We check out the major changes in Firefall's Beta Test!

Prior to the update, enemies and PvP matches would give players random upgrades (and often junk items, I found). Since, the game has taken a completely new path: enemies now only drop different mineral currencies, and tier 2 battleframes require the use and refining of these minerals to craft weapons. The same “type” of weapon can have different stats depending on the mineral varieties used: for example, one weapon may have lower weight compensated with a slower rate of fire, while another may shoot faster but weigh more. This allows players to adjust their equipment to their play style. Would the player be better off with a faster movement speed, or more bullets fired?

Most minerals came through a core concept that has been carried over since before the milestone update: use of “the Thumper.” The tutorial explains the concept of mineral gathering in two ways: either players can destroy resource nodes by using explosive mines, or they can “Call down” a giant drilling machine called a Thumper in an area with rich resources. Thumping is a dangerous (and fun) activity: the machine slowly gathered resources while also spawning waves of enemies agitated by the loud noises it makes. So while it’s the quickest way to gain the resources necessary to improve your battleframe, it’s also a good way to get killed without some friends or a good battle strategy!

I spent most of my time helping other people out with their Thumping or calling down my own Thumpers. While enemies no longer drop items, they do drop small boosters such as ammo clips and health restores; this means that while with a group, players can take a short break if they run low on health or ammo and scoop some up as their allies mow down more enemies. Experience is based on participation however; just sitting around and trying to soak up experience doesn’t work. Though IF you want to do that, Engineer turrets that attack enemies do grant experience to their creator! Useful tip I found out, completely accidentally. Mostly accidentally…

The rest of PvE seems less fleshed out. While the tutorial explains the very basics, I found the quest lines mostly absent or poorly explained. Mostly it seems like I was pointed on a few quests and then thrown to the wind. “Might as well use Thumpers, I guess?” was my first thought; but I also managed to find several dynamic and zone events. A couple of times I discovered a “wrecked Thumper” that would spawn debris all around it that could be scooped up for quick experience and minerals (though it also spawned enemies equally determined to destroy the Thumper and me). There are also events when creatures twisted by the Melding, known as “The Chosen” attacked the city and had to be repelled by players; though I only caught the tail-end of one of these zone events.

The other core aspect of the game comes from PvP. While there is not yet open-world PvP, the milestone brought open-world dueling into style; players can challenge one another almost anywhere to see how they measure up. The majority of PvP comes from the game’s five arenas and three game types: and from the bit I played, it was a lot more skill based and reflex-rewarding than PvE. The few times I managed to stay alive during an encounter seemed more due to good luck (or bad lag for my opponent) than to any skill; but watching truly skilled players move like a hurricane through inexperienced foes made me realize two things: that Firefall will have a lot to offer traditional FPS players, and that the milestone spun the battle speed up a fair bit. I suppose a third bit of knowledge is that team death match battles make you hated quickly if all you do is die! 

Even as players get used to the milestone changes, Red 5 Studios is continuing its Beta test execution. While I’ve barely broken into the tier 2 battleframes, tier 3 is already the upcoming talk of the town. And with 500,000 registered members even back in July, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this F2P MMOFPS become one of the more popular games discussed by online players as it gets closer to launch. My advice? Register for a Beta code today if you have any interest in the genre, because Firefall is playing for a top spot in the MMO universe.