Seasons S0→S1→S2: what changed and what you keep

✍️ Alice・愛麗沙

The three seasons side by side

“Season” is Nexon’s own word in Korea. The official page for the 2025-09-25 update calls it the first season, and the 2026-06-25 page says Season 2. The stretch from launch to Season 1 is what the community calls Season 0, and that is not only player slang: Korea’s NEXON NOW rune-promotion probability table and the 2026-09-09 rune-rule notice both print “시즌 0” (Season 0). This site’s S0, S1 and S2 are those three stretches.

The Korean columns are what already happened; Taiwan's dates are estimated from the 444-day mean lag. Sources per row are in the per-system tables below.

The thing to read in this table is not any single cell. It is that every row keeps growing and no row was cut. Levels have never been reset, enhancement has never been wiped, runes have never been confiscated. Only three kinds of thing ever go to zero: goods that are sold for a limited time, weekly settlements you did not finish, and the rule Season 2 added later, which switches off old-season rune unique effects in that season’s endgame content. Every section below is the detail of one of those three.

When Taiwan gets it: four measurements, an average of 444 days

Nexon Taiwan has never announced a content season, so Taiwan’s dates can only be inferred from lags that have already happened. These four pairs are the same content going live in Korea and then in Taiwan:

Mean lag 444 days (about 14.6 months). Carried forward: Korea's Season 1 2025-09-25 → Taiwan around 2026-12; Season 2 2026-06-25 → Taiwan around 2027-09. An estimate from four drops that already happened, not a Nexon Taiwan announcement; Taiwan's own showcase said November–December for the Paladin chapter.

The four fall between 434 and 455 days, within three weeks of each other. That is stable enough to use. Korea’s Season 1 on 2025-09-25 plus 444 days lands in mid-December 2026. Taiwan’s 9/9 showcase said November–December for the Paladin chapter, so the two sources agree. Season 2 on 2026-06-25 plus 444 days is mid-September 2027.

Know where the number can mislead you. First, the lag is shrinking: Mas Abyss came 482 days later, Hell 3 came 434 days later. Second, Taiwan does not copy Korea cell by cell. Taiwan’s 9/9 gem-alchemy revamp is a change Korea only made on 2026-07-16, in the middle of Season 2, and the legendary set values in Taiwan’s fashion notices (3-piece +220, 4-piece attack/defence +450) are already Korea’s Season 2 numbers. Third, Korea’s own Season 1 arrived in batches over nine months: Bari Abyss on 10/2, Tabartas and transcendence imprints on 11/13, Airel on 2026-01-15, the Knight class and gem tag swap on 2026-04-23. So “Taiwan gets all of Season 1 at once in December” probably will not happen. More likely, December brings the Paladin core and the rest follows over about six months.

Runes: each season shifts the whole ladder up two stars

This is the part of the three seasons that is easiest to get wrong and worth the most. Korea’s NEXON NOW rune-promotion page (2026/6/25 version) lays the ladders of all three seasons out in one table, and once you see it the rule is one sentence: every season, rarity and star count move up two steps together.

So “★6” means different things in different seasons. In S0 a ★6 is legendary, the top. In S1 a ★6 is only elite. The Korean wiki puts it bluntly: an S1 ★6 elite has lower stats than an S0 ★6 legendary and less skill enhancement. Same six stars, and the new one is weaker.

The bridge between two seasons is the old season’s top two rows. Three runes of one slot go in, one comes out:

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: why this is a bridge and not a road

The old season’s epic and legendary rows have no fail outcome: the three exits add up to exactly 100%. Before Season 1, an S0 ★5→★6 roll was “10% success, 90% failure, and it eats a catalyst”. From Season 1 it is “you always get something, and no catalyst”. That is why the first item in Before the Paladin says to stop buying catalysts.

But look at the exits. Put in three S0 ★6 legendaries and 60% of the time you get an S1 ★6 elite, which, as above, is weaker than any of the three you put in. The bridge turns “three old legendaries you are not using” into “one new-season rune”, which is a good trade. It does not make “the one you are wearing” better.

The arithmetic: how far an S0 legendary goes

• Every 3 S0 ★6 legendaries → an expected 0.4 S1 ★7 epics. 7.5 for one S1 ★7.
• During Season 1, 3 S1 ★7 epics → 10% S1 ★8 legendary; on failure one ★7 stays (and you get unknown rune fragments). Ten tries on average: nine failures each cost a net 2, one success costs 3, for 21 ★7 per ★8.
• 21 × 7.5 ≈ 158 S0 ★6 legendaries for one S1 ★8 legendary.

Nobody has 158 spare S0 legendaries. The conclusion is clear: S0 runes are a bridge, not a road. S1 ★8s mostly come from Season 1’s new content (Bari Abyss rune jars, 100 unknown rune fragments for a ★8 legendary you have not owned, Tabartas). What S0 legendaries are for is “swap a few into S1 ★7s to tide you over”, and “fusing beats dismantling”.

In Season 2 the same structure appears again: S1 ★7 epics and ★8 legendaries become the bridge into S2 (3 S1 ★8 legendaries → 40% S2 ★9 epic). The two S0 rows are still in S2’s table, but they only reach S1. There is no row that goes straight from S0 to S2. In Season 2, an S0 rune is two generations old.

What Season 2 added: old runes that are “still there, but do not count”

Korea announced on 2026-09-09, effective 9/17: the unique effects of S0 and S1 runes are switched off in Runda Abyss (Intro to Hell 3), Kabrak, Airel and Nightmare Drill. S0 runes also lose them in White Succubus (Very Hard). The runes can still be worn, their base stats and enhancement remain, and combat power still counts them. Behind those doors, though, they are only numbers.

Why? After Season 2 started, S1 ★8 combinations (especially emblems with awakening) were stronger than S2 runes, and players would not swap. Nexon first blocked Blessing of Night from stacking with S1 awakening on 8/13. That did not work, so on 9/17 it switched the old unique effects off outright. This rule was added three months into Season 2; it was not there on the day Season 2 began. The full scope and arithmetic are in the 9/17 rule piece (in Korean).

Enchants: scrolls change generation, amplification stays with the gear

Season 1 also opened enchant amplification. Taiwan does not have that system today. The “amplification removal potion” that appeared in Taiwan’s 9/16 maintenance notice was an item mis-sent in the friend-invite gift box, and Nexon took it back. Amplification has two stages, at 50 and 200 shards: +100→110→120; +170→187→204; +1.5%→1.6%→1.7%.

Here is what many people get wrong: amplification is a state of the gear, not of the scroll. The Korean wiki states that overwriting an old enchant with a new scroll, or using performance injection on the gear, keeps the amplification. It is only lost if you disassemble the item or use it as injection material (and the shards are not refunded). So once Season 1 opens amplification, the right move is “amplify the piece you will keep wearing”. Switching to a newer scroll later wastes nothing.

The gap, in numbers: one armour slot going from +100 to +170 is +70. Two amplifications to +204 make it +104 over what you have now. Across five armour slots at the +100 level, the new scrolls are +350, and full amplification makes it +520. This is the cheapest attack you will get in Season 1, because the new scrolls drop in Season 1’s new content.

Gems: the ladder grew longer, old gems did not die

Gems are the calmest line across the three seasons: two stages added on top, and not one value below them touched. Korea’s crafting revamp in the middle of Season 2 (2026-07-16), where single colours stop at rough S and Triple Quartz and Darklight can no longer be fused, already reached Taiwan on 9/9, another good example of Taiwan not following the order. Gem tag swap (1,000,000 gold per pair) only arrived late in Season 1, on 2026-04-23.

Abyss: a new one each season, and a new currency with it

Mechanism: the old abyss is closed, not downgraded. Korea ran both handovers the same way. There is a last week to clear (Mas 9/29 06:00 to 10/2 06:00; Bari 6/29 06:00 to 7/2 05:49), and if you did not clear in that window you get no settlement for that week. The new abyss opens, and its difficulties have to be unlocked again through its own timed challenges. However deep you got in the old abyss does not carry over.

Arithmetic: red fossils gained value at the first handover. 3 for 5 is ×1.67; 999 red fossils become 1,665 mutated fossils. Mas’s old goods (rune jars and so on) were repriced in mutated fossils, so at the first handover you lost nothing, and your red fossils gained two thirds. The second handover was the opposite: the 2026-06-22 notice said that after the 7/2 maintenance both conversions, “abyss fossil → mutated” and “red 3 → mutated 5”, would be deleted, and it only told players to convert beforehand. There was no automatic conversion.

Put the two side by side and Taiwan’s strategy follows: into Season 1 (Taiwan, around December), going by Korea’s precedent, holding fossils costs you nothing and red fossils even gain; before Season 2 (around September 2027), spend them all. The one caveat: only Taiwan’s own handover notice counts. When it appears, read the shop table first, then check whether the currency survives. How to spend red fossils is worked out in the Hell 3–5 red-fossil ledger.

Raids: season bosses leave, side stories stay

Korea has two kinds of raid. Season bosses appear only in their own season and leave in the next: Glas Ghaibhleann (S0) was retired before Season 2 began, Tabartas (S1, opened 2025-11-13) ended on 2026-07-20, and Kabrak (S2, opened 2026-07-16, with a solo mode) is current. Side stories stay every season, with rewards that follow the current season: White Succubus (Korea 2025-06-23; Taiwan opened it on 9/21) and Airel, Spirit of Wind (2026-01-15).

For Taiwan this means: White Succubus will not vanish at a season change. The proficiency and party coordination you build there now still count in Seasons 1 and 2. Glas Ghaibhleann’s shop and tokens, on the other hand, will close after one of the handovers (in Korea, after the shop closed each token became a 100-gold box). Season-boss achievements also get deleted: Korea deleted Glas Ghaibhleann’s on 6/25 and Tabartas’s after 7/20 05:59, so claim achievement support items before the deletion.

Season 1’s new thing: the Paladin transformation

In Korea the Paladin is not a new class. It is a transformation every class can use. It unlocks after you clear “The Divided Choice” (provisional name) in Goddess Descent chapter 3:

• Lasts 20 seconds: attack +5%, max HP +10%, defence +10%, recovers 5% HP per second. When time runs out or you end it manually, it deals wide-area damage and stuns.
• It has its own gauge that fills alongside the ultimate, but you cannot use the two together (while transformed, the ultimate button becomes the release button).
• In raids and abyss it can be used once per zone, reset by sitting at a campfire; unlimited in the field.
• Paladin artifacts have 5 slots in red, blue, green, colourless and gold. Gold pieces carry an “effect tag” and only one can be worn. They drop from Tabartas and Airel. On 2026-02-12 the Paladin level cap went up another 10.

Nexon has not said whether Season 2 removed it, and the Korean wiki records no removal. Season 2 added a separate season skill, Trace of Night: class passives plus awakening skills such as Blessing of Night, which Nexon says will stay until Season 3.

Season 2’s new gate: magic resistance

Season 2 added a second check on top of combat power. Zones have “magic pressure”, characters have “magic resistance”:

• Resistance above pressure: final-damage bonus = 0.5 × (1 − 0.5^((resistance − pressure)/4000)), creeping toward the cap. About 1,300 over gives roughly +10%.
• Resistance below pressure: damage dealt × 0.5^((pressure − resistance)/1000), and damage taken goes up as well. 300 short is 0.5^0.3 ≈ 0.81, 19% less damage; 1,000 short halves it.
• There are two versions of the cap: a Korean guide site and player tests say 40%, while the Korean wiki quotes in-game text saying 50% (possibly changed in the 8/13 patch).

This is a formula Korean players measured, not one Nexon published, but every direction in it matches Nexon’s own description. Where resistance comes from: S2 runes at ★9 epic and above carry it, enough through Very Hard; Hell and above needs magic-resistance gear crafted from mana stones. So the real problem with S1 runes in Season 2 existed well before 9/17: they carry no resistance, and every one you wear leaves that slot at zero. The magic-resistance piece has the entry threshold table.

Fashion, titles, passes: what people forget to claim at a handover

Fashion sets: in Korea the legendary 3-piece went +90 → +155 → +220 and the 4-piece +175 → +310 → +450, and from generation 6 new sets also add final damage +3% (not back-filled to older sets). Taiwan’s notices already say +220 / +450, so the Paladin will not double Taiwan’s set effect again. Fashion generations turn over about every three months, independent of seasons.

Titles: at the Season 2 handover, abyss title achievements with a hold effect had their clear status, count and title moved as-is into new generic achievements. Once the old achievements were deleted, any support items you had not claimed were gone.

Passes: the adventurer pass runs on its own cycle, not the content season. A premium ticket you bought but did not activate vanishes when its period ends; Taiwan’s 8/19 notice says the same.

Five common misunderstandings

“A season change wipes runes, levels and enhancement.” Neither of Korea’s two did. The director posted a separate notice the day before Season 1 guaranteeing enhancement would be kept, and promoting S1 epics and legendaries into S2 in Season 2 loses no enhancement either.

“Under the new table, a failed S0 ★5 epic roll gives you S0 rares and elites.” It gives you S1 ★5 rares and ★6 elites. The difference matters: an S1 ★6 elite is weaker than an S0 ★6 legendary, so “fuse up to ★6 and replace the legendary you are wearing” is wrong.

“Amplifying an old enchant is a waste because a new scroll will overwrite it.” Amplification stays on the gear, and overwriting with a new scroll does not remove it. And Taiwan does not even have the amplification system yet.

“Taiwan gets all of Season 1 at once in December.” Korea’s own Season 1 arrived in batches over nine months, and Taiwan has already received several things out of order.

“The moment Season 2 starts, old runes stop working.” That rule was not there at the start of Season 2. Old-season unique effects were switched off three months later (9/17), and only in specified endgame content.

What to do now, and what to ignore

Do now:

1. Keep spare S0 ★6 legendaries and ★5 epics. Do not dismantle or sell them. From Season 1 they are three-for-one bridge material. Dismantling them for fragments is the one move that genuinely loses.
2. Do not promote the S0 ★6 legendary you are wearing. Swap when you have an S1 ★8.
3. Abyss fossils can be held into Season 1 (going by Korea: 1:1, red 3→5). Still buy the things you actually need (for example the emblem jar behind red fossils’ cumulative-spend gate); do not hoard just for the conversion.
4. Keep running White Succubus. It is a side story and stays every season.
5. Keep training life skills. Processing facility Lv5 needs life force 10,000 / 13,000, and Season 2’s Soulstream also feeds on the server’s total life force.

Ignore for now:

• Season 2’s magic-resistance gear and the details of ★10 runes. Taiwan will not need them until around September 2027.
• “Should I train the Paladin transformation?” It is a system shared by every class; everyone gets it when it arrives.
• EXP potions: Korea’s 82→85 was main quest plus dungeon runs, about 5 hours.

What would invalidate this:

• Taiwan’s handover notice sets different rules: for example keeping the catalyst requirement, giving no fossil conversion, or changing the cross-season promotion odds. On each point Taiwan’s notice wins, and the matching fields in the calculator need recomputing.
• The lag shrinks sharply (for example Taiwan jumping straight to Season 2 content): the date estimates fail, but the rules themselves are unaffected.
• Korea announces Season 3: players relay that the 8/12 live stream said Season 2 runs about six months, with no official notice. If Season 3 starts at the end of 2026, Season 2’s rules (including the 9/17 one) will shift up again, and your ★10 investment in Season 2 will also become “still there, but it does not count” in Season 3.

Our conclusion

Looking across three seasons, Nexon handles handovers consistently: it never confiscates, it only shifts. The old things always stay on your character; the new generation is two stars higher and carries a stat the old one lacks (in Season 2, magic resistance), and the old season’s top two rows become the bridge into the new one. Only three things actually cost you: dismantling old runes before a handover, letting limited goods and weekly settlements expire, and pouring resources into the old generation after the new stat has appeared. You can start avoiding all three today. Season-by-season detail: S0→S1, what to do before the Paladin and S1→S2, Korea’s Season 2 as a preview for Taiwan.