Enshrouded left Early Access on October 15, 2026, a little under two years and nine months after Keen Games first let players into Embervale. Version 1.0 opens the whole map, ends the main story, adds a northern biome called Cinder’s Cradle, and brings the game to PlayStation 5 for the first time.
Two hotfixes landed within 48 hours, a few real problems showed up, and the price is now $39.99. Here’s what shipped, what broke, and what to do before you load an old save.
From Next Fest demo to a real ending
Enshrouded reached Steam Early Access on January 24, 2024. Three months earlier, its eight-hour demo at the October 2023 Steam Next Fest had become the most-played demo of the event. The game passed one million players in four days and peaked at over 160,000 concurrent players on Steam that first weekend. By January 2026, Keen said more than five million people had played.
Keen is a German studio, and before this it was best known for Portal Knights. Early Access was a steady run of big content updates. Wake of the Water arrived in November 2025 and was the most ambitious one up to that point. Forging the Path followed on April 21, 2026 as the eighth and final major Early Access update, with Adventure Sharing, reworked combat, a new skill tree and expanded gear upgrades.
A January 2026 roadmap promised a fall 1.0 and a console release. Keen confirmed October 15 in June, and PC and PS5 both got the update on the same day.
What shipped
In short: the full map, a new biome, an ending, a higher level cap, nine new spells, a new enemy faction, a logic system for builders, and a skill tree reset that will cost everyone ten minutes of re-clicking. Here it is by system.
Cinder’s Cradle and the rest of Embervale. The last locked parts of the map are open. Cinder’s Cradle is the new endgame region in the north, past Veilwater Basin, with lava-covered ruins below and floating islands above. It brings 12 new Shroud Roots, and the edges of the older biomes get 6 more. Two new Hollow Halls opened too, one in the Albaneve Summits and one in Veilwater Basin.
The ending. The main storyline now reaches its conclusion, though Keen says it’s concluded “for now” and the Shroud still lingers. Lore notes, and major NPCs are voiced in English, German, and Mandarin Chinese, and the early game got another pass on pacing, enemy camps, and crafting recipes.
Progression. The player level cap goes from 45 to 50, and fully upgraded gear tops out at level 55. Unlocking Flame Level 11 raises the Flame Altar limit to 16, and at that level Flame Altars can also push the Shroud back. A new survivor who specializes in Ancient recipes joins your base.
Magic. Nine new spells arrive: Mana Drain, Entangle, Pillar of Flames, Blizzard, Ball Lightning, three elemental totems (fire, ice, and shock), and Summon Hollow Skeleton. Existing spells gain extra tiers, and every spell now has an Eternal version, so you stop running out of charges. Eternal spells and arrows can be upgraded like other gear. Wands get a heavy attack from the start, plus unlockable evasive and aerial attacks and a free aim mode. Archers get adjustable aim assist and targeting settings.
Enemies and combat. The new Cinder’s Cradle faction has 14 enemy types, and with variants added to the older factions, the total is 37 new enemy types and variants. Enemies are smarter, too. They search for you after hearing a noise instead of knowing where you are, and they recover health slowly when you leave a fight, which matters most for boss retries. The Albaneve Summits boss got a big rework with less health and a safer arena.
Building and quality of life. Sparkworks is a full logic system, so a base can run on wired-up switches, traps, and puzzles. Airborne Architect lets you build in free flight. Chests can be upgraded without emptying them first, loose loot gets picked up in a larger radius, and the Barber can switch your character to a new, more realistic body shape.
Performance and visuals. A new brick renderer keeps big builds detailed at a distance. HDR is supported, shader compilation takes far less time, and memory use is down.
Platforms, price and your old save
Enshrouded 1.0 costs $39.99 on Steam, with a 10% discount showing on the store page at the time of writing. That’s about $10 more than before September 8, a rise Keen says it always planned for the end of Early Access. Everyone who already owns the PC version gets the update for free. Early Access buyers also get three decorative items through Redeem Add-Ons in the Escape Menu.
PS5 launched the same day with PS5 Pro support. Xbox Series X|S is planned for spring 2027.
Old saves carry over. Keen backs them up and converts them to a new format the first time you load them, and the character and world menus now have separate tabs for local and Steam Cloud saves. Keen still recommends starting a fresh character if you want to see the reworked early game properly.
Two things can bite you. Existing characters get their skill points reset on first load, so you’ll be re-spending them. And since hotfix 1.0.0.2, corrupted character saves are skipped during migration instead of crashing the game, which means a damaged character can go missing from your list until Keen ships a fix. Back up your save folder before you update.
The numbers
More than 64,000 players were on Steam at once on launch day, and that’s before counting PS5. Mein-MMO’s live ticker had the count at about 43,000 and called it the highest in eleven months, with only the November 2025 update (50,460) ahead of it. The count later passed 55,000. A snapshot a few days before launch showed about 4,700 players, though that may have been an off-peak hour. The Early Access launch peak of roughly 160,000 is still the record.
Reviews held steady. Steam shows Very Positive, with about 86% of more than 107,000 reviews. Of the 100 most helpful reviews posted on launch day, 96 recommend the game. More than 30,000 people were watching Enshrouded on Twitch at one point. Keen has been asking players to leave Steam reviews now that 1.0 is out, so that count will keep climbing.
One caution on press scores. The IGN and RPG Site 8/10 scores quoted on the Steam page appear to date from Early Access, so they tell you what critics thought in 2024, not what they think of 1.0. Full 1.0 reviews were still thin when I wrote this.
Not everything is smooth
Mein-MMO’s launch-day ticker found no major problems, but two hotfixes in two days show where the rough edges were.
Hotfix 1.0.0.1 shipped on October 15. It fixed random crashes, an indoor lighting bug, and crashes caused by certain PC peripherals. It also locked the Fire Wisp scroll at level 27, because its damage had been scaling with player level and had become absurd in the endgame. The hotfix itself broke the world edit button. Keen’s temporary workaround was to subscribe to anything in Adventure Sharing and try again.
Hotfix 1.0.0.2 followed on October 16. It fixed the world settings problem, a dense grey fog that hit Nvidia cards (especially in the Hollow Halls), crashes involving factories, water simulation, gliders and exiting the game, and a handful of rarer crashes.
One issue is still open. If your master volume slider is below 100%, reverb in large halls and the volume ducking during lore voice-over can sound wrong. Keen noted this in the 1.0.0.1 changelog, and the second hotfix doesn’t list a fix. Their advice is to leave the in-game slider at 100% and use your Windows volume instead.
Co-op and crossplay
There’s no crossplay at launch. Keen says it’s working on it and hasn’t given a date. PC and PS5 players can’t join each other, and party sizes differ: PC supports up to 16 players, while the PS5 listing says up to 8, and online co-op on PS5 needs PlayStation Plus. The one link between the platforms at launch is Adventure Sharing, which lets players on either one visit uploaded worlds.
Dedicated servers are a PC feature, and Keen hasn’t announced a way for PS5 players to join them. On the server side, 1.0 keeps the 16-player limit, and user groups with passwords work as before. Keen also cut the memory needed for server and client communication.
If you run a dedicated server for your group, check Cybrancee’s Enshrouded hosting plans before you move your world over. Servers are set up instantly, run on Ryzen CPUs clocked above 4GHz with NVMe storage, unlimited slots, and handle mods. Back up your world first, then update.
What comes next
What’s confirmed is smaller: Xbox Series X|S in spring 2027, and crossplay as something Keen is working on without a date. The studio does say it plans to support the game for years, but if you’re deciding whether to buy now, treat 1.0 as the complete game and anything later as a bonus.
Which player are you?
You played in Early Access. Your save works and the update is free. Back up your saves, then set aside a few minutes to re-spend your skill points. A fresh character is still worth trying for the reworked early game.
You’re new to Enshrouded. This is a good time to buy. You get the whole map, the ending, the new spells, and Sparkworks without waiting on anything.
You’re on PS5. You get the full 1.0 content and PS5 Pro support. Co-op is capped at 8 players, needs PlayStation Plus, and can’t connect to PC players yet.
You’re waiting for Xbox. Keen’s plan is spring 2027, and nothing about crossplay or dedicated servers has been announced for it.
You run or want a dedicated server. Servers stay PC only, with 16 players and the same groups and passwords as before. Pick a host that updates quickly, since a server and client on different versions won’t connect.
Summary
Enshrouded 1.0 launched on October 15, 2026 on PC and PS5, with Xbox Series X|S planned for spring 2027. It costs $39.99 on Steam, and it’s free for existing PC owners, who also get three decorative items.
The update opens the full map and adds Cinder’s Cradle, two Hollow Halls and a new enemy faction, bringing 37 new enemy types and variants in total. The story concludes, the level cap rises from 45 to 50 and gear to 55, and nine new spells arrive alongside Sparkworks, free-flight building, upgradable chests, HDR and performance work.
More than 64,000 players were on Steam at once on launch day. Reviews sit at about 86% positive across 107,000+, and 96 of the 100 most helpful launch-day reviews recommend the game.
Launch problems included a world edit bug, crashes, grey fog on Nvidia cards, and an audio issue below 100% master volume. The two hotfixes fixed most of it. Existing characters have their skill points reset, corrupted character saves aren’t migrated for now, there’s no crossplay, PS5 co-op is capped at 8, and dedicated servers are PC only.
If you want to start playing Enshrouded 1.0 with your friends today, try Cybrancee’s Enshrouded server hosting. It comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee, so you can test it with real players before committing.
Happy surviving!
