Perhaps we have all underestimated Honor of Kings: World.

Today, "Honor of Kings: World" officially launched its public beta on PC and is planned to be released on mobile devices within April. For hundreds of millions of Honor of Kings players, the long - awaited new IP game has finally unveiled its veil.

The official launch of "Honor of Kings: World" on PC

Since its first exposure in 2021, "Honor of Kings: World" has always been regarded as an important move by Tencent in response to the trend of "content is king".

Against that backdrop, "Honor of Kings: World" was once interpreted by some as just another product chasing the trend and cashing in on the IP value - especially since it is based on "Honor of Kings", which has an average daily active user base of over 139 million and ranks first in the domestic game market. However, after experiencing the public beta version, many people may realize that this game is not trying to answer "how to make a popular open - world game", but rather "how to build a brand - new world for players to immerse in, explore and embark on adventures together" based on the story framework of the Honor of Kings IP.

As a new game in the Honor of Kings IP, "Honor of Kings: World" is destined to be different from the previous layouts of Honor of Kings in multiple fields such as e - sports, animation, and derivatives.

The launch of the Honor of Kings collaboration version

Without a reference, it's actually quite difficult for many people to form a clear and objective judgment of "Honor of Kings: World".

If it can't be simply classified as a "content - based game" or summarized as an "IP derivative", then what perspective should we use to view "Honor of Kings: World"?

01

Even without considering market trend changes, "Honor of Kings: World" is most likely an indispensable part of the Honor of Kings IP layout.

An IP, in essence, is a symbol for players to carry their emotions. It's obvious that in the past few years, Honor of Kings has been focusing on meeting the growing emotional needs of users in various aspects -

In the field of e - sports, Honor of Kings has completed a long - term layout. Last year, at the KPL annual finals held at the Bird's Nest, the tickets were sold out in 12 seconds, and the number of on - site spectators even broke the Guinness World Record.

The scene of the 2025 KPL annual finals at the Bird's Nest

In the social field, the official and players have become very close. The official will directly bring the popular memes among players to the anniversary stage of "Honor of Kings". Over the years, "Honor of Kings" has always been regarded by young people as an essential social ice - breaker. After playing one or two rounds, it's easy for people to find topics to talk about.

The stage of the 10th anniversary of "Honor of Kings"

In terms of content, the Honor of Kings IP animation team has been releasing various animations since 2017 to present the hero stories and worldviews in the game, such as "Honor of Kings: Chapters of Glory" produced by Tencent Video and "The Way of All Things" co - produced by the core team Blur Studio of "Love, Death & Robots". In addition, the official has also made many plans in areas such as film and television variety shows, IP derivatives, virtual idols, and emotional companionship.

The poster of "The Way of All Things"

Similarly, as a new IP game, "Honor of Kings: World" truly hopes to meet the emotional needs of users that spill over from the Honor of Kings IP. These emotions may not have been fully addressed in the previous IP layouts, such as the pursuit of a more immersive story experience and the shared adventure experiences with friends in the virtual world. For IP users, whether "Honor of Kings: World" can continue and upgrade the emotional demands accumulated over the years and provide a broader spiritual sustenance is the core evaluation standard for this work.

From this perspective, we'll find it difficult to fit "Honor of Kings: World" into existing game categories.

A game category is often like a "standardized template" in the game market. With this template, developers can better plan their development focus, ensure project progress, and create a qualified or even excellent product. Players can also quickly find games that suit their preferences. In today's highly streamlined game industry, categories often mean standard answers and maximum efficiency.

But "Honor of Kings: World" clearly gave up this shortcut. Its design logic is not "to benchmark a leading product", but rather a reverse "emotional engineering" - first identify the emotional gaps of IP users, and then fill them with content.

A more intuitive example is that the large - scale world content in "Honor of Kings: World" is presented based on the Honor of Kings worldview. The product content not only vividly restores the in - game settings such as Jixia Academy and Fengyun Wilderness, but the project team also spent a lot of effort and cost on creating things that are more like "Easter eggs".

The in - game footage of "Honor of Kings: World"

As early as the launch trailer of the game, the official highlighted the details of Dongfang Yao and Xishi's rooms.

The screenshot from the trailer of "Honor of Kings: World"

In addition, the planning team has made several versions of designs around Luban Master. Besides the well - known "Luban No. 7" by players, they also created No. 1, No. 2, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 8 in "Honor of Kings: World", fulfilling the dream of Luban's hero fans.

The IP - derived comic

The images of Luban's "siblings" of different models

This experience is both familiar and novel to IP players. Luban No. 7 is a highly used hero in "Honor of Kings", but players have only caught a glimpse of his "siblings" in some operational activities and IP comics in the past.

For example, the "Gui Xu Dream Tournament" mentioned in the main plot at the beginning of the game and the "Star Team" composed of Dongfang Yao and others were previously known to players through the skin series and comics of "Honor of Kings". As early as the previous multiple tests of "Honor of Kings: World", players have been enthusiastically exploring the series of Easter eggs and content connections buried in the game.

In order to fully restore the geographical features in the game's worldview and ensure a natural transition between regions, "Honor of Kings: World" also released the overall map of the world continent.

The map of the King's Continent in "Honor of Kings: World"

In the current version, the newly opened Jixia area has shown a solid content density - from the Jixia Academy that combines order and spirituality to the vast and fertile Fengyun Wilderness, the scenes with different features not only carry unique exploration and narratives but also lay the groundwork for the future expansion of this "King's World".

During the actual experience, the art designs with the consistent oriental cultural characteristics of the Honor of Kings IP are also likely to make old players feel familiar and amazed.

The in - game screenshot of "Honor of Kings: World"

It's worth mentioning that after the game was launched, "Honor of Kings" also carried out a collaboration with "Honor of Kings: World", and rich content was added in aspects such as in - game atmosphere and experience interaction. For example, the "Scarlet Divine Beast" in "Honor of Kings: World" appeared in the position of the former tyrant in "Honor of Kings" and can release a series of skills from the world.

The in - game screenshot of "Honor of Kings"

This not only shows the deep connection and mutual support between "Honor of Kings" and "Honor of Kings: World" at the IP level but also indicates that there may be more diverse interactions between the two in terms of content in the future.

02

The overall gameplay design of the game also follows the logic of "serving emotional needs".

At the beginning, the development team of "Honor of Kings: World" may not have had a clear idea. They subconsciously referred to mainstream market products and designed a rather complex cultivation system around the gameplay. For example, weapons could only be obtained through random drops, and inscriptions came with random attributes.

From a market perspective, such content can effectively extend the life cycle of long - term operational games. Just the design of random attributes is enough to make players ignore the idle periods of the game in pursuit of perfect attributes. Even now, random elements still appear stably in various mainstream products.

However, in the final launched version, these complex designs have been highly simplified.

Now, the inscription system in "Honor of Kings: World" not only has simple fixed attributes but also allows for resonance among different heroes. After unlocking and upgrading, it can basically achieve "once - and - for - all" results.

The inscription system in "Honor of Kings: World"

In terms of equipment, the game has introduced a "wish - making mechanism" to ensure that the target equipment sets can be dropped preferentially in dungeons, eliminating the need for repeated grinding as during the testing period. The exclusive weapons associated with resonance heroes can be upgraded using fixed materials, and players can choose their own upgrading paths, which is basically equivalent to having a set of targeted cultivation paths for each resonance hero.

The glory equipment system in "Honor of Kings: World"

This set of simplification logic is not only about "reducing the grind"