What Happened During the Against the Storm Free Weekend

Free Weekend details at a glance

The Free Weekend allowed Steam users to download and play the base game during the event window. It was temporary access rather than a free-to-keep giveaway.

What is Against the Storm?

Against the Storm is a dark-fantasy city builder with roguelite progression. Instead of developing one permanent city indefinitely, the player establishes a sequence of settlements across a hostile wilderness threatened by recurring storms.

Each settlement begins with a different combination of species, resources, map conditions and available bonuses. The player must meet the Queen’s demands, manage impatience and keep residents satisfied before conditions collapse.

Permanent progression connects these expeditions. Resources and unlocks earned across successful settlements improve future attempts, but each new location still requires a fresh economy and a plan adapted to its biome.

The game is entirely single-player. It does not include co-op settlement building or competitive multiplayer.

Why it plays differently from a traditional city builder

A conventional city builder often rewards long-term perfection. Against the Storm asks the player to solve a shorter economic problem, complete the settlement and move on before becoming too comfortable.

That structure changes several priorities:

• Buildings cannot be planned around one permanent map
• Available blueprints vary between settlements
• Species have different needs and preferred services
• Hostility rises as the settlement expands or time passes
• Orders and events can change the most efficient strategy
• Winning a settlement advances the wider campaign cycle

The player is repeatedly asked to improvise rather than reproduce one ideal layout. A production chain that works well in one biome may be impossible in the next because the same resources or blueprints are unavailable.

Species and settlement needs

Against the Storm includes several fantasy species with different strengths, comfort requirements and preferred foods or services. The base game includes humans, beavers, lizards, harpies and foxes.

Frogs come from the Keepers of the Stone expansion, while bats are part of Nightwatchers. Those expansions were not automatically included in the July 2026 Free Weekend because the event covered the base game.

A settlement can contain several species at once. Keeping every group satisfied requires careful choices because buildings, food and services may benefit one population more than another.

This creates trade-offs rather than one universal happiness solution. The player may need to protect the least resilient species first or focus on the group most capable of producing Reputation under the current conditions.

What Update 1.10 changed

Update 1.10 was called the Over-Haulers Update. Its main feature was a redesign of the hauler system, giving players more control through the Main Warehouse interface.

The update allowed hauler priorities to be configured by building type. Players could also decide whether haulers should move ingredients, finished products or both.

That change matters in larger settlements. Uncontrolled hauling can consume labor without solving the most important production bottleneck, while priority settings let workers focus on the buildings that need transport support most.

Three new World Map Modifiers

The update added three World Map Modifiers:

• Guild Territory
• Sacred Grove
• Ancient Spire

World Map Modifiers affect decisions on the wider campaign map rather than functioning only as one settlement’s local condition. They can change which route is attractive, what reward is available and how much risk is attached to an expedition.

Sacred Grove was particularly notable because it allowed four species to appear in Training Expeditions. That gives players a controlled way to test a more complex population mix.

Other Over-Haulers improvements

Update 1.10 also included:

• Fishing Hut panel improvements
• A depletion progress bar in the resource overlay
• User-interface refinements
• Balance adjustments
• Bug fixes
• Text corrections
• Additional quality-of-life changes

The depletion indicator made it easier to judge how long a resource node would continue supporting nearby production. Interface improvements reduced the need to inspect several screens for routine settlement information.

These changes were available during the Free Weekend because the Steam build included the current base-game update.

What the Free Weekend did not include

The event did not permanently add Against the Storm to a Steam library. Access ended when the Free Weekend finished unless the user obtained the game separately.

The offer also did not turn the paid expansions into base-game content. Keepers of the Stone and Nightwatchers remained separate additions.

Progress made during a Steam Free Weekend normally remains in the user’s local or cloud save after access ends. The save can be continued if the same Steam account later regains access to the game, subject to Steam Cloud settings and the save remaining available.

Keepers of the Stone DLC

Keepers of the Stone expanded the game with frogs and additional settlement systems. The species brings its own needs, buildings and strategic considerations rather than acting as a cosmetic population replacement.

The expansion also adds content such as Orders, world events and new development choices. Players who only used the base game during the Free Weekend would not have seen every Keepers of the Stone feature.

The DLC does not replace the core campaign structure. It adds more variables to the same cycle of founding settlements, adapting production and advancing across the World Map.

Nightwatchers DLC

Nightwatchers introduced bats as another playable species alongside new settlement content. It added production chains, Cornerstones, perks, Orders and encounters that widen the possible combinations in each run.

The expansion is useful for experienced players who already understand the base species and want more variation. New players can learn the base game first without needing the DLC immediately.

For a closer look at its additions, see our Nightwatchers DLC overview.

What new players could learn during the event

Four days were enough to understand the central loop even if a player did not reach the highest difficulties.

A useful first-session path was:

1. Complete the tutorial and learn the basic resource chains.
2. Check the needs of every species before choosing blueprints.
3. Avoid opening too many glades before hostility is manageable.
4. Use Orders and dangerous events as sources of Reputation.
5. Watch the Queen’s Impatience rather than expanding without a goal.
6. Complete the settlement and observe what carries into the next expedition.

The important lesson is that a settlement does not need to become perfect. It needs to solve enough problems to earn the required Reputation before impatience or hostility becomes unmanageable.

System requirements from the Steam listing

Steam lists 4 GB of RAM as the minimum and approximately 5 GB of storage. Those requirements make the game relatively lightweight compared with many modern strategy releases.

Against the Storm supports English and is listed as compatible with Steam Family Sharing. It does not have a confirmed controller-support value, so players planning to avoid keyboard and mouse should check the current Steam input information before relying on a controller-only setup.

Steam reception after the event

Against the Storm held a 94% positive rating from 37,573 Steam reviews on October 2, 2026. That figure was recorded after the July event and reflects the later review total rather than the count advertised during the Free Weekend.

Review figures can continue changing as new players submit feedback. The dated value is useful for historical context, not as a permanent score.

Is there another free weekend scheduled?

No later Free Weekend is confirmed in the sources checked for this article. The July 9–13 event should be treated as a completed promotion rather than a recurring schedule.

Future temporary access would need a new announcement from Eremite Games, Hooded Horse or Steam. A past Steam Free Weekend does not mean that the same game will receive another one.

Against the Storm Free Weekend summary

The July 2026 event gave Steam users temporary access to the Against the Storm base game from July 9 through July 13. It coincided with Update 1.10, which overhauled haulers, introduced Guild Territory, Sacred Grove and Ancient Spire, and added several interface and quality-of-life improvements.

The event has ended. Against the Storm remains a paid single-player roguelite city builder, while Keepers of the Stone and Nightwatchers remain separate expansions.