Loading...
Loading...
Pre-Alpha Tests
August 16, 2026 at 04:29 PM
Updated Test 47 to the MS 68 build with 17 August start, 5v5v5 setup, and published feature list
Anvil Empires is in pre-alpha at the time of writing. Pre-alpha is not a single window: it is an ongoing series of scheduled tests that the studio uses to validate new systems, gather feedback, and play out competitive wars under live conditions. Pre-alpha access is free and there is no NDA: results, screenshots, and feedback may be shared publicly.
The first pre-alpha test ran in April 2023. As of mid-August 2026, forty-six numbered pre-alpha tests have been completed and a forty-seventh opens on 17 August 2026. The most recent completed test was Pre-Alpha Test 46, which as the MS 67 release ran from 21 to 28 July 2026 and hosted War number eighteen. Most early tests lasted about five to seven days, with the world running continuously for the duration. Recent tests frame the same window as a single persistent war, with the world state preserved within the test and reset between tests.
A war is the competitive frame inside a pre-alpha test. Each war has a number, a start and end date, the test version it was played on, and a recorded outcome by faction. The war system was introduced alongside victory conditions in early 2025; since then, eighteen wars have been played to a conclusion, and a nineteenth opens with Pre-Alpha Test 47 on 17 August 2026. Outcomes are tracked per faction, with categories of victory, stalemate, and defeat. Wars are the primary unit by which the studio compares balance changes between tests.
See the Victory Conditions article for the full rules. In brief, a war ends when any one faction satisfies one of three paths:
Military victory: Control the required military objectives. Earlier wars counted enemy Town Centers or Keeps; from War 19 the metric moves to captured and held territory zones.
Cultural victory: Build and hold Temples for a sustained period. Cultural victory requires a large pool of faction resources and cooperation, since Temples are expensive and must survive the war.
Religious victory: Earn enough influence through worship and faction-cultural play. Religious paths overlap with cultural play but track a separate metric.
Pre-alpha access is free. The official path is to wishlist Anvil Empires on Steam and join the studio's community channels for test schedules and pre-alpha keys. Spots can be limited at first, but the stated goal is to onboard as many participants as possible, with no payment required and no pre-order. Once granted access, players install through Steam and connect on the test windows announced by the studio.
Persistence in Anvil Empires is per-test, not per-account. Settlements, homesteads, avatars, and inventory are scoped to the active war world; once a war ends and a test wraps, the world is reset for the next test. Account-level achievements and progress systems are still being designed and may change before early access.
Each pre-alpha test ships a named build that pairs to the wider war. The most recent tests are summarised below.
Test | Build | Window | War | Headline Changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre-Alpha Test 47 | MS 68 | Opens 17 August 2026 | War 19 | War 19 runs as a 5v5v5 start on pre-placed Town Keeps in a restricted playable area, with all three empires available, a maximum duration of six days and twenty-two hours, and all three victory paths enabled; the military condition moves to capturing and holding fifteen territory zones. Headline changes: the distance-based territory system replaced by named zones with Claimed, Contested, and Neutral states; a wounded state for downed avatars treated with Bandages; Mantlets and the Makeshift Battering Ram as early-age siege equipment; reworked Town Tavern, Town Workshop, and Marketplace; stone and wood world bridges; regrowing forests that hide players from Beacon Tower intel; and a tenfold Silver inflation for more granular pricing. |
Pre-Alpha Test 46 | MS 67 | 21 July 2026 to 28 July 2026 | War 18 | World map rebuilt from scratch with less frequent and less extreme elevation changes; Town Keeps redesigned around a new central keep with modular walls that can be destroyed and repaired mid-fight and three working gates; combat overhauled with secondary and tertiary attacks, a Combat Stamina bar in place of the Guard meter, and manually raised guard; auxiliary equipment moved to player-crafted Swordsmen, Spearmen and Bowmen kits bought with Public Silver; Auxiliary Avatars recruited at the Avatar Recruitment Table and fed with Auxiliary Rations; chimneys and smoke added to enclosed combustion structures; a secure player-to-player Item Exchange added; Marketplace orders now expire after 72 hours. |
Pre-Alpha Test 45 | MS 66 | 10 June 2026 to 17 June 2026 | War 17 | Pagan faction re-enabled as a playable alliance; Short Sword variants (Superior and Masterwork) added; Heavy Armour gains the shipped arrow-deflection and not-staggered-by-light-projectiles behaviour and becomes vulnerable to Piercing; Avatar combat attributes no longer increase player-versus-player damage and instead gate which weapons an avatar can equip; barreling stations removed in favour of packing inside Homesteads, Town Centers, Fortresses, and Large Camps; Bronze now smelts from Malachite while Cassiterite becomes Tin Ingots for Longswords; Religious win condition reworked around front-line Relic Sites mined for turn-in Relics; animals and vehicles tradable on the Marketplace. |
Pre-Alpha Test 44 | MS 65 | 13 May 2026 to 20 May 2026 | War 16 | Persistent war on the same competitive ruleset bridging the Test 43 bounty build and the Test 45 economy rework. |
Pre-Alpha Test 43 | MS 64 | 16 April 2026 to 23 April 2026 | War 15 | Bounty boards in Taverns; bandit camps and forts added to the map; incapacitated avatars; charging mechanic when guard is held above sixty percent stability; fifty percent reduction in tool and weapon durability loss; Call to Arms requires three attackers to unlock public inventories. |
Pre-Alpha Test 42 | MS 63 | 5 March 2026 to 12 March 2026 | War 14 | Avatar visual overhaul (skin tone, hair, facial hair, sex); new clothing and ammunition slots; faction-specific armour in four tiers (Auxiliary, Light, Medium, Heavy); Superior weapon tier introduced; Underworld level two added; Homestead specialisation into Town and Wild branches; player muting controls. |
Pre-Alpha Test 41 | MS 62 line | 18 December 2025 to 21 December 2025 | War 13 | Avatar food consumption inside structures; stagger on enemy collision; House Manager alliances; fifty percent increase in upkeep; tripled starvation rates; smoother layout snapping for homestead structures. |
Build numbers are the studio's MS series tags; war numbers reference the persistent war that the test hosted. New systems shipped in a given test may be balanced or replaced in the next, so values quoted on the live wiki always describe the most recent observed test rather than a fixed launch state.
The features previewed in the July 2026 development update shipped with the MS 67 build that opened Pre-Alpha Test 46 on 21 July 2026. The rebuilt world map, the redesigned Town Keep, the combat rework, the chimney and smoke ventilation mechanic, the secure Item Exchange and the reworked repair flow are all in the live build rather than in preview. Their behaviour is described in the relevant system articles.
Pre-Alpha Test 47 opens on 17 August 2026 as the MS 68 build and hosts War 19. The war keeps the restricted playable area and the six-day, twenty-two-hour ceiling, moves to a 5v5v5 start on pre-placed Town Keeps, keeps all three empires selectable, and runs all three victory paths, with the military condition now counting fifteen captured and held territory zones instead of captured towns. The release notes are published: territory zones, the wounded-and-Bandages system, the early-age siege equipment, the Town core reworks, and the tenfold Silver inflation all ship with this build.
Two items remain previewed rather than shipped. The bolt-firing Crossbow has still not appeared in a live test, so its stats stay unconfirmed. Faction-unique gameplay systems beyond heraldry, clothing and spawn location are still described by the studio as work for early access rather than pre-alpha. Both should be treated as unconfirmed until a build ships them.
Anvil Empires is in pre-alpha. Every system on this wiki is subject to change between tests; mechanics that are currently in builds today may be reworked or cut before the early-access launch. Wiki articles describe the most recent observed state and should be cross-checked against the current test before treating them as final. When the studio publishes a devblog or patch summary that contradicts an article here, the live build wins.
Factions
Victory Conditions
