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Heroes of the Storm alpha shop goes offline today, leaving 29 heroes temporarily free

The Heroes of the Storm alpha: bustling.

To build anew, one must first destroy. That’s an adage lived by rebel alliances and Blizzard technicians alike. If Heroes of the Storm is to redefine the MOBA, its technical alpha will have to be pulled down. The in-game shop is already gone, and account wipes will follow soon after.

In the quiet before the hammer comes down, however, all 29 alpha heroes will be available to play in free rotation.

In a week’s time, Blizzard will bring the technical alpha offline for a further week of extended maintenance. During that time, it’ll be impossible to login or play Heroes of the Storm – and afterwards, there’ll be no record of players’ progress.

Levelling, in-game gold and unlocked rewards will all go in the wipe, and any purchases made with real-world money will be refunded. Already-paying players will gain an exclusive Wonder Billie Mount once the skies have cleared, however.

This will be Heroes of the Storm’s final purchase wipe – any sales made afterward will be permanent.

“Our goal is to avoid future player and hero progression wipes after we come back online,” say the developers, “but we may still need to adjust or wipe player progression with future updates. Don’t worry, though, because we’ll give you ample warning if that ever becomes necessary.”

When Heroes is back online, all alpha players will be shunted over to their home Battle.net region – losing their technical alpha friends list in the process. So be sure to note down the BattleTags of any region-compatible new friends you want to keep, yeah?