The Ardem Closed Playtest has gone LIVE this August, with more players being invited to help the development team test the game’s technology ahead of the upcoming Public Playtest.
The playtest invitation waves began on Monday 31st August 2026, with a second round of invites going out on Friday 4th September. While thousands of players are waiting for their opportunity to enter the world of Ardem, only a limited number of players are being invited during these early stages. According to the development team, more than 30,000 players have already registered for the closed playtest, despite the test receiving relatively little promotion outside of the existing Ardem community. For those lucky enough to receive an invitation, however, this isn’t quite the Ardem experience many players may be expecting.
With more than 30,000 people registered for the closed playtest, it might seem strange that only a relatively small number of players are being given access. The reason is that the test is designed to increase server load gradually. The first waves provide the development team with an initial baseline. Once issues are identified and addressed, the number of players can be increased and the systems tested again.
Opening the entire registered player pool at once would make it much harder to identify exactly where problems originate. Waves 1 and 2 therefore represent another step in gradually increasing the pressure placed on Ardem’s servers and underlying technology.
What Is the Ardem Closed Playtest?
The current closed playtest is primarily a technical test. Rather than being designed as a finished gameplay experience, the early build is being used to put Ardem’s technology under pressure. The development team wants players to find crashes, glitches, connection problems, and other issues that may not appear during controlled internal testing.
The official closed playtest scope describes its purpose simply: break things, then report them.
Players are encouraged to explore the playable map, stay connected for longer sessions, repeatedly join and reconnect, experiment with crafting, object placement, loot, and vehicles, and generally do things that might expose problems within the build. In other words, finding something broken isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
What Can Players Test?
The closed playtest game version already contains a selection of Ardem’s core systems, although many are currently limited compared with what is planned for the Public Playtest.
The official feature scope lists systems including game performance and optimisation, character creation, clothing and equipment, movement and animations, the in-game UI, the Minnowa playable map, loot and item spawning, hunger and thirst, crafting, object placement, gunplay, farming, electricity and generators, and ground vehicles.
However, a number of features are deliberately absent from the closed playtest. These include buildings and interiors, health/damage and healing, infected gameplay, fishing and base building, which are shown as planned for the public playtest instead.
The development team also asks testers to provide useful information about what they were doing when the problem occurred, where they were on the map, whether the issue can be reproduced, their PC specifications, and the server they were using. As the playtest documentation puts it, a crash that isn’t reported is a crash the developers cannot fix.
The Closed Playtest Is Under an NDA
One of the most important things for anyone participating in the closed playtest is the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). The development team has made it clear that anything seen or experienced inside the test must remain private until they say otherwise.
That means testers must not publicly share:
- Streams
- Screenshots
- Recorded footage
- Clips
- Details about the build
- Public discussions about the test
The NDA restrictions also apply to public discussion within the Ardem Discord community.
The reporting channels provided for testers are the exception, allowing screenshots and clips to be submitted privately as part of bug reports.
When Is the Public Playtest?
For players who aren’t selected for the closed playtest, there is still something much bigger to look forward to… the public playtest. The feature scope shows a significantly broader experience for the public playtest, including buildings and interiors, health and healing, infected gameplay, fishing, and base building alongside the systems already being tested during the closed playtest. That means the Closed Playtest is essentially helping prepare the foundations for the experience players will eventually get to explore more fully.
Not receiving a closed playtest invitation this time around doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance. The development team has confirmed that additional waves will take place as testing continues. For now, the best thing prospective testers can do is remain registered and keep an eye on their inbox.
And for everyone waiting for the chance to properly explore Minnowa, survive, build, and experience Ardem for themselves, the 15th of October is the date to remember.
