Developer's Preview #5: September Update

Though summer is reaching its end, the midday sun is still strong in Korea.

However, the breeze is getting cooler in the mornings and evenings, reminding us that the seasons are slowly changing.

Even during this seasonal shift, the heat continues in Summoners War—thanks to SWC2025.

Thanks to your unwavering support again this year, the SWC2025 Regional Qualifiers have been more intense than ever.

The upcoming matches are also adding heat, and we hope you claim all the rewards prepared in the prediction event.

Also, we thank all players who have given their all in their matches and those preparing for upcoming ones.

We ask everyone to stay tuned until the end of the SWC2025 journey, from the Regional Cups to the World Finals.

In this Developer’s Preview, we have prepared details about the update planned for September.

The update includes the Trial of Ascension (Hell) revamp, addition of new floors to Challenge of Ascension,

and the new World Arena content, “Challenge Battle."

Let's dive into the fifth [Developer's Preview]!

Currently, having to achieve challenge objectives on top of the high base difficulty for rewards is fatiguing many Summoners.

Starting with the Trial of Ascension that resets on Sep. 14 PDT, we plan to lower the base difficulty of the Hell mode

and ease the reward acquisition structure and conditions to reduce the overall gameplay burden.

1. The base difficulty without challenge objectives will become easier.

While preserving the identity of Trial of Ascension (Hell) as challenging content,

the revamp will lower the base difficulty and provide a variety of challenge objectives for a more engaging field of challenge.

We are also preparing new enemy teams to match the adjusted difficulty, along with a downward adjustment of enemy stats.

1. The reward structure will be improved.

The final reward (Legendary All-Attribute Scroll) in Hell mode currently requires 20 stars, which means clearing all 10 floors on base difficulty alone is not enough to claim the reward.

We plan to improve the reward acquisition structure, lowering the hurdle for rewards and adjusting the reward tiers, so that the final reward can be claimed by clearing all floors on base difficulty alone.

Additionally, to make clear points more useful, the ToA (Hell) rewards will be changed to a system similar to the Arena's Glory Shop, where items can be purchased with clear points earned from clearing floors and achieving challenge objectives.

Furthermore, these clear points will not reset when ToA resets; they will carry over to the following month.

1. The range of selectable challenge objectives will be expanded.

ToA (Hell) will offer more freedom in selecting the challenge objectives, instead of presenting two fixed goals per floor.

More options mean more diverse strategies and more opportunities to try out unique tactics.

You will be able to set challenge objectives that are easier for you to tackle, or, if you prefer a more challenging experience, you can set many objectives at once and play accordingly.

1. The targets affected by challenge objective effects will be distinguished between enemies and allies.

The effects of challenge objectives that are currently applied equally to both allies and enemies will be clearly divided and applied as either enemy-only effects or ally-only effects.

For example, the “Limits harmful effects to 1 turn" goal on 1F will be changed to an enemy-only condition after the update.

At first glance, this change may raise concerns about increased difficulty, but our goal is to shape an environment where we