The Crown can't spare an army, so it sends you.
A charming survivors-like with a deep RPG heart.
DRM-free Windows download · every update included · a Steam key when it launches on Steam
The kingdom is fraying. Bandit warbands spill out of the wilds, the roads are cut and the villages burn. The Crown cannot spare an army for every hamlet — so it sends one champion at a time, and expects the problem gone by supper.
You are that champion. A vanguard of the realm. Mostly because nobody else volunteered.
The game
Everything the genre promises. You move; your weapon swings and shoots on its own; the hordes grow thicker by the minute until the act's boss walks out of the trees. Each venture is six to eight minutes of crowds that charge, flank, parry, call down storms — and flee when their nerve breaks.
Something more. A village full of people who want a word, a king who wants results, and a pile of loot to sort, sell, rework and wear. Finds stay unidentified until you're safely home — then you find out what you really carried back.
Ashford Hollow
Every vanguard, bandit, cottage and castle wall is drawn by the game in a warm storybook style, from your vanguard's braid to the gold trim on their pauldrons.
Home between ventures is a village of people with jobs to do: Greedy Pete sells, Ferra the Smith works the anvil, Master Aldous teaches skills, Sergeant Kell drills you in your class's tree, Morwen the Witch brews, Sabine the Barber fixes whatever the last venture did to your hair — and Big Bartholomew keeps the map and the record of every venture you make.
“A mage. Please do not set anything alight. The last one did, and the drapes were new.”
Even the loot has opinions: Grubnak's Skull-Cap still smells faintly of stolen turnips.
Six classes · thirty weapons
Each with five weapons, skills of its own and its own skill tree — three paths, about sixty nodes, Ranks up to 125.
Melee · Defence · Steady
Impeccably polished, insufferably noble. Yells “HUZZAH” before every swing.
Melee · Power · Sweeping
Captured on some frozen border campaign and bound to the crown's service ever since. Loyal, in their way. Terrifying, in every way.
Ranged · Precision · Crits
Never misses, and never lets anyone forget it. Insufferably smug about it, too.
Agile · Crits · Evasive
Nobody remembers hiring this one. Nobody remembers not hiring them either. That's rather the point.
Ranged · Spells · Fragile
Reads too many forbidden books. Sets things on fire, calls it “research”.
Troops · Command · Sturdy
Why swing a blade when four loyal soldiers will swing theirs for you? Mostly yells encouragingly, very loudly.
Over 140 skills, each raised through ten levels: every class's own, two for every weapon, skills for any weapon, Master Aldous's secrets and hidden arts revealed only by deeds.
Each level-up, nine heralds — the Blacksmith, the Fletcher, the Seer, the King and more — offer their cards: over 170 in four tiers, rare specials that change how a venture plays, and Duo cards when your two favourite heralds join forces. Reroll, banish or skip.
And your whole house grows together through the House Legacy at the King's throne.
This is where the depth lives
Built the way Diablo II and Path of Exile taught us loot should be: rolls worth reading, and the rare drop worth the wait.
Ferra's anvil
Each service opens as the acts' bosses fall, with rare forge finds that pay for a working.
The Hellforge burns Brimstone Shards, found only in the Sundered Depths.
Five acts · five bosses
Each act its own foes, ground, weather and music — and at the end a boss with a voice and a plan.
Boss Grubnak, the self-proclaimed Bandit Warlord
Boss The Fort Trio — three banished nobles
Boss Sealed by royal order
Boss Sealed by royal order
Boss Sealed by royal order
The wilds go on as far as you care to walk. Caves hide treasure rooms, ambushes and a goblin who runs a shop; a caravan to defend, a thief to run down, a wishing well; and three Royal Writs posted for every venture, each paying Honour when it is done.
Normal, Hard or Nightmare — the last two each bringing a new foe to every act — and your vanguard's own standing: Squire, Man-at-Arms or Champion. Go Hardcore for one life and a ghost to remember you by.
Beat it on a difficulty and Endless opens: any act, foes without end, its boss walking in again and again. Outgrown an act? Take on a Royal Edict or three — a forced march, no quarter, short rations — for more Experience, Luck or Honour.
Make them yours
Forge your vanguard in a detailed character creator — body, height, build, 66 hairstyles, beards, faces, scars, war paint and colours — and name the house they serve.
Pose them in 59 stances earned along the way, and claim 80 achievements at the King's throne for gold, Honour and gear. Three accounts per computer, nine vanguards each.
From the game as it is today
By order of the Crown
Vanguard Survivors is already a whole game, playable from your first venture to the last boss. What it needs now is players — and we would rather tune it with you than guess.
These are plans, not promises; what you play and ask for will move the order. We expect about a year in Early Access.
The price may go up a little when the full version comes out. Anyone who buys in Early Access keeps the game and every update at no extra cost.
Will it run?
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10, 64-bit | Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit |
| Processor | Dual-core, 2.4 GHz | Quad-core, 3 GHz or better |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | Vulkan-capable, Intel HD Graphics 520 or equivalent | Any dedicated graphics card from the last six years |
| Storage | 1 GB available | 1 GB available |
| Input | Keyboard and mouse · a 1280×720 or larger display | |
Provisional — the final figures come with the release build.
Questions
You buy the game while it is still being finished, play it now, and get every update as it comes. Everything described on this page is in the game today; balance, polish and performance on older computers are still being worked on, and you may meet the odd bug — tell us and we will fix it.
A DRM-free download of the game for Windows, every update during Early Access and after, and a Steam key when Vanguard Survivors launches on Steam. No launcher, no account of ours, no internet needed to play.
Yes, it is coming to Steam — and no, you don't. Everyone who buys it here gets a Steam key for it when it launches there, at no extra cost.
Yes. If the game doesn't run on your computer or simply isn't for you, write to info@vosko-apps.com within 14 days of buying and we will sort out a refund through the shop you bought from.
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. There is no Mac or Linux version at the moment, and the Steam Deck hasn't been tested yet.
Not yet. The game is played with keyboard and mouse, with every key rebindable. Full controller and Steam Deck support is planned once a real pad and a Deck have played it through.
English and Simplified Chinese (switch with the flags on the title screen). The Chinese translation is new and still being reviewed: tell us if anything reads oddly.
In %APPDATA%\Vanguard Survivors — paste that into File Explorer's address bar. Your vanguards stay there through every update; copy the folder to back them up.
Yes, and we would rather say so. The music was made by our team with Suno, an AI music tool, on a paid plan for commercial use; we chose, cut, looped and levelled every song. The code and much of the writing were made with the help of an AI coding assistant, under our direction, and reviewed and edited by us; the art is drawn by the game's own code, written the same way. Some icons were made with the same assistant; the rest come from licensed asset packs. Nothing is generated by AI while you play.
Write to info@vosko-apps.com — what happened, and what you were doing just before. We read every one. Each update comes with patch notes, here and in the game's own What's New on the title screen.
