Permanent items are items that have an extremely long expiration time, and cannot be renewed.
Overview
In the Classic
Since Combat Arms' economy depends on its rental system, Permanent items are considered to be rare and extremely valuable. A Permanent item can save people the worry of having to lose a lot of money over something, because that one item will not expire for an extremely long time. Thus, you can use over and over again (constantly) without fear of having to give it up.
Most Permanent items are weapons, and with the exception of the Clan Emblem, Gender Changes, and any resets. All other types of Permanent items (including vests, camos, and other gear) are exceedingly rare.
Currently, most of the weapons (excluding Specialist or non-Primary/Secondary weapons) have been available for Permanent purchase at one point.
In Reloaded
Reloaded kept the rental system but weapons could be bought for PERM with GP, making PERM weapons a standard sight. However, some weapons are not PERM for initial release with either GP or GC.
HISTORY
Up until February 3, 2010, Permanent items could not be bought with anything other than NX (Black Hi-Sec cases cost money, and the other weapons were available only from the Black Market). However, thanks to an overwhelming number of complaints, the first GP-Permanent weapon, the G36E, was released for 100,000 GP in a one-day sale. Since then. there have been an increasing number of GP-Permanent items, most of which have depended on the number of increasing Facebook fans.
Near the end of 2010, the year-old Permanent option was slowly being removed from the game, a process that was occurring to other Nexon games (Like MapleStory) as well.Beginning with the M1866, the Permanent system was gradually replaced with a lend-and-lease system. Instead of adding a Permanent option for new NX items indefinitely, players will have a limited time period to buy an item permanently after it is released. After that, it will not be offered for permanent duration with the exception of sales, which in that case the item is on sale for permanent for a lower price.
In 2012, Nexon decided to return the permanent duration through the Return of the Perms Sale. This three part sale lasted from August 16 to September 26th. Afterwards, all perms are now available for normal prices.
Default Switch
When using a special Default Item switch, players can switch out their (permanent) default weapons or items for a different item of the same category. However, in the process, you permanently lose whatever item you traded it for. Many unique weapons were once offered as a Default switch, such as the UMP and the USP.
None of these items are to be confused with their LE counterparts. Furthermore, the Default Switch program has been discontinued.
Limited Edition (LE)
Limited Edition (LE) Items are also permanent items, though they are usually much rarer than a standard Permanent weapon. From time-to-time, a Limited Edition item may be released permanently, and each item differs from the next. But instead of having to exchange an existing item for one, they come as a separate but permanent addition to your arsenal. Most of the time, these items are special Supply Case or Black Market exclusive items. LE items, however, are not limited to just weaponry. Other various items have also been sold permanently, such as Clan and Player Name Color Changes, as well as a Limited Edition Mercenary. and may continue to do so in the future. Like Permanent items, LE items can be bought for a large sum of NX as well, but they can also be randomly awarded through the Black HiSec Cases. LE items can be noted for having the "LE" in their name, which distinguishes them in-game and on the website. Other than that, LE weapons are exactly the same as their normal counterparts. Once you purchase a weapon permanently, it cannot be bought again from the Black Market, the same goes for the Default Switch weapons and the GP LE weapons from the Shop.
Nowadays, more and more items are carrying the status of "LE," though they may necessarily not be Permanent. At the same time, items that would truly be considered as an LE item do not carry the title.
Milestones
These are the record-breaking moments in Permanent history. Default items, originally Permanent items (stuff which were released with an automatic permanent duration), and upgrades of items do not count.
First Permanent Weapon
First GP Permanent Weapon
First GP Rare Permanent Weapon for Sale
First Permanent Secondary Weapon
First Permanent Player/Special Item
First Permanent Clan Item
First Permanent Mercenary
First Permanent Hat
First Buyable Permanent Hat
First Permanent Facial Item
First Permanent Melee Weapon
First Permanent Backpack
First Permanent Vest
- Tanker Vest (7/3/11 to 7/7/11)
First Permanent Support Weapon
First GP Permanent Secondary Weapon
Lowest GP Permanent Weapon Sale Price
Lowest NX Permanent Sale Price
- Caution at 900 NX (One Day Sale on 12/21/12)
Highest GP Permanent Weapon Price
First Permanent Explosive Projectile
- MZP-1 at 19,900 NX (7/28/11 Preview Sale)
First GP Permanent Machine Gun
- MG34 at 120,000 GP
First GP Permanent Assassin
- Banshee at 90,000 GP (One Day Sale on 8/17/13)
First GP Permanent Explosive Projectile
- RPG-7 at 100,000 GP (Limited Sale on 2/27/14)
Limited Edition Weapons (To-date)
- M107CQ SE
- G36E Valkyrie
- PP-19 MOD
- P90TR
- M416 CQB
- M4A1 Desert Warrior
- L85A1 MOD
- AK-74M
- L96A1 Arctic Wolf
- SCAR-L Trispear
- SG556
- AUG A3
- MP5 MOD
- MP7 MOD
- PSG-1 MOD
- AK-47 Gold-Plated
- FAMAS G2
- M417 Combat
- M6A2 SRT
- ACR (75,000 GP, no longer available)
- G36E (100,000 GP, no longer available)
- UMP (100,000 GP, no longer available)
- L96A1 (200,000 GP with a 100,000 GP rebate, no longer available)
- M4A1 (60,000 GP during Black Friday 2010, no longer available)
- AK-47 (60,000 GP during Black Friday 2010, no longer available)
- M1911 MEU (50,000 GP from 3/25/11 to 3/29/11)
- Others can be obtained through the Black HiSec Case.
- Weapon Renewal Kits have an exceedingly slim chance of making almost ANY NX weapon permanent.
List of Current Permanent Items
Assault Rifles
- All NX standard assault rifles are available for 24,900 NX perm.
Sub-Machine Guns
- All NX standard sub-machine guns are available for 24,900 NX perm.
Machine Guns
- All NX standard machine guns are available for 19,900 NX perm.
Sniper Rifles
- All NX standard sniper rifles are available for 29,900 NX perm.
Shotguns
- All NX standard shotguns are available for 19,900 NX perm.
Pistols
- All NX standard pistols are available for 9,900 NX perm.
Trivia
- Permanent is often misspelled in-game with an "a" (permanant) instead of an "e" (permanent).
- Every item in the game has an unseen expiry date, which ends somewhere in late 2550.
- Every Permanent item used to openly show this expiry date, but an unscheduled maintenance implemented the "Permanent" symbol (green infinity) to cover it up.
- GP has an unseen expiration date, which can only be viewed when receiving an event reward or opening a Hazard Case.
- So basically, every Permanent item is a slowly-expiring item with a very long expiration date.
- And since you might have "Permanent" items, the game prevents you from buying the item again. To bypass this restriction, you must instead open an alternate version of the item from your Inbox (via gifts) to extend its duration.
- The Permanent items you buy from the Black Market or from sales do not noticeably expire because the their duration is incredibly high (the Black Hi-Sec Cases once announced these durations in standard form instead referring to them as simply "Permanent", i.e ZeroExalted has received the AUG A1 Black for 1023123124 days. Because of that, you cannot notice that your items are expiring, and you (along with the game) probably won't be alive to see it do so.
- Up to the end of 2009, no LE item had ever been sold twice. However, between Christmas and New Year's of that year, Nexon re-released several LE weapons for purchase. They include: the M416 CQB, L96A1 Arctic Wolf, L85A1 MOD, MK16 Scar-L Trispear and the G36E Valkyrie. In early 2010, Nexon further expanded the availability of LE weapons by offering all standard NX weapons (those that can be purchased directly with NX) for a permanent duration.
- Recently, most Permanent Items do not carry the "LE" title in their name. At the same time, not all supposedly "LE" items are permanent. The American Eagle and Autumn LAW were both released as "Limited Edition" items, though neither were Limited Edition. Though the former was released as a permanent item, it was available again later for purchase. Likewise, the AK-47 & M4A1 were both released as GP Permanents, but neither of them are Limited Edition.
- Despite being a permanent item, LE models can be discarded (permanently) like normal weapons.
- This issue has been a major complaint among "hacked" players who had people delete (discard) their permanent items from their accounts. Thanks to Nexon's "non-refundable" pact, support tickets on the matter are usually denied.
- The only way to get a permanent attachment is if the item had already came with it attached. (i.e MOD'ded weapons)
- Up until the release of the permanent L96A1, only weapons by Heckler & Koch were offered as permanent GP weapons.
- With the arrival of Kalika Cases, every item in the game (excluding Modifications) can become Permanent.
- Players have criticized the fact that Permanent items were being removed from the game under the guise of simply "retiring" the lesser-purchased items. They were also promised that the sales would cease by the end of the year. Neither of these things turned out to be true, as the sales continued well into the next year.
- The "Permanent" duration mark was once just 3600+ days, causing many players to buy 90-Day duration items roughly 45 times to make them "permanent". But because of the attention this method attracted, Nexon had no choice to but raise the mark to a higher date ("Non-Permanent items with exceedingly long durations (3600+ days) will now correctly display their expiration date and remaining duration, as opposed to erroneously stating that they had become Permanent. This is merely a change with how the item is displayed in the inventory: No actual durations of any items have been altered by this fix."). This did not affect "real" permanent weapons, who's actual durations were so high up that they weren't affected by it.
- The new permanent duration mark is now approximately 36,100 days, or roughly 100 years.
- During the NeX-Mas Sale, almost all NX weapons were sold for permanent.