Producer Letter - NEW RISE, NEW SURPRISES + Letter from the Director

---

Hello Milletians! How have you been enjoying your days?

I’ve spent this year reflecting on many attributes of my life, including our Fantasy Life, Mabinogi. Mabinogi is a game that builds upon wonders and inspires people, and it has been a personal motivation of mine for almost 18 years of my life. Listening to the beautiful tunes from the game’s OST and the many beloved BGM remixes empowers one to keep writing, keep drawing, keep fighting. Through years of storytelling and world building, Erinn is a home we’ve built together.

Major changes will be coming to Mabinogi soon. The New Rise update on November 13, 2025 introduces sweeping changes to combat, dungeons, and the ways you obtain power. This update centers on a complete overhaul of the combat and equipment systems. This will ultimately enhance the player experience, as the pacing will guide players through the game with a smoother focus on gradual growth in character and power.

As the numerous changes in New Rise will significantly overhaul the combat and gear progression experience, these changes can be summarized under the following keywords "Growth", "Opportunity, and “Resolve”. Keep reading to learn more about the source of this perspective from our Development Team!

Below is an outline of the many changes that will be implemented soon in Mabinogi. I’m sharing the content below as a broad overview. While new experiences, new adventures, and new rewards await, we are also carefully considering the value and accomplishments in Erinn that have provided “Resolve” to many fantasy lives.

• Dungeon and Dungeon Drop Improvements!
  • Dungeon Revamps for Entry & Difficulty
  • Improved Mechanics and Shorter Dungeon Runs
  • Weekly Limits for Tech Duinn Removed
  • Dungeon Passes Reorganized
  • Rewards Updated and Improved
  • Alby Shineseeker Dungeon Added
  • Neartite + Neartite Rewards Added
  • Subject Theta Removed
  • Dungeon Guide Revamped

• Equipment, Equipment Upgrading, and More!
  • Equipment Rarity Grades
  • Equipment Inheritance to Allow Upgrade Transfers
  • Equipment Disassembly
  • Refined Armor Added
  • New Nightbringer 1H Axe & Healing Wand Added
  • Reforging Tools Simplified, Ranks Always at 1 & Attributes Always at 3
  • Special Upgrade Improvements and Level 8 Increase
  • Removal of Permanently Missable Spirit Weapon Ego Points

• Early Game Flow and Other Milletian Improvements!
  • Adjustment of Milletian Stats, Including Removal of Age-Related Stat Gains
  • Changing the Tutorial Quests to Better Educate New Milletians
  • Milletians will be Less Vulnerable to Stun/Knockback 
  • Easing Chain Blade Skill Unlocks
  • Arcana Swap Anywhere and AP Cost Reduction
  • Dye Improvements
  • Skill Menu Searching and Filtering

Of course, the details of all of these changes will be shared in greater detail with our patch update!

In recent years, Mabinogi has improved the game fundamentals to improve the overall game experience. Many of these changes have hovered around the scope of improving the early game experience, with auto-pathfinding, improved tutorial focuses and storyline progression, and easy clear/skip methods for certain game contents.
The changes that New Rise brings will further deliver fantasy life updates for all Milletians to enjoy, increasing the “Growth” and “Opportunity” in Mabinogi.

With further changes that make it easier for new Milletians to engage with the world, the keyword “Resolve” can guide our achievements freely. Erinn is open for the Milletian to focus on what they’d like, from weapons, to outfits, to pets, and combat and talents. Fantasy Life is always what you make of it, and we want those freedoms to come with lesser burdens and smoother rewards.

Mabinogi will be shifting its monetization method to a fairer model.
Pay-to-win elements such as powerful stat equipment that cannot be obtained in-game are being sold via gachapon. Not only are they some of the Best-in-Slot options, but they can also only be obtained through monetization methods.

Such items are not only undermining the enjoyment of farming and crafting, but also widening the gap between content and monetization.

We want to reduce these restrictions for stat equipment so that there is no longer a paywall for these items. We plan to add a route to obtain previously gacha-exclusive gears as a content reward. There are various other ideas to reduce the paywall for the future, so please anticipate it! We believe that this will allow for longevity and sustainability of Mabinogi in the long-term.

We can’t wait to share more information about the plans we have for Mabinogi.

Starting in November and into the winter season, we will also run multiple events where Milletians can obtain even higher-level gear, similar to our recent Summer Festival! The Arcana Ascension event will be an accelerated event experience to unlock an Arcana talent through a questline that starts before the regular tutorial.

In December, we will release our fourth Arcana update, Arcana: Surefire Solutions, bringing forth the Forbidden Alchemist and Arsenal Gunner Arcana Talents.

For those that enjoy fashion, we will run a rental event with over 2,700 items (hats, outfits, gloves, and shoes) to rent and experience. I sincerely encourage you to find a style you enjoy. Especially, as you’ll be able to pick one of each item to keep for yourself, permanently.

Best Wishes for now and the future, Milletian,

~ GM Mewlynne, who is increasingly enamored with the world of Erinn with each eternal beat.
Mabinogi Producer, Amy
& the Mabinogi Team

---

---

---

Hello, Milletians!

I'm Min Kyunghun, the Executive Director of Mabinogi.

Thank you, everyone, for your loving support of Mabinogi. Today, we'd like to share news about the NEW RISE update and the changes coming with it.

[Fully Revamped Combat Experience]
In the updates coming to you this November, the Mabinogi Team has really focused on overcoming the difficulties in character progression inherent to the game, striving to create an environment where Milletians can grow more smoothly and steadily than they do now.

That said, a great deal of Mabinogi's content is connected to OTHER content in some way. Because of that, we felt it wouldn't have the impact we desired if we just set about improving individual parts here and there.

And so, we're here to introduce the "Full Combat Experience Revamp", for which we've restructured the overall character growth path, trimming away parts that aren't strictly necessary in Mabinogi's present state to offer a fundamental improvement in the game experience.

As indicated by the title, we've made significant changes to the game's Combat Growth Progression. These changes can be described by three keywords: "Growth", "Opportunity", and "Resolve".

Growth: Progressing through each step should be more fun
Our first move was to review Mabinogi's many dungeons and instanced content and select the most essential experiences among them to provide a feeling of naturally scaling progression that's more fun for players. The result is an environment where players can grow steadily through continued effort by acquiring and upgrading equipment whose benefits they can transfer to stronger equipment they might find.

As a part of this process, dungeons that are too difficult to handle without a party have been improved to allow solo players to tackle them on a 'Basic' difficulty. We've also created a new Dungeon Guide interface to help you naturally understand the intended content progression.

Opportunity: Rewarding battles with worthwhile rewards
With the NEW RISE update, we're implementing a new reward enhancement item called "Neartite" to help make the experience of obtaining items distinct from personal character growth. Neartite is a reward buff item similar to Shadow Crystals. If Neartite's buff is active when you open a dungeon reward chest, you can receive special rewards like Broken Magic Essences. We've designed these to be distributed in a set amount per account per week, intended to be used within that week.

With this item, we've created an environment where you can reliably acquire meaningful rewards. If a player continues to grow through this adjusted content progression, they will eventually be able to take on the normal difficulty for "Crom Bás" and "Glenn Bearna." That will open up opportunities to acquire higher value rewards than would be obtainable on the 'Basic' difficulty.

We're also adding a new dungeon intended to maximize growth opportunities: the "Alby Shineseeker Dungeon." With this dungeon, we hope to provide a new experience that Milletians will look forward to playing each day. The Shineseeker Dungeon offers new kinds of enjoyment, such as powerful rewards and a timer that helps players see improvements in their clear times as they continue to grow.

In order for all these changes to be meaningful and impactful, they are being made alongside a revamp in character growth, easing existing Reforging hurdles, and making improvements to the game's hitstun. All of these changes and more are coming to you in this winter's update.

Resolve: Broadening opportunities
For our 'NEW RISE' update, undertaken with both the interest and support of many Milletians, we focused on creating a more defined "growth ladder" for character progression, along with expanding rewards so that everyone can feel the fun and accomplishment of making progress just by playing the game consistently.

However, as stat equipment was largely obtained through gacha boxes, over time that created a higher barrier of entry for new players, and impacted the appeal of dungeon rewards. Overall, we believe it had a negative impact on the early growth experience.

We determined that the way things had become runs counter to the development goals that Mabinogi is striving for, and that we had to improve on this issue before it was too late. As such, we decided to add high-stat gears that have been gacha exclusive before as an in-game content reward.

It is an important step toward realizing the philosophies of step-by-step growth and expansion of rewards that we've striven for with the "NEW RISE" update, the goal of which is to ensure our players feel a greater sense of meaning and achievement in their day-to-day gameplay experience. We're preparing this content to launch this winter, and will share additional details as the update draws closer.

Including the three categories we explained here, you'll be able to find a more detailed breakdown of the NEW RISE update in the Development Notes (coming tomorrow) and the monthly Update Patch Notes.

All of us on the Mabinogi Development Team will continue to do our best to provide a healthy, sustainable environment for Mabinogi where everyone can consistently challenge themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment at their successes.

We'll continue working hard to bring you a healthy, sustainable Mabinogi, and we're sincerely grateful for your interest, as well as for all the love and support you've shown us. We hope you continue to enjoy your adventures every day as we "NEW RISE" to the occasion.

Thank you,
Min Kyunghun
Executive Director of Mabinogi