About the Game
The Hordes are Coming!
From the team that brought you 8-Bit Armies comes a new fantasy RTS as fast-paced and friendly as the original! 8-BIT HORDES is a colorful strategy-arcade game that is easy to learn for players of all skill levels. Collect resources, build up and defend your base, amass your army of orcs or humans and ultimately crush your opponents! 8-Bit Hordes features offline single-player missions, two-player cooperative missions, AI skirmish mode, and Player-vs-Player Multiplayer modes running on dedicated game servers.
8-Bit Hordes includes all the following:
8-Bit Hordes is for anyone that enjoys RTS games but felt overwhelmed by complicated game mechanics and mysterious unit controls. With hours of solo and co-op gameplay included, there's something here for everyone!
From the team that brought you 8-Bit Armies comes a new fantasy RTS as fast-paced and friendly as the original! 8-BIT HORDES is a colorful strategy-arcade game that is easy to learn for players of all skill levels. Collect resources, build up and defend your base, amass your army of orcs or humans and ultimately crush your opponents! 8-Bit Hordes features offline single-player missions, two-player cooperative missions, AI skirmish mode, and Player-vs-Player Multiplayer modes running on dedicated game servers.
8-Bit Hordes includes all the following:
- 2 Factions - The Dark Orcs and their Undead allies versus those annoyingly cheery Humans, Dwarves and Elves of the Lightbringers.
- 24 offline campaign missions
- 12 co-op missions to play with your friendly fiends
- 10 multiplayer/skirmish maps that support up to 8 trolls online
- Devious AI opponents with multiple difficulty options to play with cooperatively or destroy
- Classic Base-Building mechanics let you construct the ultimate lair from which to launch attacks against your foes
- Destructible environments on maps ranging from the underworld to cemeteries and haunted forests
- A fun and friendly art style even the forever cursed would enjoy
- Full interoperability with 8-Bit Armies' factions and maps providing endless crossover combat opportunities
- An awesome new soundtrack by Frank Klepacki
- From the same team that brought you RTS classics such as Star Wars: Empire at War, Universe at War, and Grey Goo
8-Bit Hordes is for anyone that enjoys RTS games but felt overwhelmed by complicated game mechanics and mysterious unit controls. With hours of solo and co-op gameplay included, there's something here for everyone!
Screenshots
21 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
On the site: Build 13731667
Up to date
Kick the tires and light the fires!
We are excited to announce a new set of updates for our 8-Bit series of RTS games (8-Bit Armies, 8-Bit Hordes, 8-Bit Invaders) out now. With feedback from the community we have hunted down bugs, tuned things up and even the virtuoso Frank Klepacki has provided three new music tracks which you can experience in-game as well as in the soundtrack DLC.
Some of the standout changes we have made include fixing up the exploit that allowed players to see when a resource node was being used. Some changes to the Gremlin and Heavy Drone. As well as several fixes that should smooth out the remaining hiccups some players were experiencing.
Check out the changelog below for details:
- "Sorcerer's Ambush" - (Hordes)
- "Bug Hunt" - (Invaders)
- Updated leaderboard links to include only those that are actively supported.
- Area-effect radius of heal doubled to 100 (was 50).
- Heavy Drone (Guardians):
- MG weapon casting seconds reduced to 0 (was 0.3)
- Reduced damage per shot to 2 (was 3)
- These changes together increase base DPS for MG weapon to 10 (was 6)
- Rocket weapon cooldown reduced to 2.2 seconds (was 2.7)
- Rocket base damage increased to 6 (was 5)
- These changes together increase base DPS for Rocket weapon to 7.27 (was 5.26)
- Fixed a bug that automatically selected the Intel integrated graphics over an Nvidia device on some laptops.
- Fixed a rendering slowdown related to particles.
- Fixed a crash that could happen following a large number of weapon impacts on terrain.
- Fixing issue in which Hordes harvester was misnamed in German and was also using French translation.
- Fixed bug in which the Orbital Cannon superweapon alarm is repeated continuously if destroyed just before firing.
- Fixed hard-coded text in the tooltips for Units and Structures which appeared in English no matter which language was selected.
- Fixed animation issue around resource nodes. Resource nodes will no longer animate (giving away harvester locations) when under fog of war.
View on Steam
We are excited to announce a new set of updates for our 8-Bit series of RTS games (8-Bit Armies, 8-Bit Hordes, 8-Bit Invaders) out now. With feedback from the community we have hunted down bugs, tuned things up and even the virtuoso Frank Klepacki has provided three new music tracks which you can experience in-game as well as in the soundtrack DLC.
Some of the standout changes we have made include fixing up the exploit that allowed players to see when a resource node was being used. Some changes to the Gremlin and Heavy Drone. As well as several fixes that should smooth out the remaining hiccups some players were experiencing.
Check out the changelog below for details:
Music
New Tracks
- "8-Bit Funk" - (Armies)- "Sorcerer's Ambush" - (Hordes)
- "Bug Hunt" - (Invaders)
UI
- Replaced News Cranioid with more current news about new game (9-Bit Armies!) coming out.- Updated leaderboard links to include only those that are actively supported.
Balance
- Gremlin (Marines):- Area-effect radius of heal doubled to 100 (was 50).
- Heavy Drone (Guardians):
- MG weapon casting seconds reduced to 0 (was 0.3)
- Reduced damage per shot to 2 (was 3)
- These changes together increase base DPS for MG weapon to 10 (was 6)
- Rocket weapon cooldown reduced to 2.2 seconds (was 2.7)
- Rocket base damage increased to 6 (was 5)
- These changes together increase base DPS for Rocket weapon to 7.27 (was 5.26)
Bug/Exploit Fixes
- Improved/Fixed very long startup and load times that could occur randomly.- Fixed a bug that automatically selected the Intel integrated graphics over an Nvidia device on some laptops.
- Fixed a rendering slowdown related to particles.
- Fixed a crash that could happen following a large number of weapon impacts on terrain.
- Fixing issue in which Hordes harvester was misnamed in German and was also using French translation.
- Fixed bug in which the Orbital Cannon superweapon alarm is repeated continuously if destroyed just before firing.
- Fixed hard-coded text in the tooltips for Units and Structures which appeared in English no matter which language was selected.
- Fixed animation issue around resource nodes. Resource nodes will no longer animate (giving away harvester locations) when under fog of war.
Hey everyone!
Thanks for the heads up on our March Update. It seems our custom map loader in the game was disabled. That issue is now fixed as of today. ːsteamfacepalmː
-8Bit.
View on Steam
Thanks for the heads up on our March Update. It seems our custom map loader in the game was disabled. That issue is now fixed as of today. ːsteamfacepalmː
-8Bit.
Hey gamers!
We’ve been storing up a bunch of minor fixes and performance improvements to the 8-Bit Series of games over the last few months based on your feedback and some things we've found ourselves. In general, the game should be more stable, run even faster, use a little less ram, and make multiplayer gaming a little more solid. We hope you enjoy the new update and please let us know if you run into anything we should know about.
As always, we appreciate your support. ːsteamhappyː
-8Bit
View on Steam
We’ve been storing up a bunch of minor fixes and performance improvements to the 8-Bit Series of games over the last few months based on your feedback and some things we've found ourselves. In general, the game should be more stable, run even faster, use a little less ram, and make multiplayer gaming a little more solid. We hope you enjoy the new update and please let us know if you run into anything we should know about.
As always, we appreciate your support. ːsteamhappyː
-8Bit
GENERAL BUG FIXES:
- Fix for jump jet infantry being order-locked when a save then load is performed while they are mid-flight.
- Added a map validation check that looks for too many stacked structures and warns the user of such on save.
- Fix for crashing when pressing shift while the instance tab is active (in the terrain editor).
- Adding a warning message on save that displays if resource nodes are found near any start markers (can potentially break the AI by placing resource nodes around the starting points).
- Limiting playable bounds setting to 11 and above when creating a new map with the public terrain editor.
- Fixed a case of the camera constraint function oscillating between two values when the playable bounds is small in the map editor.
- Fix for replanning failing when the target area is covered by too much stuff (movement failed to reach clicked destination despite there being a path to get there).
- Optimization attempt #2 at reducing CPU load when pruning producing objects (server could run slow when a lot of units are queued up and buildings are being destroyed).
- General Save/Load fixes to handle rare cases where continuing a battle would not work properly.
- Timeout a lobby join after 10 seconds so that players don’t hang forever waiting to join.
- General bug fixes to AI to optimize performance and handle a few strategic situations better.
- Correction to allow for correct country code to be set when quickmatching.
- Various back-end improvements for performance and frame-rate.
- Improved data transmission between server and client
- Fix for soft-lock when someone disconnects before joining a multiplayer game.
- Fix for showing weapon FX under unexplored fog of war which would reveal other player’s weaponry and location of battle.
- Player names in lobby should update a little more frequently.
- Steam “Played with Users” should be updated now.
- Handled an issue where some custom maps could fail to launch in Multiplayer.
- Fix for getting disconnected when connecting to an instance if the instance takes a long time to load. For example, when downloading a custom map for the first time.
- Fix for not being able to launch a multiplayer game with everyone is assigned to a random team.
- Prevent players having blank multiplayer game names.
- Fixed three separate issues which would have manifested itself to players as a “random crash”.
- Battlecam tweaks to improve angles and identify the highest priority events.
- Fix for flickering load screen on some systems.
- Re-enabled Anti-Aliasing on ATI cards. Also, removed AA slider if AA isn’t available.
- Improved memory usage. Game optimized to use less.
Greetings once again!
We're making a balance tweak today to fix a problem found in our last update. Thanks for all the feedback and help in identifying this issue!
-8Bit
View on Steam
We're making a balance tweak today to fix a problem found in our last update. Thanks for all the feedback and help in identifying this issue!
-8Bit
BALANCE UPDATES:
- GUARDIANS - HEAVY DRONE: Fixed issue with Machine Gun weapon timing that was causing the DPS to be double the intended value.
- LIGHTBRINGERS - AIR ELEMENTAL: Build cost reduced to 130 (was 150), Build time reduced to 13 (was 15)
- LIGHTBRINGERS - TREANT: Health reduced to 175 (was 190)
- MARINES - OGRE: Health reduced to 230 (was 250); shield health remains the same
It's time for another balance update based on our awesome players and a little bit of internal research! Have fun and enjoy the player-sponsored tournament!
-8Bit
View on Steam
-8Bit
GENERAL BALANCE CHANGES
- MARINES BARRACKS: Build cost reduced to 300 (was 400), Build time reduced to 15 (was 20)
- MARINES HEAVY FACTORY: Build cost reduced to 575 (was 700), Build time reduced to 25 (was 30)
- MARINES DRONE WORKS: Build cost reduced to 575 (was 700), Build time reduced to 25 (was 30)
- MARINES SHRIKE: Build cost reduced to 150 (was 180), Build time reduced to 12 (was 15)
- MARINES HARPY: Adjusted spacing of attack to make it more accurate. DPS did not change.
- GUARDIANS HEAVY DRONE: Weapons targeting has been adjusted; rockets are now only fired at air, machine gun only fires at ground. The MG weapon has been changed to NEUTRAL damage. It is now a continuous fire weapon (not volleys). This sets the DPS to a consistent 6.0 vs. all ground target types. Rocket damage and timing has not changed.
- DEATHSWORN SHAMAN: Air attack damage changed to neutral (this is mostly for data clarity since the anti-air damage was already 1-1).
- CYCLOPS: Increased AoE radius of club hit to 75 (was 50)
- RENEGADES HEAVY TANK: Anti-Air rocket base damage increased to 5 (was 4)
Hey everyone! Happy Fall Update!
With the seasonal change today we though it was a good time to do a balance patch, which we have been experimenting with for some time now. In addition, we also fixed (hopefully) a rare crash on startup that a few users were having.
Have fun!
BALANCE CHANGES:
View on Steam
With the seasonal change today we though it was a good time to do a balance patch, which we have been experimenting with for some time now. In addition, we also fixed (hopefully) a rare crash on startup that a few users were having.
Have fun!
BALANCE CHANGES:
- SUPERWEAPON STRUCTURES (ALL FACTIONS): Build cost reduced to 1500 (was 2000)
- DRAGON: Health reduced to 180 (was 200), The damage over time effect on the anti-air shot has been removed; base damage remains the same.
- FLOATING BRAIN: Attack range increased to 600 (was 500)
- BLAST BUG: Base damage reduced to 16 (was 18)
- OGRE: Movement speed increased to 190 (was 180)
- GREMLIN: Build cost reduced to 120 (was 160), Build time reduced to 10 (was 15)
- RESOURCE ENHANCER (MARINES): Power drain reduced to 80 (was 100)
- TECH LAB (MARINES): Power drain reduced to 130 (was 150)
- CLOAKING GENERATOR (MARINES): Power drain reduced to 130 (was 150)
- POWER PLANT (MARINES): Build cost reduced to 300 (was 350), Build time reduced to 15 (was 20)
- HEAVY DRONE: Build time increased to 20 seconds (was 18)
Hi everyone!
We continue to monitor our multiplayer statics and read through the forums to determine if there are any corrections that need to be made to balance or the game in general. Thanks to you, we've identified a number of small tweaks that needed to be made - especially to Regent mode in multiplayer.
Have fun!
-8Bit
GENERAL:
UNIT/STRUCTURE BALANCE:
View on Steam
We continue to monitor our multiplayer statics and read through the forums to determine if there are any corrections that need to be made to balance or the game in general. Thanks to you, we've identified a number of small tweaks that needed to be made - especially to Regent mode in multiplayer.
Have fun!
-8Bit
PATCH NOTES:
GENERAL:
- Added new armor type "Neutral" to game. This will not show up in the GUI listing since it is only used for the Regents in Assassination mode. Neutral armor removes all damage modifiers from weapons - the target will take the weapon's base damage from attacks.
- The Regent unit for all factions (used in Assassination Mode) have been updated to use Neutral Armor.
- Shortened a variety of non-english texts to fit properly within the UI
UNIT/STRUCTURE BALANCE:
- Cannon Turret (Guardians): Damage type changed to Neutral, Base damage increased to 20 (was 15), Shot speed slowed to 1.5 (was 1.0), Can now target aircraft
- Wraith (Deathsworn): The heal effect was not stacking to 3 as intended (like all other healers) - this has been fixed, Heal aura increased to 300 radius (was 250) to match skeleton conversion effect radius, Build cost reduced to 140 (was 160).
- Ballista (Lightbringers): Line of attack widened slightly; damage remains the same, but it should be easier to hit with it.
- Phoenix (Lightbringers): Base damage reduced to 14 (was 16), AoE radius of shots reduced to 30 (was 50).
Hey gang!
We patched the game this afternoon to handle a weird text issue on a few of the translated languages. Nothing serious.
Have fun and enjoy the holiday Americans! For the rest of ya, have fun anyway! ːsteamhappyː
-8Bit
View on Steam
We patched the game this afternoon to handle a weird text issue on a few of the translated languages. Nothing serious.
Have fun and enjoy the holiday Americans! For the rest of ya, have fun anyway! ːsteamhappyː
-8Bit
Greetings once again!
As always. we review the forums and emails that come in to our support team on a regular basis. Today, we're releasing a patch to fix some smaller but still potentially annoying issues that you've reported to us.
We think you'll be happy with some of these updates and just wanted to say thank you for letting us know what needed to get fixed. Once again we're very appreciative for all your help in continuing to make the game better.
Let us know how you feel about the update and please send us an email if there's still something that needs to be looked at.
-8-Bit
PATCH NOTES:
View on Steam
As always. we review the forums and emails that come in to our support team on a regular basis. Today, we're releasing a patch to fix some smaller but still potentially annoying issues that you've reported to us.
We think you'll be happy with some of these updates and just wanted to say thank you for letting us know what needed to get fixed. Once again we're very appreciative for all your help in continuing to make the game better.
Let us know how you feel about the update and please send us an email if there's still something that needs to be looked at.
-8-Bit
PATCH NOTES:
- Added server functionality to clean up old replays after 4 months if they have not been downloaded
- Updated Master Text Mod file to match all latest new features
- Superweapon countdown timers will sometimes get stuck in a ready state, or not appear at all
- The skull and crossbones icon for defeated players doesn't always appear when a player disconnects
- Occasionally a player may untick ready just as the host has hit start which caused the game to go into an unresponsive state.
- Fixed a variety of Turkish text length problems
Alright! Time for a few balance adjustments per your feedback, and some desperately needed tweaks to one of our translated languages.
First - all those balance changes. We have been watching a LOT of games, and listening to your feedback and we are really close to an even win ratio across all factions. Still, we want to keep an eye on it and ensure that nothing in the game is under or over-powered. The changes we're making today should help keep everything in check.
Second, one of you pointed out that our Turkish language support was REALLY off - and it turns out that many of the lines were adjusted by one spot. This is fixed now, so please take another look and let us know if you find something wrong (with any of the languages..)
We thank you for your continued support! Have a great weekend!
-8-Bit
Guardians:
Deathsworn:
Lightbringers:
Cranioids:
Marines:
View on Steam
First - all those balance changes. We have been watching a LOT of games, and listening to your feedback and we are really close to an even win ratio across all factions. Still, we want to keep an eye on it and ensure that nothing in the game is under or over-powered. The changes we're making today should help keep everything in check.
Second, one of you pointed out that our Turkish language support was REALLY off - and it turns out that many of the lines were adjusted by one spot. This is fixed now, so please take another look and let us know if you find something wrong (with any of the languages..)
We thank you for your continued support! Have a great weekend!
-8-Bit
Guardians:
- Starting units changed to 1 Grenade Infantry and 2 Engineers (was 2 Grenade Infantry and 1 Engineer)
- Siege Artiller Speed reduced to 260 (as 280)
- Heavy Drone build time reduced to 18 (was 20), Will now use rockets when targeting Paladins and Warriors.
- AA Drone build cost increased to 100 (was 80)
Deathsworn:
- Starting units changes to 2 Archers and 1 Warrior (was 1 Archer and 2 Warriors)
- Dragon build cost reduced to 230 (was 250), build time reduced to 18 (was 20), base damage for Anti-Air attack increased to 15 (was 12)
- Watchtower build time increased to 20 (was 18), Health reduced to 350 (was 450)
Lightbringers:
- Treant, AoE damage reduced to 4 (was 8) - main target damage remains unchanged, health reduced to 190 (was 200)
- Ranger speed reduced to 280 (was 300), Ground-to-ground weapon range reduced to 750 (was 800), Ground-to-air weapon range reduced to 850 (was 900)
- Arrow Tower build time increased to 20 (was 18), health reduced to 350 (was 450)
Cranioids:
- Tripod health reduced to 250 (was 280)
- Blast Bug build cost increased to 300 (was 280), health reduced to 200 (was 220)
- Mothership health reduced to 180 (was 200), build cost increased to 320 (was 300)
Marines:
- HQ starting power reduced to 60 (was 100)
- Ogre health/Shields increased to 250/100 (was 200/100)
- Harpy build cost reduced to 150 (was 200)
- Manticore range increased to 850 (was 800), move speed increased to 200 (was 180)
Hi 8-Bit Players!
Today's update is just a quick maintenance release in relation to our 6 new languages (Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, and Romanian.) These languages are now live and we are doing some testing with our localization teams to fix any visible issues. While the game is fully playable in these languages you should consider this BETA until our testing is complete.
Thanks for your support and have a great weekend!
-8Bit
View on Steam
Today's update is just a quick maintenance release in relation to our 6 new languages (Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, and Romanian.) These languages are now live and we are doing some testing with our localization teams to fix any visible issues. While the game is fully playable in these languages you should consider this BETA until our testing is complete.
Thanks for your support and have a great weekend!
PATCH NOTES:
- Fully enabled support for Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, and Romanian Languages
- Added several missing characters to each language
-8Bit
Hi everyone!
We have quite a few tweaks for today's patch - plus some improvements to make the game more accessible to our players in other parts of the world.
Our update today includes support for 6 new languages - Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, and Romanian. These are being released as BETA and we know there's a little more to do yet. Please send us a screenshot of any text issues you might find if you're running one of these new languages.
In addition to languages, we're also making a good number of balance changes per your ongoing feedback. Let us know what you think!
As always, thanks for your support!
-8-Bit
-8Bit
View on Steam
We have quite a few tweaks for today's patch - plus some improvements to make the game more accessible to our players in other parts of the world.
Our update today includes support for 6 new languages - Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, and Romanian. These are being released as BETA and we know there's a little more to do yet. Please send us a screenshot of any text issues you might find if you're running one of these new languages.
In addition to languages, we're also making a good number of balance changes per your ongoing feedback. Let us know what you think!
As always, thanks for your support!
-8-Bit
PATCH NOTES:
- The Wyvern and Gremlin units were using incorrect armor types (Heavy and Light respectively). They now are using the Air armor type as intended.
- The Wraith and Gremlin unit tooltips showed a light attack when they in fact have no damaging attack - this has been fixed.
- Map Circular Logic: Three resource positions moved; the resource points near the bottom of the start position ramps are now all on the same side of the ramp.
- All infantry have had their stealth detection radius increased by 20%
- All turrets have had their stealth detection radius increased by 30%
- Rocket Copter: Range reduced to 700 (was 800)
- Artillery (Renegades): Move speed reduced to 180 (was 200)
- Sniper Infantry: Basedamage increased to 18 (was 15)
- AA Drone: Build cost increased to 80 (was 60), Build time increased to 8 (was 6)
- Arbalist: Build time reduced to 12 seconds (was 15)
- Dragon: Base damage for Anti-Air attack increased to 12 (was 8)
- Rogue: Weapon cooldown increased to 1.5 (was 1.2)
- Pikeman: Health increased to 95 (was 80), Build cost reduced to 60 (was 80)
- Aggressor: Range reduced to 700 (was 800)
- Mothership: Weapon cooldown increased to 1.0 (was 0.7)
-8Bit
Current Release
Build 13731667
Uploaded Jul 24, 2026
System Requirements
OS
N/A
CPU
2.6 GHz Dual Core Processor
RAM
4 GB RAM
GPU
Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 or ATI Radeon HD 3870
How to Install
1
Download all files
2
Extract the .ZIP file to a folder (use WinRAR or 7-Zip)
3
Run ClientLauncherG.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Archive password
Needed when extracting (WinRAR / 7-Zip) — not a site login.
You May Also Like
View All
Download 8-Bit Hordes for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of 8-Bit Hordes for free. 8-Bit Hordes is a Indie released by Petroglyph.