Updated 14 October 2026
Guildrun release date
The studio has given a window twice, and the second one is narrower: the first half of 2027, with no Early Access step before it. The Steam page still shows no date at all.
When does Guildrun come out?
Leyline is aiming for the first half of 2027 and does not plan an Early Access release. That is the studio FAQ updated on 12 August 2026; the Steam store page still reads To be announced, and the late 2026 window you will see elsewhere comes from launch coverage rather than from the studio.
What the studio says
A developer posting as Jay published a new FAQ in the Steam discussions on 12 August 2026. Asked when the game arrives, the answer is that Leyline is aiming for the first half of 2027, and that an Early Access release is not planned.
That second half of the sentence matters more than it looks. No Early Access means there is no cheaper, earlier, unfinished version to buy: the next paid thing after the demo is the finished game.
The Steam store page itself reads "To be announced" and carries no price, checked on 14 October 2026. The FAQ remains the most specific thing the studio has committed to in public.
The window has narrowed once already
The late 2026 figure came from announcement material rather than from the studio, and it is still being repeated by sites that never checked it again. When a studio FAQ and a press summary disagree, the FAQ wins: it is written by the people doing the work, it is dated, and it can be re-read.
| Source | Date | What it said |
|---|---|---|
| Launch coverage | 16 July 2026 | Late 2026 |
| First studio FAQ | 15 July 2026 | 2027 |
| Current studio FAQ | 12 August 2026 | First half of 2027, no Early Access |
The demo has stopped growing, and that is on purpose
In the patch published on 25 August 2026 the studio said it is moving into a phase where the demo content stays as it is, so the team can concentrate on the full version. Bugs and balance still get attention; new content does not.
The patches since then match that word for word. Patch 0.5.7 on 1 September changed exactly one number, a description that had been wrong, and 0.5.8 on 8 September changed none at all. Patch 0.5.9 on 15 September then moved 37 balance rows without adding a single hero, relic or item, and the four patches after it, up to 0.5.13 on 13 October, brought fixes alone: balance still gets attention, content does not.
So a quiet week in the patch notes is no longer a sign that the game has stalled. It is the plan.
How long the demo stays up
The current FAQ is more careful than the first one. The demo stays online "for a while", and the studio then plans to move to a beta branch on its Discord and build new content together with players. The earlier wording, indefinitely, no longer appears.
If you want to keep playing past that point, the Discord is where the invitation will be handed out, not Steam.
What the weekly notes say about the full version
Since mid-September the weekly patch notes have opened with a few concrete lines on the full game before they list the demo fixes. Read together, they are the closest thing to a progress report the studio publishes.
None of them gives a date. The only milestone they name is the beta: on 6 October the studio wrote that it had taken "another step toward opening a beta branch for the full version", and promised more news soon.
| Patch | Date | Full version, in the notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5.9 | 15 September | New art for a new biome and new heroes, and highlighting for hexes touched by placement effects |
| 0.5.10 | 22 September | First internal playtest of the two player co-op mode, and new feedback effects for hits, Rush and Stall |
| 0.5.11 | 29 September | A new shadow system, forest biome visuals, a new biome, new heroes and controller support |
| 0.5.12 | 6 October | Another step toward a beta branch, and concept and production work on a brand-new hero |
| 0.5.13 | 13 October | More co-op playtesting and work, a new hero fit for the spooky season, and work on a visual improvement pass for the final release |
What you can play today
| Demo | |
|---|---|
| Released | 16 July 2026 |
| Price | Free |
| How long it stays up | For a while, then a beta branch on Discord |
| Content | Two acts, then Endless mode |
| Difficulties | 8 plus Endless |
| Run length | About 20 minutes, with mid-run save |
| Patches so far | 0.5.1 to 0.5.13, one a week since launch |
Does demo progress carry over
Yes. The studio plans for every Steam account to keep what it earned in the demo: metaprogression, difficulty unlocks and hero mastery stars all transfer to the full game. Time spent now is not thrown away.
What else the full release brings
- A two player co-op mode. PvP is not planned at all, and that is a design choice: it is what lets builds be as lopsided as they are.
- Official Steam Deck support, and controller support, neither of which exists yet. Controller support appears among the work in progress in the notes of 29 September.
- More languages. The demo ships English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and both Chinese scripts; Japanese and French are confirmed for the full game, and their string tables are already sitting in the demo files, a bit over half filled.
- A price, eventually. It will be a premium game bought once, and the number has not been decided.