On April 5, 2026, The Kingdom of the Winds celebrated its 30th anniversary.

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As Korea’s longest-running MMORPG, it had a wide range of anniversary events lined up, so I logged in for the first time in a while to take a look. More had changed than I expected.

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Here are my impressions after taking the newly added 흑화랑 class all the way to level 600.

흑화랑

흑화랑 is the new class introduced for The Kingdom of the Winds’ 30th anniversary.

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The class is a Silla Hwarang who fights using 마고’s twisted power. Essentially, it is a dark take on a Hwarang, but with an important distinction: this is a force for good, not evil.

The opening story follows an old man who discovers a baby with a strange marking deep in a forest where a tiger had been. He takes the child in and raises them.

흑화랑 uses a sword and bow as its primary weapons. Its basic spells, 연무 and 애기살, deliver an area-of-effect sword swing at close range and a single-target bow attack at long range.

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Its other active spells include plenty of area attacks and dashes, too, making it feel very much like a class built for fast grinding.

Path of the Hero: Impressions After Reaching Level 600

Once you start leveling your character in earnest, you follow a quest line called “Path of the Hero.”

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To start with, you can simply follow it to level 600 without overthinking things, and any divine beast will do.

Most objectives involved killing a set number of monsters or collecting items.

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The quests took me on a whirlwind trip from the beginner hunting grounds through the Rat, Snake, Deer, Bear, Pig, Fox, Purple Tiger, Scorpion, Skeleton, and Dokkaebi Caves, then the Haunted House and beyond. It felt like a guided tour down memory lane.

I made it through all these hunting grounds in just 30 minutes and reached level 99. From level 99 onward, experience is stored separately, much like a currency.

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To level up from there, you need to accumulate enough experience, then summon 도호귀인 and sell it. After passing level 100 this way, a second tour begins, taking you from the Bandit Cave through the Northern Region and beyond.

A couple of useful shortcuts: press SHIFT+2 to fast-travel to your quest objective, and press O to talk to NPCs. On maps with multiple NPCs, the closest one appears at the top of the list.

You can also click the calendar-shaped icon (Events) at the bottom and select the 나르샤 event, then use 바린이나르샤 1+1 to designate a character to receive 1 bonus level for every 1 level gained.

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Most of the other events become available at level 600, so that is a good time to look through them all.

Some spells switch to auto-cast when placed in a quick slot.

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If a spell does not switch, drag it into the box shown above to enable auto-cast. You can do the reverse to disable it.

After about 4 hours of following Path of the Hero, I reached level 600 and completed the 6th class advancement (화원).

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I think this is a solid approach. Rather than simply boosting your level, it takes you through familiar hunting grounds and gives you time to get used to the controls.

Once you reach level 600, you can continue the Path of the Hero quests alongside hunting grounds, Illusion Trials, and raids in the Adventure menu. From there, content such as Ansi Fortress, the World’s Greatest Challenge, Susanoo, and the Demon Gate unlocks in sequence.

Even the raid went smoothly

I appreciated that group play is an option, but the content is also comfortably manageable solo. I am looking forward to visiting the newly added Silla region soon, too.

Advent Calendar Answers

Until May 13, completing the 14 quizzes or missions in the Advent Calendar on the official website lets you enter a prize draw for your choice of a 30th-anniversary film camera or ₩30,000 in NEXON Cash.

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See the table below for the answers.

Day	Answer
Day 1	April 5, 1996
2	A squirrel reading a guidebook
3	흑화랑
5	Silla
6	3
8	Fantasy Island
9	도호귀인
10	Head meat
11	Line art
13	Dragon

You can also visit the Good Fortune event to draw a fortune once a day. Drawing “Great Fortune” gives you a chance to win a squirrel doll that wards off bad luck in a prize draw. With a squirrel’s face and the shape of a dried yellow croaker, it makes quite an impression dangling from its string.

Selecting the Peddler’s Name Market from the in-game Events menu takes you to the Border Market, where you can speak to the peddler to trade character names. The most popular name was “보름,” priced at a hefty 300 Name Vouchers (300 million jeon in in-game currency).

Final Thoughts

That wraps up my impressions of taking 흑화랑 to level 600 through Path of the Hero for The Kingdom of the Winds’ 30th anniversary.

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There is also an ongoing event awarding 100,000 and 200,000 Baram Points for reaching levels 750 and 800, respectively, on a first-come, first-served basis. As of April 7, plenty of rewards were still available, so these milestones look like worthwhile goals to aim for.