- The Countdown for Hounds of Zeus Begins! - 18 September 2026
At end of last month, we announced our third major update, "Hounds of Zeus," is coming October 8th (if you missed that news, make sure to check out the teaser)! As of today, that leaves only twenty days before you will face Zeus' mythic hounds, including Aello, a fearsome challenger who strikes like lightning. Hear part of her story in the ancient myths that inspired her character design and attacks below, but first one other announcement:The Voices Behind Dawn of Defiance! Soon, the director and I will be sitting down to chat with our amazingly talented voice actors to share with you all their thoughts and experiences working in gaming and with Dawn of Defiance! Please leave us any questions you have for them!You can post your questions in the discussion comments of this post, on our Reddit thread, or in Discord (make sure you have the Defier role from #welcome-and-rules)!And now for t…
- Survival Craft Fest Sale + Roadmap News! - 31 August 2026
Attention Spartans!Fireshine PvE Survival Craft Festival!We’re taking part in the Fireshine Survival Craft Festival. No time like the present to defy the gods solo or with up to 3 friends this week with 35% off (and 10% off the supporter pack!) for the whole event running up till September 7th!You're in good company this festival with some other bangers from the Fireshine Games Survival catalogue. Mine your way through Core Keeper, rebuild a shipwrecked home in Len's Island, sail an ocean full of spirits in Voyagers of Nera, or get an early look at Isle Goblin ahead of its next playtest.Everything's rounded up here:Fireshine Games On Sale!Hounds of Zeus Release Date!To celebrate the festival, we're here to answer the question that has been on every player's mind: when is the next release? Wait no further! Hounds of Zeus is coming October 8th, 2026. Please watch the following teaser for…
- August Community News! 08.07.26 - 7 August 2026
Spartans!Assuming we're all Greek myth fans here, I hope you guys have had the fun month that I did! Excited to get to share more news with you all on more content headed your way with Hounds of Zeus. Firstly though, I want to highlight that we will be going on sale at the end of the month for Steam's Survival Craft Fest! As part of that event, we'll be announcing our Hounds of Zeus release date with a glimpse of the boss(es) for the Temple of Zeus! So make sure your notifications are enabled!I discuss that and all the highlights below in the latest community video. Check it out or read on to learn about new raid rewards and a few interesting insights from last month's survey. We're sharing a 4-question follow-up poll regarding resource-gathering, grinding, and stamina. Give us your vote here:Follow-up PollCOMING TO HOUNDS OF ZEUSShrine of DionysusAt our Early Access launch some of you…
- Survey & Giveaway! July Community News - 6 July 2026
Survey GiveawayYour chance for a Steam Key!Before diving in, I want to announce a survey, open to current players, long-time wishlisters, or people just now discovering our game! We want to hear not only what excites you most about Dawn of Defiance, but also what you love about our genre more generally! This information is super important to us, as it helps us 1) identify key features to focus on for 1.0 and 2) highlight our game's strongest features to reach even more players on Steam and social (which is better for our development AND our community)! We will be selecting 10 survey submissions to receive a Dawn of Defiance steam key, so take a few minutes to fill out this survey (survey now closed for analysis!) for a chance to get your friend or yourself a copy! Make sure to provide your email address, so we can contact you if you win!Update 7/15/26: As of this morning, all 10 Steam k…
- Community Dev News! 05.29.26 - 29 May 2026
Hello Spartans! Since we will not be releasing a content update in June, I am here instead with some community news! Watch the video below with me (Monday!) for a run down of some development progress in May and a look at some possible game features we're investigating! We continue to work towards the previously announced "Hounds of Zeus" updates. if you would like a recap of the last content update, make sure to check out our patch notes from last month: Wandering Spartans & Raid Improvements 0.4.0.0. Steam ReviewsSpecial thank you to all the players who have been commenting & leaving feedback across all of our social platforms, including those featured in the video above. If you haven't yet, we would like to invite you to write a Steam Review, good or bad. The input is super valuable to our team, as it directs our focus towards the most important areas of our open development. I will…
- 0.4.0.2 | Hotfixes - 16 April 2026
Spartans, Last Thursday, we released a minor update with improvements to the Ancient Desert, the new cyclops enemy, the Wandering Spartans, and more. Make sure to check out that release here. The following day, we posted a hotfix for the Epic log-in loop many users experienced. If you encountered that issue last Thursday (4/9), you should already see that fixed. Today, to continue addressing bugs, please update your game for the following latest hotfixes!IMPROVEMENTS:Added Calming the Storm quest (triggers when completing Poseidon’s quest, A Seal of Abandonment) to address confusion over the ongoing weather storm.This quest guides you to use the pre-existing weather facility "Demeter's Kythera," unlocked during the Temple of Poseidon questline.See "Known Issues."BUG FIXES:Fixed an issue where a Cooking Spit could get stuck “Cooking In Progress”Existing broken assets need to be rebuiltFi…
- 0.4.0.0 Hotfix - 11 April 2026
Hello again, Spartans!Recently we announced that we were investigating an issue with Epic Onlines Services causing a log-in loop in the main menu. We hope this fix will address the issue and allow you to connect to your multiplayer worlds. Please let us know if the problem persists!
- 0.4.0.0 | Notice of Multiplayer Issue [Fixed] - 10 April 2026
Update as of 4/10/26 @ 7:50PM CT:We recently pushed a hotfix which we hope addresses this issue and allows you to connect once more to multiplayer servers. Please update your game and inform us if the problem persists. Thank you to everyone for joining us this week for our latest update! We have been tracking your bug reports and feedback, and we want to confirm we're investigating a multiplayer issue related to EOS.An issue with Epic Online Services is causing a login loop in the main menu. This is currently impacting players from being able to play multiplayer. For now, if you are affected by this, you are still able to play single player by clicking the X in the top-right corner of the game to close the login window. You may need to do this a few times before you are fully in the game.The team is working hard to address this issue, and we will report back with a solution as soon as p…
- 0.4.0.0 Update | Wandering Spartans, the Cyclops, and UE 5.7! - 9 April 2026
Notice from 4/10/26: We are actively investigating an issue with Epic Online Services causing a login loop in the main menu. This is currently impacting players from being able to play multiplayer. If you are affected by this, you are still able to play single player by clicking the X in the top-right corner of the game to close the login window. You may need to do this a few times before you are fully in the game. We will report back once a solve is in place.Spartans!Today we are releasing our Unreal Engine 5.7 update for Dawn of Defiance, bringing not only the anticipated performance improvements and new graphical settings, but also (surprise!) new content, including revisions to the Desert Reign raid puzzles & labyrinth, a new Cyclops enemy, 20+ new decor pieces, and introducing the Wandering Spartans: challengeable NPCs across the Crossroads with a new unlockable armor set and weapo…
- 35% Off Spring Sale! - 19 March 2026
Set Demeter's Kythera to FULL SUN! The Spartium are in bloom on Aegea!Gather your closest friends this Spring break for a co-op journey on the Crossroads, or escape the terrible pollen by yourself on mythical isles where flowers can no longer hurt you. You'll see have to deal with the heat though. Sorry about that. The Steam Spring sale has begun, and that means we're now 35% off until March 26th!Now's as good a time as ever to grab Dawn of Defiance before we release our UE 5.7 update next month which will improve performance AND improve various aspects of the Desert Reign raid experience that released in December! Plus, we'll be adding a few surprises into the mix that you won't want to miss!See our previous two articles, including our post in February and our latest community video from January, for the latest news regarding out upcoming update next month!
- February Community News! 2/27/26 - 27 February 2026
Dearest Defiers!It is that time for our monthly news! As we head into March, we are still progressing well on the Unreal Engine 5.7 update we informed you of last month. You can still expect that in under two months now. If you wish to know more about our reasons for working on this engine update and what to expect during this first part of 2026, definitely check out our previous community video with Game Director Tony.Bugs of the MonthNow, as I have little news to add regarding this next update that we did not cover in January, I will offer you instead some very fun bugs our team is currently dealing with. Presumably if you are with us in Early Access, you are happy to peak behind the development curtain. If not, skip to the next section ;) In switching to UE 5.7, naturally a few things broke. Fixing these issues are a significant part of our team's time at the minute. On the list are…
- January Community News! What's Coming Next? - 23 January 2026
As the first month of 2026 wraps up, we wanted to check-in with the community to give you all a heads-up on our next minor update! Watch this video to hear Game Director Tony reflect on Desert Reign and share some important news on our development plans:The Our next update is focused solely on backend issues and updating to Unreal Engine 5.7! Reflecting on Sisters of the Deep and Desert Reign, we will be splitting major updates into separate smaller updates going forward, affecting our roadmap cadence but not our planned content!The Rundown:Engine Update Coming Soon: Over the next couple months, we are focusing on updating to Unreal Engine 5.7. This means we are temporarily pausing content development to support our engineers and address backend issues, so it unlikely (though not impossible) that this next minor update will include new content. However, players should hopefully see some…
- Happy New Years from Traega! | 01.01.2026 - 2 January 2026
Happy New Years to all Defiers!We hope you have had a wonderful holiday season so far!We wanted to send you warm wishes and reflect on a challenging, yet rewarding and inspiring year in Early Access! Around this time last year, we were wrapping up a period of optimizations and QoL improvements and only just revealing our roadmap at the OTK Winter Expo with promises of new content to come. The game’s full gameplay loop at the time concluded with a handful of minor labors scattered about an otherwise empty map. The Temple of Athena was but a small, ruined shrine. The desert was a place for golems, ore, and little else.We had not yet seen the new raid zones, the expansions of the Dark Forest and Ancient Desert with their new puzzles and challenges, the first legendary weapons and all the new gear, or the character creator (with the female player model we’ve been waiting for since release)!…
- 0.3.0.3 Hotfix and PSA on Third-Party Tools - 18 December 2025
We're here today to share another hotfix, as well as a PSA on third-party mod tools.We cannot support the stability of third-party tools. We have no way of knowing how they will affect your game or what additional bugs they may contribute to your experience. This can also hinder our ability to investigate bugs and crash reports, as our reporting methods can be diluted with problems caused by these third-party tools. As of right now, our largest crash count is due to people using these tools.As a reminder, we've implemented settings in the in-game rulesets to hopefully cover many of the features players are seeking from third-party tools, such as unlocking all abilities and all recipes, infinite build resources and infinite stamina, disabling durability, no drop-on-death, and others. Before using mod tools, please investigate your options here. If there are essential settings you feel ar…
- 0.3.0.2 Hotfix - 16 December 2025
We have additional bugfixes for you following our Desert Reign update last Friday! If you have experienced any of the following, please update and let us know if you continue to have problems.Fixed an issue where some players could not properly create a new character, resulting in skills being resetWe've identified Join-By-Presence as a cause for the above issue. With our team going on holiday leave soon, we’re disabling “join by presence” temporarily until we have time to fully resolve all instances.You can expect Join-By-Presence to return sometime after the holiday.Some skill-resetting issues may persist. For now, please join multiplayer sessions through the in-game "Join Game" tab to ensure you are prompted by the character creator. Fixed an issue where Seriph’s shield bubble could trap playersFixed an issue where some players experienced increased Stamina drain when GlidingWe’ll be…
- 0.3.0.0 Hotfix - 13 December 2025
Thank you to everyone who has joined us for Desert Reign today!We hope you are enjoying the new content. We are pushing this hotfix to address bugs players have experienced this evening. Fixes include:Clients encountering bugs entering and exiting raidsAphrodite's Stillblade can no longer stun bossesFixed an issue with female animations equipping repair kitsWe'll continue to monitor players' responses and reports! Until the next one, have a wonderful weekend in the Ancient Desert!
- 0.3.0.0 "Desert Reign" Update Release! Play Now! - 12 December 2025
Our second major update Desert Reign is now live! Today, either start a new journey or continue your current odyssey into the Ancient Desert! Nyx guides you to the Temple of Poseidon, but to uncover more answers to the missing Olympians, you’ll need to first survive the desert heat, complete the labors of Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter, and then challenge Poseidon’s most loyal guardians!For players with existing saves! You will be prompted by the character creator before choosing your world save. After creating your Spartan, you’ll then be able to play them in any new or existing world; however, the skills of your new character will have reset to 0. This is because we’ve reworked the skill system and have also tied them to the individual characters. Going forward, when moving between worlds, your character will take their skills with them. New Bundle!Alongside our exciting Desert Reign…
- Dawn of Defiance "Desert Reign" Coming December 12th - 8 December 2025
The countdown begins!Dawn of Defiance "Desert Reign" is coming to you December 12th, this Friday!To seek answers to the missing Olympians, you must journey into the Ancient Desert, overcome the devastating heat, and complete the labors of Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter to unlock Poseidon's Temple, but be warned! In his absence, his most loyal champions continue to guard his palatial oasis... Get ready for a new raid, new fights, new gear, character creator, and more!We're On Sale!To coincide with this news today, we will be featured in Four Is A Party with a 35% Discount! As part of this event, we reworked our Taurok teaser to include the female player model, so if you want a first look at your newest Spartan in action, check it out:We'll have a new "Desert Reign" trailer and feature list for you on December 12th!See you then!
- New Publisher Announcement! - 1 December 2025
We hope all our players who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful weekend! And everyone else, we hope your weekend was at least pretty good ;) We'll use the season (and any season, honestly) to say thank you to everyone following and supporting our journey in Early Access!Now December is already here! And to celebrate the end of 2025, we have some exciting news!Please welcome...Our new publisher Fireshine Games! Fireshine Games has worked with other indie, open-world survival crafts like Core Keeper and Len's Island, among other titles, so we're really excited to have their experienced team to support us to our 1.0 release and beyond!Now what does this mean for Dawn of Defiance? Our partnership is unlikely to have a huge effect on our roadmap features or our vision for the game, but our update cadence might change a tad bit as we take advice from their team on how to roll out improveme…
- Community News! Spooky Edition - 31 October 2025
Happy Halloween, Spartans!May Nyx offer you a wonderfully dark and spooky evening! But before you run off to your costume parties and trick or treating, we wanted to bring you a quick production update!We’re in the thick of Q4, our estimated window for Dawn of Defiance “Desert Reign,” and we’re happy to say we’re still progressing for the major update's release before the end of the year. But since you still have some time before you’ll be able to continue your odyssey in the Ancient Desert, here’s some snapshots of development (that we don’t mind spoiling) since our last community update.Production RecapLevel 25 Skill Perks!As we shared in our initial announcement of “Desert Reign,” this next update will be increasing the skill level cap which will include new skill perks, but there’s a couple other changes you should know! The skill system is being overhauled to have skill progression…
