Today Pearl Abyss’ free-to-play hero action battle royale, Shadow Arena, launched in Early Access on Steam ahead of its full release later this year. Based in the Black Desert universe, Shadow Arena pits players against each other in a massive, all-out brawl where players fight it out with powerful magic and weapons. Take down fearsome monsters and collect valuable loot to gain the advantage and become the last champion standing.
Early Access includes 10 heroes, a new skill level, and a quest system. Early Access will also feature six game modes: Solo, Team, Dueling Grounds, Custom, Normal, and AI matches. While the AI and Normal modes return from the open beta testing, players will have four new modes to explore during Early Access. The new Ultimate skill level enables players to level up above level 3 and have more lethal skill.
During Early Access, there will be 10 heroes available to play, including Jordine Ducas, Orwen, and Badal the Golden. New hero Venslar introduces a new combat style that can be very aggressive or very defensive. Players can enjoy the tactical gameplay by choosing to focus their skill sets on either style of gameplay.
“Shadow Arena is a testament to Black Desert’s amazing and dedicated fanbase, a standalone game that lets fans experience this universe like never before,” says Kwangsam Kim, the lead producer of Shadow Arena,“During this Early Access period, we’ll be listening closely to player feedback and perfecting it for launch.”
Early Access will also include Beta Seasons, where players’ results in ranked matches will be recorded so they can compete to achieve higher tiers and ranks. Top players will earn prizes such as special hero skins when the Beta Season ends. Pearl Abyss plans to support the competitive aspect of Shadow Arena through events and tournaments. More information about these events will be announced in the future.
Current language support for the Shadow Arena early access includes English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Servers will be based on four regions; North America, Asia, Europe, and South America.
