Closed Beta

The Closed Beta (CB) tests ran from December 2023 up to June 2025, under strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Since 2022, players had the option to sign up for beta testing on the official website and on 14th November 2023, Funcom sent out the beta tester profile survey to all emails signed up for beta testing, as well as having the link in the FAQ.

The Closed Beta tests were only available for PC and required a steam and discord account to be accessed. Beta testers were required to sign an NDA and are invited to a separate Discord server for the purposes of providing feedback to the developers.

Closed Beta Testing

Schedule

As the CB tests are covered under NDA, the schedule was not public - and depended on the feedback/progress of previous tests. Funcom did not announce when the tests occured. The only way to find out was to receive an invitation email and sign the NDA.

Invites

Invites to the CB are sent out via email from `[email protected]`, and contain a link to sign the NDA.. Steam Keys to download the beta client were sent separately after signing the NDA

Confirming that you have received an invite (even if you do not sign the NDA) was prohibited in the official Discord, as it only encourages resentment and is seen as "rubbing it in" to the many thousands of other people who have not received an invite. Since the closed beta ended, testers are now allowed to disclose their participation in the testing.

The criteria for selection was based entirely on the survey responses, and what type of feedback the test required. Longevity or activity in the Discord did not affect the chances of receiving an invite, within the 'pools' of appropriate players for the tests, selection was random. However, the FAQ stated that those who were active participants in helping to build the community might be offered an opportunity to join

The number of people invited into the waves started small, but increased over time. The first test had very few, the second had approximately 4x that number and a subsequent test had 20x that (despite a CM incorrectly stating the number was 200x originally). Towards the end of the Persistent Beta period there were many tens of thousands of participants, primarily stress testing servers.

Invites could not be sent out to minors due to the CB tests requiring participants to sign an NDA, a legal document.

Testing

The early CB tests were short, focused tests of specific features. They were non-persistent, progression wipes happened often, and some features disabled, and very much work-in-progress.

As of June 2024, the Closed Beta has entered a persistent testing phase This means that the servers were open 24/7 and testers can experience the full breadth of the game. This stage of the test ran until near the game's release in June 2025 and expanded significantly.

In the earliest stages, testers were specifically requested not to search for/report on bugs, but instead to give crucial feedback on gameplay elements and design. Towards the end of the persistent beta test, the focus shifted primarily to server stress testing, bug finding and balancing.

Giveaways

There were a number of beta key raffles so far, on 15-02-2024. and on 2024-10-02

These were rare and only "a few dozen" lucky members of the Discord server in the first giveaway, and a "few hundred" in the second won and received their invites.

Key Selling Scams

Given how rare and coveted access to the CB is, there were been several keyselling websites offering to sell Steam Keys or whole Steam Accounts with access to the Closed Beta. These were known scams. Funcom had a system which links the Beta client keys to the email, Steam and Discord accounts of the specific tester they have been allocated to. The keys were also temporary, being revoked at the end of each test, making the sale of these keys effectively moot.

Weekend Beta

The game never did have an "Open Beta" however there was a "Large Scale Beta Weekend" from 2025-05-09 to 2025-05-12. This weekend beta allowed hundreds of thousands of players to try the first 3 areas of the game (Hagga Basin South, Western and Eastern Vermillius Gap) for free. It did require an invite however there were many dozens of content creators and press key giveaways. This weekend beta test was not under NDA and not connected to the Closed Beta test, which continued past the weekend and up to release.

Post Beta & Rewards

The Closed Beta Tests ended shortly before the full release of the game on 2025-06-05 (The early headstart date for Deluxe/Ultimate Edition preorders). At that point, all testers are permitted to disclose their participation in the beta testing and give their general opinions of the game. However, all events that occured during the beta testing and any screenshots/videos/discussions of previous, unreleased versions of the game are still covered by the NDA agreement.

For their participation, testers are granted cosmetic rewards. The exact criteria for these rewards is not publicly disclosed.

B.E.T.A Sword

The B.E.T.A. Sword Skin

The B.E.T.A. Sword is a mesh variant (skin) for the CHOAM Sword. It is awarded to all participants of the closed beta tests.

 Handed to those who know the pain of broken worlds, desynched characters, disappearing vehicles and the eternal hunt for Skorda. We salute you.

AWOO Emote

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The AWOO Emote

During the beta, there was a placeholder text-to-speech NPC dialogue for an Atreides captain giving a rousing speech for the troops. However the voice lines were delivered in an incredibly flat tone and pronouncing "A-TRAY-A-DEEZ", and finally chanting "Awoo". This quickly became a meme of legend amongst the beta testers, and so was enshrined as an emote, featuring the infamous "Awoo" placeholder line. This emote is awarded to many participants of the closed beta test.

 Legends come and go. A regiment long lost to the sands of Arrakis - none remember their names, their faces, their ranks or their mission. But their salute lives on, forever preserved in this legendary emote.

Memorial Plaque

The Memorial Plaque

The rarest reward is the Memorial Plaque, a wall-hanging decorative plaque with Galach engraving which reads:

 IN MEMORY OF THE BASES WE LOST

Very few testers were awarded this decoration, making it one of the rarest items in the game.

None of these cosmetic rewards are attainable now. They are exclusive and personal tokens of appreciation from the dev team to the dedicated group of players who helped improve the game over an 18 month period.

Gallery

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  FlamingMojo displaying the rewards in-game

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  The B.E.T.A Sword with the Sunset Dye swatch

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  The B.E.T.A Sword with the Choam swatch

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  The B.E.T.A Sword with the Maula swatch