Later this year, there will be an unprecedented level of combat in gaming raging across the entire EVE Universe, from the mighty capsuleers far above in Eve Online, to the relentless onslaught you and your squad will bring to bear against your enemies on countless planets in DUST 514.
The first, harrowing drumbeats of war started not long ago and have been increasing ever since during our beta tests. Until today, this has been of very limited scope while we’ve introduced some of the EVE Universe’s most faithful players to planetary warfare and trickled in some of the earliest of adopters who have picked up their rifles and laid low the opposition.
But that all changes this weekend when we’ll be opening the doors to thousands of new combatants through our beta events. There’s still time to sign up over at our official beta website to participate in this important, and early, testing period for the game.
Signing up for the beta and playing DUST 514 is completely free! But for those who want to try an assortment of the pay-for items, get guaranteed access to beta weekends, and score a discount we’ve created the Mercenary Pack. The Mercenary Pack offers a $50 value for a price of $19.99 and will be available later today on PlayStation Store.
The Mercenary Pack contains an all-access beta pass, which will guarantee entry into every beta event — starting this Thursday, June 28th and then repeating every other weekend. Not only that, but Mercenary Pack owners will get exclusive access to DUST 514 during off weekends in-between beta events as well.
The Mercenary Pack also contains a bundle of goods and items designed to help both rookies and veterans alike, including a customized ‘Dragonfly’ Scout dropsuit that has a unique stealthy look and lowered skill requirements for usage. This dropsuit is a good all-around infantry armor that is versatile in most combat situations and is only available with the Mercenary Pack.
Another useful item included the package is the 30-day Active Skill Booster, also only available in the Mercenary Pack, which will grant the user a 50% boost in skill points earned during in-game matches so you can quickly progress your character to be on par with veteran players.
But what good is a mercenary soldier without weapons to ply his chosen trade? To remedy that, we have also included a spread of armaments to add teeth to any mercenary about to start his career on the battlefields of New Eden.
For starters, there’s the ‘Toxin’ ICD-9 Submachine Gun, which is a multipurpose weapon good for close and medium range fire fights. And for those who like to fight up close, you’ll find the HK4M Shotgun, designed to sweep a room clear of enemy combatants. For those times when you absolutely, positively must blow a group of enemies to bits, there’s the Fused Locus Grenade. Finally, the 1.5dn Myofibril Stimulant module gives damage bonuses for knife attacks.
It is said that endless money funds the sinews of war, and throughout history this has remained so. In DUST 514 there are two types of currencies: ISK (which is earned in-game) and Aurum (which is purchased). To help fund your plans for planetary conquest, the Mercenary Pack also comes with 4,000 Aurum so that you can finance your military campaigns and furnish your band of warriors with modern war gear.
Good luck to all our future Mercenaries! May your victories be sweet, and the spoils of war be bountiful.
While it’s stupid to think it’s the final game there is no way to prevent some people from using it as a demo. Even though it was basically un-fun to play I could get easily get a sense as to what kind of game it is.
@30 Burnlife – it’s publilc knowledge that this will support mouse and keyboard.
For those who are unaware. The dropsuit & SMG you get are permanent items, meaning you don’t have to restock them when you die. This is a great deal for anyone who knows they will be playing this game.
I got to play this at E3 and I was thoroughly impressed. This is an awesome deal and for those that dont know, all items will be wiped for the beta but will be returned in full upon release. Win win if you ask me. Ill be picking it up.
Question: For those that already have access to the beta, they can currently only play on the weekends (Thurs-Mon), but for those that purchase the Mercenary Pack, the can pretty much play 24/7?
@55 H2CStrongBad No they can’t. Those who buy the Mercenary Pack will get the same access as those currently in beta. Same universe, same server, same rules. Although I don’t know how it will relate to the new non-mercenary pack users who will get thire codes Soon™
Well now, I never knew paying for “Priority access to beta games”, meant I had to pay an extra $20 on top of what i already paid for PS+ Straight from PSN’s PS+ Page – “PlayStation Plus members will now have a library of games to play in addition to exclusive features like online game saves, automatic updates, priority access to betas, and the best discounts on games, DLC, and other content on the PlayStation Store”
So, if you’re already a MPT member of the beta, would buying the merc pack give you a geta key you could pass onto someone else or are are they exclusively linked together?
They’re linked together no code is given
is this even on the store yet? cant find it :/
Yes in north America just go to psstore then dust514 in the search or wait till the image of dust514 comes up in 1 the windows
mm what about europe?
Don’t know all I know for sure is NA has it already maybe later it will be for Europe as well
thanks bro
@59
Thanks.
Np :)
14
+ poisonedsodapop
You aren’t paying $50 to get access of the Beta, the pack is valued at $50, but it’s priced at $20 It’s a pack that has other stuff included, long story short all the stuff included would be valued at $50. You don’t need to pay to play it, it’s free. If someone buys equipment it doesn’t mean he/she has an advantage, if the person doesn’t have skill in the first place the equipment the person is using is useless.
Beta characters that carry over to the full game will have an unfair advantage over other characters after the release date because they’ve had 1 month to maybe 1 year to build, level, skill-up their character(s). Beta is a test game and everyone should start at the same “level” on release date! At E3 CCP said players will not have an unfair advantage and I’m not seeing FAIR is this carrying over decision. This Mercenary Pack even compounds the unfair advantage problem. Shame on you CCP.
@68
Not quite correct.
When the beta finishes and the game is launched, the beta testers will be able to keep the characters but all their stats and skills and isk and everything else will be reset back to 0 (or whatever the default will be). Basically we get to keep our names!
The merc pack doesn’t compound anything, and if the equipment is of a basic standard a player will soon outgrow it. Also, a scout suit is good for running but at the basic level you won’t last long in a firefight. The smgs are good, but you will find they are more of a backup weapon and tbh I would rather use a pistol!
Can someone PLEASE give me an estimate on how big the download will be for Dust 514?
Thanks in advance. I’m running low on hard drive space, soo…..
The Dust beta & Slay are amazing! pew pew pew pew….. pew!
Also it would be cool if the Slay table ended up being a winnable reward, for our playstation home spaces.
Now this is a very unique tactic by the game developer,and yet i’m intrigued by this as well.When i first heard about this being the first ever FPS MMO this is definately a one of a kind experience from Sony touche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@70
2gb
OK, so what you are all saying is that, if someone offers you a game at 20$, that’s too expensive.
But, if you buy COD at 60$ at the store PLUS around 15$ to buy constant cheap 4-5 Map Pack that comes every 2 to 3 months, that’s ok?
Seriously? Come on, people.
Most people already have their free beta pass from the Dust 514 website or PS Home both.
Other players that invest in Dust can share their equipment with others OR you can earn ISK to purchase stuff by winning battles. Paying cannot increase your stats (50% bonus points for stats) you still need to play.
And, unlike COD, you’re not forced to pay up additional dollars to play with your friends, if your friends are playing the additional map pack content, you can’t play with them unless you spend money to buy them on COD or Battlefield.
BTW, Starhawk’s add-on map packs are free!
Besides, creating games cost money, how do you think they are going to pay the salaries of their employees? With Magic Fairy Dust?
Hell ya
@75 I agree with you 100%. You’re dead on the mark with your post.
The general problem of gamers feeling entitled to everything is so bad and just continues to get worse. I can see it’s no different here with this game. The $20 charge in question is what was originally planned anyway, as a “door charge”. I don’t recall people complaining about it back then, but CCP decided to drop it anyway.
Now, CCP decides to offer this as an optional package and people are going nuts about it? Who said you are entitled access to a CLOSED beta? How does it work with other games that allow you early/beta access when you pre-order or buy the premium version of a game?
Stop crying about something that is an OPTION. If you don’t like it, don’t play it. If you want to play it when it’s released, but don’t want to spend $20 for this…don’t. Use your money to vote on the developers decisions.
All that aside, I think this is a great option and I personally look forward to grabbing it later today. Can’t wait to see how this game pans out!
I’d rather give my support to smaller studios than getting leashed and ripped offer by the bigger developers who only wants your cash, darn, 50$ per year for COD Elite? I’ll pass, but hey, they know they can afford it, because they got you addicted to the franchise and zombies… So they’ll milk it.
It’s the same thing with Diablo 3 and FF14. Except with them, you Have to pay per month to play, and if you stop paying, you loose your character and all your progress… I think ff14 keeps your character, but still, MMOs cost a lot for their servers to be constantly open, and they want to make money.
I wouldn’t pay monthly fees to play a game that doesn’t give you any progress except access to the game.
@77 – True story! And like @78 said, CCP is more deserving than Activision or EA of our hard earned dollars.
@78 – You don’t have to pay monthly for Diablo 3, though…
Yeah, you do need to pay for Diablo 3, but there’s a 72 hour free trial and they cap your level at 13.
Check websites on the Internet.
Anyway, I get a 50/50 answer on Diablo 3….
@81 lack of information does not releaf from responsobility Diablo III is not P2P RPG dude slow down
@CCP: Trophy support is free?
May milkiwas bless EVE Universe
– EVE player
So which is firsst of you pays me to blow the S#I?% of fliping planet?
CPP make cut scene in game if wining team use arbital Strike losing team blows with the planet : this would be epic :) I’ve always wanted to blow plants lol Oh people you have no idea in what universe of mas distraction you walking in COD compare to it insect lol it’s very bad compare EVE related with COD it nothing like it in fact COD compare to this is garbage to be honest It’s just Like Windows VS MAC eccept iin this salution CCP is APPLE WHO NEVER SHIP JUNK
Compare COD and CCP bad move COD is junk compare to EVE just like Microsoft against Apple
YO all yall people saying its buy to win that is BS. It is not buy to win first of the items you buy on AUR are not super powerful they are a little bit more powerfull but not that freaking much. Most of it is looks it kinda looks. because i can beat people that use AUR items with standard stuff this game is about skill straight up so for those that are saying its pay to win ya’ll aint got a clue what your talkin about.
I just downloaded this content but i can’t play it. It keeps telling me to connect storage media that contains update data of version 4.20 or later (I have that update, checked under system settings). What should I do? Is it because it’s not thursday yet? Maybe there should be a nicer way to tell people they can’t play yet, one that doesn’t involve making them hard-reset their systems with no further explanation!
I got into the beta through PS home, if any of are considering buying the pack for Beta access then do it. Dust 514 is definetly the BEST FPS I have ever played and its still in Beta stages
1 thing for sure, Wow is P2P.
I ain’t playing, too addictive anyway.
@82, some game critics said that it was P2P, other sites points out there’s a free trial that caps your level at 13. A lot of people had connectivity issues at the beginning. Now, I can’t be responsible if I’m misinformed. I do know a lot of facts. And Wow is P2P, so you can take that as an example instead. Diablo 3 also have a market for items you can buy and sell with real $. This is an example of pay to win, but interesting enough, it’s also a way for players to make $ (from what I’ve seen on wikipedia and other sites, you can auction your items for cash. But please double check to make sure that I’m not mistaken)
@85 try powering your ps3 off. That almost sounds like it hasn’t applied the update yet. That would have nothing to do with ccp though
@70
74’s post is only half (actually, a third) of the story. The initial download is like 2gb if I remember correctly, then the first patch is another 1.9gb (again, IIRC) and the one they just released (patch 2.0) is 1.8gb. Well worth it, though.
I’m new to all this so help me out here. I have a few buddies who run a corporation in EVE and they run numbers in the billions. I also have some buddies that I play with on BF3 and we’re all above average players (1.8kdr or higher). So how are we (the mercenaries) valuable to the corporations who run numbers in the billions? That’s like a sergeant in the USArmy getting into a bidding war with Bill Gates. I just don’t see the correlations between the two.
ok do we need a code or what??????
DUST 514 is not a P2W game, please stop with the slander. I support CCP so I, “donated”, twenty dollars. Keep up the good work CCP.
Vet Beta Tester…
If I’m reading this correctly, the beta will only be live on weekends? I would drop the $20 to check this out, but I work throughout the weekend. My days off are Tues, Wednes and Thurs. Can anyone confirm? TIA
QUESTION!!! Mr CCP man… PLEASE O PLEASE tell me you havent forgotten your ardent Australian players? me and a bunch of mates cam home from work today, sat down infront of our PS3’s (i bought one today JUST for this reason :D) and we cant download the mercanary pack :’O
No we have not forgotten you. Expect the Mercenary Pack to be available in your region this weekend.