Massive improvements to surface, more choices from bonus recruit, only two IPs next year… more will be said soon
I’m aware this is quite late, but I was busy, sorry!
Anyway, thankfully, this developer note is not entirely complete. More will be contained in the NEXT one.
- Massively improved Surface Exploration content
- Increased map movement movement
- Increased movement speed out of combat
- No daily limit on deployments
- Ease of use Improvements
- Improve mobile controls
- Better touch logic input implemented
- Ease of gameplay
- Limit how much is possible in the early game so that there isn’t pressure to do it all at once
- Reduce power requirements of occupation missions (i.e. Gateway battles)
- Reduce HP of Tyrant-class Raptures (field bosses)
- No more batteries! A captured area is permanent with no defense required.
- Revamped hospital use (what this entails will be seen soon)
- Materials shifted to mostly create hexacode blocks, for more stats.
- Increased map movement movement
- Only two IP collabs this year
- Something to note is that they referred to only 3 collabs in 2025, even though in reality, we had 3 collabs + 2 reruns. Perhaps we’ll still have reruns?
- Rapi: Red Hood confirmed rerunning for New Year 2026
- Bonus Recruit expanded
- Claimable Nikkes: Liter, Naga, Alice → Liter, Naga, Alice, Helm, Tia
- Expanded to end next year. (or will it get expanded again, then?)
- Maximum redeemable points increeased from 600 points (6 claims) to 1,000 points (10 claims)
- Something to note is that this doesn’t come with a points reset. If you already claimed 6, you will not get the claim an additional 6 plus 4 more from the expanded points earning.
- It also says that users that earned more than 600 will retroactively be given points earned after the 600 mark, allowing them to be usable for the next 4 claims.
Rest in Peace, Inherit… our Goddesses of Victory. Don’t let their deaths be in vain.
Dear Commanders.
I’m Hyungsuk Yoo, the director of GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE.
Before we knew it, the cold wind began to blow, and winter was in the air.
I’ve been struggling with a cold for quite some time already. I hope you all take care of yourself, stay healthy, and don’t catch a cold.
Around the anniversary and New Year, we usually present our content through programs instead of developer’s notes. Even so, since it’s the end of the year, I felt I should at least greet everyone, so I decided to write something. The developer’s note this time may be a bit ordinary, but I want to briefly share my thoughts about our recent and upcoming updates.
You can read it at your leisure, no pressure at all.
About the 3rd Anniversary
NIKKE’s live service operates on a structure where multiple events are developed simultaneously. At the moment, the mini game for the 3.5th anniversary is under development, and the story for the 4th anniversary is being written.
It took around 8 months to prepare for the 3rd anniversary from the initial development phase. Including the story synopsis, the overall preparation spanned about a year. We had plenty of materials ready for both inside and outside the game, so this felt like the most challenging update we’ve had. Handling so many materials leads to issues, so we’re doing our best to check meticulously.
We will continue to treat all updates with the same attitude in the future and do our utmost to bring you satisfactory content.
Even so, we can’t claim that the 3rd anniversary was perfect.
We’re well aware that as a beta, the promotion of the Surface content was not extensive. Because the amount of rewards was generous, we noticed that some Commanders were pushing themselves to play it. I find this regretful, and I sincerely apologize.
This beta revealed far more areas of improvement than we expected, and we also saw the gap between our intended direction and the actual player experience. So, we are modifying the overall structure to present a more relaxing and convenient gameplay in the official version.
Although there are lots of things to fix, we will draw on this experience and work hard to bring everyone a better Surface.
Planned Improvements for Surface Content
For the Surface content, we aim to reduce the burden from daily gameplay and minimize the pressure on players.
We’re still organizing the list of improvements internally, but for now, let me share a few key improvements.
1. Movement speed improvement
- Significantly increase the movement speed when not in combat
- Improve the utilization of Rapid Deployment (remove required currency and attempt limits)
2. Ease of use improvement
- Improve responsiveness for mobile controls
- Improve touch input logic to reduce unnecessary touches
3. Gameplay pressure reduction
- Limit sector units to hours during the early exploration phase to spread out playtime
- Significantly reduce the occupation requirements for main gameplay, such as gateway battle
- Significantly reduce the HP of Tyrant-class Raptures
- Make changes so that occupied areas are permanently saved when captured (removal of the battery concept)
- Completely revamp the usage of the hospital
- Change the main consumption points for Surface materials from the factory to Hexacode Block production to ease pressure
Other than these, we are currently compiling the list of improvements, and we will inform you of the details and official implementation time. We sincerely thank you for participating in our beta test and sharing precious feedback.
I guarantee that you’ll notice a lot of changes when it goes live.
Plan for 2026
Aside from the Surface content, there are many things we need to improve and adjust.
From memory optimizations to different nearby features and gameplay experiences, we will make adjustments one by one. We are also sorting out next year’s update schedule and will share more details in the next developer’s note.
A quick note in advance: we had three new IP collaborations this year, but we plan to adjust it to two next year. Although there will be fewer collaborations, we want to give more focus to NIKKE‘s own story.
We’ll also put our full effort into preparing the scheduled collaborations, so please look forward to them.
New Year Update
The story for the New Year update is one I’ve wanted to tell for a long time. We want to present it in the best way possible, so I can’t go into details just yet. Personally, I’m looking forward to it very much. Please stay tuned to find out how the story will unfold.
We will share a guide for the New Year program through our official channels at a later time.
To celebrate the New Year, we will be having a rerun of Rapi: Red Hood beginning January 1, 2026. I hope this information helps with your Gems planning.
We will also extend the BONUS RECRUIT period under Ordinary Recruitment and roll out the following updates:
- Claimable Nikkes: Liter, Naga, Alice → Liter, Naga, Alice, Helm, Tia
- Event period: December 31, 2025 → December 31, 2026
- Maximum redeemable points: 600 points → 1,000 points (For Commanders who have already earned more than 600 points, the retroactive adjustment will apply only to the points exceeding 600.)
More details about the event will be posted through official channels.
As always, the year flew by in the blink of an eye. Time passes so quickly that I don’t even realize how it went by. Whenever I think of the amount of love GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE has received in the past three years, I feel deeply moved.
Once again, thank you for all your love and support.
We will do our best for the upcoming New Year event to ensure you all start the year joyfully. We hope everyone wraps up this year on a high note, and please continue to take care of your health and stay safe from colds.
Lastly
※ The following content may contain spoilers for the 3rd anniversary event, GODDESS FALL. Please proceed with caution if you haven’t seen the story.
The 3rd anniversary story was a project full of emotional whirlwinds.
The reason I was determined to tell this story is that I wanted to share these feelings with all of you. I played through the story myself while preparing it, and watching your gameplay videos often made me choke up.
Because to me, it is a deeply meaningful story.
Since the launch of the game, we have never had a moment of rest. As long as it’s a character of NIKKE, no matter their weight or role, from a developer’s point of view, we only see them as someone to love. And because of this affection, we naturally wish for their happiness.
But over the course of story updates in the past three years, we seemed to be caught up in a heroic narrative at one point. Perhaps it’s similar to the way writers who work on long-running series think. So, we felt we had to make a difficult but necessary decision that would significantly impact the direction of GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE, before it was too late.
This wasn’t an easy choice, but we hope you understand that it’s for the good of GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE—and we ask for your support for the scenario team as they carry on with the story.
In the coming days, I will also give it my all and focus on making more interesting and meaningful stories for GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE.
I’ll always keep the goddesses of victory in my heart, with my deepest respect and gratitude.
Hyungsuk Yoo
GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE
Ballsy and probably the correct choice to kill off Inherit. I liked them well enough but they didn’t add much to the story. It also benefited Johann and Cecil and made them more likeable characters. I am happy to hear they are fixing surface mode up a bit, I found the Beta to be downright awful enough to not even waste my time trying to get the rewards.
I read some complains that people didnt like surface mode, idk whats your guys problem i liked it a lot, if anything i was sad it ended so fast cus once you explore everything there is only 2 minute daily to do. Change to battery is good though, i bet no one liked that mechanic even if you had like 3 days to recharge.
I liked surface content too, in spite of its flaws. i’m a sucker for that kind of gameplay.
i can’t wait to see it better.
Hello, thank you for this.
”But over the course of story updates in the past three years, we seemed to be caught up in a heroic narrative at one point. Perhaps it’s similar to the way writers who work on long-running series think. So, we felt we had to make a difficult but necessary decision that would significantly impact the direction of GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE, before it was too late.”
”This wasn’t an easy choice, but we hope you understand that it’s for the good of GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE—and we ask for your support for the scenario team as they carry on with the story.”
^
This paragraph is not a good sign, by turning this game into a bleeding-heart, normie k-drama fest of ‘suffering, death and tragedy’, this is gonna be a repeat of what the devs have done to Destiny Child years prior i.e. killing off major characters, even the MC and the main girls.
personally, i would wait for more stuff to come out, but i agree that this makes it sound like they suddenly had to course correct, even though they were allegedly planning this for months, maybe even over a year.
we definitely have to see more and hope for the best.