Dragon Ball: The Breakers Steam closed beta test registration has opened

On November 24, Bandai Namco announced a closed beta test for Dragon Ball: The Breakers. The closed beta will take place between December 4 and 5 UTC, on PC (Steam), and will be held across 4 separate 4-hour sessions. The deadline to register is November 30 2:59pm UTC.

Dragon Ball: The Breakers is an online asymmetrical action game set in the Dragon Ball universe, where players are split between playing as the overwhelmingly powerful Raider or with the team of Survivors who have no superpowers and must cooperate to escape.

In the game, the 7 survivors are pulled into what’s called the “Temporal Seam,” a space time phenomenon where the Raider awaits. The goal of the Raider is to stop the activation of the “Super Time Machine” and defeat all the survivors. The Super Time Machine is a device that if activated, allows the survivors to escape and win the match.

For the Survivors, activating the Super Time Machine is no simple task. They must first set what are called “Power Keys.” There is one in each area, and it must be found and taken to a specific location. Setting a Power Key will speed up the startup system of the Super Time Machine. The startup system appears on the map for a set amount of time and must be defended from the Raider in order to activate the Super Time Machine.

If the Survivors can’t activate the Super Time Machine, there are still regular time machines that can be called with beacons spread across the map. The catch being only one time machine can be called at a time. However, other players can hop onto the outside of the time machine and escape as well, so if you have a companion nearby, get on the time machine together and receive bonus points for surviving.

The Raider can earn what is called a complete victory by defeating all the Survivors. This means working efficiently to stop the activation of the Super Time Machine. The Raider is much stronger than the Survivors and evolves during matches to gain different active and passive skills. The Raider evolves by absorbing Survivors and NPC civilians on the map and can also destroy a section of the map each time it levels up to a new evolution, giving Survivors less room to work with and adding to the tension.  

Survivors aren’t totally defenseless, though. They also have access to passive and active skills, as well as items and vehicles scattered across the map. There are also equipable “Transpheres,” which contain the souls of super warriors and allow the player to temporarily transform into characters like Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo.

A gameplay overview trailer released along with the closed beta announcement explains even more gameplay mechanics such as collecting Dragon Balls, battling the Raider head on, and making use of numerous special attacks. While the beta will only feature Cell as a Raider, it looks like the full game will contain other Raiders such as Frieza and Majin Buu.

Registration for the closed beta will end on November 30, with notifications going out to those selected on December 3. Dragon Ball: The Breakers is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2022.