In Raven 2, the primary role of merchant NPCs boils down to two things: trading goods and managing affinity. You grind out daily affinity points by handing over specific gifts, and hitting certain thresholds bumps up your standing. As you climb the ranks, these merchants unlock fresh stock. The March 18 update gave this system a bit of a facelift. Merchants categorized as 'General - Equipment - Skill - Codex Material - Rune' have had their 'Oath' affinity tiers expanded, and yes, the wandering merchant Cormac has finally been roped into the affinity system.

Cormac’s affinity-locked inventory, in order of interest, includes: 'Stella Fragment (Common) - Enhancement Stone Selection Box - Rare Skill Enhancement Stone - Growth Booster (Tier 4) - Fragment of Beast Heartstone.' It’s a decent spread of items for managing equipment and progression, including Stella, stones, and skills. The rewards for hitting top-tier affinity are also quite generous, featuring bundles of Stella Fragments, Heroic Skill Enhancement Stones, and Beast Heartstone fragments. It certainly pays to play nice.

The list of acceptable gifts has also grown. General merchants now accept Burning Chaos Eyes, equipment merchants take Mysterious Magic Essence, skill merchants are after Shining Ancient Tablets, and codex material merchants will happily take Noble Prophet's Blood. With additional tweaks to the Rune merchant gifting and new items added to the 'Affection' tier for codex material merchants, it’s worth checking the official Raven 2 community forums or logging in-game to see the full breakdown.

The crafting page has also seen some love with new recipes. First up is the ability to use those leftover Class Change Tokens now that the season has wrapped. Second, we’ve got new recipes for Advanced and Rare Heavenstones. The Advanced list includes 'Rapid Spear - Pain Bullet - Dark Ejection,' while the Rare tier features 'Heavy Blow - Blunt Shot - Rock Strike.' It is the perfect time to reset the levels of your existing Heavenstones or register them in the item collection for those sweet bonuses.

This week's Raven 2 events focus on '[Preparing for Balton] Growth Support' and '[Commemorating Regional Dungeon Buffs] Special Force Hunting Challenge.' The former is essentially a continuation of last week’s push. You’ve got eight tasks to grind through, mostly involving basic gameplay like looting or dismantling items, to snag the final rewards. Completing these missions nets you a total of 13 '[Preparing for Balton] Supply Boxes.'

The second event celebrates the recent regional dungeon improvements, following up on the first wave from the second week of March. It’s a straightforward affair: slay 500 monsters of each race and 3,000 monsters in total. The rewards include time-refill stones for specific dungeons and a Special Force Time Refill Stone Selection Box. Both events are scheduled to wrap up on March 25 at 04:59 AM.