[Currently participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge]!

Hi, everyone! It’s Bling!

For this post, I brought one of my all-time game recommendations!

There’s something I’ve been telling my friends and people around me for years now..

And that is..

The game I had the most fun with, no matter what, is DNF.

Seriously!

This was right after I got discharged from the military, around early 2020!

It’s already been 6 years now..

Right after I got discharged at the end of 2019, a friend of mine who had been playing DNF steadily ever since our high school days

told me the level cap had been raised to 100,

and said it was the absolute perfect time to come back, so I gave in and started DNF!

The DNF I came back to back then was, how do I put this..

a total dopamine bomb!?

Let me talk a little about what DNF was like in those days *_*

1. The era of True Awakening for every class

The biggest thing that instantly pulled back players who were exhausted from the level 95 “Tayberrs” and “Fiend War/Prey-Isys” raids was none other than True Awakening.

• Flashy cutscenes and presentation: Every character got completely revamped illustrations and gorgeous animated cutscenes running around 6 to 7 seconds, and honestly, they were such a feast for the eyes.

• Sequential updates: Starting with the Female Slayer, True Awakening rolled out for every class on roughly a monthly schedule. It was such a specific kind of era... the excitement of counting down the days until your class got its turn, mixed with all the tense back-and-forth between players over performance gaps.

New awakenings, cutscenes, and illustrations for every single class hit me so hard!

Every time I watched another class cutscene, I instantly wanted to raise that class too, so I ended up building a ridiculous number of characters!!

2. The arrival of the “Mythic” grade and the brutal hell farming

If I had to pick just one phrase that defined the level 100 season, it would absolutely be “Mythic items.” Farming during this era delivered extreme randomness and extreme dopamine at the same time.

• Mythic grade: These were ultra-rare items above Epic grade, and you could only equip one total from the top, bracelet, or earring slot. They dropped at brutally low rates in Guide of Wisdom, the level 100 Hell Party, and the rush you felt when a rainbow-colored orb appeared at dungeon entry or the pillar flashed was unreal.

• Dopamine and disparity: Whether or not you had a top-tier Mythic like “Military God’s Last Longing” or “Abyss: Adornment of the One Who Peers into the Abyss” could decide your character’s performance and whether you basically got a free pass through raid screening.

• More varied set combinations: On top of the old 5/3/3 setup, “mixed sets (3/3/3/2)” also appeared, with combinations like top, necklace, and sub equipment forming one set, so the number of possible builds exploded into the hundreds.

Hell runs back then really had dopamine in them..

Since all farming was basically decided by pure luck, the dopamine hit from pulling a Mythic out of a rainbow orb

is something I still can’t forget!! I can still vividly remember doing Hell farming with my heart pounding every single run+_+

3. The raids and dungeons that completed the adventure

This was also a time when a whole bunch of compelling stories and highly polished dungeons

were added, giving adventurers even more to get immersed in!

• The Oculus: Sanctum of Resurrection: In the very early level 100 season, this dungeon centered on descending into the abyss to stop the Grim Seeker conspiracy. It gave the so-called “Metamorph Epic” quest, which let you guaranteed-convert Epic equipment, so it became part of the standard gearing route.

• Sirocco Raid: It was well received for its presentation themed around Apostle Sirocco’s mental world and flowers, along with things like “Tracks of Nothingness,” a system that slowed down patterns.

• Ozma Raid: Chaos: As the final chapter of the level 100 season, it introduced the Sanity gauge system and a difficulty system adjustable up to 3 stages, really delivering that razor-thin tension and satisfying raid-strategy gameplay.

I wasn’t exactly someone with super strong gear, so I’d watch people speed through top-end raids and feel a little jealous,

but the thrill of clearing them with my friend for the first time is still one of the strongest memories for me too!

I genuinely had such a great time with those raids!

In my memory, DNF in 2020 was a game where all kinds of emotions came together thanks to pure luck-based farming!

That’s why I can’t help feeling like it was one of the hottest seasons in DNF history, a season players were obsessed with and also got crushed by!

I was even enjoying the Zhongtian and Cheonhaecheon seasons up until early this year myself!

DNF really is still DNF even now..

Every Hell run had me feeling half excited, half nervous as I kept queueing up!

I had a seriously fun time with it for quite a while! ㅎㅎ

I’m playing MapleStory right now, but I still hope DNF shows me a great side of itself again

and pulls me back in one more time!

That’s it for today’s post, and I’ll come back next time with a new topic!

This was Bling!