It has been a while since our last Monthly Update. With CBT2 getting closer, we want to take a moment to share what the team has been working on and why these changes matter for the next stage of Rune Hero.
This update is mainly about giving players more ownership, more personality, and a smoother daily experience. Some of these systems come directly from what we observed during Season 0, while others are part of our longer-term direction for making Rune Hero feel more native to Web3.
Open NFT Minting
In the past, new NFT collections were usually obtained through direct purchase. That approach is familiar, but for Rune Hero, we do not think it fully reflects what a Web3 game can be.
We want future assets to feel more connected to player actions. Going forward, players will be able to obtain the materials needed for minting through gameplay, then use those materials to mint their own NFTs.
This means an NFT will not only be something a player buys. It can also become something shaped by time spent in the game, by effort, and by the choices players make along the way.
Skin System
Across previous tests, tens of thousands of players entered the world of Rune Hero. But one issue kept standing out to us: players could not easily see what made their characters different from others.
When everyone looked almost the same in the main city, the world felt less alive than it should. A character should carry some sense of identity, especially in a game where equipment, progression, and ownership all matter.
To improve this, we have built the first version of the skin system. When players equip some equipment, their character can now display a unique appearance based on that set.
This is only the beginning. In the future, we plan to separate cosmetics from equipment and build a dedicated appearance system. Our goal is to give players more ways to express themselves and feel that their character belongs to them.
Lucky Totem
Season 0 also helped us see a deeper economic issue. In the middle and later stages of the season, high-quality equipment started to become too common. Since equipment did not have enough long-term consumption, PvE players could gradually lose motivation, which would put pressure on the entire game economy.
To address this, we are introducing the Lucky Totem.
The Lucky Totem gives players a Luck attribute, which affects the drop rate of high-quality equipment in dungeons. The higher a player’s Luck, the better their chance of receiving stronger equipment drops.
Players can also upgrade their Lucky Totem to gain more Luck. We hope this creates a clearer progression path for PvE players while helping high-quality equipment remain meaningful over time.
Nightmare Dungeons
Another common piece of feedback from Season 0 was that daily gameplay could take too much time. We do not want Rune Hero to feel like a checklist that demands too many hours every day.
To make daily play more flexible, we are adding Nightmare difficulty dungeons.
Nightmare dungeons consume more Energy and provide greater rewards, allowing players to spend their daily resources more efficiently. At the same time, they come with harsher penalties. For example, players can only revive once in these dungeons.
Greater rewards should come with real risk. For players who want a faster, more intense dungeon experience, Nightmare difficulty will offer a new option.
Exchange Store
We have also added a new Exchange Store to the game. At the moment, it supports exchanges for Celestial Stones.
Celestial Stones are connected to orange weapon crafting, so this gives players another way to work toward their own exclusive orange weapons. We want important progression goals to feel challenging, but also understandable and reachable through more than one path.
Damaged Crystals
Crystals are an important source of Energy in Rune Hero, but we know that new players may not fully understand the relationship between gameplay, Energy, and NFT assets when they first arrive.
To make the early experience easier to approach, we are adding Damaged Crystals as a guaranteed entry-level option.
New players can use Damaged Crystals to gain more early Energy, learn the game systems, and better understand how Crystals work. After that, they can decide whether they want to rent Crystals from the market or purchase NFT assets.
Improvements
Since the end of Season 0, we have collected dozens of bug reports and optimization suggestions from players.
Alongside the larger systems above, we reviewed that feedback one by one and fixed or improved most of the issues that had a clear impact on the player experience. These changes may not all appear as major features, but they are important for making CBT2 feel smoother, clearer, and more comfortable to play.
What’s Next
Our focus now is to prepare these systems for CBT2 and continue refining them through player feedback.
Open minting, skins, Lucky Totems, Nightmare dungeons, the Exchange Store, and Damaged Crystals all point toward the same goal: making Rune Hero more player-driven, more expressive, and healthier as a long-term game economy.
Thank you for staying with us through each test and each iteration. We will keep shaping these ideas into a better experience, one update at a time.