Lunacian Lounge Recap: Combat, Dungeons, and Risk to Earn
A deeper dive into what’s coming to Atia’s Legacy ⚔
Key Points
Upcoming Playtest: We’re planning to open Playtest 2 in late Q1 or early Q2 2026.
Single-Axie Combat: We’re focusing on building out single-axie combat rather than squad-based combat to introduce greater depth and more parts utility.
Risk-to-Earn: Multiplayer with risk-to-earn extraction systems are the next major gameplay layer. We’re focusing on making risk-to-earn accessible for everyone.
Axie Core: We’re also working on connecting the entire Axie ecosystem into the game. Think Axie Core, the Codex, Land, all in one.
Last week, the Atia’s Legacy team met with our community to discuss Atia’s Legacy’s development. Cruise and Shade gave some feature and timeline updates. They also shared some of our vision for an even more expansive Atia’s Legacy. Here’s what they talked about:
Building the Multiplayer Foundation
Cruise opened by sharing how the team has been heads down refining the game’s multiplayer systems. Internal teams are focusing on combat feel, network stability, and backend infrastructure, ensuring that Atia’s Legacy can handle the demands of large-scale dungeon gameplay.
“We’re making sure it feels good, no lag, no sync issues, and that our backend can actually support what we’re dreaming up.”
The team plans to share early internal footage or screenshots once the foundation is solid, giving the community a preview before the next public playtest. The vision remains unchanged: a long-form, replayable MMO experience where your 100th or 10,000th hour still feels meaningful. That endgame loop, what you do after mastering the basics, remains the design anchor.
New Combat Direction: Solo Axie Battles
One of the biggest reveals of this AMA was a major shift from squad-based to single axie combat. While Playtest 1 featured 5 axies fighting together, internal tests showed this approach limited clarity and balance, especially in multiplayer raids.
“It was cool, but chaotic,” Cruise explained. “When everyone brought squads, it got hard to read, hard to coordinate, and we lost that sense of class identity.”
Now, each player will control one primary axie whose body parts directly define combat abilities. This change opens up deeper skill expression, strategic variety, and collectible utility.
Key benefits:
Axie parts gain active abilities rather than only passive skill and stats
Classes and archetypes such as tank, DPS, and support become clearer
Combat feels tighter and more personal, closer to ARPGs like Diablo or Brawl Stars
Each axie can equip multiple weapons, adding flexibility
The team is testing dodge, sprint, and other movement skills to make the minute to minute gameplay more dynamic. This shift also future-proofs for multiplayer party play by enabling clearer roles, better synergy, and less chaos.
Multiplayer Dungeons and Extraction Gameplay
The next major milestone is the debut of multiplayer dungeons with extraction elements, inspired by modern PvPvE risk games such as Tarkov and Arc Raiders. The team emphasized that Atia’s Legacy is not becoming Arc Raiders, but the genre’s recent success helped validate some of the direction the team was already exploring.
“We have been exploring this space since before Arc Raiders blew up,” Cruise noted.
Dungeons in Playtest 2 will combine boss fights, exploration, and extraction. Players can choose to extract early for safety or push deeper for higher stakes. The objective is not to make a sweaty, unforgiving extraction title, but a version that is emotional, thrilling, and approachable.
Cruise summarized the principle simply:
“How can I get my mom to risk to earn? That is the design challenge.”
Making Risk to Earn Accessible
Risk to earn traditionally caters to a small, niche subset of players. Atia’s Legacy aims to redefine that. Losing gear or extracting late will still have consequences, but the system is being shaped to reward smart thinking and team coordination rather than reflex-heavy gameplay.
Cruise called this emotional earning.
“Excitement comes from stakes. Accessibility comes from control. We want both.”
Elevating parts, classes, and AXP utility
A clear message from Playtest 1 was that equipment overshadowed the axie’s identity.
We’re working on fixing that.
In the future:
Axie parts will have active abilities
AXP levels and evolutions will provide meaningful progression
Stat granularity will allow upgrades to feel significant again
Cruise noted that collectors and breeders who own wide axie rosters should feel that depth reflected in-game. While not all of them will be live for Playtest 2, it’s something we’re thinking about looking ahead. This also opens space for deeper economy loops, since higher level axies will demand rarer materials and more thoughtful crafting.
The Codex: From Rewards to Real Utility
Shade confirmed that the Codex will evolve beyond cosmetic rewards. The team is experimenting with:
Accessories that provide in-game bonuses
Consumables connected to Axie Core and Legacy
New reward categories that help bind the entire ecosystem
“Think of the Codex as a testbed,” Shade said. “It is where we experiment with reward types that loop back into Legacy and Core.”
Everything in Axie is intended to matter over time, including badges, accessories, collectibles, and earned items.
Economy, Collectibles, and Design Balance
Atia’s Legacy is being designed holistically with the larger Axie ecosystem. This includes Axie Core, the AXS token economy, materials, collectibles, and eventually Land.
Shade highlighted that this approach is fundamentally different from earlier titles.
“We are not just making a fun game. We are building a connected system.”
Cruise added that Axie cannot aim small.
“We cannot just serve the same degen audience. We have to reach millions.”
Balancing Axie Complexity
The Axie universe includes parts, classes, levels, evolutions, accessories, and more. Balancing all of this at once is impossible, so the team will introduce utility systems in phases.
Life Skills
Crafting will be a core pillar of the long-term economy. Life skills such as fishing, mining, and gathering will complement the crafting system but may roll out gradually due to complexity.
“Fishing sounds trivial, but doing it right is its own mini-game,” Cruise explained.
The long-term intent is to allow meaningful non-combat progression that fuels the economy, even for players who never enter a dungeon.
Community Involvement and Transparency
The team reiterated that these fortnightly Lunacian Lounges exist to keep development transparent.
“If you are here, you are basically in the dev room with us,” Cruise said.
Community feedback directly influences design decisions, and the team wants players to understand how and why those decisions evolve.
Playtest Badges
Two badges are being issued for Playtest 1:
A participation badge for all players
A top 100 leaderboard badge
These badges will appear soon and may gain future utility across the Axie ecosystem.
Community Q&A Highlights
Will Playtest 2 test risk to earn directly?
Yes. Risk to earn is the central focus of Playtest 2.
The next test will validate how fun, accessible, and emotional the loop feels when tied to multiplayer dungeons.
How are you balancing the economy without overwhelming players?
By rolling out economic utilities one layer at a time. The team does not want all axie traits or collectibles to become active systems at once.
Cruise noted that Origins was stuck on a content treadmill, which limited opportunities for deeper changes. Atia’s Legacy is being paced more intentionally.
How will collectibles and accessories matter?
Some will influence combat. Others will increase loot or crafting outcomes without affecting combat power. This separation ensures collectible ownership feels rewarding without creating imbalance.
How will life skills fit into gameplay?
Life skills will support crafting and the broader economy but may release gradually. The team is exploring whether some life skills can even exist outside the main client.
How will Axie Core, Land, and Atia’s Legacy connect?
Everything is being built as one unified ecosystem. Rewards, materials, and consumables will have shared use across Core and Legacy. Shade emphasized:
“If you engage with the Axie ecosystem, it will pay off. Everything will matter.”
When is Playtest 2?
Late Q1 or early Q2 2026, depending on stability. Internal testing is active, and community previews will be shared once systems look and feel solid.