Soulframe drops its invitation requirement on Friday, November 6. From that day anyone with a Windows PC can make an account at soulframe.com, download the launcher and play Digital Extremes’ free fantasy RPG for the first time without hunting for a key. And the first update after the doors open, Preludes 17: Verse of the Veilands, lets you raise a wolf pup until it is big enough to ride.
Digital Extremes laid out both on Soulframe Devstream 18 this afternoon, which followed straight on from Warframe’s Devstream 198, and in a press release issued alongside it. The date itself was first announced on October 15, when the studio said Open Preludes would follow its sixteenth Preludes update, “Of Hook & Hound.” Today’s stream filled in what comes with it.
Open Preludes is free on PC through Soulframe’s own launcher, not Steam
Open Preludes is still the early playtest, now without the gate. It runs on Windows PC only, through the launcher on the official site, and it is free, with new features added at no cost. Soulframe has a Steam page, but the studio says that is for wishlisting and development updates ahead of a wider PC launch, not for this phase. There is no console version and no date for a full release.
The Founders packs that have doubled as paid early access stay on sale, but buying one is no longer the way in. Founders still get the exclusive Pacts, weapons and armour that came with their bundles.
Players who do sign up get the current build: open-world exploration across the overworld of Alca, Fables (Soulframe’s story quests), World Trees, captive animals to free, crafting, customisation, weapon progression and co-op. Creative director Geoff Crookes called the moment “a little scary to finally open the gates like this,” and said the point is to grow the community and gather feedback on the new mounts and world progression systems before they go further.
Preludes 17 turns a wolf pup into an Omen Wolf mount with a Bairnday Biscuit
Preludes 17: Verse of the Veilands arrives in November, after Open Preludes, with no exact day yet. Its headline feature is the one players have asked for since Soulframe was first shown: mounts, in the form of rideable Omen Wolves.
They are not simply bought. According to Digital Extremes, you take on a wolf pup, complete its training, purify two Veilands regions, then brew a Bairnday Biscuit and feed it to the pup so it grows into an Omen Wolf you can ride. The studio says the wolf will keep developing in future updates.
Veilands reworks progression around cleansing Ode’s corruption, region by region
Veilands is a new environmental world-progression system that unlocks after you finish the Fable “The Tormented Stag.” The overworld shows the latest spread of Ode corruption, and reclaiming a region means working with its enclave representative, completing Votives, building energy, learning the region’s sacred song and cleansing its siphon. Votives can be accepted straight from the world map once you have met the representative, and the representatives themselves are getting more writing and voice acting.
A restored region brings back its wildlife, its fishing and its seasonal events, and offers different loot and resources from a corrupted one. The update adds fresh fishing features to go with it, including a special catch, the Sunken Terror, during the Bita’s Eve event.
Ode Shrike pact, Bita’s Eve and a headless mini-boss named Veltruska
The rest of Preludes 17, per the press release:
- Ode Shrike pact: a new character Pact built on traps and deception, with spike traps, balloon darts that lift enemies into the air, bola chains that link damage between targets, and an evasive throwing bomb.
- Bita’s Eve returns: the seasonal event comes back with Wintersquash patches, a new headless horseback mini-boss called Veltruska, and limited-time rewards.
- New weapons, armour and enemy variants, plus updates to cave generation.
Matchmaking is the open question. Crookes and senior designer Scott McGregor said matchmaking for dungeons and Votives is a focus for this update or the ones after it, with Crookes putting it plainly: “It is a co-op game. It’s designed to be that way.” Digital Extremes did not commit to it landing in Preludes 17.
Soulframe has been playable by invitation since the first Preludes build in late 2024, with keys handed out in waves and traded around in the community ever since. For a studio that spent Warframe’s Devstream today asking players to be kinder, opening a second game to everyone a week later is a confident move. Sign-ups are open now, and the gate comes down on November 6.
