Altar of Blood was added.

[Developer's Comment]

As announced at the Heidel Ball, Altar of Blood is a 3 player party defense mode.

After its introduction at the Global Lab, many adventurers gave various feedback on the Altar of Blood. Many found the use of their own characters and skills to be positive, which allowed for a variety of co-op strategies. 

There were also feedback on the difficulty of the mode, questions on what will happen to the Altar of Training, and many others. We will continue to better the mode based on the precious feedback you send our way.

We plan to add a more variety of PVE content, like the Altar of Blood. Currently, one of the only places where you can make use of a fully geared character is out in the field fighting monsters. We aim to add more places for you to feel the satisfaction of making use of your hard-earned gear.

According to records, the Altar of Blood is where sacrificial rituals to Kzarka were performed in ancient times, but was never seen again after it was sealed with the Gem of Balance.

However, Yaz and Orwen of the Secret Guards discovered the last traces of Caphras, the immortal alchemist, in the rubble of a house in Star's End, which in turn led to the uncovering of the secret altar that was hidden within the ash fog of the Blackstar.

You can enter the Altar of Blood after completing the "[Lv. 56] The Altar of Blood at Star's End" quest line from the Black Spirit with a character at or above level 56.

(You can find the quest in the suggested quests from the Black Spirit after activating the Combat quest filter)

The Altar of Blood is a 3 player party mode where you need to coordinate with each other to defend the relic from monsters charging in from all directions.

You can also enter the Altar of Blood through matchmaking, which will match you with other random players on the same server.

In order to join the Altar of Blood without forming a party beforehand, simply click on the button in the ESC menu or pop-up banner to enter the Altar of Blood and you will be randomly matched into a party with 2 other adventurers. 

Please note there may be some waiting time for you to be matched into a party.

 Altar of Blood Rules

The party leader can press the Enter button in the ESC menu to enter the Altar of Blood.

• Party leader may be changed depending on the order of entrance (you can appoint party leader to anyone after entering the altar).

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• After entry, the party leader can choose which stage to start with.

• You cannot exit the party in the Altar of Blood. (If you are forced to leave the party due to disconnection, you will exit the Altar of Blood).

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• When the party leader chooses the stage, 100 Energy is consumed and an NPC will appear.

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• Talk to the NPC in the middle to activate the blood relic, which will consume 20 additional Energy.

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• Upon activation, monsters will appear and attack the relic and your party must defend it.

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• Note that you will take massive damage when you venture too close to the Black Portals.

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• You can resurrect only via the resurrection skill of Witch/Wizard or the Medical Kit if you die in the Altar of Blood.

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• All character HP will recover and all dead characters will be resurrected when the boss is defeated.

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• Once the boss appears, the relic can no longer be damaged.

• Defeating a boss will grant you the knowledge of the cleared illusion, which you need to progress to the next one.

  
  

  When all three players die, the illusion stage is considered a failure and reset with all monsters gone and players are resurrected with full HP. Here, the party leader will see the menu to choose the stage.

  
  

  You cannot use the Campsite, Maid/Butler, World Map, Quest UI, nor the Minimap UI in the Altar of Blood.

  
  

  You cannot gain any Combat EXP nor Skill EXP by defeating monsters in the Altar of Blood.

  
  

  Item Drop Amount/Rate Increase effects are not applied in the Altar of Blood.

  
  

  With this week's release, you can progress up to the 10th illusion. Once you clear the 10th illusion, you will automatically exit the Altar of Blood. More stages will be added with future updates.

  
  

   

  
  

  Altar of Blood Rewards

  
  

  You can acquire the corresponding Heritage of the Forgotten by defeating the bosses of each of the illusions.

  
  

  You have a very low chance to acquire the following defense gear boxes by using the Heritage of the Forgotten.

  
  
  

• Defense Gear Box	Obtainable Items
  Defense Gear Box of Oblivion	100% chance to receive a TRI grade defense gear
  Defense Gear Box of Distrust	100% chance to receive a TET grade defense gear
  Defense Gear Box of Desire	100% chance to receive a PEN grade defense gear

The type of item you receive depends on the grade of the defense gear box.

• You can obtain better items the higher the stage you clear.

•  New Altar of Blood exclusive items were added.

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  • Flare of the Ancients, Dim Origin of Clear Water, Dim Origin of the Crimson Flame, and Dim Origin of Earth.

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• Flare of the Ancients is effective only in the Altar of Blood.

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• All monsters within range will be stunned when the Flare of the Ancients is used.

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• Certain monsters or boss monsters of each stage are immune to Stun effect.

• Added the Altar of Blood rankings page.

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• Added the Altar of Blood rankings menu.

  • Old Menu: Bottom of the ESC menu

  • New Menu: Community tab of the ESC Menu

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• 10 new Altar of Blood challenges were added.

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• Altar of Blood challenges can be completed once per family.

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• Following rewards will be available from the Challenge menu when you reconnect with your character after you defeat and obtain knowledge about boss monsters from the Altar of Blood.

• • If you failed an illusion at the Altar of Blood, you can retry. 

  • A window will pop up with the option to retry the illusion after failing.

  • The retry window cannot be opened once you cancel the retry option. 

  • You need a "Nightmare Fragment" to retry.

  • Retry can only be done by the party leader.

  • Added "Nightmare Fragment", which you can use to retry a failed illusion.

  • If you fail to clear an illusion of the Altar of Blood while holding "Nightmare Fragments", you can consume them to restart at the illusion stage you were on.

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• Nightmare Fragment
  Black Energy Residue x40 Memory Fragment x1	Simple Alchemy