Director Choi Seung-hyun: We were so focused on moving forward that we missed quite a bit and fell short in many ways. We hope to show our players much more during this half-year celebration.

Chief Kim Ju-hyung: Despite the ups and downs, we felt it was vital to find time to connect with our players in person. We are currently hosting offline events in Japan, Taiwan, and other regions, and we fully intend to keep that momentum going.

Chief Kim Ju-hyung: Our goal is to participate in every subculture event possible, and we are planning accordingly. As for overseas, Japan kicked off collaboration cafes with merchandise and cosplayers a few days ago, and Taiwan has started as well. In North America, we are planning to attend offline events this summer to host developer meetups.

Chief Kim Ju-hyung: While fun remains our priority, we consider IP expansion vital. We are conducting offline events and merchandise production, and we ultimately want to support the growth of 2nd party fan creations. Various memes and fan-made content already exist, and we are collaborating to make emotes created by famous overseas artists and users available to everyone.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: Planning for 'Sortie' began in February, though the concept itself had been discussed since the very first Great Rift. We intend to keep Chaos mode as a casual experience, while Sortie is designed for players who want to use their save data to enjoy a more hardcore experience. To mitigate fatigue, we are introducing a 'Tactical Delegation' mode to skip through familiar combat sequences.

Planner Kim Ki-beom: Players earn Black Matter by clearing boss stages, consuming either Sanity or Ether. Sanity, our new currency, regenerates weekly, allowing players to earn rewards without spending Ether. We have enhanced the roguelike variables so that even with the same combatants, the allies you meet or your fate changes every time, and we have differentiated the in-game elements like common cards and sparks from the original Chaos mode.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: We plan to show which combatants and save decks are necessary for each major content piece within the system itself. Since the process of creating save data is quite exhausting, we are introducing features like Tactical Delegation to build a more comfortable environment for deck creation.

Planner Kim Ki-beom: We strive for horizontal balance, ensuring that players' favorite combatants aren't pushed out of the meta, consistent with the subculture genre. Aside from the fatal balance issues with Trisa and Cassius during Season 2, we have avoided nerfing characters and instead focused on buffing underperforming ones. We also plan to buff the overall roster of neglected combatants in Sortie.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: Our top priority was removing the discomfort felt in the current narrative. We accepted the feedback that the protagonist, the Captain, felt alienated from the story and are striving to give the narrative more legitimacy. At the same time, we are toning down the overly lighthearted atmosphere to give the overall story more weight.

Planner Kim Ki-beom: While Serenie was about frequent card manipulation centered on homing lasers, Heidemarie uses a dedicated card called the 'Polaris Blade'. After linking multiple cards in hand, using the core card moves all 'Rest'-keyword cards to the graveyard, triggering a powerful effect.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: Seasonal characters will be released during special periods, such as festivals.

Chief Kim Ju-hyung: It is only the half-year mark, so we are cautious about re-runs. For now, we are focusing on Serenie and Heidemarie.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: I apologize for the delays regarding the story. We missed our roadmap milestones because we were refining combatant gimmicks and visual variables. We deemed the previously revealed 'Purification Protocol' lacking in fun, so we replaced it with 'Total War', which we plan to improve as a main content feature.

Director Choi Seung-hyun: We are dynamically adjusting the growth curve based on data accumulated since launch and plan to provide growth resources for new players. We have prepared everything players were looking forward to, including Sortie, Galactic Disaster Season 3, and Tactical Delegation. It is a relief to finally show the features we had been contemplating since the beginning.

Planner Kim Ki-beom: We reached this half-year mark thanks to the feedback and support from our players. Building on these stories, we will continue to march toward the 1st anniversary.

Chief Kim Ju-hyung: KZN's greatest strength is its unique, creative gameplay. With this update, we have improved so much that I am confident we can once again offer the deep, strategic fun characteristic of the roguelike deck-building genre.