Developer Bonfire Studios is finally fully pulling back the curtain to reveal more about Arkheron, its upcoming PvP live-service game. As it turns out, Arkheron is both extremely familiar and entirely unusual: teams of three compete to survive climbing a tower using fast-paced abilities tied to loot with an isometric camera and layout while avoiding a damaging storm.
So, basically, think Diablo-style gameplay with Overwatch-style abilities mixed with a little bit of Fortnite's battle royale. And, you know, a central tower. It's a whole bunch of familiar ingredients, laid out in a new sort of pattern.
In fact, the main game mode is "Ascension Royale Mode," which sees 15 teams of three trying to claim beacons to survive the storm and ascend to the next level. Each floor being more difficult than the last with a bunch of enemy monsters and fewer of these beacons means that the final match is just two teams at the top of the tower.
Rather than character classes or roles, Arkheron is literally all about its Relics, four items you can equip that each have some kind of ability or power attached. If you want a new ability, equip a different item, but the old one's gone. Grabbing duplicates upgrades a Relic, and there are also set bonuses for having multiple different items from a set – collect four and your character transforms to become an "Eternal" with a special fifth ability, but you're stuck that way (and with that build) for the rest of the match.
Arkheron's set of core ingredients isn't that shocking given Bonfire Studios was founded by Min Kim and Rob Pardo, the latter of which was formerly chief creative officer at Blizzard with credits across the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. And it certainly sounds like Pardo knows that there's really no simple way to describe the game's core mode.
"We've played the game daily as a team for years, and while we haven't figured out yet exactly how to describe it, we often say 'you have to play it to get it,'" Pardo told GamesBeat back in January 2025 as part of the game's initial limited reveal.
I've not actually been able to play Arkheron quite yet, so I can't say for certain if I "get it" like Pardo suggested. But I certainly know enough now that I would like to try to get it when the next playtest, taking place from Friday, September 19, through Sunday, September 21, happens.
Arkheron does not currently have a set release date, but it's expected to release for PC, Xbox Series X, and PS5.
