When Yeonwoo launched in Horizon Walker, she was seen as a breath of fresh air. After weeks of delayed patches, lackluster updates, and underwhelming character releases,
she stood out as a much-needed DPS powerhouse. Her kit was creative, her gameplay engaging, and most importantly — she was strong. With the right investment, Yeonwoo could loop her skills to maintain nearly permanent uptime on her most powerful abilities. For many players, she was the perfect answer to recent content droughts and rising player fatigue.
But within just five days, that excitement turned to outrage.
What Made Yeonwoo Special
Yeonwoo’s core loop revolved around using One for the Road? to gain [Gluttony] stacks, then activating her ultimate, Avatar of Gluttony, to enter her transformed state. This restored AP and converted her next skill into Yum-Yummy Beam!!, a devastating attack.
The loop — when built correctly — let her maintain her form, restore AP, and repeatedly use her strongest attack.
To pull this off, however, players had to invest heavily:
- EX6 Vanguard (for consistent AP generation And Dammage)
- 12% AP recovery from stigmata — requiring multiple rolls, reroll Paint Of Alteration, and Extercium currency
- Full AP Recovery trait setup — needing Soule Stones and Soul Shears to convert traits
This wasn’t a casual build — it took months of resource saving for free-to-play players, or significant money from spenders. But it was possible. It worked.
And the community — especially on Chinese and Korean servers — embraced it, creating detailed rotations and even pulling off 1R Spec Ops clears with it and cheaper variations.
We at Gacha Heaven tested and verified the loop ourselves, even reaching out to the developers to confirm if it was a bug.
We received no answer, so we moved forward with our detailed Yeonwoo guide, assuming this was her intended design.
The Silent Nerf That Shattered Trust
Then came the patch.
Without warning, and days after players had dumped premium currency and real money into perfecting her build,
the developers silently nerfed Yeonwoo. Among small, unrelated “buffs” to her weaker skills, they snuck in a critical change:
“Yum-Yummy Beam!! now has a 1 Round cooldown after being used.”
This completely broke her loop. A character designed around constant uptime and AP regeneration suddenly became non-functional, her core kit dismantled.
The previously fluid DPS rotation became clunky and unviable. With HP loss mechanics and no way to loop skills, Yeonwoo now sits as a low-tier character, outclassed by even mid-tier SRs with far less investment.
Players were devastated — and furious. The Korean, Chinese, and global communities exploded in backlash. Not just for the nerf, but for the timing:
- The nerf came after players had already spent.
- There was no prior warning or announcement until the day of change.
- The developers had ample time to stop or adjust her before release.
Instead, they waited five days, let players spend money, gold, use EX tickets, spend their limited currencies, and then acted.
A Shallow Apology, No Compensation
To make matters worse, the developers issued a brief apology accompanied by a meager compensation package: 1 EX ticket and 3 pulls — barely a Band-Aid on a financial wound for those who spent dozens of dollars or more.
To put things into perspective:
- Reaching EX6 for Yeonwoo and her weapon costs a staggering 18,550,000 gold.
- To change her traits and optimize her build — which is required to make the loop functional — you need 6 Soul Shears (Scissors), which cost 1,800 Extercium, a premium currency that many players paid real money to obtain. Witout counting gold needed and the materials to level her skills and paints to reroll stigmat substats.
There was no rollback, no meaningful compensation, and no acknowledgement of how this hurt paying players or long-term supporters.
Is This False Advertising?
Legally, this sits in a grey area. Most gacha games include vague Terms of Service that allow them to adjust game content post-release. But ethically, this feels dangerously close to bait-and-switch tactics.
Releasing a character in a strong state to boost hype and sales, then nerfing her just days later — after players have invested — is one of the worst things a live-service game can do to its community.
And this isn’t even the first time:
- Everette’s nerfs.
- Puppy Stepper’s range didn’t match what was shown — instead of fixing it, they nerfed the entire skill.
- Ongoing bugs with Efreeti and Griselda (like infinite AP generation) remain untouched — while Yeonwoo gets gutted instead.
The result? A community that’s lost faith. A fanbase burned one too many times. And a game that, during its anniversary and Japanese server launch, is now facing player boycotts and quitting waves and some start selling their accounts instead of celebration.
Where We Stand
We at Gacha Heaven want to apologize to our readers. We promoted Yeonwoo’s guide based on the kit we tested, verified, and believed to be intended. We even reached out to support for confirmation. We believed in her, and we believed the devs wouldn’t allow such an impactful feature to go live if it wasn’t meant to.
We were wrong. And we’re just as disappointed as you and i as a tester my self spent my money on this character.
This situation sets a dangerous precedent: any strong character might now be nerfed post-launch under the guise of “fixing errors.” Who’s next? Yvonna? Will her follow-ups be deemed “bugged” because she’s too popular and powerful for Spec OPS?
We urge the developers:
- Acknowledge this as a design decision, not a bug.
- Properly compensate those who built Yeonwoo.
- Atleast Fix the current version of her so she can still shine, even if the infinite loop is gone.
- Stop punishing players for your own testing mistakes.
You promised to rebuild trust. This is your chance. Do it right — before it’s too late.
