Dungeon Settlers Release Date & Early Access Launch Time

Dungeon Settlers is available in Early Access on Steam. We confirmed a purchase option on September 4, 2026, at 08:23 UTC, and the developer's Early Access launch announcement confirms the release. This verifies store availability, not an installed-build test by this site.

The announced launch time was September 4, 2026 at 08:00 UTC, as stated in the September 2 launch-time announcement. The date was moved forward from September 10.

The essentials

Current US price and the ended launch discount

At our September 20, 2026 check, the US Steam store listed $24.99 USD with no discount. The 15% launch discount has ended; the earlier $21.24 introductory price is no longer the price shown in that regional store. The launch offer had advertised September 18 as its end date.

This is a dated US price snapshot, not a guarantee for other regions or later visits. Check your own Steam store for the price you would pay. Ending an introductory discount is separate from the developer's planned price increase at full release; the game is still in Early Access.

What 08:00 UTC means where you are

Steam releases go live at a single moment worldwide, so the time on your clock depends on your offset from UTC rather than on your region's store.

Daylight saving rules vary; if your region is between transitions, check your own offset rather than trusting the row above.

Why the date moved earlier

The August 8 announcement moved the date forward by six days. It did not give a specific reason for the change.

Latest official updates

October 10 patch: v0.4.29

The official v0.4.29 announcement was published October 10, 2026, at 08:16 UTC. We reviewed it on October 11. The changes most relevant to planning your next session are:

• Expedition controls: Auto-Pickup gains a weight limit; leaving surviving members behind when returning or changing floors requires a named confirmation.
• Dungeon Stay: normal-floor transitions preserve stay duration and penalty stages. The expedition guide covers save handling.
• Recruitment and combat: candidate growth and several skills/inscriptions change. Review the party guide before reusing an older build.
• Settlement work and food: crafting queues, work-position clearing, hauling and food-storage spoilage tooltips receive fixes; see the settlement guide.
• Controls and saves: keyboard-layout labels, Japanese tooltip-key compatibility and borderless cursor confinement gain options. With autosaving disabled, automatic save files use a single slot. CJK character display also receives fixes.

These are developer-reported changes, not tests performed by this site. The announcement does not declare the roadmap's major Update 4 released.

September 17 news: Tokyo Game Show booth

In the September 17 Tokyo Game Show announcement, published at 14:29 UTC, CanOpener lists Indie Game Area, booth 09-E33 and invites visitors to play the game and meet the developers. Consult the original announcement for the visit information; it does not announce a gameplay patch, new version number or downloadable demo.

September 13 follow-up: archer balance reverted

In Archer Balance Reverted, published September 13 at 15:42 UTC, the developer says the day's patch reverses selected v0.4.23 changes after community feedback. It restores Rapid Fire's per-hit damage and Energy cost, Arrow Rain's cooldown, Sniping Shot's damage coefficients and Sharp Shooter's per-stage Critical Chance bonus.

This is a targeted rollback, not a reversal of the entire v0.4.23 update. The announcement does not list bow item Attack Power among the reverted changes and does not give a new version number. Do not assume an older bow build or tier list now applies unchanged. We have checked the announcement, not tested the patch or imported its combat values into our tools.

September 12 patch: v0.4.23

The September 12 v0.4.23 notes were published at 10:19 UTC. The developer announces these practical changes:

• Level-up choices: Lock Consecration Results is now a separate setting on every Management Difficulty and can be toggled during a campaign.
• Larger expeditions: the announced maximum rises to six members at Rank 2 and eight at Rank 3. This is a character limit, not multiplayer support.
• Combat checks: ally-damaging skills default to Auto Use off, but saved or manually chosen settings are preserved. Re-registering a skill should no longer switch its existing Auto Use setting on. Review older saves yourself.
• Difficulty and balance: active-skill Energy costs are reduced on Easy and Normal Combat Difficulty; research work multipliers are reduced on Very Hard and Devastation Management Difficulty. Weapons and skills were rebalanced, so older build rankings need a version check.
• Missing Soulstones: dungeon merchants can sell eligible replacements. The expedition guide explains the ownership and campaign conditions; this is not unrestricted duplication.
• Everyday controls: numeric crafting quantities, batch storage policies, cursor sizing and mouse-side-button hotkeys are announced. The patch also addresses hauling access, carried bodies returning with Return Scrolls and a credits-transition progression block after Region 2.

These are official patch statements, not our own build tests. No rates, costs or combat stats have been imported into the calculators. See the roadmap status update for which earlier plans now have a corresponding patch statement.

Previous patch: v0.4.19

The September 6 v0.4.19 notes expand Expedition Founding locks to portraits, ability stats, Major Traits (which determine skill trees) and Sub Traits. The default difficulty changes from Hard to Normal. Gloths have a limited number of summons and move to a nearby empty tile after charging.

The patch removes the item-drop quantity penalty on Very Hard and Devastation Management difficulties, reduces the weight of several equipment and material types, increases arrow stack capacity and adds an Auto Skills guide. Check your current inventory values when packing; this site has not measured the new weights or imported patch values into its calculators.

In Your Feedback in Action, the developer separately lists planned improvements to level-up locks, enemy visibility, stamina and combat movement. See the roadmap guide for their current status.

Previous patch: v0.4.17

The September 6 v0.4.17 announcement adds Portrait Lock to Recruit Expedition Members: keep a candidate's portrait and appearance when choosing Recruit Again. It also adds Mute in Background, enabled by default, and limits save-version warnings to different version series, such as v0.3.x to v0.4.x. That warning change does not guarantee save compatibility.

For combat, Explosion loses its bonus damage from existing Burning stacks and instead applies Burning, with a shorter cast. The patch also fixes Healing Touch taking priority over First Aid when right-clicking a downed ally. The Inventory guide now documents Ctrl + Drag for half a stack and Shift + Drag for a chosen quantity; these controls already existed. See the expedition guide for packing help. These are official patch statements, not this site's build tests.

Community events: announced entry period ended

The September 5 community announcement invited players to two official Discord events, from September 5 at 14:00 UTC to September 14 at 14:00 UTC (22:00 in China on both dates). That announced entry period has ended. As of September 15, the public Steam announcements checked for this guide contain no extension or winner announcement. This is not a check of private Discord messages.

• Show Us Your Settlement invited settlement screenshots.
• Best Guide invited strategies, builds, settlement tips or dungeon advice in any language.

The announced rules provided for three entries selected by likes and two developer picks per event, with each of ten winners able to request a character portrait for the game. Those rules are not a confirmed results list or a date for adding portraits. Check the official channels for any follow-up; Discord access may require joining the server.

Previous patch: v0.4.12

The developer released version 0.4.12 on September 4. Its notes report fixes for Chinese and Japanese unit names when creating an Expedition Team, conflicting Near Death and Severely Exhausted animations, several tooltips, a recruitment-refresh confirmation pop-up and stray test key bindings. The Create Campaign window can also no longer be dismissed with Esc or an outside click.

The same patch reduces the starting Cog Wheels on Devastation difficulty from two to one, increases Abyss Chest reward quantities, removes the title-screen Wishlist button and changes newly recruited Lycans so their facial decals match their portraits. Previously recruited Lycans are unaffected. These are the developer's patch notes; this site has not independently tested the build or turned its values into verified calculator data.

The September 4 launch announcement links an updated public roadmap and a new trailer. The developer says the roadmap also covers known issues and near-term improvements. Our Early Access roadmap guide separates its plans from developer-described Early Access content and explains our build-verification limits.

The developer also announced 300,000 wishlists on September 2. That is a wishlist milestone, not a sales figure or player count.

The demo is gone

There is no playable demo. The developer announced its removal on August 20 and it stopped being playable on August 27, 2026. Checked again on September 4: the Steam store returns no demo for this game.

In the official demo removal notice, the developer said the demo differed significantly from the Early Access version — particularly in quality-of-life improvements and the overall experience — so it no longer accurately represented the game, and they pulled it rather than leave a misleading first impression up.

Read that as a warning label on every guide written before September 4. Anything sourced from demo footage may be describing systems that have already changed, and demo-era numbers are not Early Access numbers.

It is also the reason this site works the way it does: numbers stay marked PRE-EA until checked against the live build, and the calculators ask you for values rather than shipping defaults that quietly go stale.

What Early Access means for this game

Early Access is a starting point, not a finish line, and the developer has been specific about what that means here. From the Steam listing, checked on September 4, 2026:

The roadmap estimates full release for Q3 2028. That and the two-year duration are estimates that may move. The practical consequences for guides:

• Values you learn in week one may not hold in month three.
• The developer warns that major updates may affect save compatibility.
• A planned feature is not a reason to assume that it works in your build.
• Check the current price on Steam instead of inferring it from a planned future increase.

What the developer describes for Early Access

The Steam description lists the first two dungeon regions and the core settlement, crafting, research and combat loop. Earlier developer announcements also describe the Abyss. These are official descriptions, not an installed-build test by this site.

Region count does not establish a fraction of playtime or finished content. For the later regions and other planned additions, see the roadmap.

Saves may not survive updates

The May 19, 2026 demo announcement warned that major updates may break save compatibility and that saves may not carry between Playtest, Demo and Early Access. This is a dated risk warning, not proof that every old save fails in the released build. This site has not tested save migration; check the notes for the specific update before relying on an older settlement carrying over.

Where to start

• Check the system requirements — the minimum spec is modest, but Mac users should confirm their OS version.
• Read the beginner guide for an overview of the published game loop, not a build-tested first-hour walkthrough.
• Use the food calculator with your own observed values; it does not assume a consumption rate.

How this site verifies game data

The tools take user-entered numbers in Manual Mode until build-tested data is available. An official announcement or roadmap does not verify a food rate, recipe or research cost. Those values require an observed game version and test date before being labelled VERIFIED; an invalidated value is marked OUTDATED.