Representatives of Pearl Abyss told reporters, at their headquarters in South Korea, how the second closed beta test Shadow Arena battle royale will be different from the first one. We’ve put together a brief excerpt of the questions and answers for you.

They plan to add:

• Level-based rating system. Matchmaking will be done by sorting players by the level and skill, which is tracked in-game. Various awards are planned for leveling up. But it’s expected to be implemented closer to the release.
• “The Dragon” element. Players can call the dragon as support on the map. But first, they need to fulfill a variety of difficult conditions.
• The overall performance of the game will be better. It already works better than before.
• More fighting elements and more diversified fighting range. The developers fear that it will be hard for the new players to adapt in the game, and that the project will become “a personal game”.
• Sealed items. The player will be able to take them with him into the battle. But they can be used only when the player fulfills certain conditions. The better the item, the more difficult the conditions. According to the developers, this will add more variables to the game. In the case, if the players will not like the newly added element, it will be removed.
• Two new characters. One of them is Oroen. Oroen is an experimental hero, who fights well in both melee and ranged combat. The second one is Goyen, and he’s a slow melee warrior with powerful attacks. Some attacks will be spending the health of the character, up to 20%, and other skills are aimed at restoring it. They plan to add heroes with very difficult controls. But these plans are for the far-far future.
• Top view and possibly side view. Most likely, it will be added at the release, and not at the second CBT.

Will be changed / fixed:

• The number of players is decreased to 40. Recruitment to the training room begins with 30 players.
• They will reduce the shielding effect from items. The attack will remain unchanged.
• The characters balance
• The effects of characters, they will become less bright.
• A lot of bugs, including stucking in textures and inability to enter some buildings.
• User interface.

Other moments:

• The game will first be released on PC and later on colsones.
• Developers plan to add many more systems and functions. What these will be yet undisclosed.
• They plan to launch the game in the first half of 2020. The future tests are possible. But with one month intervals.
• Shadow Arena battle royale will be free. Yes. For sure.
• The studio wants to further develop RPG element in the game.
• 4K support will be added in the future. Possibly on release.
• Global servers are not planned. Both Korea and Russia will have their own separate servers.