I think I fell in love at first sight with the project I’m showing you today. It’s the sequel to one of the most interesting indie tactical RPGs of recent years.
I’m talking about Shardpunk and the newly announced chapter from developer Clockwork Pile. Same setting, but with a revamped visual style that, honestly, I’m really into, and beyond the graphics, this second installment expands with a strategy layer that leans heavily toward XCOM-style structure.
Shardpunk 2 picks up where Shardpunk: Verminfall left off, but shifts the focus from desperate retreat to a grinding, organized push back into the ruins of the Capitol. Let’s see some details.
From Fleeing The Capitol To Digging In
In the first Shardpunk, the war was already lost. The Capitol had fallen under an endless rat swarm, and the campaign was about running across three districts, scavenging what you could, and fighting just enough to keep the horde from catching up. Every move was framed as “seek shelter, survive one more night”, with fusion-core bunkers as the only real safety.
Shardpunk 2 moves the timeline forward. Humanity has sacrificed its greatest metropolis to slow the swarm, turning the Capitol into a sealed, irradiated graveyard full of ruins, secrets, and valuable technology.
Now the Motherland, a rising state formed from the remnants of the old Empire, sends expeditions back into the city from a forward outpost, looking for fusion cores, rare crystals, and amber, a resin whose strange properties could reshape what’s left of civilization.
Where Verminfall framed you as fugitives on the run, Shardpunk 2 casts you as the commander of that outpost. Humanity is no longer just fleeing; it is trying to reclaim and repurpose the Capitol, even if the cost in lives stays high.
XCOM-Style Combat With Darkest Dungeon Pressure
Both games stand on the same tactical foundation: turn-based, grid-based battles with small squads, strong positioning, and strict resource limits that punish sloppy play.
Shardpunk: Verminfall already leaned into an “XCOM meets Darkest Dungeon” identity, combining careful overwatch and line-of-sight play with attrition, stress, and hard survival choices between missions.
Shardpunk 2 keeps that blend and explicitly sells itself as XCOM-style tactical combat under Darkest Dungeon-style pressure.
You deploy hardened veterans with specific classes, proficiencies, and traits, then use their skills and weapon loadouts to control choke points, work around limited ammunition, and manage line-of-fire in tight urban ruins.
The rat horde is still out there, but the survivors are now described as “smarter and deadlier,” and patrols report new, unknown lifeforms emerging in the rubble.
Compared to the first game’s focus on running from an overwhelming tide, the sequel sounds more like a series of contested pushes and holds. You’re still short on supplies and still dealing with escalating threats, but this time the fights happen in the context of a long campaign where your outpost and roster carry forward.
Outpost Management, Motherland Directives, and Amber Tech
The biggest shift from Verminfall is on the strategic layer. In the original, you managed a mobile group of survivors and made tough calls at temporary bunkers: who gets the last medpack, which weapons to repair or cool down, what to craft from limited scrap. It was survival management in the margins between missions.
Shardpunk 2 expands that into full outpost management. You control a fixed human base operating on the edge of the Capitol. From there, you:
- Dispatch squads into the ruins to gather resources and complete objectives
- Fulfill Motherland directives, which likely tie your mission choices to political or strategic goals
- Barter for assets and invest those gains into expanded infrastructure, new facilities, and better support for the troops
The loop is less about sprinting for the next safe bunker and more about building a forward operating hub that can survive a long war.
The game highlights a deep roster of soldiers with multiple classes, hundreds of skills, a wide equipment variety, and evolving squad relationships that affect their performance both in combat and back at the outpost.
That relationship angle was present in the first game as perks and shortcomings that influenced squad dynamics, but it now sounds more central to the design.
A second big change is technology. Shardpunk already leaned into shard-powered steampunk gear that needed constant maintenance and cooling. Shardpunk 2 adds amber-based tech on top of that, with the Steam page calling out new abilities and tactical options unlocked through amber’s properties.
Combined with returning shard-powered weapons and bots, the sequel is clearly pushing harder on build variety and long-term upgrade paths.
How It Builds On Shardpunk: Verminfall
Shardpunk 2 reads more like a campaign-scale version of the same core ideas. The key continuities are clear:
- Same steampunk, post-apocalyptic world, now seen after the Capitol’s sacrifice rather than during its fall.
- Same pixel-art style, but more chunky, focused on grim cityscapes, rat swarms, and explosive fusion-core tech.
- Same blend of tactical RPG, survival, and resource management, where ammo, medpacks, and time are always scarce.
Shardpunk 2 ties your actions to a single outpost and the broader plans of the Motherland, with the Capitol acting as a huge, dangerous resource field rather than a corridor you are trying to leave.
The sequel also has the advantage of building on a well-received base. Shardpunk currently sits on a Very Positive rating on Steam, with 94% positive reviews from hundreds of players, and has already received a digital compendium, soundtrack, and extra cosmetic packs. That feedback loop is one of the reasons the sequel exists at all, according to the announcement coverage.
Platforms, Release Window, and What’s Next
Shardpunk 2 is currently announced for PC on Steam, with a planned release window of 2026.
Clockwork Pile has stated through external coverage that the game is in deep development and that an alpha demo is planned, with the team intending to share progress through regular dev logs.
That fits the pattern they followed with Verminfall, which had a playable tech demo and a steady drip of communication during development.
Right now, Shardpunk 2 looks like a logical evolution of what worked in the first game: XCOM-style tactical missions, Darkest Dungeon-like pressure, and steampunk survival choices, now framed around a persistent outpost and a long-term effort to reclaim the Capitol rather than just outrun it. Below is the announcement trailer.
