Episode Updates (RO)

Major changes in the geography and history of the world take place as Episodes in the Ragnarok Online timeline. As the development team is located in South Korea, this list will consist of updates made to their particular servers for developmental consistency.

NOTE: Not all Episode updates had update pages made for them so some only appear in patch notes. Therefore, episode information is cross-referenced from the Korean Wikipedia.

Renewal
At one point in RO's life, the developers felt that the game had reached its limit in trying to compete with newer and more polished MMORPGs. So in 2008, development began on RO's Renewal, which would change the way everything worked in the game. After about 10 months of testing, RO was renewed on 2009 June 17.

The following compares the more major changes to the game.

A more detailed list of Renewal changes are as follows:
 * Max level limit (change from existing Level 99 to Level 150)
 * Reduction of necessary experience level to level up
 * Experiment value/Casting time change
 * Change of physical and magical attack power
 * Change of physical and magic defense
 * Change of attack/evasion rate
 * Change of attack speed
 * Change of critical attack
 * Added Quest Alert function
 * System improvement
 * Skill window shortening improvement
 * Shortcut command setting window
 * Beginner training improvement
 * Addition of tutorial leveling quests
 * UI improvement
 * Buff duration display added
 * Skill reuse delay/post-delay display added
 * Party system improvement
 * Over-refining system added
 * Monster AI reinforcement
 * Monster leveling/Layout change
 * Quest difficulty and some quest reward adjustment
 * Rebalancing existing skills
 * Fixed some items armor and options

Revo-Classic
In June of 2016, Electronics Extreme opened a unique RO server that combines some mechanics from the pre-Renewal and Renewal version of RO. After GRAVITY took over management of Taiwan RO (twRO) and Indonesia RO (idRO), similar Revo-Classic servers were opened as well for those versions of RO. More Revo-Classic servers were opened with the new Philippines RO (pRO) and International USA RO (iRO).

The following lists the major features of Revo-Classic servers (although each RO server may modify these to some degree):
 * No EXP penalty
 * No fixed cast time
 * Cast delay rebalanced for 1st and 2nd Class skills
 * Renewal formulas for attack and defense
 * Renewal formulas for skills
 * EXP requirements are less than pre-Renewal, but more than Renewal
 * Pre-Renewal monster spawns
 * Prontera, Izlude, Alberta, and Morocc in pre-Episode 12 state
 * Quest: Level 4 weapon rewards from The God Item Quest replaced by upg armor

On other officials, Revo-Classic servers are known by different names even though they generally follow the same intent:
 * RE:START servers (iRO)

Ragnarok Online: Zero
In October of 2017, GRAVITY announced the development of a new version of RO known as the Ragnarok: Zero project. Initially thought of as the kRO version of Revo-Classic, the Ragnarok: Zero project is eventually revealed to be a modernization of RO based on feedback acquired during focus group discussions and tests conducted in March and April of 2017. About seven months later, testing of Ragnarok: Zero commenced in November and the newest version of RO was launched on 2017 December 27. GRAVITY plans to release this fourth iteration of RO in other regions in 2018.

The following lists the more significant changes to the game:
 * Experience table is similar to pre-Renewal
 * No EXP penalty between players and monsters
 * 10% EXP penalty upon death
 * Players can no longer see monsters when dead, only other players
 * Modernized character selection window
 * Modernized character creation process
 * More detailed Navigation System
 * Client will not allow multi-clienting
 * Modernized quest log
 * Episode updates will be formulated differently from Renewal
 * Skills will work differently
 * Some card effects are changed
 * Max level aura is changed
 * Rare drops like cards will be highlighted when dropped
 * Equipment previews
 * Vends are taxed and timed autovending will be available
 * Shadow gear equipment slots removed from Equipment window
 * Monsters will drop weapons more regularly with randomized enchants
 * Rebirthing process allows you to change to a completely different job branch
 * 1st and 2nd Class characters are still capped at Level 99, but Rebirth Classes can reach the new max level
 * Expanded 1st Classes are still capped at Level 99 while Expanded 2nd Classes can reach the new max level
 * Special boss monster will spawn on maps if a certain number of monsters are killed
 * Dynamic field system for world maps
 * Improved EXP share for parties

On other officials, RO: Zero servers are known by different names:
 * Ragnarok Transcendence servers (iRO)