Overwatch-style hero shooter Nyan Heroes announced Thursday that it will return to the Epic Games Store for its next playtest period on March 26. Alongside general improvements and tweaks, Playtest 04 will also see a brand new hero, game mode, and map added to the game. The free-to-play team shooter—which has a token and NFTs on the Solana blockchain—places the player inside a powered-up mech suit as a cat. Nyan Heroes has been one of the more successful crypto games on the Epic Games Store, as it surpassed 100,000 players during its pre-alpha demo test, later became one of the top wishlisted games on the storefront, and was spotlighted by Epic Games. For its next playtest period, 9 Lives Interactive is adding a new hero. Coco the pilot and his mech Gizmo will have the ability to deploy turrets that shoot at enemies, pick up scraps from enemies to create stronger armor, create a floating platform, and—as an ultimate ability—build a giant version of himself that throws explosives at the enemies and grants armor to allies. A sketch of Gizmo the mech. Image: 9 Tales Interactive “Gizmo will shake up the meta by protecting his team and providing easier access to high ground, favoring strategic positions, and introducing new levels of protection and vertical control,” 9 Lives CEO and Executive Producer Max Fu told Decrypt. Playtest 04 will start on March 26 and will run until April 13. During this period, a new airdrop campaign will take place, though details have yet to be announced. Fishball is a new fast-paced multiplayer game mode inspired by Call of Duty’s Uplink, in which players score points by carrying or throwing a pufferfish-like ball into the opponents’ goal. “Teams must master distraction tactics while protecting the carrier,” Fu said. “Unique to Nyan Heroes is the fact that the ball carrier can still shoot (but not use their ultimates) to help turn the tide of battle.” The new map is set in a recreation of Tokyo which, according to the game’s lore, was one of the last cities of defense for the Nyans against the franchise villains, the feral robot Guardians—but it was a fight they ultimately lost. The Nyans are now training in a recreation of the city in preparation to one day recover Tokyo. By design, the map emphasizes vertical movement with lots of tight spaces to battle it out, which the developers claim will encourage faster gameplay as it looks to complement the new hero and game mode. On top of these three major additions, the playtest will also see improvements to the heads-up display or HUD, voiceover and music updates, new secondary weapons, and an improved text chat system. Further upgrades will be detailed ahead of the playtest start, the team told Decrypt. Edited by Andrew Hayward