S0→S1: what to do before the Paladin arrives

✍️ Alice・愛麗沙

How Season 1 arrived in Korea, batch by batch

Lay the timeline out first. Korea’s Season 1 ran from 2025-09-25 to 2026-06-25, with eight milestones in nine months. The right-hand column is Taiwan’s date projected from the average lag:

Taiwan column = Korean date plus the 444-day mean lag — an estimate; Taiwan may merge or pull items forward (the 9/9 gem revamp came early).

Read three things out of this table. First, Paladin day is only the start. What Taiwan most likely gets in December is the first row: the transformation, the new region Emain Macha, level 85, ★8 runes, new enchants and the cross-season promotion table. Second, the abyss always follows a week behind. Korea opened the season on 9/25 and switched abysses on 10/2. Mas’s last weekly settlement ran from 9/29 06:00 to 10/2 06:00, and if you did not clear that week you got nothing for it. Taiwan will probably look like “one week after the Paladin maintenance, Mas closes”. Third, the real growth line (transcendence imprints, Tabartas) comes seven weeks later. So Taiwan does not need resources for all of Season 1 ready in December. Being ready for the first week is enough.

That is also how this site uses Taiwan dates: they tell you roughly when the next thing comes, not the day. Taiwan has precedents for arriving early (the gem-alchemy revamp, the fashion set values) and for dragging a long time (the guild ship, which opened in Korea on 2025-08-21 and still has not officially opened in Taiwan).

Week one: from 65 to 85

The route in Korea’s official developer note: push the main quest to 82, then run silver-coin dungeons and demon-tribute dungeons for the last three levels from 82 to 85, about 5 hours for the whole stretch. Two things follow.

• Do not stockpile EXP potions. On a 5-hour route, an EXP boost saves an hour or two. It is not worth bag space or gold today.
• Keep some silver coins and demon tributes. Those last three levels after 82 run on them.

Two Lv60 bonus cards change the same day: 파죽지세 and 불굴의 의지 (no official English names yet) go from “guaranteed crit” to “crit rate +10% for 5 seconds”. If your build treats them as core, you will be rearranging it in December. Also, at character level 85 and class level 65 you can craft a master emblem in Emain Macha, one thing you can pick up in the first week of Season 1.

Runes: dismantle, fuse, or wait

The rule

Korea’s NEXON NOW promotion table (2026/6/25 version): three S0 ★5 epics of one slot → 10% S0 ★6 legendary / 40% S1 ★6 elite / 50% S1 ★5 rare; three S0 ★6 legendaries → 40% S1 ★7 epic / 60% S1 ★6 elite. Neither row has a fail outcome, and neither needs a catalyst.

Source: Korea’s NEXON NOW 룬 승급 probability page (post-maintenance 2026/6/25 version); weapon, armour, accessory and emblem carry identical numbers (only the ★9→★10 mythic outcome is weapon/armour only). Three runes of one slot go in, one comes out; an old season’s epic and legendary rows have no “fail” — you always get a rune. That is the bridge between seasons. The Korean wiki’s reading: drop the old rune two rarities (legendary → new elite, epic → new rare), and a success adds a star.

Mechanism: drop two rarities, then add a star

The Korean wiki’s reading is the easiest to remember: take the old rune down two rarities (old legendary = new elite, old epic = new rare). A successful promotion adds a star; a “failure” leaves you at the dropped step. So the 60% “failure” on an S0 ★6 legendary hands you an S1 ★6 elite: the same six stars, but with lower stats than what you put in, and less skill enhancement (the wiki says the stats are lower and the skill enhancement effect is missing; in S1, “all skills +1” only comes at ★7 epic).

That is why the rune you are wearing must not go into a promotion. You are betting at 40% for a ★7, and if you lose, three legendaries have become one weaker elite. The Korean wiki’s advice: move from S0 ★6 straight to S1 ★8; take an S1 ★7 only when its unique effect is clearly better than your old legendary; never swap into an S1 ★6 just because it is new.

Arithmetic: the catalyst ledger

On Taiwan today, fusing a ★5 epic up to a ★6 legendary costs one catalyst per try at 10%. On failure only the rune in the first slot stays and the other two are destroyed, so:

• Ten tries on average to succeed: nine failures each cost a net 2 epics, one success costs 3 → 21 epics plus 10 catalysts for one ★6 legendary.
• After Season 1: the same 30 epics (10 tries) → an expected 1 S0 ★6 legendary plus 4 S1 ★6 elites plus 5 S1 ★5 rares, with 0 catalysts.

The difference is ten catalysts, plus “nine times in ten you get a reusable new-season rune” against “nine times in ten you get nothing”. So: if the missing slot is central to your build and you need it now, fuse under today’s rules; slots that are not urgent can wait for December. You do not need to sell catalysts you already bought. Ordinary promotions still use them (a failed roll is retried once at the same odds, and a success has a 10% great-success chance for two runes).

Arithmetic: how many new runes your S0 legendaries buy

Every 3 spare S0 ★6 legendaries → an expected 0.4 S1 ★7 epics; 7.5 for one. In Season 1, S1 ★7 to ★8 is 10%, and a failure keeps one rune (and also gives unknown rune fragments; 100 of them buy a ★8 legendary you have not owned). That averages 21 ★7s for one ★8. Multiply the two stages and it takes about 158 S0 legendaries to get one S1 ★8.

Conclusion: S0 runes are a bridge, not a road. Season 1’s ★8s mostly come from new content: Bari Abyss rune jars and mystic dice, unknown rune fragments, Tabartas. The value of spare S0 legendaries is “swap a few into S1 ★7s to tide you over”, which is why you should not dismantle them into fragments now. That is the one move that genuinely loses. To count your own, use the season-carryover calculator.

What about prototype runes? A prototype is a stronger same-name version of a ★6 legendary (same unique effect, higher base stats), and the official promotion table does not list it separately. This site’s reading: it takes the same row as a legendary, and because it is stronger than the legendary of the same name, it is even less worth promoting. Wear it until you have an S1 ★8.

Worth a lookSeasons S0→S1→S2: what changed and what you keepKorea has changed seasons twice: level 65→…

Enchants: +170 and amplification (correcting an earlier claim)

Season 1 adds nine new scrolls:

Enchant amplification opens the same day: two stages, at 50 and 200 amplification shards. +100→110→120; +170→187→204; +1.5%→1.6%→1.7%.

The second item in Before the Paladin originally said “stop amplifying old scrolls to +120”. Two corrections here. Taiwan has no enchant amplification at all today (the “amplification removal potion” in the 9/16 maintenance notice was an item mis-sent in the friend-invite gift box, not a system opening). And the Korean wiki states that amplification is a state of the gear: overwriting with a new scroll or using performance injection keeps it; only disassembly or use as injection material loses it (shards not refunded). So once Season 1 opens it, amplification on “the piece you will keep wearing” is never wasted. It goes with the gear when you change scrolls.

The numbers: one armour slot going from +100 to +170 is +70; two amplifications to +204 make it +104. Keep taking White Rose (it has dropped weekly from White Succubus since 9/21). For the two-plus months before December it is a real +100, and switching to +170 on the day wastes no amplification, because Taiwan will only get amplification then.

Abyss: Mas’s last week, Bari’s entry bar

The handover (Korea’s 2025-09-20 notice): Mas’s last run and settlement were 9/29 06:00 to 10/2 06:00; Bari opened at 10/2 06:00, its first settlement was pushed to 10/13, and after that it settles every Monday at 06:00. Bari’s entry requirements are Lv85 plus Goddess Descent chapter 1 plus defeating Krama plus the quest 「또 다른 심연으로」 (“Into Another Abyss”, provisional), and Intro needs combat power 20,000, Hard 30,000, Very Hard 35,000. Bari drops 3205 abyss mystic dice, one tier above Mas’s 1940 / 2232.

Currency (same notice): from 10/2, exchange by hand at Stewart (Dunbarton) or Molly: abyss fossil 1 → mutated abyss fossil 1, red abyss fossil 3 → mutated 5. Mas’s old goods are repriced in mutated fossils. Nothing converts automatically.

Work out the red fossils: 3 for 5 is ×1.67. If you are holding 600 red fossils with nothing you need to buy right away, they become 1,000 mutated fossils at the handover. At this first handover, holding gains value. Watch two things, though. One use of red fossils is the cumulative-spend gate in Molly’s shop (the emblem selection jar needs 1,200 spent in total), and Korea’s notice did not say whether that running total carries into the new season. And this ratio is the first handover’s rule; the Season 2 handover deleted the conversion outright (see the Season 2 piece). So the strategy is: buy what you need now as usual; hold the surplus to convert at the Season 1 handover, not into Season 2.

Raids: two that open in Season 1, one that stays

• Tabartas (season boss, Korea 2025-11-13): Intro entry 38,000, recommended 48,000, overpower 55,200. Drops transcendence imprint materials, magic circuits and Paladin artifacts. Taiwan projection: January–February 2027.
• Airel, Spirit of Wind (side story, provisional name; Korea 2026-01-15): drops its own fashion and Paladin artifact materials. Taiwan projection: around April 2027.
• Glas Ghaibhleann (S0’s season boss) stays for the whole of Season 1 and only leaves in Season 2. Taiwan only opens Very Hard on 10/5, so keep running it through Season 1.
• White Succubus is a side story and stays every season; Korea added Very Hard only on 2026-03-26.

Paladin transformation: every class gets it

What Taiwan’s preview calls the “Paladin chapter” is, in Korea, a transformation system shared by every class, not a 22nd class (Korea’s Season 1 new classes were the Dark Mage and, later, the Knight). It unlocks after you clear “The Divided Choice” (provisional name) in Goddess Descent chapter 3:

• 20 seconds: attack +5%, max HP and defence +10%, recovers 5% HP per second; on timeout or manual release it deals wide-area damage plus a stun. Invincibility frames on entry and on release.
• The gauge fills alongside the ultimate, but you cannot use both at once: while transformed, the ultimate button becomes “release”.
• Once per zone in raids and abyss, reset by sitting at a campfire; unlimited in the field.
• Two growth lines: holy power (permanent attack and combat power, plus attack while transformed) and anti-magic power (permanent defence and combat power, plus defence while transformed).
• Five artifact slots: red, blue, green, colourless and gold. Gold carries an effect tag and only one can be worn; some pieces are unique (no duplicates). They drop from Tabartas and Airel; on 2026-02-12 the level cap rose another 10.

What is it worth? 20 seconds of +5% attack, once per abyss zone. On a 90-second zone fight that averages about +1.1% attack (5% × 20/90), plus the release damage and stun. Its real value is survival (+10% HP, 5% recovery per second, invincibility frames) and the permanent combat power the artifacts add. So there is no need to rebuild around the transformation. What you chase in Season 1 is artifacts, not transformation uptime.

Gems, life skills, fashion

Gems: Season 1 adds an epic stage above Starprism, Starprism S (2025-09-25), and later the Whole Starprism (provisional name, present by 2025-11). Tag damage per line goes 2.0% → S 2.1% → Whole 2.2%. If all 22 gem slots carry the same tag, going from 2.0 to 2.2 adds 4.4 percentage points to that tag’s separate multiplier. Today’s Starprisms do not become useless; you just fuse upward later.

Life skills: processing facility Lv5 needs life force 10,000 (to buy tier-4 materials) and 13,000 (tier 5). That is item four in Before the Paladin, and it has no shortcut. Season 1 also adds golden gatherables (apples, milk, four-leaf clovers and so on). Life force gets used a second time in Season 2: Soulstream sets its output from the whole server’s total life force.

Fashion: Taiwan’s notices already say 3-piece +220 and 4-piece attack/defence +450 (Korea’s Season 2 values), so the Paladin will not double it again.

Three common misunderstandings

“The Paladin is a new class, so I need a new character.” It is a transformation for every class. Korea’s Season 1 new classes were the Dark Mage (10/16) and the Knight (2026-04-23).

“The rares and elites you get from a failed fusion are still S0 runes.” They are S1 runes. An S1 ★6 elite is weaker than your S0 ★6 legendary, so “fuse to ★6 and replace the one I wear” does not work.

“Once Season 1 opens, S0 gear is useless.” In Season 1’s first week most people are still wearing S0 runes. Bari Abyss’s Intro bar of 20,000 combat power is set for “wearing S0 gear, just reached 85”. Real replacement waits until you have S1 ★8s and 3205 mystic dice.

Do now, ignore, and what would invalidate this

Do now:

1. Spare S0 ★6 legendaries and ★5 epics: do not dismantle, do not sell.
2. The S0 ★6 legendary you wear (prototypes included): do not promote.
3. Catalyst fusion from ★5 to ★6: only for core slots; the rest waits for December.
4. Abyss fossils: buy what you need as usual, hold the surplus for the Season 1 handover; red 3→5.
5. Target combat power 20,000 (Bari Intro) and 30,000 (Hard); keep running Glas Ghaibhleann and White Succubus.
6. Build life force toward 10,000; keep some silver coins and demon tributes for 82→85.
7. Keep taking and wearing White Rose scrolls.

Ignore for now: transcendence imprints (they open in November, ★8 legendary only), Tabartas’s mechanics, Paladin artifact builds, EXP potions.

What would invalidate this:

• Taiwan’s Season 1 promotion table keeps the catalyst requirement or changes the odds: redo the two rune ledgers.
• Taiwan’s handover gives no fossil conversion, or a different ratio: redo the abyss ledger. When Taiwan’s notice appears, read the shop table first.
• Taiwan does not open enchant amplification in Season 1: the amplification section moves later, but “+170 beats +120” still holds.
• Taiwan’s showcase window of November–December slips: push every “December” later; the rules do not change.

The full picture across three seasons is in Seasons S0→S1→S2; what Korea changed again after Season 1 is in the S1→S2 piece.