The First Berserker: Khazan has hit its first anniversary, and Nexon and Neople are using the moment to look back at a brutal first year for the hardcore action RPG while teasing more support ahead.
Since launching in March 2025, The First Berserker: Khazan has built its reputation on punishing combat, hard boss fights, and a revenge-driven story set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe. To mark the milestone, the team shared a new batch of player statistics, reflected on the game’s awards, and released a message from Creative Director Junho Lee thanking the community for sticking with it.
A strong first year for Khazan
Over the last year, The First Berserker: Khazan has received notable recognition. Nexon says the game earned three awards at the 2025 Korea Game Awards, including Top Excellence Award, Technical Creativity (Graphics), and Popular Voice Actor for Lee Hyun.
The game also found success on Xbox, where it was recognized at the 2025 Xbox Excellence Awards for Store Rating and Player Engagement. That lines up with the broader reaction to The First Berserker: Khazan, which has mostly been defined by praise for its combat and the way it commits to being a tough, demanding action RPG instead of sanding the edges off.
The anniversary stats show just how brutal Khazan has been
The more interesting part of the anniversary update is the community infographic, which gives a look at how players actually moved through The First Berserker: Khazan over the past year.
A few numbers stand out right away. Nexon says 40% of players reached the ending, which is a solid figure for a game built around difficulty and repeated failure. Total player deaths hit 273,804,045, which feels about right for a game this hostile.
The deadliest bosses were:
- Viper
- Volbaino
- Maluca
The deadliest regular enemies were:
- Pincer Spider
- Lunatic Destroyer
- Wild Bear
Outside of direct combat, the most common causes of death were falling, status effects, and traps. That is the kind of stat that says a lot about the game. Even when enemies are not killing you, The First Berserker: Khazan is still finding ways to do it.
Spears narrowly beat out dual wield builds
The player data also gives a decent snapshot of how people approached character building. The most popular weapon type was the Spear at 38%, followed closely by Dual Wield at 37%, with Greatsword at 25%.
The most allocated stat was Endurance, which makes sense in a game where survival matters as much as output. Players also favored Keshta the Unyielding as the most popular Phantom.
One of the wilder numbers in the infographic is the fastest Hardcore difficulty clear time, which came in at 2 hours and 10 minutes. That is the kind of run that makes the rest of us look bad.
The team is still planning more for Khazan
In his anniversary message, Creative Director Junho Lee said he treated The First Berserker: Khazan as the game he would stake his career on, then thanked players for showing up, sharing feedback, and supporting the team.
That message lands better because the game has not just been sitting still. Over the past year, Nexon and Neople have added new content and tougher post-launch modes, such as Ultimate Challenge, while also releasing free cosmetic DLC to give players more customization options.
The bigger takeaway is simple: The First Berserker: Khazan had a strong first year, and the team clearly wants players to know it is not done yet.
