Welcome back, soldiers! Archer here, and I hope you've all been doing well lately. Before I begin this month's update, I'd also like to take a moment to thank you for your continued support! It means a lot— not just to me, but also to the other members of our team!

Anyway, today I'd like to provide some updates on character development, combat mechanics, and abilities. After many internal discussions and lots of testing, we've changed a few things to let you—the player—have more control over builds, strategy, and things of that nature!

1 . DEVELOPMENT POINTS
The first change we've made is that, instead of receiving 1-3 development points at random each time they level up, characters will now always receive 3. On top of helping with balance, this predictability should give players a bit more choice in the roles those characters fulfill.

The current stats and their effects are as follows:

STR – Boosts your ATK and Max HP.
VIT – Increases your Max HP, DEF, and MDEF.
AGI – Raises your Evasion, ACT (speed in turn-based battles), Grid Movement Range, and Attack Speed.
DEX – Boosts your HIT, ATK, ACT, and chance to CRIT.
WIS – Increase your MATK, MDEF, and Max MP.
LUK – Raise BLOCK Chance, CRIT Chance, and Crafting Chance.
2 . COUNTERS and DOUBLE ATTACKS
Units always counter once they are attacked—though some abilities can prevent it from happening.

A unit's chance to attack twice, meanwhile, is based on Attack Speed. Two things affect this statistic: AGI-lity (50% of AGI is added to Attack Speed) and equipment. For an example of the latter, heavy armor—or an incredibly powerful weapon—might lower a character's Attack Speed. In contrast, choosing lighter gear might raise it. Remember to adjust your equipment based on the character's role, and you should be fine!

Anyway, if the unit's Attack Speed is 1.5x higher than the target's, they will attack two times. You can see this displayed alongside other pre-battle information when you select a target—such as in the image below.

Beware, though: if an enemy's Attack Speed is higher than your unit's, they get to attack twice instead!

These situations play out as follows:

A) Allied Unit's Attack -> Enemy's Counter -> (If the ally's Attack Speed is 1.5x higher than the enemy's] Ally's Second Attack.
B) Enemy's Attack -> Ally's Counter -> (if enemy's Attack Speed is 1.5x more than the ally's] Enemy's Second Attack.
3. HERO ABILITIES AND BATTLE TYPES
As you may recall from the game's Kickstarter campaign, War of Ashird has two distinct combat systems. Naturally, some heroes will be better suited to the more strategic "Grid Battles"—while others are more proficient at fighting challenging foes in their turn-based counterparts.

To reflect this, not all abilities will work in both! Some will only function in Grid Battles, some only in Turn Battles, and some in both. Therefore, it's important you get to know your units by checking their skills! Doing so could be the difference between good and poor party composition—which also means it could be the difference between life and death.

4. ACQUIRING ABILITIES
The in-game Skill Tree has 2 types of skills - active and passive. Red ones are active skills and provide permanent benefits. Green ones, meanwhile, are passive skills that must be equipped. In order to balance War of Ashird's combat, you can only equip 5 passive skills at a time. Yes, you read that correctly: only the 5 you have equipped will grant you bonuses in combat!

That said, our team isn't cruel. You can change these abilities as often as you like, since we believe this allows players to experiment and find solutions that work for them. Some enjoy equipping stat boosts and turning their characters into powerhouses that way; others, meanwhile, like unique skills with lots of functions; and some brave souls will undoubtedly try challenge runs like "full passives" or "no passives at all." Each of these routes is perfectly valid!

5. ART, 3D MODEL, & SIGN-OFF!
Unfortunately, that's all the character growth-related news I have to share with you today. I hope I've managed to pique your interest—and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the refinements we've made! Like always, please don't hesitate to leave comments below.

Before I sign off, however, it's time for our monthly traditions!

First and foremost, our artists, Hai-san, and Satchely-san are working hard on various illustrations. We'd love to share one of the latest sketches with you today!

(Pictured above: Ingrid during one of her character events!)
Sadly, we were unable to share a 3D model with you all last month—as doing so could've spoiled our game and violated NDAs. That said, this month's is perfectly fine to! Without further delay, we'd like to present an updated version of Mayumi's older brother, Tadahisa Shimazu.

Like always, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well!

Thank you for your time and support. We hope you've all had an amazing summer—and that you're looking forward to autumn!

- Archer.

If you'd like to keep up to date with War of Ashird, you can follow us on social media or join our Discord server!

Kumiho Soft Twitter (EN): https://twitter.com/KumihoSoftENG
War of Ashird Official Website: https://www.kumihosoft.com/
Igrasil Studio Official Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/igrasilstudio