Underlight

Underlight

Released Dec 2018

Be a part of a vast Underlight City of dreamers. Real people, just like you, creating real characters. There are no pre determined paths for you to follow and no specified end game. You are in control of how your character interacts with the other characters creating true conflict and resolution. It's your dream to make.

61% positive · 116 reviews
Not yet
Released, but still in active development
High confidence
Active Development
Not yet
Released, but still in active development
High confidence
Active Development

Where to get it

Free on Steam

Evaluation

Underlight is a free-to-play MMO that launched on December 14, 2018 and has been continuously updated ever since. KoiWare has maintained a clear and sustained pattern of content development across more than seven years. Major content releases include version 3.1.12 LR3 (April 27, 2019), which added a new plane and house additions; version 3.2.0 (July 27, 2024), a substantial update adding player vaults, new planes, dozens of new rooms, expanded mare spawns, and major quality-of-life improvements; and most recently, version 3.4.0 (August 9, 2026), which added two entirely new game planes (The Monastery with 15 rooms and The Undergrounds with 10 rooms), a returning plane, eight additional standalone rooms, new gameplay systems (Energy Stone, Reclaim & Corrupt Essence arts, Art Status Icons, Mission Pack), a level editor with around 200 new textures, and various balance changes and fixes. Feature patches have also shipped regularly in between major versions, including updates in October 2025 (3.3.0) and April 2026 (3.3.2), the latter introducing a full automated mission board system and extensive level restructuring. The developer has made no statement indicating development is winding down or that any update represents a final release. The August 9, 2026 major update arrived just 17 days before today's assessment date, confirming the game is in very active ongoing development. No specific future content has been formally announced, but the sustained multi-year cadence of substantive updates shows no signs of stopping.
Evidence
Version 3.4.0 released, adding two new planes (The Monastery with 15 rooms, The Undergrounds with 10 rooms), a returning plane, 8 additional rooms, new gameplay systems (Energy Stone, Reclaim/Corrupt Essence arts, Art Status Icons, Mission Pack inventory tab), a new Level Editor with ~200 textures, and various balance and quality-of-life changes.
news post · Aug 9, 2026 source content shipped
high
Version 3.3.2 released, introducing a new automated mission board system, restructuring multiple game planes (Basin of Stars, Mt. Illapse, Lambent, Icebound, Tropical Rainforest), and adding several new rooms across many areas.
news post · Apr 30, 2026 source content shipped
high

Media

Details

Developer
Publisher
KoiWare, LLC
Achievements
—
Platform
Windows
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Not rated
Players
Multiplayer · Co-op · PvP

About this game

Real Community

Be a part of a vast Underlight City of dreamers. Real people, just like you, creating real characters. There are no predetermined paths for you to follow and no specified end game. You are in control of how your character interacts with the other characters creating true conflict and resolution. It's your dream to make.

Real Interaction

Enter a world of complete player driven stories and interactions. There are no bots here handing out the exact same quests. How will you get wrapped up and proceed? Will you become a Teacher and help others grow? Will you take the noble path of a Ruler or Guardian of one of the Houses? Maybe you will hone your fighting skills and become a great warrior. The choice is yours to make. Create your own compelling character backstory and flesh it out with fellow Dreamers in the dynamic dream city of Underlight. Your actions and experiences will have a direct impact on an ever evolving story line with rich and engaging characters, histories, beliefs and factions! Every other Dreamer you speak to in Underlight is played by a real human being.

Real Combat Mechanics

You won't find any auto-attack here, standing in one place trading blows with a monster, not nearly exciting enough. In our world, you swing your sword, or shoot your fireball, and move to dodge before your enemy strikes you! Take the fight to the nightmares in a live action FPS-style combat system. Or duel other players to see who is the true champion of the city!

Retro Graphics

Immerse yourself in old style retro gaming feel of the late 90s! Experience a unique dream world surrounded by gorgeous 3D sprites and pixels!

Unique Teaching System

The teaching system in Underlight is a unique feature not found in other games.
In other games, upon leveling up your Wizard will automatically learn their next fireball spell or will go to an NPC skill trainer and purchase it for a couple of gold. In Underlight all of your magical arts are learned from other player characters in the game.

The characters capable of teaching you new arts, or improving existing ones, can be spotted by the colored halos they wear upon their heads. Once your character senses they are able to learn a new art they should approach one of these teachers. These teachers, however, are not going to just give away the arts they worked hard to learn and improve. Instead they will ask you to perform some sort of small task or quest before teaching it to you. Every quest your character receives in Underlight is written by another player of the game and can be customized for your character.

Your character could be asked to come up with a way to harm one of the Darkmares, gather supplies for an experiment the teacher is planning, or infiltrate an enemy house. The possibilities of what your teacher and you come up with for your quest are limited only by imagination (and a few basic rules!).

The pace of advancement for new and lower level characters has been increased so that they can quickly jump right into the action that our dreamworld has to offer.

Player Classes

These classes are known as a characters “focus” and represent one of the very first decisions you will need to make for your character at its creation. The focus determines what your character will specialize in and controls what magical arts your character can learn and how much they can improve those arts. The choices are: Gatekeeper, Soulmaster, Fatesender, or Dreamseer.



Gatekeeper:

While every focus are able to use blades, chakrams, and their flame art, Gatekeepers hit for more damage than any other focus when using any of these weapons. Gatekeepers are known as the protectors or defenders of the city. They are able to cast protective arts on themselves or others which prevent them from being paralyzed, cursed, or scared. Reflect is their strongest protective art, but is reserved only for themselves. Their signature art is called Ward. A Gatekeeper can use their ward to lock portals of the city to defend a stronghold from attack or to set a trap.



Dreamseer:

Weapons and items in Underlight have a limited number of uses before they are destroyed. The most commonly used weapon, the chakram, has a maximum of 50 uses or charges before they are destroyed. Dreamseers are able to recharge items that have a low number of charges remaining, returning them back to their maximum. This can be a risky process and instead of charges being added the item could be entirely destroyed. Their signature art is Blast, capable of rapidly damaging any single target within their sight.



Fatesender:

Fatesenders are capable of inflicting terror upon other dreamers, sending them running uncontrollably, blinding them, or even completely paralyzing them. While there are protective arts that can prevent a Fatesender from doing these things, a clever Fatesender will catch their target off guard or work with a Soulmaster to remove these protective effects. Fatesenders are one of the strongest dreamsmiths (or crafters), capable of imbuing the weapons they create for themselves or others with any of the aforementioned effects. Their signature art is Firestorm, which inflicts large amounts of damage to everyone in the same room who are not members of the Fatesender’s party.

Soulmaster:

Soulmasters are the strongest healers in the dream but they are not relegated strictly to that role. They are able to poison their enemies, causing them to slowly lose health, or curse them, causing their target’s arts to be more difficult to cast successfully. They often viewed as the backbone of the house strongholds with the ability to gather significantly more energy from defeated Nightmares, vastly increasing the stronghold’s strength reserves. Their signature art is Abjure, which randomly dispels active effects from their target. A Soulmaster working together with a Fatesender to Abjure and Paralyze their target represent one of the most feared combinations on the battlefield.
Last evaluated Aug 26, 2026
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