Hello XENO players,
This is Hozumi, the producer of PROJECT XENO.
As of Saturday, May 10th, PROJECT XENO has officially reached its 2nd anniversary.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the players who have supported XENO over the years.
In this letter, I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes stories, introducing the new 2nd anniversary class, looking back on the past six months of PROJECT XENO, and discussing what lies ahead for the future.
▼PROJECT XENO 2nd Anniversary Class: Dragoon
As is now tradition for our semiannual anniversary campaigns, we’re excited to announce the addition of a new class.
To celebrate PROJECT XENO’s 2nd anniversary, we’re introducing the 13th class: Dragoon.
It’s been six months since our last class release—the Dark Knight in November 2024—and now we’re finally bringing you a brand-new class.
The Dragoon is a warrior-type class that rides a dragon-like creature and fights with a spear.
It’s probably a class type no one saw coming.
To be honest, even I didn’t expect Dragoon to be the one chosen for the 2nd anniversary.
During the internal competition to decide which class would be added for the anniversary, the final candidates were:
Amazoness, Emperor, Assassin, and Dragoon.
Of these, Amazoness and Emperor were the most fleshed-out in terms of concept and abilities. Personally, they were my top picks. I thought Dragoon was the least likely to be selected.
However, President Furuse was intrigued by the idea of mounted combat and airborne attacks, and that enthusiasm led to Dragoon being chosen.
That said, Dragoon is another warrior-type class, much like the recently introduced Dark Knight, so there were concerns about visual overlap.
To address this, we made sure Dragoon’s design stood apart—ultimately leaning toward a style reminiscent of the early XENO classes, like Samurai.
So, while the Dragoon comes with some behind-the-scenes surprises, its gameplay is packed with exciting mechanics.
The three core features of the class are:
Jump Attacks, Mount Summoning, and Cooldown Manipulation.
Jump Attacks are featured in the normal skill card Meteor Drive and the special skill Ignition Drive.
These allow the Dragoon to leap into the air when activated, and then strike the enemy with a delayed attack.
While airborne, the Dragoon becomes invincible, allowing players to dodge powerful incoming attacks and counterattack from above—an ideal flow for strategic plays.
Mount Summoning is found in the normal skill cards Ground Rider and Sky Rider.
Using these cards puts the Dragoon in a mounted state with a special creature.
Each mount grants a substantial boost in ATK and SPD.
In fact, when using Sky Rider, the Dragoon can even surpass the speed of the fastest class, Ninja—making it a perfect match for jump attacks.
Additionally, if the Dragoon is defeated while mounted, the creature remains on the battlefield as a summoned unit.
This creates a unique mechanic where a single card can both enhance the Dragoon and act as a summon.
Cooldown Manipulation is available via the skill cards Lance Charge and Dragon Howling.
Lance Charge reduces the cooldown of the Dragoon’s own attack skills, while Dragon Howling reduces cooldowns for all allied attack skills.
The self-cooldown effect of Lance Charge enables powerful combos—for example, pairing it with Slow Lancer, a cost-1 card that delivers a cost-3-level impact.
Although Slow Lancer comes with a heavy cooldown, by using:
Slow Lancer ⇒ Lance Charge (reset cooldown) ⇒ Slow Lancer again,
you can unleash a chain of strong attacks.
Dragon Howling, on the other hand, is great for supporting allies, particularly synergizing well with Paladin, a class known for powerful but cooldown-heavy skills.
It also advances turn-based debuffs by one, making it useful for countering status effects.
There are still more interesting skill cards we haven’t introduced here, so we hope you’ll explore them in the game.
The Dragoon is packed with mechanics that bring fresh excitement to battles.
Be sure to get your hands on one and enjoy these new features—like mounted combat and jump attacks—to the fullest!
▼ 2nd Anniversary Update
In addition to the new class Dragoon, we’ve made several major changes in celebration of PROJECT XENO’s 2nd anniversary.
Listing every detail would be quite a lot, so here are some of the key highlights:
＜Battle Screen Renewal＞
We’ve made a major overhaul to the battle screen. The total HP of your main 3 XENO units is now displayed at the top of the screen.
Additionally, you can now view your opponent’s energy and special gauge—something that wasn’t possible before.
Previously, guessing your opponent’s energy and SP gauge based on experience was considered a player skill in PROJECT XENO.
Now that both players can see this information, the nature of battle has shifted slightly—introducing new mind games based on visibility.
That said, the main goal of this change wasn’t actually for competitive play, but rather for spectators.
When non-XENO players watch XENO battles on video platforms like YouTube, it’s often hard to tell who’s winning.
This change was inspired by such comments during a stream on Hikaru Games XENO, where some viewers said, “I can’t tell who’s ahead.”
That was the moment we decided we had to act.
This visual update also paves the way for future features like battle replays and watching other players’ matches, so we consider this a foundational change for future updates.
We’ll continue refining the battle screen to make things even clearer going forward.
＜New CHARMs＞
We’ve added 16 new CHARMs for the 2nd anniversary.
One of them is being sold alongside Dragoon, but the other 15 can be obtained in-game.
Initially, you’ll have chances to get them through campaigns like the free 10-spin gacha. Later, they’ll be available as drops within the game.
Even though they’re obtainable in-game, these CHARMs are not weak.
With proper leveling and enhancements, they can be extremely powerful.
Think of them as part of a new growth system—we hope you enjoy strengthening them!
＜Guild Functionality＞
Thank you for waiting!
Until now, guilds existed in a somewhat unofficial or “underground” form, but we’re happy to announce that they’ve now been fully implemented as an official in-game feature.
You’ll be able to create, join, and leave guilds, and chat with other members.
We’ve also added guild missions and guild treasure chests—features that give you some extra benefits just for being in a guild.
This is just the beginning. Expect further expansions in future updates!
＜Marketplace Enhancements＞
Although this isn’t strictly an in-game feature, the marketplace is also receiving some improvements.
You’ll now be able to view historical sales data, active listings, and price trends for each NFT when listing them.
On top of that, we’ve added a new Catalog feature—essentially a list of all NFTs you can sell.
It also serves as a kind of encyclopedia, allowing you to look up details for each NFT.
Since the marketplace is developed and managed by a third-party company, adding new features has always been tricky.
But for this 2nd anniversary, we proposed these improvements and they were graciously approved—so we’re very happy to bring them to you in this update.
Even if you’ve never used the marketplace before, we believe these changes will make it far more approachable.
We encourage you to give it a try!
Looking Back on the Past Six Months
The main focus of PROJECT XENO’s updates in 2025 has been on expanding and enriching in-game content.
Over the past half-year, we’ve implemented several features to both attract new players and provide fresh gameplay opportunities for existing users, including:
- Fighting Road
- Quest Battles for New Players (Easy)
- Quest Battles for Existing Players (Hard, Hell)
Until 2024, our primary focus was on PvP (Player vs Player) content—namely, Battle Arena and tournaments.
While PvP can be very engaging, it tends to be challenging by nature and, to put it simply, not for everyone.
It can be a high-barrier genre, which sometimes discourages broader participation.
To address this, we’ve shifted some focus toward creating content that’s more accessible yet still enjoyable for all players.
One of the standout additions is Fighting Road. Each season, players can earn one piece of Rare, Epic, and Legendary equipment.
There is certainly an element of luck involved, but players who stick with XENO over time can steadily grow stronger through this feature.
The battle rules in Fighting Road differ from standard Arena Battles—the strength of each deck is automatically adjusted.
This means that even beginners, who’ve just started playing XENO, have a chance to beat top-tier players with large collections.
It’s a unique ruleset designed to level the playing field.
Of course, there are still other features and content updates we’ve been hoping to implement,
but due to development constraints, some of them haven’t been realized yet.
Our goal is to have them ready in time for the 3rd anniversary.
The Future of PROJECT XENO
We are truly grateful and delighted to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of PROJECT XENO.
As a Web3-enabled game based in Japan, continuing steady operations—including regular live events and feature updates—and overcoming the major milestone of our second year is a significant achievement for us.
Thanks to the support of our incredible community, we’ve been able to release many new classes, introduce various game modes, and keep exciting tournaments going each season.
Through the operation of GXE, we’ve also gained valuable experience in managing a Web3 ecosystem.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to share that a new title using GXE—Earn Poker—is set to be released in the near future.
The momentum is still going strong.
As the PROJECT XENO development and operations team,
we still have so many things we want to create and deliver to you.
We’re confident the coming year will be just as exciting—and we can’t wait to share it with you.
We will continue to take on new challenges, striving to become the world’s leading game in the BCG (Blockchain Game) space, and a top-tier competitive title in esports.
PROJECT XENO will keep evolving.
Our entire team is committed to making PROJECT XENO a game you can enjoy for years to come.
Thank you for your continued support of PROJECT XENO.
