Nine Chronicles is six years old, and its birthday update is packed. But much of what makes it special has an end date.
On October 20, 2026, the official Nine Chronicles account on X announced that update v200500, the 6th Anniversary Update, is live. The post lists Alfheim Hard stages 501 to 520, new Ultimate (Grade 9) equipment, a 6th Anniversary Festival Dungeon, new collections and a title, and increased summon guarantees until November 30. The release notes linked in the post show that several of those perks shrink or stop on December 1, and part of the new content isn’t out yet.
A Token That Keeps Falling Behind
The game’s currency, NCG, trades as Wrapped NCG (WNCG). Over the past 90 days, WNCG lost 16.9% of its value while other gaming tokens gained 17.5%. Over six months the gap is wider: WNCG fell 27.6% while gaming tokens rose 20.9%. Over a full year, WNCG is down 68.5%, close to the 62.8% drop for other gaming tokens. So this isn’t just a bad market. WNCG has been falling behind its peers for about half a year.
The past month looks the same. WNCG fell 7.0% while gaming tokens rose 9.3%, trading between $0.003873 and $0.004592. In the day after the announcement, it slipped another 0.9% while gaming tokens rose 3.2%. New gear and a new world did nothing to lift the price. That matters for players, because NCG is how the game pays its rewards. Every prize in it keeps losing value.
A Big Update, but Much of It Is Temporary
The new content is aimed at veterans. Alfheim Hard only unlocks after a player clears Stage 500, and each run costs 30 AP, the game’s energy, plus 10 Catalyst Potions. Clearing its stages unlocks recipes for Ultimate gear, the game’s highest grade.
The Festival Dungeon runs until November 30. Its 20 stages drop a new material and large amounts of Dust, used to power up gear. Players get five free tickets a day, and more are for sale. Summons, the game’s random draws for gear, runes and costumes, also get a boost: until November 30, bundles of 11 and 110 summons promise one or two more guaranteed items on each banner.
On the surface, it’s a generous package. But there’s a catch. On December 1, the summon guarantees return to normal, the new collection boosts drop to a quarter of their size, and the anniversary title loses its stats. Only 10 of the 25 new Ultimate items arrived in this update. The other 15, plus stages 521 to 550, are listed for December. Short boosts tied to summons and paid tickets tend to push spending into a tight window, so players should think before buying.
Another Reward Push, Another Token Drop
This isn’t the first time Nine Chronicles has leaned on big reward numbers. In April 2026, the team promoted Odin Championship #16 with 500,000 NCG and Heimdall Arena Season 21 with 400,000 NCG, both player-versus-player events.
At the past month’s WNCG prices, those 900,000 NCG come to roughly $3,500 to $4,100 across both events. And the token has fallen 27.6% over the past six months. If the prize numbers stay big while the currency keeps shrinking, how much are players really earning?
The Game Looks Good, but Players Have Complaints
To be fair, the game looks good. It is a side-scroller with small chibi heroes facing big, armored monsters, a lot like Grand Chase.
But good looks only go so far. On Google Play, the game averages about 3.1 stars from 1,277 ratings, and opinion is split: about 43% are five stars and 39% are one star. Reviews mention long loading screens, attacks that miss weaker enemies, and unbalanced fights. Several players lost their accounts because they hadn’t saved their private key, the code that proves who owns an account on the blockchain. One 2025 reviewer called the game a “scam project” after their NCG withdrawals were suspended without a reason. No one has reviewed this update yet; the newest English review is from September.
Praise is thin. Some store reviews call the game good and relaxing. Our fake-review check found a warning sign: a batch of short, nearly identical five-star Korean reviews landed within a few days in January 2024. The YouTube comments, by contrast, look like genuine reactions.
Is the Community as Big as It Looks?
The Nine Chronicles account has 132,315 followers on X. The anniversary post drew 942 views, 3 likes, 2 reposts and 2 replies, so fewer than 1 in 100 followers even saw it. The replies weren’t celebrations. One player said the Odin and Heimdall servers seemed stuck, then confirmed they were back. Another asked whether WNCG can be sent straight from an exchange to a game account. The team pointed people to its support email.
The Discord has 74,837 members, down about 287 over the past month. But crypto Discords often fill with inactive accounts, and a big member count means little when a birthday post gets three likes.
The Bottom Line
Nine Chronicles has lasted six years, which is rare for a blockchain game, and its art holds up. But the token has fallen behind other gaming tokens over the past six months, many anniversary perks end on December 1, most of the new gear isn’t out yet, and reviews point to old problems with loading, balance and lost accounts. Until the token steadies and the full update arrives, anyone watching this project should stay cautious.
