Über Iron Pilgrims
A living city. A stolen spark. A company to command.
Iron Pilgrims is a single-player, turn-based tactical RPG set in a postapocalyptic fantasy world. Forty years after the Cataclysm, the last pilgrim engine still carries a town on its back. Its people call it Vey. Now the Engine is dying, and the Spark that sustained it has been stolen.
As the Waykeeper, assemble a company of scrappy heroes, lead them through dangerous ruins, and recover the Spark before corruption spreads beyond control.
Gameplay features
Battle system with with facing, fog, and nerve
Command your squad in turn-based battles on a square grid. Each hero gets a pool of moves that can be spent on movement, attacks, and powerful class-specific special abilities.
Facing determines what your heroes can see. Reveal enemies hidden by fog of war, or use their blind spots to approach unseen. Wounds, shocks, and special abilities drain morale, forcing combatants to retreat when their nerve breaks.
Destroy cover, take the high ground, and race enemies to battlefield powerups that grant temporary buffs. Some missions have special objectives: recover contested documents, escort allies to safety, protect civilians, or hold ground against enemy reinforcements.
Build your company
Recruit heroes from a range of classes and species, combine their abilities, and equip them for the dangers ahead. Species bring distinct strengths and weaknesses: Langurii can wield a light weapon or shield with their tails, while Dendrites' bark resists arrows but is vulnerable to fire. Elves are perfectionists that master their special abilities to greater effect.
Get to know your heroes through conversations and personal quests. Maintain your relationships with them, and build trust or rivalry, which unlock different bonuses and conversations.
Battle leaves physical and mental scars. Rotate your squad to give wounded and shaken companions time to recover. Death can end a hero’s story: only an upgraded Shrine can bring them back, and resurrection charges are rare to earn.
Keep the town alive
Between battles, choose your next job, prepare your squad, and develop the town of Vey. Build and upgrade Vey’s services to recruit heroes, trade for equipment, use skill tomes to upgrade your hero's skills, and craft improvements to your gear and the town itself.
Before most fights, encounter cards set the scene and ask how you will approach it. Your decisions can change the battle or its rewards.
Corruption rises as weeks pass. Exceptional work in the field can slow it. Defeats, failed rescues, and delays make it spread faster. Balance your company’s need to recover against the urgency of the available missions to choose.
Act 1 Playtest Content
The current Steam Playtest includes the complete Act 1 campaign in beta, from the optional tutorial through the Act 1 finale.
The content and counts below describe the Act 1 Playtest. The full release will contain more content, including later acts. Later acts are not included in the playtest download.
- A typical playthrough of approximately 15–20 tactical battles, alongside town conversations and optional personal quests.
- 20 distinct heroes across 10 classes and 5 playable species, each hero with their own portrait, conversations, and Act 1 personal quest.
- 7 enemy species, including tough trolls, fanatical cultists, and sneaky wretches.
- Approximately 200 inventory items to find or loot and 90 skills to learn and upgrade.
- More than 100 encounter cards.
- Combat maps across 5 terrain themes: bogs, wastelands, caverns, ruined streets, and sealed vaults.
- 5 campaign difficulties, from Sheltered to Forsaken, and optional Bronzeman mode: one save slot that autosaves every mission.
- An original soundtrack with distinct combat music for each enemy type.
Beta note: The game is currently in beta. Some features may be modified or expanded before the full release, and some bugs may still exist.
Single-player with mouse and keyboard controls.