StarCraft 2 Legacy of the Void Beta Coming This Month

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void, the final expansion pack for the real-time strategy game, will enter closed beta later this month. Today Blizzard announced the launch date for the beta along with some details on what players can expect from the test.

Legacy of the Void's closed beta will debut on March 31st. On StarCraft 2's website, Blizzard said that they normally hold betas later in the development of a game. As a result, you should expect Legacy of the Void to be in rougher shape than usual. Certain units and features will be missing as well. The upside is that the beta will run longer than other Blizzard tests.

"We will need your play-testing support, as well as the feedback about your experiences in the beta, in order to really work together on this expansion."

The test will let players try out both the competitive multiplayer along with the new Archon mode. In Archon mode, two players share a base along with its units and resources. The two commanders must then work together to defeat one or more opponents.

For the closed beta launch, Blizzard will be debuting a never-before-seen Protoss unit: the Adept. This infantry unit has a ground-only ranged attack and can create a mirror image of itself. Shortly afterward, the Adept can teleport to the location of its duplicate.

"This is a new unit that we feel rather confident about. We’d like this unit to serve as a core unit option. This means that this unit will be able to perform some of the previous roles filled by Zealots or Stalkers and, in some cases, do it better."

The beta will also introduce three more maps for multiplayer. Ruins of Seras takes players to a temple in the mountains of the Protoss homeworld. Lerilak Crest is set amidst Xel'Naga ruins on a Dark Templar world. Orbital Shipyard is a starship repair platform orbiting Korhal IV.

While playing the beta, players will encounter some changes to the core StarCraft 2 experience. For example, starting worker count has been boosted to 12 to speed up the start of the match. The in-game clock will be tweaked so it progresses at the same rate as real time. Presumably testers will get a chance to check out the slower pace that Blizzard wants to implement as well. You can read a full run-down on the changes to units and general gameplay in this blog post.

Legacy of the Void is the second expansion pack to SC2 since its launch. The first, Heart of the Swarm, launched about two years ago. Void will continue the storyline of the base game and Swarm with new chapters from the perspective of the Protoss. Blizzard didn't announce a release date for Void yet but maybe they'll share that information at BlizzCon 2015.