EU/NA Retail Client vs the Playtest: What Changed in the Game Data
We diffed the EU/NA launch client against the September playtest: level cap 37 → 45, resets at 16:00, gear stats about 13% lower, 269 items removed, a Season 2 pass.
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This is not an official patch note. It compares two extractions of the EU/NA game client made by our own pipeline: the September playtest (Steam app 4972320, build 25375877) and the retail launch client (Steam app 3393110, build 25624879, installed on September 30). Both report game version 2.0.3.0. Every number below is read from the two datasets; nothing is taken from another site. NCSOFT's own notes are on /patch-notes.
The short version
- Level cap 37 → 45. The client's max level, its world-level scaling and the random shops all moved from 37 to 45.
- Resets moved to 16:00 server time. Daily and weekly ticket refills, the Kina limits, shop limits and season missions were at 05:00 in the playtest; attendance was at 00:00. All of them now reset at 16:00. The client does not say which time zone the servers use; our event timer shows its times as provisional until we confirm it in game.
- Gear got weaker on paper. 3,333 pieces of equipment changed their main stats, almost all of them down: the median is −13.4% for Defense and weapon attack. Sub-stat ranges changed on 4,162 entries.
- 269 items removed, 64 added. Gone: 123 Unique Abyss-rank equipment pieces, cooking food, several weapon skins and the Dragon Lord cores. New: shop skins, the Season 1 starter pack and the Season 2 pass unlocks.
- New social rewards: a set of 12 commendation achievements (six per faction) and 9 titles earned through player endorsements.
- NPCs a little lower: 152 NPCs dropped in level (mostly by 2), while three field bosses went from 45 to 48.
Level cap and resets
| Setting (GlobalSetting) | Playtest | Retail |
|---|---|---|
| Max level | 37 | 45 |
| World level scaling | 37 | 45 |
| Random shop level limit | 37 | 45 |
| Daily and weekly resets, Kina and shop limits, season missions | 05:00 | 16:00 |
| Attendance reset | 00:00 | 16:00 |
| Server chat channel unlocks at level | 10 | 30 |
The reset change covers 20 daily and 37 weekly content-ticket refills, 5 weekly currency limits and 6 reward limits. Times are server time, as the client stores them.
Equipment stats
The biggest change by volume: 3,333 pieces of equipment present in both clients have new main stats. 3,326 of them lost on at least one stat; only 15 gained on one (8 of those also lost on another).
| Main stat | Changed entries | Median change | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | 1,997 | −13.4% | −43.9% to +6.8% |
| Weapon attack (min and max) | 1,186 | −13.4% | −42.4% to +6.7% |
| Fixed weapon attack | 481 | −13.5% | −43.9% to −7.7% |
| HP | 134 | −19.3% | −33.3% to +22.9% |
- The cut is the same across grades: the median is −13.3% to −13.8% for Common, Rare, Epic and Unique gear alike.
- Low-level gear lost the most, up to about −44% (item level 16 rings, necklaces and armor).
- At the top, the item level 102 raid gear follows the median:
Ludras Vernichtungsklinge went from 515–697 to 446–604 weapon attack, and
Ludras Herz from 242 to 210 (−13.2%).
- The few gains: the item level 86 Abyssal armor (HP +10.3% to +22.9%, Defense up to +6.8%), the item level 70 Argo armor (HP +6.1%) and one mace (+6.7% weapon attack).
- 235 items changed their item level (76 went from 43 to 42; 38 crafted pieces from 33 to 35), and 10,892 rows of the enchant bonus table (20,188 values) changed with them.
Every item page on the site shows the retail values.
Items removed and added
269 items left the client (all of them gone from the database):
- 123 Unique equipment pieces: the Guardian and Archon Decanus, Centurion and Tribunus sets (item levels 62, 78 and 94) and a few item level 86 pieces.
- 110 usable items: cooking food (Curry Meat Stirfry, Fruit Salad, Conide Pasta and their Artisan's versions), chests, and weapon skins such as the Conqueror and Dragon's Breath sets.
- 36 materials: the Dragon Lord cores (Celestial, Crimson, Dark, Demonic and others, for weapon, armor and accessory), the Crafting Transfer Stones and the Amplify Stone Fragment.
64 items are new, all usable: shop skins (Genesis Daeva, Dreamy Day Uniform, Black Mask,
Flowery and Adorable Young Elim), AION 2: Starter (Saison 1) (Gebunden), a set of 10 title items and the Global
Season 2 pass unlocks. 72 items were renamed, for example "Pre-Register: Pet Selection Chest"
became
Vorab: Pet-Auswahltruhe.
NPCs, quests and skills
- NPC levels: 158 changed. 152 went down, mostly by 2 levels (30 → 28 and 29 → 27 are the most
common). Six went up: the field bosses
Schweigender Dartan,
Seelenherrscher Kashapa and
Legat Lagta are level 48 instead of 45 on both factions. 48 NPCs changed grade.
- Spawn cycle:
- Quests: 33 hero quests recommended for levels 40 to 45 (18 Elyos, 15 Asmodian) now unlock at level 10 instead of 45.
- Skills: 561 skill entries gained an element (423 wind, 91 earth, 47 fire), for example
Zielpfeil.
Edle Rüstung and
Segen des Schutzes have a 2-minute cooldown instead of 5 minutes.
Pets, wings and the Daeva Pass
- Pets: 8 removed (White Dragon, four Baikron colours, Sky Whale, Void and Azure Flame Kumiho),
2 added (
Pet: Stämmiger Hamster and
Pet: Two). 531 of the 2,062 pet stat options have a new range.
- Wings: 6 shop wings were removed on both factions (Bliss, Dawn Mist, Maid Ribbon, Twinkling Tide, Verglas and Woodland Bunny Bag Wings); Void Rending Wings were added.
- Daeva Pass: a Global Season 2 pass, "New Tide", is in the files, scheduled from December 16, 2026 to March 10, 2027 for both factions.
- Season shops: 68 Season 1 and Abyss Point shop goods now limit purchases per server account instead of per character.
Achievements, titles and text
- 36 new achievements:
- 12 commendation achievements, six per faction: "I Have Exceptional Skill", "I'm a Reliable Guardian", "I Provide Dedicated Support", "I Have Great Leadership", "I'm a Helpful Mentor" and a five-star one;
- 18 activity missions, nine per faction (defeat 10 monsters, gather, craft, clear an Expedition or Transcendence, a Sealed Dungeon or a Stronghold, the Shugo Festival, a regional quest and attendance);
- 4 "Daeva Pass EXP" entries and 2 "Inner Achievements".
- 9 new titles, for 100 or 300 endorsements of one kind: Reliable Guardian, Dedicated Supporter, Great Leader, Helpful Mentor, Divine Skill, Unyielding Bulwark, Whisper of Unity, Banner of the Vanguard and Guiding Light. The Content Creator title is now two titles, one for Content Creators and one for Partnering Content Creators.
- Text: the English client has 1,059 more lines (500 of them NPC dialogue) and 7,915 reworded ones, 5,485 of them achievement texts. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian gained the same lines (1,058 to 1,061 each).
Also gone
- The Abyss Rift Zone field event: its map and dungeon records are no longer in the client.
- Season ranking rewards no longer list buffs (3,348 → 2,340 rows).
How we compared
Both datasets were extracted by our own pipeline from the installed clients. The row counts per
table come from its compare verb, run on a copy of the retail database against the playtest
database; the field-level changes come from comparing the raw game tables row by row (same table,
same row id), with both databases opened read-only. Tables that only our newer extractor writes, such as flight paths, are not counted as
changes.
The retail client got a small patch on October 1 (build 25650019). Its own changes will get a separate post once we have extracted it.