We’re testing a major change to portals with a charge-based system in our next playtest. No final decisions have been made, and your participation will be invaluable in shaping where this goes. This Friday and Saturday (September 26–27), we want your feedback on how this new system affects the core Splitgate experience.
Playtest Details
Friday, September 26: 3pm-6pm PT
Saturday, September 27: 10am-1pm PT
Platforms: Steam
Application: Splitgate 2 Beta Branch: sept-playtest
We are actively looking into ways to run playtests on certain console platforms, but for now Steam is the only platform that allows for real-time limited tests on beta branches. We encourage console players to still give feedback, read the playtests notes, and check out some of the streams during the playtests. We will keep you updated on any progress we make regarding playtest availability on console.
The sept-playtest branch will be available to download later this week. To access the sept-playtest branch on Steam, please follow these instructions:
Open Steam and go to your Library.
Find Splitgate 2 Beta in your game list.
Right-click the game → select Properties.
In the left menu, click Betas.
In the dropdown “Select the beta you would like to opt into”, choose sept-playtest.
Close the window. Steam will automatically download/update the game.
Once finished, click Play to launch the beta branch.
Reminder: The build won’t be available until Thursday.
What We Learned from the Last Playtest
Our previous playtest gave us valuable insights into three major changes: time-to-kill adjustments, recoil improvements, and the removal of factions and abilities. The community response was overwhelmingly positive on faction removal, and the time-to-kill changes moved us in the right direction (though we needed some fine tuning)g. You will see some of the tuning in the September playtest.
Assault rifles in particular felt too weak compared to other weapons, so we’ve made several adjustments to get the weapon sandbox feeling more consistent. Your feedback helped us understand we were on the right track but not quite there yet.
The Portal Charge System
This playtest focuses entirely on one experimental change: portal charges. We understand this will spark strong opinions, so we want to be completely transparent about our reasoning and emphasize that no final decisions have been made around whether to move forward with this system.
Why We’re Testing This
Portals are the heart of Splitgate. They elevate movement and strategy, reward creative thinking, and enable outplays you can only find in Splitgate.
The challenge comes when portals become the optimal answer to every situation. If the best way to win a gunfight is always to flank, if the fastest way to reach a power position is always to portal, and if the easiest escape from bad positioning is always just another portal, then the fundamentals of arena combat begin to erode. When portaling replaces traversal and gunfights boil down to constant flanking, the core pillars of the genre such as map control, positioning, and straight-up shooting skill lose their weight.
That leaves players with fewer meaningful ways to engage one another, and matches start to feel more chaotic than strategic. Our goal is to strike a balance that keeps portals central to the Splitgate identity while still preserving the foundations that make arena combat so rewarding.
How Portal Charges Work
Default System:
Every player starts with 4 portal charges to use when they see fit
After placing any portal, all charges refresh together after 8 seconds
This means triple portaling and explosive plays remain possible within each charge window, but introduces pacing and tradeoffs that make portal use more strategic.
New Perks to Support Portal Mastery:
We have also added two new perks which portal-focused players add to their loadout. These perks are designed to give players more flexibility to match their preferred playstyle… Do you want to lean into portal gameplay even more, or choose perks that support other aspects of Splitgate?
These perks are being actively tested, so their UI in the loadout system is placeholder; but this what you can expect to see:
One More Portal: Adds an extra charge
Portal Refresh: Reduces recharge timer by 2 seconds on every kill
The goal of this test isn’t to kill high skill expression or undermine advanced techniques like triple portaling. We want to preserve those skills while ensuring portals remain extremely powerful without being the only answer to every situation.
We want to reiterate that nothing is final. The goal of these playtests is to gather feedback, and work towards a direction that works for the community as well as the long-term health of the game.
Our Internal Experience
We’ve been cautious about introducing limitations to portals. Before bringing this to the wider community, we playtested the system internally and ran a few small external playtests. The feedback from those early sessions helped us see both the potential and the challenges, make adjustments, and now we’re ready to open it up for broader feedback.
We know it may feel strange at first. It takes a few games to adjust your playstyle and understand the new strategic considerations, but the pacing changes and the decision-making around perk loadouts create interesting new layers of strategy.
This Is Just the Beginning
The September playtest is highlighting the portal recharge system only and your feedback will be crucial in determining whether this direction positively serves Splitgate’s future.
But this isn’t our only upcoming test. We’re working on delivering the full experience we’ve promised, including new modes and potentially returning classic maps. Expect another playtest within two weeks of this one, where you’ll get hands-on with more of what we’re building.
We Want Your Feedback
While it is understandable to initially react with some skepticism, we would encourage you to jump into this test with an open mind; consider playing multiple games and really assessing how these changes impact your gameplay experience, strategy, and enjoyment.
We’ll have surveys ready at the end of the playtest, and we’re monitoring all our social channels. Your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, and Discord directly shapes these decisions.
This experimental system represents one of our biggest potential changes, and we’re not taking it lightly. That’s exactly why we need your honest thoughts after experiencing it firsthand. We are excited to hear your thoughts. See you in the Arena!