Yes, it’s true – the Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Phase Three is officially delayed until August 26, 2025.
For those of you who have been participating in the daily PTR testing, this may not be a surprise and may even be expected based on the high amount of new content and systems Intrepid Studios is trying to include with the official launch of Phase Three.
For those of you who have been waiting to jump in with the launch of Phase Three, then you unfortunately will have to wait a little longer. It’s important to note though that you don’t need to wait until this Phase Three launch to start testing out Ashes of Creation. You can participate in the PTR today as long as you have an Alpha Two key!
Core System & Performance Improvements Thus Far
Over the last several months, the overall Ashes of Creation player base has been staying busy with testing out a long list of core systems and features that are coming to the game.
Below are a few highlights of what some of these systems are, and what’s been accomplished thus far:
- Dynamic Gridding & Server Performance – Improved load balancing and real-time responsiveness across the realm.
- Unreal Engine 5.6 Transition – Better lighting, stability, and overall polish.
- Time-to-Kill Analysis (TTK) – Helping us fine-tune combat pacing and enemy health tuning.
- Early Game Flow – Including how quickly players obtain mounts, tools, and find their first questing hubs.
- Node Progression & Player Behavior – We’ve been tracking how players interact with the world, level up nodes, and engage in meaningful choices.
- Guild Storage System Testing – Introducing and iterating on shared storage solutions for guilds, ensuring functionality, security, and ease of use for organized play.
- And so much more!
This is just the start – there are many, many more systems that need to be testing, and even more coming soon!
The Current Focus in Ashes of Creation
To drive further awareness on what the team is focusing on, Intrepid Studios published the following list:
- Anvils – Development in the Anvils zone arrived a little hotter than anticipated. As such, we’re taking some additional time refining the new starting area, focusing on interior spaces, content, visual landmarks, and environmental storytelling. While we are not aiming for content parity with the Riverlands starting zone, we do want to ensure a robust golden path that guides you through the starting villages, artisan POIs, pocket dungeons, and nodes progression.
- Level 4 Nodes & Vassalship – We need some additional time to smooth out the level 4 layout, enhance environmental set dressing, and improve UI elements related to Vassalship. These systems represent a major step forward in shaping the world through player-agency and fostering healthy competition between nodes as they specialize and evolve.
- First-Time User Experience (FTUE) – Streamlining and enriching the early game experience for newcomers in both The Anvils and the Riverlands requires iteration. We will be spending the coming weeks improving these paths with support from testers on the PTR.
- Lighting, Maps, & Interiors – With the hot delivery of The Anvils, downstream teams like lighting, audio, and UI were impacted. This additional time will be used to enhance ambiance, improve interior maps, and refine navigation throughout key regions of The Anvils.
- Economy & Stat Rebalance – Our economy refactor has touched every aspect of the game, and demanded significant time and effort from the team. Based on recent feedback and data, we’re continuing our rework of rewards, item values, scaling, and more. We will use this extra time on PTR to test and tune these systems to ensure a proper start to Phase III.
- Dynamic Gridding, Server Worker, and Realm Improvements – We accomplished a huge feat this month with our glorious testers on PTR, having successfully split and removed server workers from the grid during runtime. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will continue backend optimization efforts to support larger, more stable play environments.
By participating in this the Alpha, you’ll be able to test these new systems out for yourself, provide feedback, and help prepare Ashes of Creation to become one of the best MMOs out there!
Playing Ashes of Creation Today
Although Phase Three will not officially be launched until August 26, 2025, there are still many different ways you can jump into Ashes of Creation today to start testing.
The first way of jumping in now includes participating in the Alpha Two Realm Shol (v0.13), which comes online Thursdays at 10AM Pacific Time (PT) and close Mondays at 6PM PT.
The second way is to play on the Public Test Realm (PTR), which remains available 24/7, with short downtime for updates. Your progress within the PTR will likely reset almost daily based on the ongoing tests, while your progress on the Alpha Two Realm Shol will likely reset with the launch of Phase Three on August 26, 2025.
If you do plan on jumping in, be sure to check out our Ashes of Creation beginner’s guide to help you get started.
How to Start Playing Ashes of Creation
If you’re interested in playing Ashes of Creation, then create an account here and visit the “shop” section of the Ashes of Creation website to purchase your key. Upon purchase, you will receive access to play the rest of Alpha Two, along with a key for Beta One and Beta Two.
Additionally, you will receive one month of gameplay for Ashes of Creation upon launch, and $15 worth of embers (in-game marketplace credits). We hope to see you soon in Verra!