Lost Ark's The Bitter Cold update adds an Extreme version of the Brelshaza raid

Lost Ark's The Bitter Cold update went live on August 12, with servers returning as planned after maintenance, MassivelyOP reports. The patch landed on the same morning Amazon confirmed it is sending the MMO back to Smilegate - an outcome the outlet called no real surprise, since Lost Ark players had expected the publishing deal to end with the game's fifth year.

A limited-time Extreme Brelshaza

The headline addition is a harder version of an encounter players already know, pitched at groups that have run out of things to clear.

The tiering is the part that matters for planning: rather than a single wall, the Extreme version steps up across three levels of difficulty, and it is only in the game for a limited run rather than joining the permanent raid rotation.

The Bitter Cold also brings a batch of new cosmetics to the store. Among them is a bamboo rickshaw pulled by a straw-hat-wearing panda, which Amazon is selling in the same week it confirmed it is leaving the game.

No daily attendance event until September

One regular fixture is missing from the update. Amazon said the August server merges are still on track, and that as a result there is no daily attendance event running alongside The Bitter Cold. The event is due to return in September, once that consolidation has happened, which leaves this patch without the login rewards players would normally be collecting during a content drop.

Beyond that, the handover to Smilegate changes nothing for players in the short term. Servers came back on schedule on the morning of the patch, so the new raid tiers and the cosmetics are live in Arkesia, and the update is being run as any other would be while the two companies work through the transition.