GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath

GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath

Released Jan 2020

The epic tower defense dark fantasy journey continues! Create powerful gems with various abilities and take on the battle against an endlessly flowing army of monsters, and face the growing darkness as you fight your way back towards the Spiritforge.

88% positive · 2,859 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
Medium confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
Medium confidence

Where to buy

Steam $12.99
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Evaluation

GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath launched on January 10, 2020 and received several major post-launch updates. The developer quickly addressed player feedback with a difficulty overhaul in the "Chilling Update" on April 27, 2020, followed by the "Iron Update" on March 10, 2021, which added Iron mode and all remaining trial fields. A follow-up balance patch on March 18, 2021 resolved issues with the Iron mode difficulty. That March 18, 2021 patch appears to be the final substantive update to the game itself. Since then, the developer's attention has shifted to a new project: the GemCraft - Legacy Collection, a compilation of the first three games in the series. This was announced on February 13, 2026, and a playable demo went live on June 10, 2026. The Legacy Collection is a separate product on Steam, and the news posts for Frostborn Wrath are being used to promote it — indicating that Game in a Bottle is actively working on new GemCraft content, just not for this title specifically. There are no unreleased DLC entries, no announced future content for Frostborn Wrath itself, and the developer has not signaled any intention to return to this game. The store description presents it as a complete, feature-rich standalone entry in the GemCraft series. The game launched as a complete product and received its post-launch additions; all of that content has shipped.
Evidence
Iron Update shipped: added Iron mode, all remaining trial fields, and a large set of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
news post · Mar 10, 2021 source content shipped
high
Chilling Update shipped: added a new easier difficulty mode ('Chilling') in response to player feedback, along with additional trial fields and bug fixes.
news post · Apr 27, 2020 source content shipped
high

Media

Details

Publisher
Game in a Bottle
Achievements
636
Platform
Windows
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Playable
Players
Single-player

About this game

The epic tower defense journey continues with GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath. You have finally broken free from your frozen prison, and while your body is still numb of cold, there is no time to lose. Reclaim your knowledge of wizardry, create versatile gems, and place them into various buildings to turn them into deadly weapons. Repel the waves of monster horde attacks, and face sinister enemies as you fight your way back towards the Spiritforge. The Forgotten is already on her way there, gathering a demonic army and getting stronger than ever. Can you stand your ground against the growing darkness?

GemCraft is a dark fantasy, fast-paced, real-time strategy, tower defense game where you can create and combine gems of various properties, combine and upgrade them, construct buildings to house your gems for even more diverse uses, and cast spells to further enhance your gems or strike at the enemy. Level up, unlock skills, and replay levels with battle traits to level up even more and eventually become a wizard of immeasurable power.

GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath is the fifth chapter in the series, a new puzzle piece in a branching epic story arch.

Key features:

  • Repel the monster horde in more than 100 fields of battle with various conditions and challenges.

  • Craft and combine six types of gems with different effects to shape your defense strategy or make quick tactical decisions in the heat of the battle.

  • Two dozen passive skills to unlock and enhance as you level up and increase your power.

  • Socket fragments you find into your mystical talisman to obtain new special bonuses.

  • Cast devastating spells to decimate your foes or enhance your gems.

  • Control the speed of battle with fast-forward or pause to fit your play style.

  • Enrage the upcoming monster waves to make them more fierce but also give more experience points to level up further.

  • Unlock a wide range of battle traits, combine and stack them to replay battlefields for more dangerous battles with greater rewards and more XP to level up even more.

  • Hold out as long as you can in Endurance mode, where you can gain additional endurance wave stones to set your next endurance run even longer.

  • Fight in Trial mode with a fixed set of gem types, spells, and difficulty settings to test your bare hands gemcrafting skills and unlock wizard stashes with various rewards.

  • Gain more than 600 achievements that will reward you with more skill points and unlock higher battle trait levels as you earn them.

Feature highlights for veteran wizards of GemCraft - Chasing Shadows:

  • A brand new GemCraft chapter with whole new fields and chapter map to explore.

  • Full HD native game resolution for more detailed and crisp visuals.

  • Larger battlefields (GCCS: 54x32 tiles, 1 tile = 17x17 pixels; GCFW: 60x38 tiles, 1 tile = 28x28 pixels)

  • Redesigned player interface, gem types, skills, battle traits, strike spells.

  • New buildable buildings (lanterns and pylons), more powerful shrines, new kinds of hostile and support structures, new creatures to fight.

  • Gems get stronger when your mana pool levels up (all gems have the poolbound bonus only white gem component had in GCCS).

  • Brand new talisman system with fragments inspired by jigsaw puzzles, and a collectible fragment shape collection to transform fragment shapes to fit.

  • Even more Steam achievements than before, prepare for the achievement hunt!

  • New endurance mode starting at wave 1 and beginning with short endurance runs that can be extended by gaining endurance wave stones.

  • Almost all of the fields have a challenging Trial mode with fixed spells and mana regardless of wizard level (similar to vision fields in GCCS)

  • Linked waves (2 waves start at the same time, i.e. giants can arrive together with swarmlings).

  • One click gem creation, pre-adjustable gem creation grade, upgrade gems in the inventory with the mouse wheel too.

  • Enraging gem slot - enrage all waves by socketing one gem.

Last evaluated Jun 26, 2026
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