Overview
The Crimson Test (绯红测试 Fēihóng Cèshì) is the first closed beta test of Lord of Mysteries. Sign-ups for Mainland Chinese PC players opened January 15, 2026 at 09:30 China Standard Time and closed February 1, 2026. Selected testers received SMS invitations starting around January 20, 2026, and the test build went live on February 5, 2026 with a planned end window before February 23, 2026 (deliberately ahead of Chinese New Year on February 17).
The Crimson Test is described by SPARK NEXA as a limited, non-monetised, account-wipe beta. There is no in-game store, no premium currency purchase, and no progress carries over to the eventual launch build. The launcher is not publicly distributed: it ships only to confirmed testers to prevent leaks, and testers are bound by a confidentiality agreement on screenshots, footage, and detailed mechanics.
Sign-Up
The official sign-up portal lives on the CN site. Players choose 'Make an appointment to become an extraordinary person' (預約成為非凡者) and complete a questionnaire covering email, hardware specs, prior MMO experience, prior Beyonder lore familiarity, and gameplay preferences. WeChat verification is recommended over phone-number verification because the WeChat path tolerates shared landlines.
An in-game host character named Susie introduces the recruitment survey in official communications, framing the test sign-up as the player's first contact with the Beyonder world.
Each test qualification is bound to a single device. A confirmed tester cannot share their access between two computers, and qualification cannot be transferred. The 'one device per qualification' rule is enforced at launcher-login time.
Although the test is officially restricted to the Mainland China region, international tooling like network boosters can stretch the eligibility. There is no English client in this build; menu strings, voiceovers, and quest text are Chinese only. A separate global beta phase has been signposted for later 2026 once the CN side stabilises.
Six Playable Pathways
The Crimson Test makes 6 of the 22 Pathways playable. All six are now publicly confirmed:
Seer Pathway: Sequence 9 Seer to Sequence 7 Magician. Ranged DPS.
Apprentice Pathway: Sequence 9 Apprentice to Sequence 8 Trickmaster. Magic-damage assassin.
Spectator Pathway: Sequence 9 Spectator to Sequence 7 Psychiatrist. Healer.
Warrior Pathway: Sequence 9 Warrior. Melee DPS. Twilight Giant Pathway entry.
Bard Pathway: Sequence 9 Bard. Tank with melee sub-DPS. Sun Pathway entry.
Hermit Pathway: Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer. DPS. Mystery prying and occult knowledge.
All six Sequence 9 Pathways receive the Mr. Fool grafting treatment that gives the player borrowed copies of higher-Sequence abilities at reduced strength. The Assassin Pathway and Hunter Pathway are explicitly excluded from the Crimson Test.
World Content
World content covers Tingen and surrounding areas in the early novel arc. The campaign retraces the early novel through the player's own Beyonder, with Klein Moretti's history overlaid as Mr. Fool visions. The Tingen Nighthawks and the Church of the Evernight Goddess appear as introductory faction contacts. Backlund is built and previewed but is gated behind later progression and is not the focus of this test.
Test Schedule
Key dates compiled from official announcements:
January 14, 2026: Official 'Tingen' promotional video released on the studio's WeChat channel.
January 15, 2026 09:30 CST: Crimson Test recruitment opens online.
Around January 20, 2026: First wave of accepted testers receive SMS invites.
February 1, 2026: Recruitment closes.
February 5, 2026: Crimson Test build goes live for selected PC testers.
Before February 23, 2026: Crimson Test concludes (deliberately before Chinese New Year on February 17).
Spring / Summer 2026: Subsequent closed-beta phases planned, including expanded pathway roster and broader regional access.
Late 2026 / Q4 2026: Targeted full release window.
Tester Guidelines
Confidentiality is mandatory. Public footage, livestreams, screenshots, and detailed mechanic posts are prohibited unless specifically allowed in a streamer-program waiver. Bug reports and balance feedback are submitted through an in-game Feedback panel and a dedicated post-test survey.
Account data is wiped at the end of the test. Premium currency does not exist in the build, but cosmetic test items (free outfits, props, banner frames) are awarded for participation and removed at wipe. A small pool of testers receive 'Founder of the Crimson Test' commemorative cosmetics tied to their account, redeemable when the live game launches.
Platforms in Scope
PC only for the Crimson Test. macOS is not supported in this build. The full game is developed for PC and mobile (iOS and Android) with cross-platform support; mobile testing is reserved for a later beta phase and is not part of the Crimson Test. See System Requirements for the published PC minimum.
Related
Release and Platforms covers the broader launch roadmap. Development History traces the path from announcement to first beta. Multiplayer and Dungeons and Raids describe the team-content systems being stress-tested in this round. Mr. Fool's grafting explains how Sequence 9 characters access higher-Sequence abilities.
Followed By: Gray Fog Test (June 26, 2026)
On May 22, 2026 SPARK NEXA confirmed the second closed beta as the Gray Fog Test (灰雾测试). Three details have now been published on the official Chinese site: the test launches on June 26, 2026 with an end date to be announced; it covers PC, Android, and iOS simultaneously (the first multi-platform public test); and it is structured as a limited-capacity paid wipe test (限量计费删档测试) rather than a free test. Sign-up runs through a questionnaire on the official CN site. The historical Phase 2 framing below predates this confirmation; the official name supersedes Phase 2.
In May 2026 the studio confirmed that recruitment for a new round of closed-beta testing would open that month, signposting Phase 2 of the public beta program as the immediate next step after the Crimson Test. The announcement was made through the official Lord of Mysteries game channel under the byline of Susie, the same in-character host who introduced Crimson Test sign-ups. The recruitment opens this month framing in the announcement places the Phase 2 sign-up window in May 2026, several months ahead of the late-summer-and-autumn schedule that earlier roadmap statements had originally suggested.
Phase 2 is positioned as a content expansion beyond the Crimson Test rather than a re-run of the same build. The dev statement that accompanied the recruitment announcement covered six confirmed playstyles, the dice-roll exploration system, the Solo Mode toggle with AI teammates, the Sanity permadeath mechanic, the customization time budget (two hours on the face, a full day on outfits) at Character Creation, and the reported open-world PvP zoning described under Faction Warfare and PvP. Most of these systems were already in the Crimson Test build; the Phase 2 framing positions them as polished, audience-ready features rather than test-only prototypes.
Specific Phase 2 build details, the new Pathway roster, the new Sequence cap (a launch Sequence cap has not been officially confirmed, so Phase 2 may extend the test cap above the Crimson Test's lower-three-Sequence ceiling), the regional eligibility (Mainland China remains the lead region), and the per-device qualification rules, have not been published as of the May 6 announcement. The Phase 2 sign-up portal is expected to surface on the official CN site under the same 'make an appointment to become an extraordinary person' flow used for Crimson Test recruitment.