Look, let's dive straight into Global Talk, where we break down the key issues and local trends surrounding Game of Thrones: Kingsroad over the past week. Regular Season 2's fierce ranking competition has truly hit its stride this week, while the once event-exclusive Kraken Raid Hard Mode has now settled in as permanent content. There are plenty of other tidbits heating up the continent of Westeros, so we have neatly rounded them up for you right here.

General merchants in Game of Thrones: Kingsroad offer a varied selection of goods. Among them, the merchant in the small village is honestly quite low on the priority list, selling mere HP potions, secondary weapon ammo, and low-tier crafting materials. However, the merchant stationed in the conquered territory deals in skill books and bag expansion tools, meaning a visit is practically mandatory.

Meanwhile, you only need to drop by the castle's regional general merchant once every 30 days. They stock the 'Advanced to Heroic Insignia Boxes' for each area, purchasable with Dragon Coins. These merchants are conveniently located in Winterfell, Highgarden, Storm's End, and Calthorpe—wait, Calthorpe? No, Casterly Rock. As a bonus, the Storm's End merchant also sells 'Summer Scent' and 'Maester's Scroll' alongside the insignia boxes, so pop over if you happen to need them.

On the other hand, if you find yourself running short on Bronze Coins, the costume artisan located inside the castle comes highly recommended. They happily trade 5 'Sturdy Leathers' for 5,000 'Bronze Coins'. Sturdy Leathers can be farmed by taking down rare bear monsters out in the field. Bear in mind—pun intended—that you can hunt a maximum of 9 bears per day, and you can check out their exact spawn spots via the linked Westeros Map DB below.

※ Westeros Map DB [Link]

Season 2's signature core regional event, the 'Jousting Tournament', has finally made its debut. The concept puts you in the boots of your chosen House's representative knight as they clash against knights from rival Houses. Aside from the refreshing gameplay style, it has earned glowing praise for offering a targeted way to scoop up those elusive House insignias.

Yet, sitting right alongside that praise are some rather disappointed murmurs. Interestingly enough, domestic and global users seem to have completely different bones to pick. Global players first and foremost weight their grievances on control difficulty. Complaints flooded in that the QTE (Quick Time Event) judgment window is excessively tight, and the mechanic requiring players to accurately input a specific key three times in a row makes the challenge brutal.

Domestic players, however, pointed the finger at fatigue caused by the sheer pacing. The Jousting Tournament forces you to complete two full sets of 5-round matches, driving up the time investment significantly. To make matters worse, unlike the 'Raid Defense Battle' or 'Knight Duel Festival', there is no structural way to shave down completion times simply by flexing your character's gear stats.

Of course, the door for improvements remains wide open. Considering that the previous 'Raid Defense Battle' also saw its volume trimmed down after listening to user feedback about its bloated runtime, the developer team's upcoming patches are well worth keeping an eye on.

Back on September 7, a player over on the North American Discord grabbed everyone's attention by forecasting a server merge for early October. They backed this claim up by noting that hidden build codes were actively downloading on SteamDB, coupled with the fact that no preliminary notices had dropped to clear the air ahead of a major update.

Alas, tracking the actual SteamDB change logs reveals zero meaningful data shifts around September 7. Even the North American server maintenance held on the 9th was strictly routine server stabilization work. In the end, the server merge prediction turned out to be nothing more than a baseless rumor.

As we have pointed out on multiple occasions, North American users are stuck staring longingly at the Asian servers due to regional restrictions. Naturally, this breeds an insatiable thirst for the latest content. Consequently, they cling desperately to every whisper of a server merge, leaving public opinion easily swayed by unverified rumors.

The absolute last piece of official guidance dropped by the developers was the developer notes posted on the official North American forum back on July 13. Until a concrete announcement hits, you will want to exercise extreme caution so you do not get swept up in uncertain rumors and cause unnecessary confusion.