Niantic has revealed the details of a real-world global gameplay experience for its pioneering augmented reality game, Ingress, with NIA Field Tests.
The NIA Field Test event is a new type of competitive individual global event debuting on Saturday, September 14 in 45 cities around the world including Santa Clara (in the U.S.), Curitiba (Brazil), La Paz (Bolivia), Taipei (Taiwan), Akita City (Japan), Gwangyang-si (Korea), Ipswich (UK), Stuttgart (Germany) and Lorient (France).
The community-driven event will have Ingress Agents (players) completing a series of unique actions and tasks across each city to compete for special in-game medals awaiting at the top of the leaderboards. That means players will have to go outdoors and walk around a lot.
The exact rules of this first event, codenamed Hexathlon, are being released today before the NIA Field Test starts on September 14, so Agents will need to be quick on their feet in this race to the top.
At each of the Field Test events, Agents will have 30 minutes to hack the check-in portal to receive their instructions. They will then have 90 minutes to compete in six individual challenges. Those who complete all six challenges will receive the in-app Hexathlon medal and the top 10% of players who complete the most tasks in their city for any challenge will receive the elite version of the in-app medal.