Time-Traveling Shooter Time Takers Announces Closed Beta Test

Third-person, team-based shooter Time Takers recently announced that a closed beta test will begin on March 13 and shared details about what you can expect from this first look at the game.

Time Takers is developed by Mistil Games, published by NCSOFT, and focuses on fast-paced matches where you compete for time itself. It combines elements of survival shooters and battle royales, but it isn’t defined only by kills, it’s about stealing or defending time.

Each player has a lifespan that’s fueled by Time Energy, and it gradually depletes. Your lifespan is represented on screen as a timer ticking down. You can hold a maximum of 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and if your timer reaches zero, you’re eliminated. If you’re killed with time still left on your clock, you’ll lose some Time Energy but respawn. You can lengthen your lifespan by earning more Time Energy, which you can get by killing other players, defeating monsters on the field, or picking it up from spawn points around the map.

When you accumulate Time Energy, it will also fill your level gauge. As you level up, your character’s unique skills will be unlocked and upgraded in a set sequential order. Collecting Time Energy will also grant you a currency called Time Coins, which can be used to purchase or upgrade passive abilities on the respawn screen or at shops scattered across the map. At any time, you can manually sacrifice some of your current lifespan to add to your level gauge and level up. This obviously puts you at risk of dying faster, but it can be key to unlocking an ability you really need. You have to decide which is more important.

Each match progresses through seven phases, and you can see your current phase in the top left corner of the screen. With each phase that passes, Time Energy spawn points get more rare and your lifespan depletes faster. Those spawn points also gradually get closer together, until the final phase has only one spawn in a specific spot.

This system means a couple things. For one, simply camping in one place is unreliable. If you do that, you risk watching your lifespan tick away with no way to replenish it. You have to stay on the move to reach spawn points or take out opponents frequently. Second, the shrinking spawn points force combatants into smaller spaces as phases progress. This also rewards players who pay attention to where the spawn points are in each phase, since you can come up with an optimal route to efficiently gather energy and level up as quickly as possible.

So in short, you’ll need to decide in each battle how to approach things. Do you want to minimize risk at the beginning, sneaking around the battlefield to gather Time Energy and level up your abilities without directly fighting anyone? Or do you want to go in guns blazing, hunting down opponents to steal their Time Energy as quickly as possible and put them on the defensive immediately?

The first closed beta test will include 12 playable characters, each of whom have unique skills and playstyles. Matches in the closed beta will be in trios, with four teams of three players each, and you’ll need to coordinate with your team. You’ll each lock in your character and weapon before the match, with no duplicates allowed on the same team. Characters are grouped into Damage Dealer, Support, and Tank archetypes, but your choice of weapon can help define your role. For instance, there are support-oriented weapons that allow you to heal, while there are high-DPS weapons for close-range (flamethrowers) and long-range (sniper rifles) combat.

During the match, if you stay close to your teammates, you’ll form a link. While linked, teammates acquire Time Energy simultaneously and can transfer it between each other to cover for someone whose time is running out. If you want to take advantage of this, it can alter your team’s weapon choices, passive abilities, and tactical approach.

For example, if someone on your team wants to use a sniper rifle, that can give them a huge advantage if they reach high ground with good sight lines. But they’d likely have to stay separate from their teammates, weakening the link for the whole team. However, equipping the Link Repeater passive will cancel that out and allow you to link up no matter the distance. So unlocking that passive quickly becomes a top priority.

The combatants and battlefields are pulled from different eras of the past and future, and environments and conditions will change as matches progress. Momentum can shift at the drop of a hat, thanks in large part to Pods, which can spawn randomly and grant benefits to the first person to interact with it. Those benefits include temporarily pausing your lifespan depletion, the ability to launch a missile at a specific enemy, or a Weapon Exchange Voucher that will let you switch to a different weapon.

The beta will include three maps: Yokogawa, Morstadt, and Miraesi, which represent the wide range of time periods depicted in Time Takers. Yokogawa is pre-modern Japanese themed and shaped by traditional architecture. Morstadt is based on medieval times, with stone structures and layered routes. And Miraesi is a futuristic setting inspired by Seoul that blends dense urban layouts.

The closed beta will run from March 13–21, with 8 hours of playable time each day, and it’s focused on players in eight countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. If you live in one of those countries, you can sign up to join the beta through the game’s Steam page. Sign-ups are open now, and it will still be possible to sign up while the beta is ongoing.

If you don’t live in one of those countries, you’ll have a chance to get access to the beta through the Time Takers Discord channel. If you join the channel and invite a friend to join too, you can be selected to take part in the beta no matter where in the world you are. Head to the linked Discord channel above to get all the details.