If you’re just starting a game, patch notes can sometimes feel like a coded document. That’s because they’re full of terms you usually only understand after playing for a while.

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In today’s post, I’ve put together a patch note guide for new users.

Where can you read patch notes?

Like most Nexon games, DNF Mobile has three main boards worth knowing about.

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The first is the update board. This is where you’ll find regular updates (lighter improvement patches released during weekly maintenance) and larger major updates, which usually happen once a month.

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For example, the recent addition of the Male Mage would count as a major update.

The second is the developer note. Here, Director Ok Seong-tae personally shares major issues and details about upcoming updates. At minimum, these go up about once a month, and sometimes as many as 3 to 4 are posted in a month.

The third is Known Issues Under Review. This is where you can check bugs or errors that have appeared in-game, been confirmed by the developers, and are currently being worked on.

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So if something happens like, “Why won’t this item work even though I used it?”, this is the first place to check.

Key patch note terms

DNF Mobile rolled out the Male Mage update on January 22, and whenever an update like this arrives, the patch notes tend to get very long. If you keep running into unfamiliar terms, they become even harder to read.

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So let’s go over some of those terms.

Super Armor means a state where you can keep using a skill even while getting hit, without going into a hit reaction or stagger animation. Some skills also come with Super Armor built in.

It can also activate when you equip certain items, like the Giant set. In high-difficulty content such as raids or disaster dungeons, having this greatly lowers your risk of dying.

A skill that applies 1 Burn stack with one use

A skill that applies 60 Burn stacks with one use

Multi-hit means that one use of a skill creates multiple hit checks in a row.

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Skills with lots of multi-hits are useful for patterns where you need to hit an enemy many times to break a restraint effect, and they’re also good for building status stacks (Burn, Poison, Bleed, Shock).

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However, because they hit so many times, they also tend to have longer channeling (when your character’s movement is restricted while the skill is being used).

Cancel means interrupting the skill you’re currently using with another skill or movement input, then immediately linking into the next action.

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Swift Master’s Sonic Move is a good example. Since it gives you so much freedom and makes combat feel faster, it’s one of the systems DNF Mobile players tend to like most.

Stack refers to a cumulative resource that builds each time you use a certain skill, with added effects or damage increasing based on that count. Glacial Master’s Hailstorm is a representative example, and for now, it’s enough to think of it as something you generally want to build up and then trigger.

Hold is an effect that grabs or binds an enemy so they can’t act. Most of Grappler’s grab skills fall into this category, but since Hold rarely works on bosses, it isn’t a system you can use very aggressively.

An example of a placed skill. You can set it down and keep doing other actions.

Placement skills are skills you summon or place on the ground or at a specific location, where they then attack automatically for a set period of time.

For example, Mechanic summoning robots or Elemental Master placing an ice field on the ground would both count as placement skills.

Detonation refers to the trigger button for a skill that can be activated again once certain conditions are met. For example, when Spitfire attaches C4 to an enemy, the skill icon changes into a detonation trigger. Press the button again when you want, and you can make it explode.

A Swift Master I’m raising through Next Highway. I’ve already picked up 3 Exceeds.

Adventurer Fame is the combat power stat used as a dungeon entry requirement.

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With the Next Highway benefits, new players can start with a character at around 70,000 to 80,000 Adventurer Fame, and getting to around 150,000 should be fairly easy. Right now, the highest Adventurer Fame requirement is Master difficulty in Co-lands of Extinction (169,500).

Fatigue is the resource that limits how many dungeons you can run in a day. You get 100 per day, and if you don’t use it and carry it over to the next day, half of it remains as a Fatigue Battery, making it 100(+50).

Prefix refers to the option line attached before an equipment name, and the stats or attribute effects change depending on that prefix. Examples include Distortion, Illusion, and Protection. Exceed gear also comes with prefixes by default.

Character-bound items don’t have this kind of ribbon(?).

Adventure Group-bound refers to items that can be shared across all characters on the account, while character-bound refers to items that can only be used by that specific character.

Inheritance is the system that transfers things like enhancement, refinement, and enchantments from existing equipment to other equipment, while Transcendence is the system that lets you move certain character-bound items (Epic equipment, skill runes, 오칭크아, etc.) to another character.

오칭크아 is a term you’ll see more often among players than in patch notes. It refers to Aura, Title, Creature, and Avatar. These are major items you need to set up if you want your character’s build to feel complete.

That wraps up this patch note guide for new DNF Mobile players. Even if some parts don’t make sense right away, you’ll probably pick them up naturally as you keep playing.