The Lantern of the Laughless Saint Release Date
The Lantern of the Laughless Saint launched into Steam Early Access on 17 August 2026. It is available on Windows PC via Steam only — there is no console, Mac, Linux or GOG version, and none has been announced. See platforms.
| Release date | 17 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Stage | Steam Early Access |
| 1.0 date | Not announced |
| Price | $19.99 USD (launch discount details) |
| Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Developer & publisher | NerveLabs |
| Steam reviews | Very Positive |
There is no announced 1.0 date
Worth being direct about this, because several pages about this game quote one. Across nine official announcements between the 17 August release and Update 7 on 21 August, NerveLabs has not stated how long early access will last or when 1.0 will arrive. We will put a date here when they publish one.
Update history since launch
The more useful timeline is what has actually shipped. Seven builds arrived in the first five days, which is an unusual pace for a very small team:
- 21 Aug 2026 — Update 7 "Bearmen (Uruhan)"
- New playable race: the northern bearmen, Uruhan
- Race-change mirror added on the southern shore, plus a changeappearance command
- Spellcrafting refined and rebalanced; alchemy effects now show in the UI when discovered
- Quests mark map areas in a TES3-style way; many new points of interest
- Shadows can be turned off for significantly improved performance; Skip intro setting added
- 20 Aug 2026 — Update 6
- Jump spell added; identical spells no longer stack effects
- Companions shown on the map with auto-teleport if they stray too far
- Fixed multiplayer clients not loading inventory or restoring quest state
- Fixed cases where multiplayer progress was being wiped
- resetcamera console command; increased alchemy XP
- 19 Aug 2026 — Hotfix 5
- Hit markers, including a separate beta version for split screen
- Teleport to teammates by clicking their map marker
- Unlock spell became craftable; enemy HP and one-handed weapons rebalanced
- VRAM leak causing degraded textures fixed
- 17–18 Aug 2026 — Launch and Hotfixes 1–4
- Early access release on 17 August 2026
- Hotfix 3 shipped over 40 bug fixes
- Multiplayer stability, texture and GPU-selection fixes
- Spongestone was missing from the world and was placed
Before release
The announcement trailer went up around six months ahead of launch, and a playtest ran in the months before release — promoted in Elder Scrolls community spaces, which is a fair signal of who the game was built for. See games like this one for why that audience overlap makes sense.
FAQ
When did The Lantern of the Laughless Saint come out?
It entered Steam Early Access on 17 August 2026, developed and published by NerveLabs.
When is the 1.0 full release?
NerveLabs has not announced a 1.0 date or an early access duration. Nothing in their announcements from launch through Update 7 gives a target, so any date you see quoted elsewhere is speculation.
Was there a playtest before release?
Yes. A playtest ran before launch and was promoted in Elder Scrolls community spaces, including a "last call for playtesting" post in March 2026. The announcement trailer went up roughly six months before release.