The highland bells are ringing and the men are ready to give em some Scottish steel. On December 17th 2025 the tartan army is coming to Holdfast. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

They'll be bringing with them new thematic maps, including one special siege scenario, uniforms, a unique musket and backpack plus a whole sleigh-full of new festive orders for the 12 days of Holdfast limited time event.

Come chat with us on Discord while we await their glorious arrival.

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles :Cute_Rat:, Ted, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

We've been working overtime polishing off the next major expansion coming to the game, Holdfast: Age of Sail. Thanks to the exceptional response to the console release what was planned to be a major update soon turned into a full expansion with new factions, maps, a new ship, gamemode, mechanics, roleplay features and much more.

The team is committed to releasing a full experience worthy of the seven seas and while we're close to finishing this kraken sized update some further refinements and appropriate testing time is required. It is with this commitment that unfortunately Holdfast: Age of Sail will now have a new scheduled release date for Q1 2026. :GalacticPirate:

This isn't a decision taken lightly but we believe it is the right one to ensure this massive expansion can realise its full potential. Dread Pirate Jean Lafitte and his crew look forward to you joining them on the seas in the new year. And remember... Always expect the unexpected.

Now it wouldn't be very festive of us to snatch away presents from under the tree, so although we won't be sailing the high seas this Christmas we have a sleighfull of new content coming in December that'll hopefully tickle your fancy.
A small team has been dedicated to creating a new event for the seasonal period. You are all dearly invited to 'A Very Scottish Christmas' a limited time seasonal event centred around those good fellows up North.

Alongside our regular festive content we'll be introducing new Scottish themed maps including one siege map 'Fort Willy', unique voice lines for all Scottish uniforms, new uniforms to unlock, weapons and the brand new 12 Days Of Holdfast event with a festive bunch of Scottish unlocks in the style of a advent calendar. Oh... and maybe a sheep or two. :awakesheep:

Get kilted up and prepare to give em steel! Defend the highlands and bring glory to Scotland. More details on this event will be released in the coming weeks.

We look forward to becoming honourable Scotsmen. Do come say hello in the official Discord its the central hub for all things Holdfast. As always, we thank you for your generous support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles :Cute_Rat:, Ted, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

That time of the year again has come around... Fred and his minions begin their invasion of the Holdfast battlefields from the 28th of October until the 9th of November. 💀

During this spooky period, players will be able to equip unique Fred cursed versions of heads found within the game. These ghoul like faces bring a fright to all that encounter them on the battlefield and feature unique voice lines and gestures.

To further celebrate Holdfast Halloween we'll be running an 1.5x increased XP event starting also from the 28th of October and finishing on the 4th of November. It's a great opportunity to hop on and gather some additional levels for your classes and soldier rank.

We've also gone ahead and pushed through a few fixes for some bugs, a full list can be found in the changelog linked at the bottom of this post.

As the end of the year draws ever near so too does the release of Holdfast's next free major expansion for the game. Holdfast: Age Of Sail will completely revolutionise 50 vs 50 player naval combat and bring fresh experiences to this much loved side of the game.

From an increase in player count to new naval engagement scenarios, gamemodes, factions, roleplay mechanics, ship boarding and so much more we've barely scratched the surface. Always expect the unexpected.

We'll be revealing more details on the update in the near future as we begin to finalise development ready for a closed BETA in the coming weeks.

We look forward to seeing more good fellows joining the great Holdfast community. Do come say hello in the official Discord its the central hub for all things Holdfast. As always, we thank you for your generous support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

Changelog - Game Version v3.1.9431.26805
● 2 features and improvements.
● 2 bug fixes.

Click here for the full change log.[wiki.holdfastgame.com]

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles :Cute_Rat:, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

Steam’s Third Person Shooter Fest is here! To celebrate Holdfast’s participation in the fest Holdfast and all its DLCs will be be available for purchase on Steam at up to 20% off until September 1st 2025. 

With the release of Holdfast onto Xbox and Playstation consoles there’s never been a better time to enlist and fight today with thousands of other players across various platforms battling it out on multiple fronts. So stop your inquisition and wait no longer, join the great Holdfast community today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/https://store.steampowered.com/app/3320400/Holdfast_Nations_At_War__Blackpowder_Firearms/

If you didn’t already see the news Holdfast’s latest free major expansion will be coming to the games Naval Warfare front before the end of 2025. Featuring the new Privateer faction centred around the infamous French Privateer Jean Lafitte.

Before taking a look at the latest sneak peak of another one of the fellows who’ll be sailing the Holdfast seas give the announcement trailer a watch to get a first glimpse of just some of what’s to come.

Of course a noble adversary or two is in order and who better than the inspirational British naval commander, renowned for his decisive victories against the French and Sp***sh fleets…. Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson.

Forming part of a cosmetic DLC 'Nelson's Own' available to compliment to the the major Age Of Sail expansion with new Captain weapon skins, multiple uniforms, a Nelson head and more. This will be a must have for all true British sailors.

We look forward to seeing more good fellows joining the great Holdfast community. Do come say hello in the official Discord its the central hub for all things Holdfast. As always, we thank you for your generous support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

- Anvil Game Studios Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, CharlesCute_Rat, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

Raise the black flag, capture and plunder ships or take a break with some ranting and roaring by singing along with the new accordion instrument in this massive expansion coming to Holdfast’s naval front. Welcome to the Age Of Sail.

Holdfast: Age Of Sail will release for free as a show of thanks for the outstanding response to the games console release. Players across all platforms will be able to crew up and set sail before the year ends. We’ll be teasing more out in the coming months so be sure to stay up to date on our socials.

Before taking a deep dive into some of what this massive expansion will offer below, have a watch of the Holdfast: Age Of Sail announcement trailer for a first glimpse of these new ‘sea dogs'.

Ahoy! Privateers are coming. Based on real sailors under the black flag the new Privateer faction makes their way to Holdfast’s Naval front. With instantly iconic uniform variety and entirely new voice lines this mixed bunch of rag tags will be a fearful sight for any distinguished British captain.

It wouldn’t be fitting to introduce Privateers without a bit of piracy now would it? The Age Of Sail expansion will enable chancing crews to board enemy ships and capture them claiming it as their own and removing the ship from the enemies spawn list and adding it to their own. 

Keeping with the theme of capturing, a new Naval Conquest gamemode will be introduced into the game and feature a whole slew of new maps specially curated for the mode. Capture and hold fortified islands and command the open seas with your firepower.

(Work in progress development build example of the conquest system)

Captains will also now be able to issue orders with well timed buffs akin to the land infantry Officer class. Simply press the ability bind and begin issuing orders to the crew. When an order is issued they’ll call out your instruction throughout the ship to ensure everyone gets the job done.

The following orders are a work in progress and might not reflect their final design on release.

• Load Ship Guns - Instructs players aboard the vessel to ready the guns.

• Fire Ship Guns - Instructs players aboard the vessel to fire the guns. This will increase damage by 1.5x if fired within 2 seconds.

• Repel Boarders - Gives all crew members a small melee resistance boost while standing on a friendly ship. Lasts for 10 seconds.

• Wet The Sails - Increases speed of the vessel temporarily.

• Hoist Flag - Hoist the enemy flag on your naval vessel becoming representative to that of the enemy faction temporarily.

• Board Enemy Vessel - Gives all crew members a small melee attack boost while standing on an enemy ship. Lasts for 10 seconds.

None of these new systems would be any good however without somewhere to make use of them, on top of reworking and in some cases entirely redesigning original naval maps, we've also gone ahead and created a multitude more of new naval battlefields, coastal siege maps and now of course unique naval conquest maps.

Here's a sneak preview of one of the new coastal siege maps and naval conquest maps that'll be releasing with the Age Of Sail expansion.

This is just a small taste of what’s to come, there’s a whole load more that’ll be introduced to both the naval and land side of the game. We’ll be announcing more maps, new mechanics and a boatload more in the coming months so be sure to join us over on the official Holdfast Discord server.

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to sailing the seas with you all and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

- Anvil Game Studios Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, CharlesCute_Rat, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

Holdfast heads to Gamescom 2025! Come join us at Gamescom in Cologne, we’ll be located at Hall 10.2, Stand D023 with plenty of fanfare and exclusive reveals, if you’re passing through be sure to drop by you can even hop on Holdfast for a few games while you’re there too..
Being able to attend events like these has always been something we’ve wanted to do for some time now, interacting in person with the community and spreading the good word of Holdfast is a pleasure for us all. 

For those attending on Thursday, August 21st you’ll also be able to join us for an exclusive first time reveal of the next major update coming to the game before the year ends. More on that further down the blog.

If you’re unable to be there fear not, we’ll be premiering the reveal on our YouTube shortly after it has been broadcast at Gamescom.

The team has been hard at work on the next major update coming to the game since the console release. As we mentioned in previous posts we’ve put on our seafaring legs for this next update as it will focus around a much beloved section of our game, naval warfare. 

Holdfast first started out as solely a naval game so finally being able to come back to this is a real full circle moment for us and one we’ve been wanting to do for some time now. Thanks to the console release reception and the continued support of the great Holdfast community we’re pleased to announce that this ‘major update’ has now become a ‘major expansion’ for the game.

A boatload of new content is just over the horizon, we’ve even gone as far as introducing an entire new faction... While you’ll have to wait until August 21st to find out more, here’s a preview of just some of what is landing ashore with this update.

WIP - Balancing Ongoing

Have an idea of what the next faction might be? Why not share it in our official Discord it's a great place to get involved with all things Holdfast, maybe you spotted a clue no one else did... As always, we thank you for your generous support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat:, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

After smashing through our concurrent player count record (previously 3,400) with a whopping 6,400+ players on launch day we then went on to set the ceiling even higher, breaking our record another 3 times and capping off the weekend with a 9,700+ concurrent player peak. We're most impressed!

Similarly, the official Holdfast Discord server has been flooded with fellows joining our great community, a massive 10,000+ new members have joined since July 9th on release day. Feel free to join us over there, there's plenty for you to get involved with or even to just post a screenshot or two, we'd love to see them.

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

Since release we've been hard at work tackling some of the issues players faced since the update. Thankfully none of these were too egregious and have now been rectified to hopefully ensure players can join in on the fun without facing trivial problems. For a full list of changes check out the changelog linked at the end of this post.

The week since launch has been relatively smooth sailing with thousands upon thousands of players all joining the battlefields of Holdfast. The servers held firm despite an outpouring of players joining the game simultaneously at a far faster rate than we had excepted. It was quite the sight to behold!

To continue the celebrations starting from Friday July 18th and running until July 21st. Holdfast enjoyers will be able to gather an increased 1.5x XP while playing on Official servers. Use this opportunity to increase your soldier rank to unlock orders with increased shilling rewards which can then be spent in the barracks to kit your classes out.

Do let us know on Discord if you face any issues folks. We’ll be sure to look into it. As always, we thank you for your generous support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

Changelog - Game Version 3.00.2

Count
● 2 features and improvements.
● 15 bug fixes.

Click here for the full change log.[wiki.holdfastgame.com]

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat:, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

Steel has been given! Holdfast has broken it's all time concurrent player count record with a whopping 6,500+ peak on launch day. The massive response to the games console release has been exceptional and a real joy to see everyone getting stuck in with some Holdfast goodness.

Yesterday will be a day to remember for a long time for all of us at Anvil Game Studios.

We were also delighted to see that Holdfast made its way onto the best sellers list for the Playstation store, an achievement we're extremely proud of. We've seen equally as impressive results on the Xbox front with absolute troves of new soldiers making their way onto the big beautiful battlefields of Holdfast.

To handle the expected even greater increase of players this weekend we'll be looking to rolling out some additional servers with some of these servers heading down under! 🇦🇺

We're bringing back our officially hosted Australian Holdfast servers ready for all oceanic Holdfast enjoyers to hop on and start giving 'em some Aussie might. We look forward to welcoming in all the good fellows to these new region servers.

To celebrate all this we'll be issuing out an increase to Shillings and XP earned through the games daily missions. For new and old players alike this is a perfect chance to get a head start towards that musket or frying pan you've always desired. 🪙

Simply hop on any official Holdfast server over the weekend of July 12th-13th to start earning these extra rewards. Be sure to join us on the official Discord server for an even deeper dive into the Holdfast community.

Once again we thank you for all your support. Here's to many more years of Holdfast and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat:, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).

The day has finally arrived! Give 'em steel lads. Holdfast is OUT NOW with full crossplay support on the Xbox Series S / X, PlayStation 5 and Steam with over 150+ players all battling it out in one big beautiful battlefield across various devices. 

Watch the official release trailer

Holdfast goes way beyond just muskets, it is a thriving community of players from all across the globe with a passion for history, gaming and above all fun. From land to sea you'll always find fellows to fight alongside. Now, with this release, players on Steam, Xbox and Playstation devices will be able to simultaneously connect to the same servers with full crossplay supported right out the box.

This all comes as a direct result of our ongoing efforts to bring the game into the new era and to an even greater audience. Now more than ever players across the globe will be able to hop on Holdfast with their preferred platform and enlist for the King’s shilling.

Out Now! Enlist today[holdfastgame.com].

Holdfast truly went above and beyond everything we expected the game could be, it could not have been done without your ongoing support through the years. We'd like to extend a special thanks to you all for making the game what it is. We're extremely proud to be bringing the game to an even larger audience.

Work on the game is still very much ongoing and we look forward to getting stuck in again with some Naval action after this massive release. Come join us on the official Discord and get involved!

As always, we thank you for your support, and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

https://discord.gg/holdfastgame

- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat:, Winston (The Cat) & Nelson (The Other Cat).