Strengthened anti-bot measures

On 28 January 2026, NCSOFT went after automation on the Korean service — and one of its measures matters to anyone outside Korea. The announcement lists "selective overseas VPN blocking and hardware-based restrictions" among the new safeguards. For a Western player wondering whether they can reach the Korean service before their own launches, this is the publisher answering in writing. It has not been announced for the Western release in this form.

This release describes safeguards "to ensure a fair gameplay environment, including selective overseas VPN blocking and hardware-based restrictions", alongside quality-of-life work — upgraded skill-use support and character-based storage — and adjustments to "Abyss difficulty, Sanctuary entry requirements, and Assasin and Cleric Stigma skill performance". Two of those adjustments matter elsewhere on this site: Sanctuary entry requirements were changed here, before the published figure of 3,700 appeared for Corroded Decontamination Facility in March 2026.

The practical fact is the VPN policy, and it is the reason this page exists rather than being folded into a patch list. NCSOFT states that overseas VPN blocking is selective and in force on the Korean service (announcement of 28 January 2026). Anyone considering reaching the Korean service from outside Korea to try the game early should read that as the publisher’s position, in writing. This site takes no view on the practice beyond reporting what NCSOFT published, and notes that the Korean client is also region-locked.

Before anything else: this applies to the Korean service. The misconception to correct is that waiting for the Western launch is optional — that a determined player can simply reach the Korean service instead. The publisher has published that it blocks overseas connections selectively and applies hardware-based restrictions. The honest advice this site can give is therefore simple: the Western service opens on 30 September 2026, and the Korean one is not an intended route to it. What the anti-bot measures cost legitimate players has not been published.