Highguard is out now following its high-profile displaying finally month’s The Game Awards — and its builders have stated a full 12 months of post-launch content material is already “deep in growth.”
The free-to-play PvP raid shooter is reside on PC, Xbox Collection X and S, and PlayStation 5, with full crossplay. Growth studio Wildlight is made up of former Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Name of Obligation: Fashionable Warfare employees, and guarantees “a new aggressive construction that blends siege warfare and territory management in an evolving match the place energy ranges escalate till just one base is left standing.”
Right here’s how Highguard works, in keeping with Wildlight:
Gamers step into the boots of Wardens, arcane gunslingers despatched to combat for management of a legendary continent the place magic, gunfire, and siege warfare collide:
- Groups of three choose a distinctive base and fortify their defenses, then journey out throughout huge, uncharted lands to loot, harvest sources, and improve their gear whereas clashing with a rival Warden crew.
- As magical storms roll in, groups battle over the Shieldbreaker, a highly effective sword required to breach enemy defenses. Carrying the Shieldbreaker to the opposing base triggers a full raid — forcing groups to assault, defend, adapt, and escalate in energy as the match continues.
- Most of the time, victory doesn’t include a single raid. When that occurs, the enemy base shields restore, the siege tower dissipates, and the combat escalates as loot, gear, and weapons all improve in the subject, and a new Shieldbreaker varieties in a totally different location in the world. From there, the combat for management continues — till just one base is left standing.
Every Warden is constructed particularly for Highguard’s PvP Raid Mode. Wardens mix weapons, raid instruments, and arcane skills, every designed to assist raiding, destruction, protection, infiltration, useful resource acquisition, and open-world fight.
Mounts permit groups to maneuver rapidly throughout large maps, combat on the transfer, and transport the Shieldbreaker. Magical skills complement fight, however Highguard continues to be a gun recreation at its core. Gunplay stays central, with skills and instruments including tactical depth.
At launch, the recreation options a big range of content material: 5 large-scale maps, six distinct bases, eight Wardens, three mount sorts, ten weapons, three raid instruments, eleven weapon and raid-tool mods, and a big selection of lootable gadgets. Extra content material might be added by way of seasonal updates.
Wildlight hadn’t stated a phrase about Highguard since its announcement at The Game Awards, opting to launch it chilly. At present, now the recreation is out in the wild, wildlight stated it was constructed “with long-term play in thoughts.”
“Wildlight brings many years of expertise working live-service shooters at scale, making use of these classes to Highguard’s launch and past, with a full 12 months of post-launch content material already deep in growth,” the developer stated. “Highguard’s reside service is constructed round Episodes — every lasting roughly two months and cut up into two elements — with new core content material arriving every month all through 2026, together with content material such as maps, bases, modes, Wardens, weapons, mounts, raid instruments, and extra loot gadgets.”
Core gameplay content material — together with new maps, bases, Wardens, and modes — will at all times be free, delivered via common updates, with the first wave arriving in two weeks following launch, Wildlight insisted. The studio added that each one in-game purchases are beauty solely, direct buy solely, with no impact on gameplay and no loot packing containers or RNG.
“Launch is a enormous second. However our crew builds franchises that stand the check of time, and we’re in this for the lengthy haul,” stated Dusty Welch, co-founder and CEO of Wildlight. “Success for us is a wholesome, rising international neighborhood that’s having fun with the recreation — and a crew that’s energized by partaking with gamers and shocking them with new experiences over time.”
All gamers obtain the Episode One Warfare Chest free ceaselessly, that includes 44 gadgets, together with 11 legendary skins and emotes for Wardens, weapons, and mounts.
“We all know there’s a lot of eyes on us after our Game Awards trailer debut, and at the moment is lastly the time to indicate the world what we imply by a PvP Raid Shooter. We constructed Highguard round a loop that doesn’t actually exist anyplace else,” commented Chad Grenier, co-founder and recreation director at Wildlight. “Each match is about escalation: fortifying, venturing out, clashing, then mounting coordinated raids and defenses till just one base is left standing.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.