The First Berserker: Khazan ‘Ultimate Challenge’ update launches May 15

Publisher Nexon and developer Neople will release the next update for The First Berserker: Khazan on May 15, which adds two new boss rush modes, the companies announced. A second update introducing various changes, such as a buff to Phantom Form Mode, will follow in late May to early June.

Here is a message from creative director Junho Lee introducing the updates:

■ Introducing the Next Update (May 15)

The long-awaited May update is finally here!

When we wrapped up the preparation for the official launch and began designing new content, the very first keyword that came to our mind was “boss.”

Khazan is a mission-orientated game. You can always go back and fight the bosses that you defeated again, and you’ll still earn rewards. Want a tougher challenge? Unequip your gear or limit your skills to raise the difficulty as much as you’d like. But for this new content, we wanted to create a special challenge—something different from the usual approach.

We had a storm of ideas. Harder. Nastier. More punishing. The kind of challenge that not just anyone could take on. Then, one of our developers said:

“Yeah… I probably wouldn’t play that.”

And just to be clear—this person? (He’s our lead character designer.)

Plays games over four hours a day, has earned platinum trophies in most action titles, and refuses to consider a game “complete” without one. They even love Boss Rush content. (And yes, we have more than a few people like that on our team.)

This was one of the hardest parts of designing Khazan and new content.

Hardcore Difficulty

How do we determine the measure of a “hardcore” difficulty? What’s the point of content if no one can enjoy it? But then again, if it’s not a worthy challenge, which is at the core of our value, is it really the right call?

We knew we wanted something players could challenge themselves with. But we also knew it couldn’t just be hard for the sake of being hard. It had to be fun, something that’s tough but rewarding. A mode you’d be proud to conquer and eager to show off.

Taking all of this into account, we picked two ideas from our brainstorming session. Then came long hours of debate, testing, and refinement. And finally—we found one that made us go:

“This is worth the challenge.”

“This is something I’d be proud to tell others about once I clear it.”

And now, we’re excited to show you those two new modes.

Two New Boss Rush (Ultimate Challenge) Modes are Coming as Part of This Update

Once you beat the game and see the ending, a new menu will appear on the title screen.

Because every boss in Khazan is deeply tied to the story, even showing the boss list would spoil things. That’s why this new boss rush content will only be available after completing the game. (We know there were boss spoilers in a previous patch note—rest assured, we’ll take every precaution to make sure that never happens again!)

The two Boss Rush modes differ in difficulty and progression, but I’ll give you a brief overview here:

• “Great General’s Crucible” – Fight through groups of thematically organized bosses, unlocking the next theme each time you clear one. You’ll fight with designated specs (gear, level, skills, etc.), and completing all of them will earn you a special reward.
• “Berserker’s Bloodshed“ – Make your character stronger with rewards earned from consecutive fights, and push all the way to defeat the final boss. As a final reward, you can earn powerful new weapons and set items.

We’re really curious to see how you Berserkers will actually feel the difficulty, compared to how it was envisioned by the combat designers in our dev team. Please send us lots of feedback! (It’ll be a big help in fine-tuning the difficulty for future content.)

Also, Change Appearance Will Now Be Available Even During Your First Playthrough

You can unlock it by completing the Blacksmith’s Heirloom mission.

For more detailed information, please check out the patch notes.

The Expected Update Date is Thursday, May 15

We’re almost done with the final phase to ensure the best possible quality. As I mentioned before, the update still needs to pass quality assurance and platform certification, and if any stability issues or quality concerns arise, it might take a little longer.

I’d like to share just the fully locked-in contents with you, and I ask for your understanding where this is concerned. We’ll do everything we can to stick to the schedule we announced.

■ Introducing What Comes After the Next Update

Yes, that’s right! I’m about to introduce the update that’ll follow the May 15 (Thursday) update I just described!

Regarding Shortcut Resets and Faster Boss Retry Improvements

Over the past month, we’ve worked really hard to find a way to improve this. But long story short… we concluded that it wouldn’t be possible. I do apologize. This issue stems from my failure to prepare for it in advance.

The improvement itself isn’t complicated or technically impossible. For example, we could simply adjust the reset conditions for each shortcut object. That way, like treasure chests, they would stay open when restarting the mission instead of closing again.

So, why do we think we won’t be able to improve it? Let me give you an example from the Embars mission. In Embars, there are huge structures you can interact with. Each interaction rotates them to block or open new paths. If we modify these objects, the mission will be reset when the updated objects are loaded.

The problem is that every player is at a different point in their progress. Applying a patch under these conditions would cause many players to be unable to continue their missions normally. (In the reviews we conducted, we found that this issue wouldn’t just affect complex missions like Embars or El Ravaca but most missions overall.)

We truly wrestled with this decision until the very end. “After the patch, should we reset all ongoing missions?”

But ultimately, we decided not to. There are three reasons why.

• First, resetting ongoing missions would cause players to feel a huge sense of loss. For example, if I were fighting against Maluca or the final boss and suddenly received a patch that forced me to restart the mission from the beginning… I knew it would feel terrible.
• Second, while resetting missions would improve stability, it wouldn’t change the fact that all content would have to be modified, requiring an enormous amount of testing. NG+ would also need to be thoroughly tested, which could cause significant delays to new content updates.
• Third, even if the reset worked normally, we would still have to thoroughly verify all potential risks, such as save file corruption or progression errors.

In conclusion, although we tried our best to improve shortcut resets and faster boss retries, we won’t be able to implement them this time. If we had been able to prepare for this before release, it could have been handled much more easily… It’s something I deeply regret. I sincerely apologize.

Instead, we plan to add the following quality-of-life features to minimize inconveniences.

• New items added to allow fast traveling to the Crevice or the last Blade Nexus you interacted with: We’ll be adding items that let you instantly move to the Crevice or to the last Blade Nexus you interacted with. These will be provided as permanent items, not consumables.
• Added teleport between from one Blade Nexus to another: You’ll be able to freely move from one Blade Nexus to another activated in the same mission. Interacting with a Blade Nexus will display a list of available destinations.
• After clearing certain missions for farming purposes, you will now start right in front of the Spectral Portal before entering that mission. You’ll no longer have to travel long distances through the Mortal World for a quick retry.

This update will include various changes, such as a buff to Phantom Form Mode.

We’ll share more detailed information in the next Developer’s Note.

We are currently targeting a late May to early June release for this update.

■ Introducing What Comes After the Next Two Updates

Yes, that’s right! This is a preview of the update that will follow the late May update I just explained above.

Since there’s still a bit of time left, I’ll keep it brief for now.

• [Balance Adjustment] Skill balance adjustments for Dual Wield, Greatsword, and Spear
• [Balance Adjustment] Adjustment to set effect configurations
• [New System] Skill Presets
• [New System] Gear Presets
• [New System] Increase Gear Grades
• [New System] Change Weapon Scaling
• [QoL] New Sorting Option: Sorting Items by Name
• [QoL] Storage Expansion
• And… more special contents coming!

We are currently targeting a mid-June release for this update.

■ Regarding Update and Development Progress

After the previous Developer’s Note and patch notes, we received a lot of questions like, “When will Feature A be updated?” and “When will Improvement B be applied?” So, in this Developer’s Note, I’d like to briefly summarize the current development status and plans.

Sometimes, issues that seemed simple when we first received feedback turn out to be much more complicated once we start discussing and reviewing them for an actual patch (as I mentioned earlier regarding shortcut resets). There are also many platform-specific issues, with different problems occurring on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. Because of this, there are still areas I haven’t been able to fully share yet.

However, one principle never changes. Our top priority is always to ensure that players can enjoy Khazan in a stable environment. We make it a point to identify and resolve critical issues as quickly as possible, regardless of how often they occur. After that, we work on improving areas that need quality-of-life updates, one by one, to create a smoother and more enjoyable experience. These improvement efforts are treated with almost the same priority as developing new content.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has shared their feedback and suggestions on Discord. We’ll continue doing our best to reflect your valuable input and deliver an even better experience.

I hope our first new piece of content will be an enjoyable experience for you.

Thank you.
Sincerely, Junho Lee

The First Berserker: Khazan is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

Watch a new trailer below.

Ultimate Challenge Trailer