Lost Ark devs rescind accidental freebies, further angering players

Amazon Game Studios has landed itself in hot water with Lost Ark fans after reclaiming free rewards which reportedly led to an exploit in the MMO.

Ahead of a big update that overhauls the game’s Tripod system, devs sent out an in-game reminder telling players to store skill tree effects in a special inventory to avoid losing them. The issue, however, is that the reminder also included 10 pheons, an in-game currency that can be spent on numerous things, including gear with tripods.

While the message didn’t offer a considerable amount of the currency, players took it as a gesture of goodwill and spent them. However, things came to a head when Amazon Game Studios revealed that the Pheons were included in error and would be taken back during emergency maintenance due to an exploit that involved players deleting and recreating characters to claim more than initially handed out. The revelation and ensuing confusion annoyed fans enough, though maintenance running over by several hours certainly didn’t help either.

Amazon Game Studios has since corrected course, opting to let players who spent the currency keep it while taking it back off people who haven’t spent it. There are also plans for a make-good gift, though details are still to come.

“While we originally stated we planned to remove the Pheons from the accounts that received the mail, we understand that many players spent these in good faith,” a community manager explains on the forums. “As we caught the exploit before it was widely used, we have decided not [to] remove the Pheons. We hope to continue to provide valuable rewards throughout the rest of the month, and once again apologize to the players impacted by this.”