The first beta test of Epic's upcoming MOBA Paragon will begin on April 28—that's Thursday—and run until May 1. It's a closed beta but the first 500,000 registrants will all be invited, so if you've signed up to get in, the odds are probably pretty good that you will. And if you don't, that's OK, because the following weekend, May 5-8, will be open to everyone.
Paragon has been available in Early Access since mid-March, but only to people who spring for one of the Founder's Packs, which run from $20 to $100 and include various skins, boosts and other such goodies. To encourage those paid-up players to keep on keeping on (and, ideally, “help us guide new players”), Epic is offering double experience for everyone, which will stack with boosts, during both weekends.
Epic also announced a retail version of Paragon called the Essentials Edition, which will come with all sorts of goodies including an Essentials Edition exclusive (for now) Wasteland Twinblast skin, 6,000 Paragon Coins, and of course a nice box, which will sell for $60. That package has thus far only been announced for the PS4, but the studio confirmed that the beta test weekends will be multiplatform.
Bear in mind that this is a beta, intended to “see how our servers hold up when hundreds of thousands of players conquer the battlefields of Agora at the same time,” and so there may encounter some wonkiness as you play. But it's free, which I think is a pretty convincing counterpoint to that caution. Sign up for the fun at playparagon.com.
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