Ashes of Creation Beta Phases: The Full Test Schedule and How Systems Are Rolling Out

Intrepid Studios runs one of the most open development processes in the MMO space, and that openness comes with a schedule worth understanding before you buy anything. Here is exactly what is playable right now in Ashes of Creation, what sits behind future gates, and the order systems are arriving in before the game ever reaches a beta phase.

What changed

When Intrepid Studios published its Alpha Two roadmap in August 2024, it replaced vague “coming soon” messaging with a three-phase testing structure, each phase with different server uptime and different test goals. That roadmap also locked in something players had been asking about for years: Alpha Two access began on October 25, 2024, and the phases roll forward from there.

The current picture, based on Intrepid’s official announcements, looks like this:

Alpha Two Phase I began October 25, 2024, running weekend testing (Friday through Sunday). Its test goals were progression, performance, stability, and scalability.
Alpha Two Phase II shifted to 5-plus-day testing windows starting December 20, 2024. Its test goals were vassaling (the node hierarchy system), economy testing, and node advancement.
Alpha Two Phase III is the persistent, 24/7 phase. Originally targeted for May 1, 2025, it was moved to August 4, 2025, with a full character and progression wipe at the start to give Intrepid clean testing data. Intrepid has said Phase III is expected to last at least one year.
Beta One and Beta Two have no announced dates. Intrepid’s official support page lists both betas and the full launch as to be announced.

That last point matters for anyone treating “beta” as a near-term milestone: the betas are gated behind an alpha phase that is designed to run 24/7 for a year or more.

How it works

The rollout is built around two overlapping structures: the test phases themselves, and a fixed content cadence that runs inside all of them.

The phase ladder

Each Alpha Two phase adds either more uptime or broader test goals. Phase I was deliberately constrained — weekend-only servers so Intrepid could watch concurrency spikes in controlled bursts. Phase II widened testing windows and turned on the systems that make Ashes of Creation distinct: node advancement, vassal relationships between nodes, and the player-driven economy. Phase III keeps realms up around the clock, with only short downtime windows for updates, and is where expanded content and features land.

Intrepid is explicit about what happens to features across a phase: the features listed for a phase are not all present on day one. The goal is that they are delivered before the phase ends and the next one begins. In practice, that means a phase’s early weeks can feel sparse, with the full feature set only assembling over time.

The update cadence

Every phase runs on the same publishing rhythm:

As necessary: hotfixes for critical issues.
Every three weeks: major bug fixes, balance changes, and a minor version release.
Every six weeks: new features and content in a new major version deploy.

If you are watching from the outside, the six-week major version cycle is the number to track. It is the pace at which new systems — caravans, freehold-related features, artisan profession expansions, and combat content — should keep arriving during Alpha Two.

What Alpha Two turns into

One of the most useful details in the roadmap is what happens to the alpha when the betas begin. When Beta One starts, Alpha Two converts into an NDA-covered test realm that receives content before the Beta and launch realms do. Intrepid has confirmed this test realm continues after launch. In other words, buying into Alpha Two is not buying disposable preview access — the environment stays live as the game’s staging ground.

Build path

For readers deciding whether current access is worth it, it helps to know the confirmed order of systems — what is playable in the alpha test now versus what stays gated.

Playable and in active testing now

Per Intrepid’s official Alpha Two page and roadmap, the current test covers:

Settlements — the node-driven gameplay loop that evolves with player participation and conflict.
Open world PvP with risk-versus-reward mechanics.
PvE content including quests, dungeons, and world bosses.
Artisanship — gathering, processing, and crafting, including recipes and materials feeding a player-driven economy.
Caravans, mounts, and points of interest, with ongoing game balance work across all of it.

Realm infrastructure supports Western Europe and North America with three realms per region at the start, hosted to scale past several thousand concurrent players per realm through Intrepid’s dynamic gridding and server meshing technology.

Gated behind later phases

Beta One and Beta Two: both remain undated. Access to them is bundled with Alpha Two purchases, so current buyers are covered whenever they happen — there is no separate beta purchase to plan around.
Launch: undated, with one important structural confirmation — at launch, Ashes of Creation will have no box price and runs on a subscription model. Alpha Two itself has no subscription cost.

What access costs

Intrepid has sold Alpha Two in wave bundles — $120, $110, and $100 tiers that opened access at progressively later starting points (November 8, 2024; December 20, 2024; and May 1, 2025 respectively). Each bundle includes Alpha Two access continuing into all subsequent test phases, plus Beta One and Beta Two access, one month of subscription time, and $15 of Embers marketplace credits. Purchasing into any phase grants access to every later phase.

Intrepid’s own guidance is unusually blunt, and it is worth repeating because it sets honest expectations for the beta timeline: do not buy testing access if your intent is to play a completed game. The alpha is rough, buggy, and explicitly built as a live service under construction, updated on its six-week rhythm.

What it means

The practical reading of the schedule is that “the beta” is not one event on the horizon — it is the far end of a conveyor belt that is already moving.

First, the systems that define Ashes of Creation are being stacked, not dumped. Node advancement and vassaling were Phase II goals because the economy needs a working node layer underneath it. The 24/7 Phase III exists because persistent realms are the only way to test a player-driven economy and settlement warfare over seasons rather than weekends. If you want to understand how finished the betas will feel, watch how Phase III’s systems settle over its expected year-plus run rather than watching for a beta date announcement.

Second, the cadence is the real commitment. A six-week major version cycle means the alpha can change meaningfully between any two points you check in on it. For players tracking whether specific systems — artisan professions, caravans, siege content — are ready for the beta phases, the minor versions landing every three weeks are where balance corrections happen after each big drop.

Third, the wipe policy tells you how Intrepid views progress during testing. Phase II began with a full wipe of all realms, Phase III began with a full wipe of characters and progression, and the team’s stated goal is to wipe as little as possible going forward — with every alpha and beta realm confirmed to be wiped before launch regardless. Anything you build in any test phase, beta included, is temporary. The value being sold is influence on the game and familiarity with its systems, not a head start on the finished world.

Finally, the NDA conversion is the quiet headline. When Beta One finally has a date, the existing Alpha Two realm becomes the earliest place new content exists anywhere — before beta players see it, and continuing past launch. For the most dedicated testers, that makes current access the longest-lived product Intrepid sells.