Blade & Soul

Blade & Soul will be hosting its North American Region Championship during the upcoming PAX West convention next week. On September 3rd, matches will be held all day with the finals taking place that night at the PAX Arena. Teams will be vying for a spot in the World Championships and a share of the $340,000 prize purse. The funds were raised via B&S fans through the purchase of a special in-game package of goods.

With the imminent launch of Blade & Soul in Vietnam, publisher Garena has produced and released a 12-minute live-action film based on the game. According to 2P.com, the film features some big names in the Vietnamese film industry.

The latest producer's letter has been published on the Blade & Soul site that takes a bit of a look back at the accomplishments of the past year as well as provides a peek into the future. Producer Jonathan Lien writes about server consolidations coming in the near future in order to better facilitate finding groups. There will be two server realms for North America and three for Europe. The consolidation is expected to take place on August 9th.

NCSoft is looking for Blade & Soul fans and esports fanatics to help crowdfund the North American Regional championship. The goal is to raise $400,000 through the sale of a pair of packs for Blade & Soul.

On Wednesday, June 28th, Blade & Soul will be updated with the Irontech Forge that brings about a new dungeon and the news that anyone participating in five 5v5 Titan Ruin matches in MxM, players can earn a costume in Blade & Soul.

Blade and Soul has been out in the US for a little over a year now and players have been responding quite well to the Kung-Fu inspired action of the MMO. While at E3 I got a chance to see what it has in store for players in the second half of the year and beyond. It turns out there’s new characters, new missions and some brand new countries in their eSports finals.

The Blade & Soul team has released a new teaser trailer for the game's tenth playable class, the Maestro. The new hero is set to be released on Korean servers on June 14th. Maestro is a dual wielder, accurately taking enemies down with a pair of blasters.

Blade & Soul has a new blog post packed with the patch notes for the Secrets of the Stratus update that will launch on Wednesday. Players will find a number of significant changes in B&S including the removal of skill trees, the new Hongmoon Training Room, a new 6-player dungeon, a new open world hunting ground and new floors in Mushin's Tower. The store has also been updated with a new voucher that automatically unlocks a level 50 character.

The Blade & Soul site has been updated with a forward look at the next update coming to the game. There are a trio of big changes incoming including an overhaul of skills, a Hongmoon Training Room and Hongmoon Level 20.

NCSoft is making a shift in the pace of development on Blade & Soul with the April 12th release of Secret of the Stratus expansion. Beginning here, the team will be making larger, more ambitious updates on a somewhat slower schedule than before. The shift is to give players adequate time to play through new content, something Secret of the Stratus embodies.

High-end progression is getting some love in the next Blade & Soul update that will feature a pair of new instanced raids. Skybreak Spire and Dawn of Khanda Vihar are 24-player raids that are suitable for only the most geared groups that are coordinated in game play and tactics. Each will feature a weekly lock out as well.

Blade & Soul will be receiving another beefy update on February 8, 2017 with the Wings of the Raven content expansion. Players will be able to take part in two brand new 24-player dungeons, a new Legendary upgrade path and what devs are calling a "new generation" of Legendary accessories.

Blade & Soul is turning one year old and the team has plans to share the fun with players. On logging in, players will receive a special first anniversary pouch filled with unsealing charms, fireworks, adornments, anniversary coins, a cupcake and a special costume designed by a community member. In addition, from January 18th to February 1st, players can grab more anniversary coins by participating in game content including dungeons, daily quests, and more.

Blade & Soul players can check into the game to see the new content delivered in the Ruins of Khanda Vihar patch that is now love. Players take off on a multi-chapter series of quests to discover what is behind the issues affecting the Sandstone Refuge. The quests take players across the world in a journey of discovery.

During G-Star 2016 NCSoft revealed a pair of interesting items for the Korean version of Blade & Soul. Most notably a large update will be deployed which will bring the 10th class, Gunslinger, to the game. In addition NCSoft revealed that the Korean version, which has been pay-to-play will be going F2P beginning next month. The update will appear on the Korean servers on December 14th.