September Update: Pets, Vanguard & the Crypts

Mounts & Pets

• Added 170 new skills across 34 staged pet families, with five skills per family unlocked progressively through stages 1–5.
• Added family-specific attacks, area damage, defensive buffs and support abilities.
• Added Guardian Link abilities that transfer a portion of damage taken by the owner to their pet.
• Preserved access to existing pet skill offers alongside the new staged skills, with additional skill slots as pets advance.
• Enabled refinement for staged pets using Soulites.
• Fixed broken pets and mounts not being selectable for repair with a Blacksmith's Hammer.
• Fixed incorrect handling of dead and broken mount states.
• Prevented summoned pets from being moved into the warehouse.

Dungeons

• Added seven playable stages of Tower of Chaos, from the basement to the summit, featuring enemy waves, bosses and progression between stages.
• Added The Abyssal Crypts and The Nightmare Crypts as shared dungeons with respawning enemies and connected chambers.
• Added 47 gatekeeper encounters per Crypt, including named bosses and Xal'Khor, Abyssal Sovereign.
• Added enemies spanning levels 20–90 in the Abyssal Crypts and 90–120 in the Nightmare Crypts.
• Added PvP outside the Nightmare Crypts' arrival sanctuary, including combat between party and guild members.
• Added Kiki the Demented Jester, a roaming encounter whose defeat opens a Nightmare rift for 10 minutes, with a distinct harlequin appearance and localized names.
• Rebalanced Crypt enemy health by level and encounter role, substantially reducing health for most enemies and bosses.
• Improved gatekeeper skill rotations, retaliation and return-to-home behavior.
• Fixed dungeon enemies failing to chase when attacked.
• Added organized enemy formations throughout Den of Mazes.
• Added connected teleports and enemy formations to Stone Chamber of the Dead, with safer landing positions to prevent immediate return trips.
• Expanded Hall of Heroes access to levels 18–35 and Zeide Raceway access to levels 1–200.
• Restored Ancient Grotto access to levels 45–60.

Vanguard Progression

• Added a 15-quest Vanguard campaign from level 20 to level 90, beginning with the Village Chief in Lagos.
• Added Vanguard Commendations as rewards for campaign progress.
• Added class-specific equipment requisitions at levels 50, 70 and 90, offering a one-time choice of a complete six-piece armour crate or one of two class weapons.
• Added obtainable Lifebound, Armada and Ruinforged Vanguard equipment with matching armour set bonuses.
• Preserved commendations through the level-50 and level-70 exchanges; the final level-90 exchange consumes all 15.

Equipment, Loot & Crafting

• Added Rare Crypt weapons, armour and accessories at levels 20, 50, 80 and 110, with gatekeeper rewards matched to their level tier.
• Increased Nightmare gatekeeper Rare equipment drops to a 60% base chance; Abyssal gatekeepers retain a 20% base chance. Successful rolls award one shared item.
• Added repeat rare-gear farming for characters no more than 10 levels above a gatekeeper. Characters more than 10 levels above it receive one attempt per boss and difficulty every 24 hours, starting with the eligible kill even if no gear drops.
• Rebalanced ordinary enemy loot toward crafting materials and upgrade supplies, with fewer finished equipment drops.
• Added an 80% base chance of one shared equipment drop to standard dungeon bosses, with weapon options for all four classes.
• Added independent crafting material, food, drink, Soulite and protection-scroll drops to both Crypts.
• Fixed level requirements for custom equipment.
• Improved manual and pet loot pickup to respect reward eligibility.
• Moved Turtle's Room boss gold and Rare Turtle Egg drops to a more accessible location and fixed reward eligibility for participating players.
• Added access to Claw and Dagger crafting at the Idamere blacksmith.

Combat & Skills

• Improved skill range checks while moving so valid casts use the character's current casting position.
• Fixed Ice Illusion and Thunder Illusion targeting hostile players during PvP.
• Improved illusion cleanup when summons expire or are replaced.
• Fixed monsters using skills before their cooldowns had finished.

Interface & Quality of Life

• Enabled portable service items to summon their service NPCs, with a 10-minute cooldown while the item remains valid.
• Fixed temporary NPCs appearing with incorrect spawn states.
• Added clearer feedback when player shops cannot be opened because of level, location or channel restrictions.
• Improved reliability when transferring items between inventory and storage.
• Improved cleanup of characters, pets, NPCs and ground items during map changes to reduce stale objects and transition-related instability.