Store data
- Store status
- Coming soon
- Scheduled release
- 17 November 2026
- Positive reviews
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- Release date
- 17 November 2026
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In this mix of Tower Defense, RTS, and Roguelite progression, you fight for your tribe's survival. The Imperium Aeternum , a massive shadow empire, sends its legions to erase the North and silence its gods.
From the Spiridun , the divine nexus of your forefathers, command your last defense: build towers and rally warriors . Hold the line against endless waves, then strike back to reclaim your lands.
Each battle is a divine trial . As you fall and rise, ancient runestones awaken forgotten powers, reshaping your strategy with every run. Win the gods favor in the dawn of a new age: the Dawn of Defense .
Your homeland withers under the Empire’s grip. Strike back against their strongholds, reclaim lost lands, and restore your tribe’s dominion.
Battle enemies on two fronts: Defend yourself with towers and troops against enemy waves surging through the trenches, then command heroes and warriors in RTS sieges to capture new islands and enemy strongholds.
Summon your tribe's mightiest heroes to lead your forces into battle. Each hero brings unique abilities and powers, allowing you to shape the course of battle.
Every captured isle becomes a foothold for your people. Raise towers, rally warriors, claim strategy resources and build an economy to sustain your defenses against the Empire's forces.
Face Empire warlords who challenge your defenses with unique tactics. With each run, uncover their identity, learn their patterns, and adapt your strategy to claim victory.
Uncover the powers of ancient runestones and unlock upgrades for towers, warriors and economy, forging new strategies with every battle.
Each battle sharpens your tactics, unlocks new tools, and prepares you for greater challenges ahead. Rise stronger and stand ready to face the Empire’s assault.
You may have run into performance issues in our latest Demo update, and we're really sorry if that spoiled your experience!The good news: this patch should fix them and significantly improve performance.We wish you fast frames and strong defenses! 🔥⚔️0.19.4d – Patch Notes- Performance improvements- Fixed the display of bold Asian fonts- Small UI and UX improvements
Read full update on Steam ↗Next Fest is here, and we’ve come prepared with our Biggest Update yet, which we’ve been cooking up for quite a while. But that’s not all, Dawn of Defense will be launching on Steam on November 17th! Also, during Next Fest (October 19th - October 26th) you can participate in a Screenshot Competition in our discord server, where you can win a key for the full game! Here’s all you need to know about the new update: Meta-Progression After every run, you’ll earn some brand new meta-progression currency: Runes. Through the massive skilltree, you can use them to unlock ancient upgrades and menacing new towers and units to fight back against the Imperium Aeternum! Larger Map The empire has expanded! They now have 3 fortresses towering over the larger map, making for longer and more intense runs. For the demo, you only have to worry about the 1st, but in the full game you’ll be able to take a...
Read full update on Steam ↗Good news everyone!We have one of the largest and most exciting updates to date for the Steam Next Fest on October 19th, and we’re thrilled you guys can finally try it out! This is a particularly large update we’ve been working on for quite a while, so the game has changed quite a bit. If you want to test the version out before Next Fest, you can join our discord server where you’ll find all the info you need to play it: https://discord.gg/4yysrfB3xeHere’s everything that’s new:Meta-ProgressionAfter every run, you’ll earn some brand new meta-progression currency: Runes. We’ve removed some of the upgrades from the runestone pool, and these can instead be unlocked permanently through the massive skill tree at your disposal.Larger MapThe empire has expanded! They now have 3 fortresses towering over the larger map, making for longer and more intense runs. For the demo, you only have to wo...
Read full update on Steam ↗Attention Tribe-members!We have another patch ready for you which brings some handy new features, balance changes and fixes! Here’s what you can expect:AI ReworkYour opponents have a few new military strategies up their sleeve… The reinforcement system has been improved and enemies now allocate units to offense or defense more efficiently. But don’t worry, because friendly units are better too. They will no longer get aggroed towards unreachable units or stand around near a fight without giving a helping hand.Rebalanced Eyodin TowerThe gods have heard your demands! Many of you found the Eyodin to be too weak, and were confused about its use, so we’ve made some changes! The Eyodin´s mark strength has been increased and the mark charge speed has been lowered, making the Eyodin an actual viable strategy to experiment with.New MusicTurn up the volume because this update brings some amazin...
Read full update on Steam ↗Greetings! Following the release of our latest major update Harvest & Mine, we bring you a patch with some new features, balance changes and fixes!🌲 A More Balanced WorldScouring the lands for resources to no avail? We've got your back! Stone and Iron deposits are more common while Forests are now slightly less abundant, opening up additional strategic options in the early game.🏗️ Economy ImprovementsResource buildings now benefit more consistently from global production buffs. These bonuses now apply to the total production of a building, including adjacent resource spots, making economy-focused strategies more rewarding.We've also continued refining the game's overall economy to create a smoother progression from the early game into the late game.⚔️ Smarter BattlesEnemy encounters have received some major balance changes. Late-game waves have been reworked, new ones have been adde...
Read full update on Steam ↗Here is what awaits you in this Massive Update!New Resource SystemWe've completely reworked the game economy and replaced gold with 4 new resources: Wood, Food, Iron, and Stone. Find forests and ore deposits on the islands, then build Sawmills, Quarries, Mines, and Windmills to build up your economy! New Tower: EyodinAn idol to the Allfather. This new tower marks enemies with a cold stare, making them much more vulnerable to your attacks. New Damage SystemAdding more depth to the combat! Units don't just have Health anymore; they now have Armor and Ward. Counter them strategically by piercing or shredding through their defenses. The whole dev team is super excited about this update, and we hope you are too! So what are you waiting for? Go update the Dawn of Defense Demo on Steam right now and defeat the Imperium Aeternum like you never have before!
Read full update on Steam ↗Greetings to our Tribe!We know it's been a bit quiet for some time, and we apologize to everyone who was waiting for news, but we can only tell you that our team has been cooking up the upcoming and feature rich Harvest & Mine Update and we have a bunch of cool new features in the making we will share with you throughout the upcoming weeks. In the meantime we wanted to push out this balancing patch that takes care of a bunch of annoying bugs, overhauls the balancing and adds 2 new tower upgrades. If you are suffering from Dawn of Defense deprivation, you can bridge the time to the Harvest & Mine Update with this new patch. Want to know what changed?Enemy BridgesDestroying Imperial Bridges and bamboozling the Empire? No more!Charged ShotWhat if every 4th shot of your Boltskot dealt +350% Attack Damage? You should go and find out!SkullbrakkrHeight Layers are cool and all, but what if yo...
Read full update on Steam ↗Today we are announcing our first Major Demo Update: New Heights As the first of 4 planned major updates to our demo, this one introduces terrain height & island size as new strategical elements:Place your towers on elevations to buff their range and other stats.Islands have building capacities! Expand to new islands or pick the right runestones to increase the number of build plots you can fill with buildings and towers.Discover new status effects through tower upgrades, like flaming bolts that cause damage over time.Here are the highlights:Height layers: Strategic spots for your towers, potential obstacles for your economy buildings. Plan carefully to profit off of powerful buffs!New buffs & status effects: Burn & Stun enemies, and add Regeneration to your Hero & the Spiridun itself! New Runestones and Tower Upgrades: Slowly but surely replacing some of those placeholder upgrades wi...
Read full update on Steam ↗We listened to your feedback and made a speedy graphics settings update our top priority!This should hopefully save your PCs from burning up and your graphics cards from starting the jet engines. We also included hero respawn timer UI as well as new sounds for hero death and respawn to have you not miss Hogvald's revival again!Full Patch Notes Version 0.16.0New Features:Add Graphics Settings to the game:Settings for Vsync, framerate limit, full screen mode & upscalingSettings for graphics quality (like shadows, anti aliasing, ambient occlusion etc),Add a timer and sounds that indicate when your hero will respawnAdd new map seedsAdd the current map seed to the top-left corner so you can share it on your game screenshots
Read full update on Steam ↗{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45023431/387169fc93d1c3ec5c786b4076024f9573a42da3.png We’re rolling out the first update to our Dawn of Defense demo on Itch.io! This update includes improvements such as visual and sound indicators for enemy invasions, reworked enemy paths, and tooltips for various game elements. Check it out: Dawn of Defense Demo We've also revamped the start screen tutorial and made adjustments to the main menu and game visuals. Check the detailed changelog below for all the changes! Changelog: Add visual and sound indicators for enemy invasions Rework enemy paths visualisation, add moving highlights, fix paths breaking up and not connecting to the player base Add tooltips for the top menu bar, units, tavern and towers stats, demolish button Rework and add videos to the start screen tutorial Added visual feedback for whenever a player base is getting hit or when it gets destroyed...
Read full update on Steam ↗Steam currently lists 17 Nov 2026 as the release date.
You may have run into performance issues in our latest Demo update, and we're really sorry if that spoiled your experience!The good news: this patch should fix them and significantly improve performance.We wish you fa…
Next Fest is here, and we’ve come prepared with our Biggest Update yet, which we’ve been cooking up for quite a while. But that’s not all, Dawn of Defense will be launching on Steam on November 17th! Also, during Next…
Good news everyone!We have one of the largest and most exciting updates to date for the Steam Next Fest on October 19th, and we’re thrilled you guys can finally try it out! This is a particularly large update we’ve be…
Attention Tribe-members!We have another patch ready for you which brings some handy new features, balance changes and fixes! Here’s what you can expect:AI ReworkYour opponents have a few new military strategies up the…
Greetings! Following the release of our latest major update Harvest & Mine, we bring you a patch with some new features, balance changes and fixes!🌲 A More Balanced WorldScouring the lands for resources to no avail?…