Web3 MMORPG Mirandus, one of the most anticipated blockchain gaming projects from the Gala Games ecosystem, is moving away from its limited time playtests and launching into an indefinite early access period with the launch of the Public Preview build on November 15th.
How to Start Playing the Mirandus Public Preview Build
While this is a public build that will continue to have servers running likely all the way to the MMO’s official launch, playing it however is not available for free. In order to jump in, you need to own an Exemplar NFT in your Gala Games account. By owning an Exemplar NFT, you are owning a playable NFT avatar belonging to one of 5 different races and one of 25 different ancestries, with more Exemplar ancestries set to potentially be added in the future. The 5 races include: Human (Rare), Orc (Epic), Dwarf (Epic), Halfling (Legendary), and Elf (Ancient). Each race has a certain rarity and 5 different ancestries, with Elves being the rarest race. Every ancestry provides a different bonus. For example, a Brightsun Elf can convert energy into health during daytime, while The Glimmering Clan Dwarf has increased mining output.
As all Exemplars are sold out on Gala’s official store, you can purchase an Exemplar NFT on secondary marketplaces instead, such as OpenSea or NFTHarbor. The collection on OpenSea is on the Ethereum network, where the floor price seems to be around 997 $GALA at the time of writing. NFTHarbor is the first NFT marketplace to be powered by GalaChain, so if you want NFTs on the ecosystem’s native network, you might also be able to get an Exemplar there as well, with the cheapest special avatar currently priced at 1750 $GALA.
What’s New In Mirandus’ Public Preview Build?
This latest release is said to give players “an elf’s-eye view of the world,†allowing you to explore beautiful low-poly environments as the team continues to further develop everything needed for the final official launch, which is said to be “still in the distance,†according to the announcement post. You will be able to download the build this Friday, November 15th on PC, and it will be accessible only to players who have an Exemplar NFT in their Gala account. Unlike previous playtests, which were only live for very limited periods of time, the launch of this early build will have the servers constantly up and running to let anyone with an Exemplar NFT hop in and start exploring at any point in time that they want.
Aside from these bits of info, nothing else new was revealed at the time of writing, with more specific info possibly to appear once the build goes live. It’s unclear if this new build will feature any NFT rewards like the previous playtest did, but based on a few Discord messages, it seems certain that you won’t be able to earn the $MTRM utility token in this current build. Once it does get added at some point later on, players will be able to use the Materium token for crafting, spellcasting, improving abilities, and teleporting valuable tradable items.
However, you can check out the Mirandus section of Gala Games’ official Discord server, where the developers are regularly reporting their progress on the ambitious blockchain-powered game. These announcements feature not only update notes, but also various cool images and videos showing behind-the-scenes work on a variety of models and locations of the world of Mirandus. It looks like most of the development work these past few weeks have been focused on creating 3D art and concept art while adding new details and animations, improving level design and visual effects, building high-level lore, and more.
The last Mirandus playtest was held at the end of August this year, introducing participants to a new zone called the Rolling Hills. Players were able to craft various weapons and collect resources while fighting enemies and hunting for the Golden Rabbit. Everyone who participated received a commemorative NFT, while those who managed to get the Golden Rabbit got another special commemorative NFT.
