Blade & Soul Getting Surprise Expansion in Only Two Days

Martial arts MMO Blade & Soul, as NCSOFT has promised with its aggressive post-launch plans for the game, will be receiving the next expansion… in about 48 hours. Surprise! What… too soon? Well too bad!

The Silverfrost Mountains expansion will extend the main campaign, reaching into the first two parts of Act 4, and will take place on a new continent with high-level content. In fact, this expansion finally increases the level cap to 50, which means you'll be able to fill out more of your character's final tier of Hongmoon skills. Clans can also reach Level 15, with outfit crafting available at Level 5.

And you'll be needing those skills not only for the new faction-based PvP zone, the Soulstone Plains, which is embedded in the middle of the continent, but also for the healthy amount of new content. With both 4- and 6-player variants, three new dungeons have arrived: Awakened Necropolis (Undead), Avalanche Den (Yeti), and Lair of the Frozen Fang (Naga… yeah, I thought it was wolves at first too). This comes with two 24-member instances called the Frostscale Basin and the Beastbog, along with a timed instance called Grand Harvest Square which should appear at least once a day three times a day but only for a limited time.

NCSOFT still has plenty of content in the pipeline to come; in particular, the high-difficulty Sogun's Lament which introduces a new tier of weapons, accessories, and Soul Shields. The developers have described this as hardest dungeon in the game, requiring full cooperation and coordination between members. If you make one mistake, it could spell the end of the venture and the ire of your party.

In addition to Sundered Nexus, a 4- or 6-member Heroic dungeon that looks like a "Tron"-skinned version of Naryu Labyrinth, there are two other 6-member Heroic dungeons that can be completed once per day, twice if you have a reset token: Cold Storage and Altar of Divine Will, where you'll finally face off against the dark villain, Jinsoyun. If that weren't enough, there's also the 24-member open world Zaiwei Ruins and a 6v6 domination-style Battleground called Whirlwind Valley where gear is not equalized.

If NCSOFT keeps up this blistering pace, the American version of Blade & Soul might catch up to the Korean version much quicker than fans might have thought.