Introduction

The latest Late Night Talks with Pearl Abyss broadcast took place on 3rd June 2022 and revealed details and teasers for the much anticipated Drakania Awakening.

You can catch the official stream at the following links:

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEExGXSozNsReY3i3s4yhhQ
• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackdesertkr/videos

Drakania Awakening

Release Date for Drakania Awakening has been confirmed to be at the end of July. An exact date has not been announced yet but the current goal is the 3rd week in July.

The awakening weapon concept is two different types of spears in each hand. The spear in the left hand is a peculiar shape and not similar to any other spear-like weapons currently in the game. The developers tried to create a sense of dragon transformation but a shapeshifter was too much for them to develop. Instead they tried to set Drakania apart from other classes by giving her the shape and feel of a dragon, instead of a transformation.

In the concept art, behind the spear is the shadow of a dragon, which is a hint at the awakening. The dragon’s wings are designed to match Drakania and come out when she uses certain skills and actions, as if the wings are moving with the character. This is a unique characteristic to Drakania, but despite the wings, Drakania cannot fly.

Her awakening is designed to use two different fighting styles based on the two different sides of Drakania. Her power switches just as she does between Human and Dragon. You can see the change in some skills depending on which stance you are in, with some skills changing completely in their action, or effect.

Today only the concept and teaser video was shared for Drakania, skill teasers and combat trailers will be revealed at a later date!

Developer Q&A

Notification Messages

Grinding Buff QoL

• Based on regular feedback, there are currently plans to change the way that grinding buffs work
• This is because players feel that if they pop their grinding buffs, they have to grind until the buff ends, and this causes fatigue or inconvenience
• Although Food buffs are currently 2 hours long, there are many other items that have various times or inconsistencies
  • Such as 100 minutes for scrolls, elixirs with short durations, some items using hour formatting and others using minutes, etc.
• Food will be adjusted so that it can be popped for 30, 60 or 90 minutes (just like with other buffs)
• Special foods will be changed from 110 minutes to 120 minutes
• The developers also noted that Elixirs can be easy to forget and annoying to keep checking. The current concept is to make a function that would allow you to automatically use elixirs (similar to the Miraculous Cheer fairy skill)

Matchmaking Systems

• A matchmaking system is being developed so that you can sign up for the Old Moon Grand Prix (Horse Racing) whilst continuing to play the game as normal
• The system will use the same technology that was developed for the Arena of Solare Matchmaking
• There are also plans to add a matching system for Atoraxxion

Central Market Purchase Limit

• A “Purchase Limit” system has be developed for the central market
• This system will monitor the items on the central market to help prevent abuse
• If sales of one item in particular pile up, you will be able to buy more of the item at once
• If there are no sales of a particular item, the central market will try to balance this out by restricting how many you can purchase at once

Node War/Siege Installation

• The developers have created a much easier way to install forts and other node war/siege installation parts (video example below)
• This will show players more clearly where they can install structures and allow the player to move around to make the placement more convienient

Imperial Delivery Weight

• The weight of Item Delivery Boxes will also be reduced by appoximately 1/5 of their current weight (around 10LT)
• This update should be applied to live servers in 1-2 weeks

Wizard Body Improvement

• The wizard default body model has been improved
• This update was much more difficult than making a new class, and it has taken a long time to get to a point where the developers were able to show progress
• Follow-up changes are also needed to correct wizard costumes and animations

Tier 5 Pets

• Almost all Tier 5 pets have now been finished and will be revealed very soon

Ocean Content

• Ocean improvements have been made, targetting the barrer to entry and profits of ocean content
• The profits of Salt Water Crocodile hunting will be increased and balanced so that it can be done solo, but loot will still drop for 2 players. Sea monsters such as Nine Shark and Black Rust will also have their profits improved.
• Ships are obviously an important part of ocean content, but the process to build them takes too long at the moment
• Caravel and Galleasses ships will be adjusted so that they can be built more easily. This will be done by changing the materials needed and making it easier to enhance them as well, by making Verdant Black Stones easier to obtain
• Sunset Black Stones, which are used to enhance blue grade ship equipment, will also be changed so that their workshop production time is lowed to 20 minutes (based on Goblin worker speed)

Restoring Deleted Items

• Lately, there have been many support tickets about recovery of deleted items.
• Pearl Abyss are currently working hard to process all of the tickets and deal with all other problems or inquries for the game.
• There is a function in-game to recover deleted items, but at the moment the items you can recover are limited. More will be added soon and the recovery period will be set to within one month

Guild War Feedback

• When a one-sided guild war breaks out, a lot of players come to the forums or customer services to share their feedback. There are ideas to change Guild Wars and the concept will be shared so that players can give their feedback and opinions.
• First of all, the idea is that a Guild will declare their “type” of guild focus (Sailing/Adventuring/Life/War)
• When a “War” type guild declares war on another guild, it will take into consideration the two types of guilds
• If both guilds are “War” type guilds then the war will continue as it does now
• If a Guild War is declared on a different “type” of guild, then the war will only be conducted if both guilds agree with mutual consent

Heidel Ball Date

• An event is being prepared for July 16th (Sat) where players can meet in person. Rather than a banquet, Pearl Abyss would like to prepare an event where players can join them and enjoy a casual conversation. Details of this event will be revealed through a notice later.
  
• There is currently no set date for the Heidel Ball this year, but it is still planned to take place and will be revealed once it is ready