to guaranteed drops, allowing players to plan their farming strategies more effectively. Implementing Auto-Play The "ASTRA: Knights of Veda" development team has made a pivotal enhancement based on comprehensive testing: the integration of auto-play. This addition aims to streamline game access and alleviate the tedium of repetitive farming, ensuring that gameplay remains engaging without compromising its depth. Auto-play manages the routine combat activities, but players will need to thoughtfully engage in character selection and timely dodging to navigate the challenges effectively. While auto-play simplifies routine battles, strategic manual control remains essential for navigating the game's more challenging content, such as Nightmare Dungeons and Sealed Prisons, ensuring that the thrill of hands-on gameplay is preserved. This feature significantly reduces grind fatigue, allowing players to enjoy the rich storyline and diverse content more comfortably. Note that the Arena, a core aspect of "ASTRA: Knights of Veda's" action-oriented gameplay, will continue to require manual control to maintain fairness and the integrity of competitive play. Since the last FGBT, we've listened to quite a bit of feedback and made improvements accordingly, and now we're just waiting for you to see it for the first time. "ASTRA: Knights of Veda" is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of "Dragon Blaze," marking it as a milestone project filled with enthusiasm and dedication from the development team. We have poured our hearts into crafting a game that lives up to your expectations and garners your continued support. We’re incredibly excited to welcome you to the lands of Planis on April 2, 2024! We hope that the game brings you as much joy as we’ve had crafting it over the years. Thank you for your continued support. Warm regards, The "ASTRA: Knights of Veda" Development Team and Kim Youngmo