Ex Sanguis arrives in Steam Early Access on May 21 from Lightbulb Crew, the studio behind Othercide, and publisher Firesquid. The game is a turn-based tactical roguelite built around blood as both currency and philosophy, where a squad of elite warriors called Stillae fight to pull a dying world back from stagnation.
The combat operates on an XCOM-style foundation but layers in a timeline manipulation system that gives fights a distinct rhythm. Timeline Effects let you hasten, delay, or swap the turn positions of units on the battlefield, reshaping the order of engagement to create openings that wouldn't otherwise exist. The spatial side of combat carries similar weight. Knock-backs, forced facings, flanking bonuses, and damage-over-time effects all feed into a system where positioning matters as much as the abilities you bring. Environmental objects can be exploded or used to ignite enemies and block paths, meaning the battlefield itself becomes something you play with rather than just fight on. The goal across any given encounter is to chain these elements together, triggering cascading events where one action sets up the next. A vast arsenal of abilities unlocks over time, each offering synergies that push toward deep build customization for your squad.
The roguelite structure wraps around all of this through a resource called Corrupted Blood, earned by defeating enemies. You can spend it in two ways: burn it at Map Events to gain upgrades for your squad, or use it to unlock access to boss encounters earlier than the map would normally allow. That choice sits at the centre of the progression loop. The map itself scales in difficulty the further you push toward its outer rim, so there's a constant tension between gathering strength and pressing forward. You choose your own path and difficulty as you move through it, taking on high-risk missions for greater reward or slowing down to build resources. Every mission contributes to gradual progress regardless of the route you pick, and each playthrough carries forward unlocked powers from previous runs, meaning failure still feeds into growth.
The Stillae are born from the Sanguis of the Mater, bearing the last of their divinity's hope. The world they fight to save has been drained by an event called the Purge, leaving it pale and colorless, held in a state the game calls Stasis. The forces of Stasis are what you're fighting against across every encounter, and the Stillae exist as the only resistance to a world that has stopped moving.
Blood in Ex Sanguis is more than a combat resource. The game frames it as defiance. Each drop paints the world in reds and blacks, a reminder that life fights back against those who would see everything frozen. The dominant colour palette of red, white, and black reinforces this across every battle, turning the visual language into something that reads as rebellion rather than just violence. The world is drained and the act of bleeding it back to life carries a weight that sits underneath the tactical layer.
The pacing leans into the roguelite cycle where no two runs play out the same way. With each return you carve new strength from what came before, unlocking forgotten powers and pushing into harder territory where the most dangerous enemies wait. Lightbulb Crew plans for a six-month stay in Early Access, giving the game room to grow around its core systems. The studio's previous work on Othercide showed an appetite for turn-based combat with a strong aesthetic identity, and Ex Sanguis carries that same instinct forward into a structure where every squad you build and every path you choose through the map reshapes what the next fight looks like.