How to survive Killzone: Mercenary’s multiplayer open beta

We’re just a few weeks away from the launch of Killzone: Mercenary now, but gamers won’t have to wait that long to cut their teeth on Mercenary’s impressive multiplayer suite.

The Killzone: Mercenary development team are expanding the multiplayer beta to give the servers a good test before the game is launched on PlayStation Vita.

For EU gamers, the open beta for Killzone: Mercenary will be made available to PlayStation Plus subscribers who own a PS Vita, from the 21st August.

On the 28th August the beta will open up further to become available to everyone* who owns a PS Vita, and will end on the 3rd September 2013.

Mercenary boasts a number of unique modes, innovative gameplay mechanics and introduces a daily ranking system to make Mercenary the most advanced, addictive multiplayer experience on PS Vita.

What you should know:

• All money earned playing the game, in any mode, can be used to purchase new weapons and equipment from Blackjack (arms dealer). These purchases can then be used in both single player campaign and multiplayer.
• Once campaign missions have been completed, they can be replayed with additional contract objectives. These challenge contracts provide a set of objectives based around Covert, Demolition and precision play-styles. They are also a great way of earning V$.
• Each campaign mission contains six pieces of Intel to retrieve. There are two ways of retrieving Intel; interrogate captains (marked on radar) or hacking Intel terminals. Collect all six pieces of Intel to unlock bonus Valour Cards for your Valour Collection.

The Valor system:
The Valor system operates by assigning each member of the Killzone: Mercenary community a Valor Card. Your Valor Card represents your earning ability in the game, with Ace being the highest rank and two being the lowest. You will be issued a new Valor Card once every 24 hours, your new card will be based on your recent earnings compared to all other players, this means that the value of your card can go up as well as down!

In multiplayer, players will drop an instance of their Valor Card when they die. This card can then be collected for bonus V$ and the higher the Valor of the card the greater the reward. The suit of a players Valor card represents the weapon type they have been using. To change suits a player must make consecutive kills with a specific type:

• Clubs – make seven consecutive kills with an assault rifle or LMG
• Hearts – make five consecutive kills with a secondary weapon
• Spades – make three consecutive kills with a sniper rifle
• Diamonds – make four consecutive kills with an SMG

Valor Cards collected in multiplayer and campaign (through retrieving Intel) are placed into your Valor Collection. Your Valor Collection is represented as a pack of cards and by making “hands” (four of a kind, flush, full deck) you will gain large V$ rewards.

Controls
When using sniper rifles you can change the zoom magnification of the scope by dragging up and down on the rear touch pad when aiming down the sight.

VAN-Guard capsules are regularly fired into multiplayer maps and some single player missions. These capsules contain a single use VAN-guard that the player can deploy.
Most touch controls are also mapped to physical buttons:

• Switch weapon = D-Pad right
• Deploy VAN-Guard = D-Pad left
• Grenade = D-Pad down
• Interact = press triangle
• Sprint = tap circle when moving

The only enforced touch screen interactions are for Brutal Melee, hacking, levers and some VAN-Guards.

The team at Guerrilla Cambridge has put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make Mercenary’s multiplayer package the most advanced experience to-date on the PlayStation Vita. We’re very excited for launch, but we think the open beta will definitely hold you over until September!

* For German users, the public open beta will be available via PlayStation Plus only, from the 21st August through to the 3rd September 2013.