Warhammer Survivors Beginner Guide: Launch, Price and Game Pass

Platforms, price and the Game Pass tier warning

Warhammer Survivors launches on almost everything at once. Auroch Digital developed and published the game in partnership with poncle and Warhammer, and the roster pulls champions from both the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings. The price is the same low price on every platform, and a 10% launch and pre-order discount runs on select platforms, so check your store before you pay full price.

The Game Pass point is the one that will catch people out. Xbox Wire lists Warhammer Survivors as a day one release for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass only. If you pay for Game Pass Premium, the game is not included at launch, even though it is a day one Game Pass game. Premium members who want it on November 10 have to buy it, at $7.99 before any launch discount. One small honesty note on dates: every platform above points to November 10, but the US App Store listing says expected November 11, so iPhone players in the US may see it a day later than everyone else.

Try the free demo first, but know its one big catch

A free demo is live now on Steam and on Xbox on PC. It gives you two playable champions, so you can learn the movement, the swarm pressure and the level-up flow before you spend anything. If you have never played a survivors game, the demo is the best teacher there is, and it costs nothing.

The catch is simple and important: demo progress does not transfer to the full game. Anything you unlock or earn in the demo stays in the demo. When the full game unlocks on November 10, everyone starts fresh. So treat the demo as practice, not as a head start. Learn in it, experiment in it, and do not grind it for hours expecting the progress to carry over.

How a run works: champions, swarms and bosses

Every run starts with one champion. There are more than 40 to unlock across the two Warhammer settings, and each one changes how a run feels, because your champion is the base that every weapon and passive builds on. You do not aim or fire by hand. In a bullet heaven game your weapons fire on their own, and your real job is movement: steering through gaps, circling the swarm, and staying alive while the screen fills up.

Enemies arrive in endless swarms, and the pressure only grows the longer you last. Auroch promises multiple modes and stages drawn from both settings, plus the biggest monsters those universes offer as bosses. The toughest of them, called Extremis Bosses, are aimed at experienced survivors players, so do not expect to beat one on your first run. Dying is part of the loop. Each run teaches you the stage, earns unlocks, and makes the next run stronger.

How weapon evolutions work

Your power comes from what you collect during a run. There are more than 75 weapons in the game, and as you defeat enemies and level up, you add weapons and stack passives and power-ups on top of them. Auroch describes the core of the game as collecting and evolving these weapons: a weapon you have grown through a run can evolve into a far stronger form, and those evolved weapons are what let you stand up to the late-run swarms and the bosses.

The beginner lesson is focus. A run where you grow a small set of weapons toward their evolutions will beat a run where you grab a little of everything and evolve nothing. When the game offers you a choice on level-up, prefer the weapon or passive that pushes your current build forward. A cache of rule-bending unlockable options sits behind all of this too, so runs also feed your long-term unlocks, not just the next ten minutes.

Followers are helpers, not co-op

One thing to set straight before launch day: Warhammer Survivors is single-player at launch. The game has a followers system, and the name makes it sound like friends can drop in. They cannot. Followers are companions the game gives you inside a run. They fight alongside your champion and add firepower, but a second human player cannot control them. If you were hoping to play this one with a friend on the couch or online, that mode is not part of the launch game.

Your first runs: six tips that hold up

1. Play the demo first. Two champions are enough to learn the movement and the level-up flow, and it costs nothing. Just remember that demo progress does not carry over.
2. Keep moving, always. Standing still is how swarms close the circle. Walk in wide loops, cut through gaps, and never let yourself get pushed into a corner.
3. Chase the drops. Defeated enemies feed your level-ups, and level-ups are where new weapons and passives come from. A safe run that never levels up is a slow loss.
4. Build toward one or two evolutions. Grow a small set of weapons and the passives that support them instead of spreading choices across everything on offer.
5. Do not judge a champion by one run. Early runs end fast for everyone, because your unlocks are still thin. A champion that felt weak in run one can feel very different five runs later.
6. Leave the Extremis Bosses for later. They are built for veterans. Learn a stage, grow your unlocks, and come back when your evolutions are online.

Which champion should you pick first?

Honest answer: nobody can rank the best characters yet, and any site that publishes a tier list before launch is guessing. The full game is not out, the full roster of more than 40 champions has not been played in public, and pre-launch claims rest on trailers and demo fragments. What you can do is start with the two champions in the free demo. Play both, and notice which style keeps you alive longer: the one you survive with is the right first pick for you, whatever any list says.

When the full game unlocks, the same rule scales up. Try new champions as you unlock them, judge each one over a few runs rather than one, and let your own survival time be the score. We will update this guide on November 11 and 12 with first-pick advice based on real time with the full roster, and we will only name names we have actually played.

Warhammer Survivors questions

Is Warhammer Survivors on Game Pass Premium?

No. Xbox Wire lists the game as a day one release for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass only. Game Pass Premium does not include it at launch, so Premium members need to buy it, at $7.99 before any launch discount.

Does demo progress carry over to the full game?

No. The free demo on Steam and Xbox on PC gives you two champions to learn the game with, but progress, unlocks and earnings from the demo do not transfer. Everyone starts fresh when the full game launches on November 10, 2026.

Is Warhammer Survivors co-op?

No. The game is single-player at launch. Its followers are in-game companions that fight beside your champion; a second player cannot control them, and there is no couch or online co-op mode in the launch version.