Key Points
The recent playtest proved that Atia’s Legacy’s core loop works. Playtesters rated the art, gameplay, and accessibility high. Thank you for your positive feedback!
The next playtest will be mobile-first and focus on the end game. Think Risk-to-Earn elements, Guild Warfare, and the longer-term loop that makes MMOs great. The team is also exploring skill-based systems that make ownership meaningful.
Target for Playtest 2 is mid to late Q1 2026. There may also be smaller, exclusive closed playtests in the meantime. Stay tuned for more details!
Earlier this week, the Atia’s Legacy team hosted an AMA in the Axie Discord. They discussed feedback from Playtest 1, the next steps towards Playtest 2, and what they’re focused on building. Here’s a recap of that AMA:
Cruise opened the AMA by asking whether the first playtest answered the question:
“Can this be fun without an economy?”
According to player feedback, the answer is YES. From visuals to retention, the team was encouraged by these results. Here’s what we found:
First, the art style was a hit. Players resonated with Atia’s Legacy’s warm and mobile-friendly art direction. It created immediate appeal beyond the Web3-native crowd, with testers commenting that they could “show this to their kids” or “convince friends to try it.”
Second, the mobile-first element worked better than expected. ****While PC MMOs dominate the genre, it’s rare for teams to attempt mobile-first design for deep systems. It was a test for our teams: Can a complex, persistent game work elegantly on smaller screens? It did, which opens the door to reaching audiences far beyond the current Axie player base.
Third, gameplay retention was strong. ****Even without tokens or on-chain loops, players kept coming back. Many clocked multiple hours daily across the test period. “We were worried people might play for 40 seconds and drop off,” Cruise said. “Instead, they stayed for hours.”
That simple data point told the team that the foundation — combat, progression, and vibe — was strong enough to sustain fun on its own.
Players also asked for more room for depth. They wanted more ways to express skill, mastery, and personality. The most common feedback centered on:
More interactive, timing-based combat.
Expanded progression and crafting systems.
More of the world’s mysterious character Tripp, who became a fan favorite.
The next playtest will look to validate the endgame. Cruise describes it as:
“A thousand-hour gameplay loop — something that’s still fun for your 200th hour, not just your second.”
The goal is to answer a core MMO question early: what happens when players reach the top?
The team wants to build backward from the endgame down instead of starting with early-level content. This approach avoids a trap many MMOs fall into: Building a long grind that collapses once players hit level cap.
The pillars of Playtest 2 are:
Sustainability: Ensuring long-term gameplay loops have purpose and reward
Risk and emotion: Adding stakes that make victories matter
Community collaboration: Validating guild, PvP, and cooperative systems before expanding the world
Controlled scope: Focusing on smaller, testable zones rather than empty large maps
“We don’t want to disappear for a year and return with a full MMO,” Cruise explained. “We want to validate the big ideas fast, with the community’s hands on it.”
A major theme of Playtest 2 is introducing meaningful risk. This is not about speculation or yield farming, but rather actual stakes inside gameplay.
The team envisions scenarios where players wager something real like items, materials, or even an Axie’s condition in competitive or cooperative battles. It’s an idea rooted in the core of blockchain gaming: True ownership comes with true risk.
“If there’s nothing on the line, excitement caps at five out of ten,” Cruise said. “When your Axie could fall in battle or your gear could break, the tension turns up to ten.”
The design philosophy is “skill to earn.” Think outcomes driven by ability, not spreadsheets.
Atia’s Legacy will include guardrails like insurance or recovery systems so players can choose their own comfort level. Those who crave adrenaline can push all-in, while others can play safer but slower.
This approach isn’t new. Games like EVE Online and Runescape’s Wilderness have done it. However, Web3 ownership gives it real weight. Losing gear means it’s gone, and winning means you earn something real.
If Playtest 1 was about “how it feels to fight,” Playtest 2 is about why you fight and who you fight with. The team’s long-term vision draws heavy inspiration from EVE Online’s legendary player-driven wars.
Shade elaborated:
“In EVE, companies fight over resources and destroy ships worth thousands of dollars. That scale of social warfare is something we want to channel — but through Axie’s world and IP.”
Guilds will become more than social groups — they’ll drive the economy itself. Fighters, crafters, miners, and traders will all contribute differently, but everyone’s effort ties back to a shared goal: collective power and prestige.
This means:
Coordinated resource gathering
Guild raids and territory battles with real risk and rewards
Opportunities for non-combatant players to contribute meaningfully
Cruise explained:
“You might not be the one swinging the sword. Maybe you’re the one forging it, or fishing up materials that fund it. Either way, you’re part of the same story.”
The team calls this the social warfare layer. It’s the living ecosystem that connects competitive, cooperative, and economic play into one loop.
A major theme of the AMA was interconnection.
Atia’s Legacy isn’t a siloed MMO — it’s a node in a broader Axie network.
Axie Core, App.Axie, and Legacy are being designed as complementary experiences sharing assets, players, and economic logic.
Shade summed it up:
“In EVE Online, all professions exist in one game client. In Axie, blockchain lets us spread those professions across different worlds — all feeding the same economy.”
Players may be able to gather or craft in various Axie experiences, breed or release in App.Axie, and then use or trade those resources in Atia’s Legacy
Even players who never touch combat can help power guilds and economies
This unified system creates a sense that the entire Axie universe is one living MMO
Burn mechanisms are often controversial in Web3 games, but Atia’s Legacy aims to make them feel natural and exciting.
For example, when players die in high-stakes content, a portion of their gear or materials may be destroyed or claimed by others. These organic burns help regulate supply and keep the in-game economy balanced without arbitrary sinks.
“When risk meets emotion,” Cruise explained, “players burn more items and tokens organically than any forced system could ever achieve.”
The MMO framework also enables horizontal complexity with more roles and interdependence.
For example, to craft a high-tier weapon you might need:
No single player can do it all, so trade and cooperation become necessary, fueling the player-to-player market.
This layered economy design aims to make both the high-end risk players and the casual crafters essential to each other. This is an important step towards long-term sustainability.
One of Playtest 2’s biggest upgrades will be party-based combat. Instead of solo encounters, players will be able to form squads of 3–5, each fulfilling distinct roles like tank, DPS, support, or hybrid.
Our teams are already testing variations to make it visually clean, strategically deep, and rewarding whether you play alone or cooperatively.
They’re looking at:
Hitboxes and movement speed for dynamic play
Camera angles for visibility in crowded fights
Skill cooldowns and synergy systems to make teamwork meaningful
The goal is to keep combat fun, readable, and skillful. Not just another flashy auto-battle.
Playtest 1 tied abilities to weapons, but some players missed the sense of identity from owning Axies with unique body parts.
Cruise acknowledged this and described a coming rebalance:
“We’re finding the sweet spot where parts, gear, and class all matter — and complement each other.”
This will be an ongoing tuning process rather than a one-time fix.
Over time, owning a rare Axie should feel both aesthetic and strategic again.
Land remains one of Axie’s most exciting long-term pillars, and the team reiterated it hasn’t been forgotten. Playtest 2 and 3 won’t include land, but experiments are already happening on App.Axie to explore ideas like:
Player-generated dungeons tied to land plots
Territory systems where guilds compete for control
Shared resource economies where land produces materials used in Atia’s Legacy
Shade framed it simply:
“We’d rather validate land through smaller experiments first than bake it into Legacy before we know it’s fun.”
When it does arrive, land will be an integral piece of Axie’s cross-world ecosystem. A home base for both adventurers and builders.
Accessibility was another hot topic.
Access: Playtest 2 won’t be Mystic-only. More players and NFT collections will be invited to ensure broader testing data and community diversity
Mobile-first: The game is designed for phones first and foremost, not as a downscaled PC port. This ensures smooth play across regions with different hardware access
PC options: Internal Mac and PC builds exist. A public PC version might launch if demand justifies it, but the core focus will remain on mobile usability
Controller support: Official controller integration will come later once gameplay stabilizes
Performance settings: Options like resolution scaling and frame-rate optimization are being explored to help reduce phone overheating (a running joke during the AMA)
The team is currently targeting mid to late Q1 2026 for the next playtest. Unlike the first build, Playtest 2 won’t start from scratch, It builds on proven foundations, with the focus now on validating the endgame, guild systems, and the risk loop.
Cruise dropped a small teaser before signing off:
“We’re integrating the next big boss for Playtest 2. It’s not another peacock — it’s going to be sick.”
As always, the AMA wrapped up with rapid-fire questions from the community covering everything from gameplay balance to accessibility. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what the team shared.
Yes, but they’ll have a progressive rollout.
In Playtest 1, combat power mainly came from weapons rather than Axie body parts. This left some players feeling their unique Axies were less special. The team heard that loud and clear.
Cruise explained that Playtest 2 will stay focused on validating the endgame rather than adding dozens of new abilities, but the long-term vision is clear:
Parts and classes will be important
Balance tuning between parts, gear, and skills will be ongoing
The goal is to avoid the “only one system matters” trap seen in earlier Axie titles
Yes.
Atia’s Legacy is being designed to welcome both endgame raiders and casual explorers. The team confirmed that lighter, “lifestyle” activities such as fishing, crafting, farming, or homesteading will exist alongside hardcore combat.
Even if you never enter a risky dungeon, the things you create or gather will still feed into the same economy. For example, a fisher’s catch, a farmer’s crop, or a crafter’s materials might directly support a guild’s next war.
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