Rune Knights

Rune Knights

Early access since Nov 2020

Rune Knights is a cooperative action RPG focused on customization, crafting, and combat. Customize your character's aesthetics, stats, gameplay, and gear as you battle through procedurally generated and hand-crafted levels with your allies.

76% positive · 293 reviews
Not yet
In early access, still in active development
Medium confidence
Active Development
Not yet
In early access, still in active development
Medium confidence
Active Development

Where to buy

Steam $19.99
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Evaluation

Rune Knights has been in Steam Early Access since November 7, 2020, and remains so today. The developer, Aeromir, has maintained a consistent and sustained pattern of major content updates throughout the game's lifetime. The news feed documents 7 tagged major content releases, including The Frontiers Update (August 18, 2023), The Divine Update (April 5, 2024), The Crusades Update (April 9, 2025), The Shadow Update Pt. 1 (October 11, 2025), and the Winter Update featuring an Astaroth rework (December 18, 2025). This establishes a cadence of roughly one to two major updates per year, supplemented by frequent feature patches and balance passes. A notable signal came from the April 9, 2025 Crusades Update, which was titled "The Last Pre-Launch Update," indicating the developer intends a full 1.0 launch but has not yet reached it. After that post, development continued with another major content drop (Shadow Update, October 2025), a further major update (Winter Update, December 2025), and a cluster of feature patches in early January 2026. The most recent developer communication is dated January 11, 2026. As of today, October 8, 2026, approximately nine months have passed since the last developer post on January 11, 2026. The established interval between major updates has historically ranged from roughly 6 to 12 months (e.g., August 2023 → April 2024 ≈ 8 months; April 2024 → April 2025 ≈ 12 months; April 2025 → October 2025 ≈ 6 months; October 2025 → December 2025 ≈ 2 months). Nine months of silence since the last communication is at the outer edge of — but not clearly beyond — the upper end of this historical cadence window, especially given the compressed activity in late 2025 and the stated intent to launch. The developer has not posted a closure or completion statement, the game remains available for purchase in Early Access, and no 1.0 release has been announced or occurred.
Evidence
Winter Update shipped with a full Astaroth talent tree rework, new skills, new items, and multiplayer fixes — another major content drop confirming ongoing development.
news post · Dec 18, 2025 source content shipped
high
The Shadow Update Pt. 1 shipped after the 'pre-launch' Crusades Update, adding 13 new skills, 25+ new legendary items, and major archetype overhauls — confirming continued active development post-'final pre-launch' update.
news post · Oct 11, 2025 source content shipped
high

Media

Details

Developer
Publisher
Aeromir
Achievements
45
Platform
Windows
Controller
partial support
Steam Deck
Not rated
Players
Single-player · Multiplayer · Co-op

About this game

"It's like Dark Souls meets Diablo 2, and they got married and had a baby that got the best genetics from both parents. "

-DawnrazorDCLXVI

COMMUNITY-MADE OVERVIEW

Information:

- 8 Classes, can be mixed (11 now)

- Unique awesome abilities

- Looting game like Torchlight or Grim Dawn with a great looting system

- Max lvl 30 (needs 4-5 hours)

- Endgame looting still rewarding

- Like 20 hours per char and you really want to make more than one lvl 30

- Weapons like dual something, sword, hammer, staff, shield, bow (+ dmg by headshots) and much more...

Pros:

- No story

- Fast third person gameplay

- Fast travel and quick matches

- Endless arena

- Strong co-op synergies

- Great skills

- Great interest in testing builds

- Co-op works fine (everything can be played together)

- Devs are working on updates

- Not that complex and low time invest to understand everything

4-PLAYER ONLINE CO-OP

Character building and gameplay gains new depth when working with a squad to build synergy and overcome increasingly difficult enemies. Rune Knights offers MANY ways for squads of up to 4 to work together and theorycraft.

AN AVALANCHE OF CUSTOMIZATION

11 Skill Trees, over 100 unique talents, more than 200 unique skills, 10+ Super Abilities, and over 150 legendary items let you build characters and playstyles that other games can't offer with their restricted progression systems. Invest in any skill tree at any time as you level up, and quickly respec your character if you decide to try something new or take advantage of particularly lucky loot.

YOUR GEAR SUPPLIES YOUR ABILITIES

Gear isn't just about stats. Each piece of gear has an ability assigned to it, which you can use once you equip it. Experimentation and improvisation are key to survival until you can afford to put the perfect build together.

GEAR CRAFTING

You're in control of every aspect of your gear. Special crafting items drop from enemies and can be purchased in Town. These items allow you to upgrade your items, change their skills, and reroll their mods (sometimes to powerful Legendary mods).

SUPER ABILITIES

Investing heavily in a skill tree can reward you with special Super abilities. These abilities charge up as you kill enemies, and allow you short windows of massive power once activated. Each skill tree has its own unique Super.

LEGENDARIES

Legendary items can drop at any time, and provide unique and powerful ways to play and build your character. Certain Legendaries are only dropped from the most powerful enemies in the game. There are currently more than 150 legendaries to find and experiment with. Good luck collecting them all!

COMPANIONS

Recruit AI-controlled Companions to your party which have all the same customization options that you do. Equip them with any gear you find, customize their talents and flask effects, and put together your own ideal squad.

POWERFUL, INTERESTING ENEMIES

Over 60 different enemies including 15 unique Bosses and 15 powerful Elite enemies will require you to improvise and react quickly and tactically to overcome them.

TRADING

Trade your items and currency with allies in game.

ENDGAME

Crusades will test your build to the limits and allow you to customize your own difficulty in exchange for greater rewards. Excel and gain access to Raid bosses which will test your build, reflexes, and strategy against unique and difficult encounters. Infinite Arena pits your character against waves of increasingly difficult enemies and bosses for a chance to top the leaderboards. All of these can be done solo and with a party.

"I WAS TOLD I COULD DUAL WIELD SHIELDS?"

Yes.

"CAN I PLAY AS A SUMMONER?"

Yes.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

Many of RK's skills, talents, weapons, and features originated as suggestions by players like you. Join our Discord to suggest your own ideas for the game, report bugs, discuss character builds and synergies, and share memes.

HARDCORE MODE

For the masochists. Hardcore characters are permanently deleted on death, have a separate gold collection and stash that can be accessed by other Hardcore characters, and can only trade with other Hardcore characters.

PLAY OFFLINE, TOO

Rune Knights does not require an internet connection for solo play, because that's ridiculous. (Use Steam Offline Mode).

ANTI-CHEAT

To preserve the integrity of leaderboards and the online games of players who don't wish to cheat, Rune Knights implements an anti-cheat that will close the game upon detecting an outside intrusion. Cheaters be warned.

BORING INFO SECTION

Rune Knights is a cooperative, third-person, hack-and-slash action RPG focused on customization, crafting, and combat. Level up by killing monsters, collect loot, craft your own weapons and armor, and choose from over 120 unique talents and 60 different powerful abilities. Customize your character's aesthetics, stats, and gameplay as you battle through procedurally generated and hand-crafted levels with a variety of enemies and bosses.

Rune Knights is still early in development and I intend to let the community determine the future direction of the game. Please provide feedback about what you would like to see changed or added to the game. No suggestion is too big or too small.

Last evaluated Oct 8, 2026
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