2021 July Big Game Update

A big game update took place on July 28th, 2021. With this update, the gameplay changed drastically and **ALL players** who haven't played the game since then are forced to go through the game's new tutorial. Returning players will get their progress back upon completing the tutorial.

The following list is **rough summary** of the update:

* Ensouled Book Delve was replaced with Equipment Books; new enhanced gameplay feature where you can transmigrate the writers (= their regular outfits), but also gain them alternate outfits and memoria cards available in the permanent pool of Memoria.
	+ Another variation for Ensouled Book Delve was introduced in the form of Ensouled Books of Storytelling on November 1st, 2021. Writers delve into the Ensouled Books where they had once been transmigrated from, and gain Awakening Rings upon reaching the end of their Awakening Story.
	+ Writers are available in several ways: from Equipment Books, upon clearing the Tainted Books for the first time, Events, and Memoria Features. Like before the update, Lewis Carroll is still permanent reward upon clearing book A-3 in Sealed Library.
* Writers **can't die** anymore. In other words, the **Last Words** gameplay mechanic was terminated and it's impossible to lose a writer permanently, but lore-wise the writers are still able to die.
* Writers' outfits, which previously were pure cosmetics purpose only, are now actual units (or "armor").
	+ Outfits, including the writer's regular outfit have **elements**; earth, fire, water and air (wind).
	+ Outfits have their own **rarity**: base rarity 1-3 stars, max rarity 3-5 stars. The rarity can be increased two times by consuming Ink and a duplicate of the outfit. Any duplicates beyond that will increase the outfit's stats a little upon consumption.
* There are three types of levels for writers: the writer's own level (**writer level**), **ring level** and **outfit level**. Writer level and ring level can be increased by delving like previously, meanwhile outfits' level can be only raised by consuming Alchemy Thread.
* Dining Hall and Repairs were removed as gameplay features. This means that writers don't need to be fed anymore and the resource "Food" was removed along with the update. "Ink" is now used to unlock levelcaps of writers' outfits. Lore-wise writers can still feel hunger and need regular rest too.
	+ On November 1st, 2021, Dining Hall and Repairs (Infirmary) were added as locations to Strolls to keep the immersion of the writers being humans with needs. However, they don't really affect the gameplay in any way. Dining Hall Recollections can be unlocked by gaining 80 Trust Points for two writers who have a Dining Hall Recollection, meanwhile writers may appear damaged in Infirmary and you can "heal" them by giving using one Governor. This raises the healed writer's Trust Points by 5. The damaged writer can also be left as he is, and he will be back to normal when new strolls period starts.
* Book Delve went through changes, and Tainted Books List was renewed to feature completely new books.
	+ Delves consist of three waves (nodes) now and the maps are straight, no branching. All Taints in all waves must be defeated, or the delve will be interrupted and thus fail if Taints aren't defeated during given amount of turns each wave.
	+ Delves are now completely automatic, and the gameplay features "Advance" and "Retreat" were terminated due to removal of map branching.
	+ Writers can't die anymore upon hitting zero HP, and they will be restored back to full health after each delve due to removal of Repairs. "Fatigue" gameplay feature doesn't exist anymore either due to termination of Dining Hall.
	+ Taints also have elements (Earth, Fire, Water and Air/Wind) like the writers' outfits and memoria cards.
* Memoria Cards and their stats were renewed. Now the cards affect the whole team, rather than being writer-specific equipment. The cards have been split into **Attack and Defense** types, and they have **elements** too like writers' outfits. In addition, they also have **weapon types**.
	+ Equipping a team with cards that match the element and weapon types of the writers gives guaranteed stats boost that there are stated on the cards. Otherwise only partial (unknown amount) stats boost is given to the team member(s) if some attribute doesn't match.
* Blossoming got two more nodes for writers' alternate outfits, thus the maximum is 42 (however, only 38 nodes boost stats).
* Now both PC and mobile version of the game use **Imperial Tickets** as paid currency. However, they are platform-specific, and Tickets bought on PC can't be used on the mobile version of the game and vice versa. On PC, the Tickets also expire after 180 days.
* Bookmarks, Chinese Herbal Medicine, any bought bookshelves in Ensouled Book Delve or bed slots in Repairs were removed and converted to various resources depending on their rarity.

Following info has further details of what there was announced regarding this update between May 27th, 2021 and day before the actual update. For archiving purposes we will keep them on this page, but all crucial info regarding the update is what there was listed earlier (above).

## Announcement of the update on May 27th

*According to June 11th additional info, small edits were made to item conversions. Otherwise all info is what was stated in the livestream held that day.*

* **Dining Hall** (食堂) along with **Food** (食糧), one of the main resources used in the game, will be removed
	+ **Hunger** (満腹度) and **Fatigue** (疲労度) will be eliminated with the removal of the food resource and Dining Hall
	+ Each **2 increments of food** will be converted to **1 ink** upon the update (for example: 10 food > 5 ink)
	+ All unused **Chinese Herbal Medicine** (漢方薬), which were bought from the in-game Shop, will be converted to **300 Imperial Tickets**

* **Repairs** (補修), also familiarly known as “hospital” or “infirmary” among the English-speaking fans, will be removed
	+ Writers can’t be lost anymore due to their HP reaching 0. As in, **Final Words** (絶筆) feature will be eliminated
	+ After each delve, all writers will be auto-healed to full health
	+ Each possessed **Philosopher’s Stones** (賢者ノ石) will be converted to **500 Imperial Tickets**
	+ Each bought bed slot in **Repairs** will be compensated with **1000 Imperial Tickets** each

* **Formation** (結成) will go through some changes
	+ **Memoria Cards** (装像) will become team-specific rather than writer-specific equipment
	+ In Formation, writers can be dressed up in alternate outfits to enhance their stats
		- All outfits will have stats similar to Memoria Cards (Attack, Defense, Evasion)
		- The outfits can be leveled up using new resource 錬金糸 (*renkin ito*, Alchemy Thread?) to strengthen them. The outfits will also have level cap, which can be unlocked with ink
		- The outfits in Memoria will get notable rate boost, thus be accessible easier to all players
	+ Alternate outfits and Memoria Cards will get **elemental attributes fire (火), earth (土), water (水), air (風)** (the four basic elements of alchemy), which will help defeating different types of Taints

*※ It's currently unclear whether the writers will actually appear wearing the alternate outfits while delving, or if they will be treated like Memoria Cards.*

* **Book Delves** (潜書) / **Tainted Books** (有碍書) go through changes
	+ Writers can continue delving despite **Weakened** (耗弱) or **Breakdown** (喪失) status during the delve
		- However, writers can reach 0 HP without actually dying (thanks to the removal of **Final Words**)
	+ Routing will be removed, thus all delves will be successful as long as all Taints are defeated
		- If all writers in the team hit 0 HP, the delve will fail
	+ Books that have been cleared once may be automatically delved into repeatedly. Books which haven’t been cleared manually at least once, must be still delved into manually

* **Ensouled Books** (有魂書) will be removed
	+ Writers will be available through Memoria and events as rewards (+ in Tainted Books upon successful delve)
	+ Each bookshelf unlocked in **Ensouled Book Delving** screen will be compensated with **1000 Imperial Tickets**
	+ **Bookmarks** will be removed with the removal of the **Ensouled Book Delving**. All unused Bookmarks and other items bought from in-game Shop will be converted to Imperial Tickets of different amounts (300, 200, 100)
	+ Other items will be converted to different ink amounts (150, 100, 50)

*※ Details of how Writers can be acquired is still not final.*

* **Ink** (洋墨) as a resource will go through some notable changes
	+ Ink will be used to uncap the level of alternate outfits
	+ Ink can't be bought from the in-game Shop anymore
	+ Ink can’t regenerate through time anymore (feature which was related to player level and possessed amount of ink)
	+ Ink will be available the same ways as before the update: Letters, Research and from events as reward

* **Imperial Tickets** (帝國券) will be implemented to the PC browser version of the game (previously mobile app version-specific paid currency)
	+ Paid content, which previously could be bought only with DMMP (DMM points) on PC browser version, will be bought with Imperial Tickets after the update
		- The Imperial Tickets must be bought with DMMP (basically an extra step to buy paid content)
	+ The Imperial Tickets will be platform-specific (Imperial Tickets bought on PC can’t be used on mobile app version, and vice versa)

## Corrections provided on June 11th

The game staff corrected, and changed several item conversions. Additional changes or corrections are still possible.

* All bought items, which were to be compensated with memoria stones, will be compensated with **Imperial Tickets** instead
	+ For example, all bought bed slots in Repairs will be compensated with 1000 Imperial Tickets instead of 1000 memoria stones
* The compensations for bought items will be **platform-specific** due to platform restrictions
	+ For example, bed slots bought with DMM Points will be turned into 1000 Imperial Tickets that can be only used in the PC browser version of the game (vice versa, items bought on mobile app version will be converted to Imperial Tickets that can be only used on the mobile app version of the game)

## June 28th preview

Bungou to Alchemist game staff revealed that they will give weekly previews and further details of the upcoming update. **July 5th** preview will be about **Tainted Books (or Tainted Book Delve)**, meanwhile **July 12th** preview will be about **other parts of the game that will change**.

At some point **before July 28th**, there will be also another **producer letter**. Please do note that the screenshots are still from version under development and the final look might differ from what is shown.

This preview is about the upcoming changes to **Formation** (結成).

* Team amount has been changed from four to **five**
	+ Team composition remains the same: max four writers per team (at least one writer in a team is a must)
* Writers and their different **outfits** act as different units (*see picture 3*)
	+ Despite the alternate outfits acting as different units of the writer, only **one unit of the same writer** can be in a team (for example, one can't have the basic version of Tokuda Shuusei and one of his alternate outfits in the team at the same time)
* Each outfit has their own **level**, **element** and **rarity** (*see picture 1 & 3*)
	+ Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's alternate outfit 7 (Limelight) is 2\* and air element
	+ Tokuda Shuusei's alternate outfit 6 (Archery) is 3\* and fire element
	+ Oda Sakunosuke's alternate outfit 7 (Suit) is 3\* and fire element
* Each team has two slots for **Memoria Cards** (装像), which will affect whole team (currently they are writer-specific equipment) (*see picture 1*)
	+ Memoria Cards will be divided to **two new types**: Attack (攻撃) and Defense (防御)
	+ Like concluded in May 27th info, the cards will also have elements like outfits
		- The Name of the Rose - Miki Rofuu (LVL 3) is attack type and earth element
		- Glittering in the Limelight - Satou Haruo (LVL 3) is defense type and water element

* Writer select screen displays more writers per page than previously (*see picture 2*)
	+ Ring can be equipped or removed in this screen (empty slot with text 指環変更 in *picture 2*)
* After selecting a writer, you choose a version (outfit) of the writer you want to add to the team (*see picture 3*)
* Oufits can be strengthened in the outfit change screen (*see picture 3*)
	+ The outfit strengthening requires new material Alchemy Thread (錬金糸, *renkin ito*)

## July 5th preview

Part 2 of the weekly preview before the actual update.

This preview is about the upcoming changes to **Tainted Books** (有碍書).

* The featured books and overall visual layout of the Tainted Book Delve screen will go through some changes (*see picture 1*)
	+ Renewed I-SERIES will feature the following books:
		- I-1 "Mold" (黴) by Tokuda Shuusei
		- I-2 "In the Depths of the Heart" (むらぎも) by Nakano Shigeharu
		- I-3 "The Paradox of Youth" (青春の逆説) by Oda Sakunosuke
		- I-4 "The House of a Spanish Dog" (西班牙犬の家) by Satou Haruo
* Writers can be acquired from their own books upon successful delve (currently unknown if they will be random drops like so far, or if a writer can be acquired upon each delve)
	+ It is still unknown whether writers who don't have books in the Tainted Books list, but are currently available in the permanent summoning pool in Ensouled Book Delve, will they get books and thus continue be available or not
* As it was revealed already on May 27th, upon clearing a book for the first time, **auto-delve** will become available for the book. With this feature player can receive more valuable resources

* Taints will have **elemental attributes** like the writers and their equipment (*see picture 2*)
* The elements have been revealed to have the following attributes: **water** (水) is strong against **fire** (火), fire is strong against **air** (風), air is strong against **earth** (土) and earth is strong against water

## July 12th preview

Part 3 of the weekly preview before the actual update.

This preview is about the **Outfits** (衣装) and other things which will get added or go through changes with the update. Several questions regarding some content, which will be removed, also were answered.

* Like explained in June 28th preview, alternate outfits will act as separate units from the writers' basic versions
	+ Outfits will all have their own level and rarity
	+ The rarity of an outfit is between 1\* and 3\* when acquired
		- The rarity can be raised by consuming ink and duplicate of the outfit
	+ Writers will need to delve to books to gain exp, while outfits can be leveled up only with the new material Alchemy Thread (錬金糸)

* About the **Rings** (指環)
	+ Durability (耐久度) of rings will be removed. This means that players do not need to use up ink anymore to be able to keep using rings
	+ Duplicates of rings upon acquiring will be **turned automatically into Spark Essence** (思念素, *shinenso*), a material that has been and will continue to be used to exchange memoria items in Memoria Exchange Counter
		- Currently possessed duplicates of rings (each duplicate adds 30 to the basic 30 durability) will be turned into 50 Spark Essence each. For example if a ring's durability is 180, after the initial ring player has gained 5 duplicates and will get 50 for each duplicate, resulting in 250 Spark Essence

* About the **Library** (図書館)
	+ Players will be able to go directly to **Strolls** (散策) from the library, without need to go through Office first
	+ New section **Equipment (装備)** will be added, where players can manage their writers, outfits, memoria cards and rings (*see picture 1*)

* New feature **有装書** (*yuusousho*?, Equipment Book?)
	+ Similar to Ensouled Book Delve (有魂書), this feature lets players acquire **outfits** and **memoria cards** by sending writers to delve into books. This consumes items by the same name (like Ensouled Book Delving requires Ensouled Books)(*see picture 2*)

### Questions & Answers

As part of the preview 3, Game staff answered several questions that they've been receiving from the players.

**Will the current level of my writers carry over?**

* The level of writers will carry over the update. Leveling up writers will also continue to happen through delving into tainted books.

**Will I be able to hear somewhere the voice lines that could be heard when the writers were injured?**

* Some of the lines will be available in **Register** (図鑑).

**Can I watch Birthday Recollections and Dining Hall Recollections even after the update?**

* **Birthday Recollections** will be provided through the **Limited-time Recollections** (限定回想) button in Library, which has been secondary way to unlock them so far when a writer has birthday. **Dining Hall Recollections** will be available in **Recollections Register** as usual, and recollections which hadn't been unlocked before the removal of Dining Hall, can be unlocked by spending items (coins?)

## July 26th final rundown

The maintenance has been scheduled to be 10 hours long, taking place on **July 28th between 7:00 and 17:00 JST**. The game staff also defined more certain parts of the update:

* As **Delves** will become more simple and features **Advance** (進行) and **Retreat** (撤退) will be terminated, delving will consist of **three waves**. Each wave has taints, that all must be defeated to be able to advance to next wave. Any undefeated taint during a wave means fail of the delve.
	+ Delves won't have item nodes or give item drops from taints anymore.
	+ Upon clearing a book for the first time in the *i-ro-ha* series, player will receive a duplicate of the book's writer's regular outfit, that can be used to increase the rarity of the outfit.

* Item **Elixir of Pursuit** (探求ノ霊薬) will go through changes:
	+ **Before the update:** 2x drop rate for Souls for 10 delves (usable for any book).
	+ **After the update:** 2x drop rate for Alchemy Thread and writer Blossoming items for 10 delves (usable only for event books and Sealed Books).
	+ Different kind of Souls and Gears (Soul Gear/Memory Gear) will be available through **Auto-Delve** (自動潜書), once player has unlocked that for a book by clearing the book once by manually.

* Regarding outfits of writers who player do not have yet in their library:
	+ Regardless the transmigration status of writers before the update, writer whose one or more outfits player has acquired without actually having the writer himself, will be "transmigrated" after the update. They will be treated like regularly transmigrated writers before the update; they can be seen in Strolls, you can set them as assistants, receive their Letters, and delve into books by adding them to your team.

* Research missions that are currently giving food as reward will be renewed, and the missions related to Dining Hall or Repairs will be removed.

* The button **Notifications** (通知) on top of the screen will be removed (lists finished repairs and transmigrations, as well as daily and weekly reset times).

* As it was stated in initial plan, the automatic regeneration of resources related to player level will be removed. With this, also the maximum amount of resources will become limitless.

* **Exchange Counter** (交換所) in Memoria Laboratory will have some already implemented 3\* rarity memoria cards available for exchange.

* **Battle Records** (戦績) in Office will go through slight UI changes:
	+ Resources Regeneration Cap (資材保有最大値), Available Beds and Shelves (使用可能設備), Number of Writers Obtained (文豪収集数) will be removed.
	+ New section **Amount of Possessed Resources** (資材保有量) indicating ink amount will be added.

* As stated earlier, **Memoria Cards** (装像) will go through stat changes with the renewed battle system:
	+ All cards will have **an element** (fire/water/air/earth), **weapon type** (blade/gun/whip/bow), and attribute **attack or defense**.
	+ By matching card's weapon type and element with the writers, the memoria's effect will be greater.

* **Writers** (文豪) and **Rings** (指環) will be leveled up the same way as before the update.
	+ However, due to the big system changes and adjustments, the stats of writers and rings might differ before and after the update.

* **Strolls** (散策) will have the writers' **Trust Level** (信頼度) be increased from 200 to 400.
	+ With this, players will be able to acquire overall 3 times the writers' casual outfit to increase the rarity of the outfit.

* **Blossoming** (開花) will get more nodes.
	+ With this, players will be able to acquire overall 3 times the writers' blossoming outfit (traditional outfit or western outfit depending on writer) to increase the rarity of the outfit.