The Guildrun demo: what it includes, system requirements, languages, saves and leaderboards

The Guildrun Demo is the free demo of Guildrun, released on Steam on 16 July 2026 by Leyline. Three months later it is still the only way to play the game: the full version is planned for the first half of 2027, and the closed beta announced on 20 October has no date yet. This guide collects what Leyline has published about the demo: the Steam page, the official FAQ of 12 August and the weekly patch notes, from 0.5.1.718 (23 July) to 0.5.14 (20 October). What we could not find in official texts is marked "to verify in the game".

What the demo is

A free, single-player demo for Windows and macOS, listed on Steam as "Game demo" with Steam Cloud. Leyline calls it a demo, not an Early Access: the FAQ says there will be no Early Access release. The demo was updated every week for fourteen weeks; patch 0.5.14 of 20 October 2026 is the last regular one, and the demo stays available (see our article on patch 0.5.14). On 23 October 2026 the Steam page shows 90% positive out of 1,531 reviews in English, "Very Positive".

What it includes

From the Steam page: 25 heroes, 180 specializations, more than 300 relics and 100 items, "in the demo alone"; 8 difficulties, each unlocked by beating the previous one; Endless mode with global leaderboards. From the notes: two acts with their bosses, the Red Rift difficulty with its own leaderboard, events, Challenge Fights and Trials, the Auction House and the Compendium. How a run works is in our guide to Guildrun.

Leyline's own numbers on the demo's audience, with their dates: more than 200,000 players in the first week (23 July), more than 275,000 by 27 July with a median playtime of 3 hours 55 minutes (reported by GameDiscoverCo on 28 July), more than 17,000 players a day on 13 October.

System requirements

From the Steam page (the demo and the full game list the same):

The minimum is given for the Low quality preset at Full HD; an HDD is fine, says the page.

Languages

Seven languages, from the Steam page: English (interface and full audio), German, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Spanish - Spain (interface only). No Italian. For the full game the FAQ says more languages are targeted, with Japanese and French confirmed.

Saves and progress

• You can save mid-run and come back later (Steam page); the press release says runs can be opened, saved and closed at any time. Patch 0.5.7 notes that the game is also saved during the initial hero selection, so leaving at that point no longer costs a Boss Token.
• The demo has Steam Cloud, listed among its features on the Steam page. Where the save files live on disk is to verify in the game.
• Progress carries over: the FAQ says every Steam account should keep in the full game what it earned in the demo: metaprogression, difficulty unlocks and hero mastery stars.
• Patch 0.5.1.718 closed an exploit that allowed quitting without saving during the shop.

Leaderboards and the Tuesday reset

Three leaderboards, per patch 0.5.1.718: Merged, SSS and Red Rift. Until October, Merged and SSS reset with every weekly update, to give everyone a level playing field, while Red Rift was more of a seasonal board and then also weekly from patch 0.5.4 (11 August); a reset timer in the leaderboard panels shows when the next reset comes. Since patch 0.5.14 (20 October 2026) the leaderboards reset automatically every Tuesday at 7pm CEST. Leyline keeps a Hall of Fame of past leaderboards on its Discord. The Red Rift screen also shows your highest win streak and total wins (patch 0.5.7).

Steam Deck, controller, bugs

From the FAQ: no controller support yet, but the demo is playable on Steam Deck with the trackpad; binding Shift to a button helps reach all tooltips. Controller support and official Steam Deck support are planned for the full release. Bugs can be reported in the game by pressing Enter (the preferred way), on the Steam forum or in the #bugs-and-feedback forum on Discord.

After the last patch

Patch 0.5.14 is the last regular patch of the demo. Leyline now works only on the full game; a closed beta is coming soon, and the demo stays online with its leaderboards. The FAQ had said the demo would stay online for a while before development moved to a beta branch on Discord. Whether the demo will still get hotfixes: not said.

To verify in the game

• Where the demo saves on disk, and whether Steam Cloud syncs the run in progress or only the metaprogression.
• Whether all 25 heroes are available from the start or unlocked run by run (the Steam page says heroes, relics and items are unlocked run by run).
• The disk space actually used after installation.

Terms in the three languages are in the glossary.