After much waiting, we finally have a date for the next big Ashes of Creation alpha test. Or, rather, three dates. The hugely ambitious new MMORPG, first announced in 2016 and funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, is preparing to open its doors to supporters once again with a series of expanded test phases beginning in October. If you’ve been eager to try out the project for yourself, you’ll even have another chance to get involved – but you’ll have to pay to do so.
Ashes of Creation creative director Steven J Sharif hosted a roadmap update on the Intrepid Studios Twitch channel to discuss the plans for Ashes of Creation Alpha 2. The long-awaited next stage of testing for one of the most ambitious MMORPGs around will actually be spaced out across three phases, he explains. Starting out in October with a more limited selection of races and classes, the test will eventually expand to include the full complement and most of the game’s core systems by May 2025.
The first phase of Alpha Two begins on Friday October 25. It’ll give players access to the Vek, Kaelar, and Empyrean races – along with the character creator – and six of the eight announced class archetypes: Tank, Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Ranger, and Bard. You’ll be able to explore the full Western and Eastern Aelan Riverlands, along with sections of the Sandsquall Desert and Vandagar Tropics zones, featuring five unique nodes that will progress up to level three (with some additional level four features included).
There’s certainly a lot to keep you busy even in phase one. You can look forward to four seasons and a day/night cycle, 36 points of interest, one grand dungeon, four pocket dungeons, 149 story-driven quests, 111 treasure maps, three world bosses, and 75 unique enemy creatures. There will be more than 460 gear pieces to find along with fishing, caravans, player trading, and artisan professions that can reach up to level 25.
You can also expect the central node management systems such as buildings, taxes, various player commodities, and the ability to vote on service building expansions. If you’re looking for some PvP action, you’ll also be well-served there – phase one includes lawless zones, guild wars, node wars, the corruption system, and caravan-based PvP events. Note however that test will only run from Friday to Sunday each week during this period.
Phase two begins Friday December 20 and features periods of “five-plus day availability.” It will expand both the Desert and Tropics zones, introducing two more node layouts. The Vaelune and Dünir races will join the lineup, as will the Rogue archetype, and there are four additional weapon types. Beyond that you can expect the likes of siege vehicles, gems and sockets, gear ascension, tempering, artisanship skill trees, animal husbandry, instanced housing, and leaderboards.
Phase three begins Thursday May 1 and is when servers will become available 24/7, which the team says will continue to remain available up until the game’s full launch. It rounds out the race and class selection with the Py’Rai, Ren’Kai, Nikua and Tulnar, along with the Summoner archetype and secondary class specializations for both Clerics and Tanks. Sharif says that while there’s a chance some wipes will still occur, the team will be trying to avoid them as much as possible from this point on.
Phase three also introduces two additional zones, The Turquoise Sea and The Anvils, along with four more unique node layouts. You’ll also see most of the other features introduced: fully functional guids, castle sieges, naval systems and aquatic mounts, underwater and aerial combat, pets, the transmog and gear dye systems, instanced content, religion, and the auction house. Not all of these are guaranteed to arrive on day one, but Intrepid Studios is working to have them live as soon as possible.
With all that said and done, how do you join? If you’re a previous Ashes of Creation backer you may already have Alpha 2 access, but if not then the good news is that additional keys are being sold. The bad news is that they don’t come cheap, with prices starting at $100 as seen in the chart below.
Expect to pay $120 to gain access to Ashes of Creation Alpha 2 from phase one, $110 from phase two, and $100 from phase three. Note also that phase one access from these keys begins Friday November 8, two weeks after the initial release, and that all three keys only give you access to the alpha version and won’t include future beta tests or the final game.
Sharif reminds potential purchasers that this alpha access should not be considered the same as buying a finished game – this is very much a test, and will likely have plenty of issues. Nevertheless, if you’re eager to get involved with the development of such an undeniably ambitious project and help it reach fruition, the option is there.
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