Following 3 closed beta playtests, open world PvPvE shooter MetalCore is now officially launching in open beta on September 12th with the start of Season 1: MetalPunks Rhapsody.
What’s New in Open Beta?
The first season of the web3 game’s public release lets anyone experience action-packed blockchain gaming for free by downloading the sci-fi title on PC from the Epic Games Store. This season is focused on the MetalPunks faction, and as such will feature themed story content to allow players to learn a lot more about them.
Next to new lore, there are plenty more new additions coming to this new phase, including a token prize pool, new rewards system, new missions, lobby system improvements to support various game modes, and an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5. This upgrade is said to bring better performance and visuals.
Season 1 Prize Pool & New Rewards System
From September 12th to October 10th, players will have the opportunity to compete for a prize pool of 30 million $MCG tokens, alongside a bonus unlockable reward pool of 50 million $MCG tokens, with both pools distributed across a variety of leaderboards, including 3 new ones: PvX, PvP, and Missions.
How many tokens is allocated to each leaderboard has not been revealed at the time of writing, but how do you unlock the bonus reward pool? Well, that’s where the new rewards system kicks in. Basically, this new system introduces 3 Premium Tiers that players can unlock using Shards (and possibly Holy Credits, though one part of the official announcement mentions only Shards). This means that you can play to earn to gain access to these tiers, or you can purchase them instead. To unlock the bonus reward pool, the community will have to collectively reach 5 different goals. Each goal completed unlocks 10 million more tokens. The first goal for the community is to have 1000 Bronze Premium Tier players. Once this goal is reached, 10 million tokens from that 50 million $MCG pool are unlocked. What the next goal will be will only be known after the first goal is reached.
With the new prize system, everyone starts off at the free Core Tier, which provides access to PvE, PvX, and Missions Web App. To unlock more game modes and gain various bonuses, you need to get one of the 3 Premium Tiers: Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Each tier brings different bonuses as well as a different item to reward you with, but you also get new leaderboards to rank in, so higher-tier players have an opportunity to gain more $MCG rewards. The image below shows you what you get specifically for each Premium Tier. All Marks that you earn will be turned into MCG at the end of the season. Pricing details are not yet available, with the studio stating that they will become known before the season launches.
New Missions & Lobby System Improvements
Introductory missions have been enhanced to provide newcomers with a better onboarding experience, while new missions such as PvP bounties have been added to give players more challenging web3 gaming to enjoy.
The lobby system has been overhauled to support a variety of game modes, including Barony Wars, PvP Tournaments, PvE and PvP maps, and PvE Raids.
Barony Wars are competitive 10v10 battles between players of various Baronies (guilds), and as such is focused on challenging Baronies to fight for the top leaderboard spot to prove they’re the best guild. By integrating Tournament support, players will be able to enjoy PvP competitions that can have various specific session rules to allow for varied gameplay. Some maps now let players play either PvE or PvP, with the new lobby system also specifically supporting PvE Raids, a game mode in which 10 faction members team up for intense co-op gameplay comprised of challenging monsters and valuable resources that are said to “strengthen their faction’s hold on the planet.”
Learn more about what’s in store for Open Beta Season 1: MetalPunks Rhapsody in the official announcement on the MetalCore website. Check out the new trailer for this season below for a glimpse at the UE5 version of the Immutable zkEVM-powered game.
