First Major Update preview: December 2026
Jay Lee, Lead Game Designer for ArcheAge Chronicles, steps in to preview the first major update, coming in December 2026, and the patches planned for November. He is standing in for producer Yongjin Ham, who was due to share the roadmap this week but fell ill and was hospitalized over the weekend.
1 The Tempering letter, and why Jay is speaking
The day before yesterday the team shared a letter about Tempering. Jay knows that was hard news for many players, but says the support they have received has given them a lot of strength. That letter is covered in Jay’s notes on the Temper rebalance.
Since the Early Access launch, things have been incredibly hectic. Jay says it has been physically exhausting, and that player support is what keeps the team going and giving them the strength to keep delivering updates.
Producer Ham was originally scheduled to speak this week and share the roadmap, but he fell ill and was hospitalized over the weekend. Jay is stepping in on short notice, and asks players not to worry too much: Ham is expected to be discharged soon and should be back at work tomorrow, or next week at the latest. Once he is back, he will share the roadmap as originally planned.
Jay did not want to keep players waiting, so he is here to give an early look. He makes clear that today is not the full roadmap. The first major update is coming in December: first a quick look at what is planned for that update, then a brief overview of the patches coming in November.
2 The Azhra raid
One of the major additions in the December update is the Azhra raid, the next big challenge.
There is an area in the Gylden Ruins that is still hidden from view. Some players have already noticed it: a giant airship is waiting there, and from that point you make your way into Azhra’s nest.
Azhra has a full name, but the team will save that reveal for update day. In this raid, players will earn materials to craft Legendary weapons and light armor. It will not be an easy fight: the Celtak raid was cleared much more easily than the team expected, and the developers are determined to make this one count.
What Azhra looks like, and the challenges that await, will be shown in a separate video with more details. Jay asks players to stay tuned.
3 Female Warrior and the Gladius
Next is something many players have been waiting for: a female character for the Warrior class. Starting with the December update, you will be able to play a female Warrior. The team will also keep lifting gender restrictions on other classes.
The December update also adds the Warrior class’s third weapon, the Gladius. It offers a combat style different from the existing Warrior weapons. Jay hopes players are looking forward to seeing how this new weapon changes the Warrior.
4 Customization Tickets
The update also adds Customization Tickets. Pioneers playing classes with newly available gender options will receive a ticket for free. There is no need to create a new character: you can keep the character you have built and switch to the newly added gender.
5 Profile Customization
Jay then turns to a new way to express yourself: profile customization. You can edit selfies taken in-game and set them as your profile picture, and write your own status message. Beyond combat and progression, the team wants to help Pioneers connect with each other and express themselves.
That is what has been confirmed so far for the December major update. Jay stresses that it is not everything: the team is preparing more content that is not yet confirmed. World Events, for example, are in the works. They are also preparing various quality-of-life improvements and will keep rolling them out; once those are ready to share, he will explain them in more detail.
6 Hard Mode for Celtak and the Crimson Rift
What happens between now and the December update? Do players just have to wait? Jay says of course not. The team will keep releasing November updates, including next week and the week after, and will add new content as soon as it is ready.
First, they are aiming for next week to add Hard Mode for Celtak and the Crimson Rift. In Hard Mode, bosses will be much stronger, and there will be a respawn delay, so each fight will need a much more challenging approach. With the added difficulty come powerful Epic Lunastones as rewards. That is not all: the team is also considering Hard Mode for other POIs, dungeons, and the Hereafter.
7 Quality-of-life improvements
They are also adding improvements such as joining a friend’s or guildmate’s channel, party matchmaking, manual guild join approvals, plot contract releases and party feature improvements. Jay says these are just some of the improvements that will start rolling out next week, and he hopes players will look forward to them.
8 Updates, and a faster pace
In this video Jay has previewed December’s first major update, along with what is coming in November. The team knows players are eager for new content, but first they had to ensure the service was stable and fix issues in the game, which meant some updates took longer than they had hoped. Now that they have resolved a good number of the bugs, they expect to deliver updates much faster than before.
See you in the game.
There is still a lot to improve, but they will keep updates coming quickly and do their very best to live up to expectations. Jay asks for a little more time: they will come back even better. He also asks players to keep sharing their support, feedback and suggestions. Thank you.
Full transcript
Official English subtitles from the video (the original audio is in Korean), lightly grouped for readability. Game proper names are kept as in the official wording.
[0:06]Hello, Pioneers. I'm Jay Lee, Lead Game Designer for ArcheAge Chronicles. It's been a while since I last greeted you on video.
[0:16]The day before yesterday, we shared a letter about Tempering. I know that was hard news for many of you. But the support you've shown us has given us a lot of strength.
[0:28]Since the Early Access launch, things have been incredibly hectic. It's been physically exhausting, but your support keeps us going and gives us the strength to keep delivering updates.
[0:42]Producer Ham was originally scheduled to speak this week, and share the roadmap, but he fell ill and was hospitalized over the weekend. So I'm stepping in on short notice. But please don't worry too much. He's expected to be discharged soon. He should be back at work tomorrow, or next week at the latest. Once he's back, he'll share the roadmap as originally planned.
[1:16]I didn't want to keep you waiting, so I'm here to give you an early look. Today isn't the full roadmap. Our first major update is coming in December. I'll give you a quick look at what we have planned for that update, and then briefly cover the patches coming this November.
[1:46]First, I'd like to introduce one of the major additions: the Azhra raid. The December update will bring the Azhra raid as your next big challenge.
[2:01]There's an area in the Gylden Ruins that's still hidden from view. Some of you have already noticed it. There's a giant airship waiting there. From there, you'll make your way into Azhra's nest.
[2:20]Azhra has a full name, but we'll save that reveal for update day. In this raid, you'll earn materials to craft Legendary weapons and light armor. But it won't be an easy fight. You cleared the Celtak raid much more easily than we expected. Our developers are determined to make this one count.
[2:45]We'll show you what Azhra looks like and what challenges await you in a separate video with more details. Stay tuned.
[3:02]Next is something many of you have been waiting for: a female Warrior character. We're adding a female character for the Warrior class. Starting with the December update, you'll be able to play a female Warrior. And we'll keep lifting gender restrictions on other classes as well. So please look forward to that.
[3:27]We're also adding the Warrior class's third weapon, the Gladius. It offers a combat style different from the existing Warrior weapons. We hope you're looking forward to seeing how this new weapon changes the Warrior.
[3:43]There's one more thing I'd like to share. We're also adding Customization Tickets with this update. Pioneers playing classes with newly available gender options will receive a ticket for free. You won't need to create a new character. You can keep the character you've built and switch to the newly added gender.
[4:09]Next, let's talk about a new way to express yourself: profile customization. You can edit selfies you've taken in-game and set them as your profile picture. You can also write your own status message. Beyond combat and progression, we want to help you connect with other Pioneers and express yourself.
[4:33]So far, I've covered what's been confirmed for the December major update. Of course, that's not everything. We're preparing more content, though it's not yet confirmed. We were just discussing World Events, for example. Those are in the works too. We're also preparing various quality-of-life improvements, and we'll continue rolling them out. Once they're ready to share, I'll explain them to you in more detail.
[5:07]So, what happens between now and the December update? Do you just have to wait? Of course not. We'll keep releasing November updates, including next week and the week after. We'll add new content as soon as it's ready.
[5:24]First, we're aiming for next week to add Hard Mode for Celtak and the Crimson Rift. In Hard Mode, bosses will be much stronger. There'll also be a respawn delay, so you'll need a much more challenging approach to each fight. With the added difficulty come powerful Epic Lunastones as rewards. And that's not all. We're also considering Hard Mode for other POIs, dungeons, and the Hereafter.
[5:57]We're also adding things like joining a friend's or guildmate's channel, party matchmaking, manual guild join approvals, plot contract releases, and party feature improvements. These are just some of the improvements we'll roll out starting next week. We hope you'll look forward to them.
[6:20]Today, I've previewed December's first major update, along with what's coming this November. We know you're eager for new content, but first, we had to ensure the service was stable and fix the issues in the game. That meant some updates took longer than we'd hoped. But now that we've resolved a good number of the bugs, we expect to deliver updates much faster than before.
[6:53]There's still a lot we need to improve, but we'll keep updates coming quickly and do our very best to live up to your expectations. Please give us a little more time. We'll come back even better. Please keep sharing your support, feedback, and suggestions. See you in the game. Thank you.
