Bellwright
Survival crafting, settlement management and third-person combat meet in Bellwright, a medieval open-world RPG about raising a revolt from a single hidden camp. The opening hours go to foraging and putting together crude tools. Later, the clearing you claimed in the woods fills with workshops and houses, and the people living there split their time between their jobs and defending what they have raised.
Solo play and online co-op are both supported. The game entered Steam Early Access on 23 April 2024 and continues to receive large content updates on the road to version 1.0.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Your workforce is also your army. Every recruit comes with attributes and traits that shape what they do well. An apprentice smith hired from a liberated village and a beggar taken on in the first week can end up holding spears in the same squad, and gear presets store a full kit for each role, with dedicated food and medicine slots.
- Influenced by the greatests. Speaking to PCGamesN at Gamescom 2023, the studio's creative lead pointed to three sources. Fans of any of those will recognise the parts. Here they share one persistent map, where the village you run is also the place you have to defend.
- RimWorld for the management layer and the relationships between characters
- Medieval Dynasty for construction
- Mount & Blade for combat
- Updates have reshaped the game since launch. The Maiden Voyage update of December 2025 introduced buildable walls for outposts, caravans that move goods between your outposts and trade with friendly villages, and Halmare Isles, an expedition map roughly a quarter the size of the original one. Six months later, the Summer Update reworked the opening of the main quest and brought a broad round of performance optimisation.
Story and Lore
Karvenia answers to Queen Osene, whose rule reaches the countryside through regional lords who tax and police the villages. Karvenia is also your homeland, and you lived there until the Crown convicted you of murdering the Prince and sentenced you to death. A life in hiding ends abruptly after a failed attempt on your life: the assassin's contract you recover suggests the frame-up was no accident, and the trail leads back to the land you fled.
Two threads run in parallel from that point. One is the uprising itself, fought village by village. The other is personal, as the main quest digs into who wanted you gone and what your family kept hidden.
The mainland is divided into regions of rising danger:
- Lowlands – the starting region, cut in two by the Crimson River and home to Haerndean, Padstow, Bradford, Horndean and Farnworth.
- Wingman's Pass – a tougher area around Blackridgepool, a farming village whose settlers drained the surrounding wetlands to expand their fields.
- Saltbite Coast – a high-threat stretch of shoreline centred on Crasmere, a former fishing camp that grew into a busy market.
Much of the background sits in the in-game Codex and in notices and letters found around the world. Haerndean, for example, is recorded as the oldest Lowlands village, founded by people looking for fertile land and freedom. Neighbouring Horndean took the opposite path, and its long loyalty to the monarchy and heavy iron mining eventually left its stream dry.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Surviving the first days
Wood, stone, flax and wild food carry the early game, and research unlocks new structures and workstations along the way. Metalwork begins with copper and tin smelted into bronze, while iron becomes important from the mid-game onward. Once villagers are assigned to stations, gathering and crafting continue without you, which frees you up for scouting and questing.
Trust, Renown and recruitment
Hiring people depends on two separate values:
- Trust is earned village by village through favours for its residents. Higher levels unlock better candidates in that particular village.
- Renown is what you actually spend to hire someone. It comes from quests, cleared bandit camps, defeated brigand groups, crafted animal trophies and new trust levels.
Each hire raises the price of the next. Dismissing a villager sends them home and refunds Renown, which can then go toward a stronger recruit.
Liberating villages
Occupied villages are held by brigand garrisons. With enough trust, the elder agrees to an uprising: your fighters drive out the occupiers, a Village Belltower goes up, and a reclamation party then marches from the brigands' headquarters to tear it down. Holding the tower completes the liberation; afterwards, the village's skilled residents can be recruited and its market trades with you. Smaller reclamation parties keep returning afterwards. If one topples the belltower, the village falls back under occupation until you free it again.
Combat and command
Melee is directional: where you swing and which side you guard both count, and stamina caps how long you can press an attack. Weapon options include swords, axes, heavy mauls, polearms and bows.
Beyond your own duels, soldiers are grouped into squads that accept formation orders in battle and can also be directed from the map. Since the June 2026 update, squads wait for slower members on long marches instead of arriving strung out.
Construction, co-op and what is still missing
Building plans let you lay out structures and decorations in advance and approve construction later, and travel signs can be placed where your own roads join the world's road network. In co-op, friends join the host's world and share its quests, with the save belonging to the host.
Horses and sieges have appeared on the Early Access feature list since day one. A horseback-riding trailer premiered at Gamescom 2026, but mounts have not yet reached the live game.
Characters and Factions
Your character, known in-game as the Bellwright, is the figure the rebellion gathers around. The Maiden Voyage update replaced the fixed look with a character creator offering hundreds of customisation options.
- Queen Osene – the sovereign in whose name Karvenia is taxed and garrisoned, and the ultimate target of your revolt.
- Lord Ashbourne is the Crown's controlling lord in the Lowlands. A Codex entry paints him as cruel and describes him squeezing out taxes beyond what the Queen demands to line his own pockets. One anonymous letter found in the world warns him that the Hunter's child has returned.
- Brigands – the armed force occupying villages, collecting taxes and sending reclamation parties out from their headquarters.
- Bandits operate independently from camps rated by difficulty, and they periodically raid player settlements.
Each village is led by an elder, such as Philip Mott in Horndean or Lucien Fresin in Crasmere, who acts as your main contact there. Recruits themselves can bring specialist knowledge that unlocks better arrows or more advanced buildings.
Halmare Isles adds a separate political map. Several factions there compete for the Bellwright's services, and a Loyalty and Faction system tracks where your allegiance lies, with your choices changing how each group treats you.
Editions
Bellwright is sold as a single standard edition on every platform, with no deluxe tier or paid DLC.
- PC (Steam): the base game, plus the Bellwright Soundtrack as a free separate download.
- Xbox Series X|S: listed as an Xbox Play Anywhere title, covering the console and Windows PC with one purchase.
- PlayStation 5: the standard game.
Content updates released during Early Access, Maiden Voyage among them, have been part of the base game. The developers' Steam FAQ also warns that the price may rise at major content milestones and at full release.