About the Game

Lead your team of Gladiators in turn-based arena battles, recruiting, training, and sometimes sacrificing them for glory. But remember, your Gladiators are mortal - If they fall in battle, they are lost forever... though their legacy will live on.
As a noble heir, you'll manage your city by unlocking, constructing, and upgrading buildings that provide new services and mechanics to aid you on your bloody quest for vengeance.

You fought tooth and nail for survival, driven by a burning hatred and a thirst for justice. Now, as a wealthy patron and a gladiator trainer, you plot your revenge against the tyrannical Emperor who stole your freedom and murdered your father. But the path to redemption is fraught with peril, and you must navigate a treacherous world filled with deception and danger.
Recruit new allies and expand your gladiator team to climb the ranks of the brutal tournaments. Each victory brings you closer to the grand Capitol, where your ultimate target - the Emperor, lost in his madness - awaits on his throne.

Before each battle, assemble a team of gladiators from various classes: physical, ranged, or magical. Will you pay gold, duel them, or show mercy in the arena to recruit them?
Level them up, increase their stats, and learn new abilities to ensure they're battle-ready. Don't forget to address any negative statuses or traumas, and equip them with shiny new weapons, armor, and consumables.
Use powerful Deity abilities to aid your Gladiators in battle, or make a shady deal with a local crime lord to sabotage your enemies before the battle even begins.

Combat unfolds in turn-based battles on a grid, where units act in order of initiative. Strategically move your gladiators, attack, and position them to outsmart and outmaneuver your opponents.
Use your action points wisely - unleash powerful weapon or class abilities, make use of items like potions and magical scrolls, or set traps on the ground to catch enemies off guard.
Win the favor of the audience by fulfilling their bloodthirsty wishes and reap rewards after each battle. But beware - permadeath is on. If a gladiator falls, they and their equipment are lost forever, adding high stakes to every decision.

You’ve inherited an estate overlooking the desolate coastal city of Marevento, and the city’s future now rests in your hands.
Between battles, use your hard-earned gold to build and upgrade city buildings, unlocking new tools and services to aid you in your quest for vengeance. From the infirmary, where your gladiators can recover, to the bustling market for trading items, and even a grand monument to honor fallen gladiators.
Defeat each region’s Arena Champion to advance the age and access powerful new buildings and items.
Are you ready to rise to the challenge and carve your name into history?
Screenshots
29 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
Ave Patronus,
we have a new update ready for you!
With this patch, we focus on your experience when playing Bloodgrounds.
We added several features to improve general quality of life and offer new ways to customize elements of the game to match personal preferences and requirements.
Vale, Patronus!
Daedalic Entertainment & Exordium Games
Detailed Change Log
Gameplay
New Feature: Abandon Challenge
Challenges can now be ended early.
At every Remedy stage players can choose to abandon the Challenge and send their Gladiators home.
Resulting effects depend on the selected game difficulty:
Initiate
The team returns to the city as if they had completed the Challenge
All items earned in the challenge persist
No penalty
Warrior
The team returns to the city, but admitting defeat comes at a price:
Each alive Gladiator gains one Trauma (random from Demotivated, Dismayed, Horrified, Paranoid or Stressed)
All items, Gold and mercied Gladiators earned in the challenge are lost.
(Gains in Experience, Stat bonuses and Devotion are retained)
Champion
Giving up is not an option
Champions return triumphantly or in a coffin!
User Interface and User Experience
New Input option: Select active unit
Settings ► Input
Hotkey to highlight, select and focus the currently active Gladiator
New Settings option: Camera edge scrolling
Settings ► Gameplay ► Battle
Enables/disables camera positioning by moving the cursor to the screen borders
New Settings option: Enable Feedback
Settings ► Gameplay ► Shared
Enables/disables pressing the F11 key to toggle the Feedback Dialogue
The hint text (watermark) in the bottom right corner is removed
New Settings option: Enable corpse sinking
Settings ► Gameplay ► Battle
Enables/disables the bodies of defeated enemies to remain in the arena until the end of the current Battle
New Settings option: Show grid object ability pattern on hover
Settings ► Gameplay ► Battle
Enables/Disables Arena Obstacles to display an indicator on the tiles affected by their ability when hovered
New Settings option: Story texts display speed
Settings ► Gameplay ► Battle
Increase/decrease the time story dialogue is displayed to match personal preference
New Settings option: Target Objects based on shape
Settings ► Gameplay ► Battle
If set to True, this will result in your cursor reacting to the target's 3D shape, rather than its tile.
For new players, this is enabled by default. Otherwise it retains the existing state.
Bug Fixes
Ability: Savage Blow (Secutor Class)
Now affects all targets as intended (levels 2 and 3)
Ave Patronus,
we want to once again thank you for your valuable feedback and ongoing support following the 1.0 release of our game. We are happy to announce that we just released our second post-launch patch, which includes several balancing adjustments to improve the gameplay.
You can find the detailed change log below.
Vale, Patronus!
Exordium Games & Daedalic Entertainment
Detailed Change Log
Balancing
Gladiator Abilities
Ability: Taunt (Retiarius Class)
Adjusted system logic to improve effectiveness.
Affected enemies will now ignore dynamic sources of danger (e.g. Attacks of opportunity) when calculating their path.
Audience Entertainment
Adjusted Event types:
Removed Event types that reward/punish use of Weapon abilities
Removed Event types that reward/punish use of Class abilities
Random event types that punish/reward Gladiators not taking damage no longer appear in Battles that apply the "Life Sap" Modifier ("Reduce Health by 1% Max Health to Ally units on their turn end.")
Changed values for unit stat based Events:
Ally avoiding status with Luck 5 → 3
Enemy avoiding status with Luck -2 → -3
Ally avoiding attack with Evade 5 → 3
Enemy avoiding attack with Evade -2 → -3
Favor collected by an ally (negative) -2 → -3
Favor collected by an ally (positive) 2 → 3
Defeating enemies with a single ability 15 → 10
Using Deity ability (positive) 10 → 5
Fixed an issue that could result in rewards for reaching the highest entertainment level being of lower quality than they should be.
Battle
The first enemy attack each battle is now prevented from being a critical hit.
Thus it can't cause Trauma, which should help to mitigate frustrating experiences.
Status: Petrify
now also sets the affected unit's Evade chance to 0%
Status: Stun
now also sets the affected unit's Evade chance to 0%
no longer removed by Damage from other status effects (Burn, Bleed, etc.)
City Management
Building: Quarters
Improved the level up stat improvement system to offer a better variety for consecutive rerolls.
Building: Tactical Vault
Fixed an issue that resulted in crafted Shields receiving Damage stats when they shouldn't."
Corrected the percentage chance of crafting Epic level items for Artisan Level Expert from 48% to 28%
Common / Rare / Epic / Legendary: 0 / 70 / 48 / 2 → 0 / 70 / 28 / 2
UI and UX
Options Menu
Updated the button selection for Unit Placement in the Tactics phase.
Now allows left, right or middle mouse button.
Setup Consumables Screen
Added an indicator to show if new items (rewarded in Battle) are available
Thanks again for your awesome support throughout our Early Access - and now Bloodgrounds 1.0 Release! Today we bring you a small patch mostly regarding balancing adjustments..
Vale, Patronus!
Exordium Games & Daedalic Entertainment
Detailed Change Log
Balancing
Tactical Machines
Fixed an issue that could result in the tool tip and upgrade tooltip incorrectly displaying 0 as value for Damage and/or Range
Tactical Machine Abilities
Ability: Cannon Ball (Tactical Machine Caeli Ruina)
- Increased activation timer to 10/10/10 turns (from 8/7/6)
- Adjusted damage to 15%/15%/15% (from 10/15/12)
Ability: Focused Shot (Tactical Machine Machina Missilis)
- Increased activation timer to 8/10/12 turns (from 8/7/6)
- Adjusted damage to 20%/20%/20% (from 15/15/15)
- Streamlined description text
Ability: Pyroblast (Tactical Machine Igniatix)
- Adjusted damage to 10%/15%/20% (from 5/10/15)
Ability: Rejuvenate (Tactical Machine Medica)
- Increased healing amount to 5%/10%/15% (from 3%/6%/8%)
Ability: Satic Shock (Tactical Machine Sacer Electricitas)
- Adjusted damage to 5%/5%/5% (from 3 - 6/8 - 12/10 - 15)"
Gladiator Ability Upgrades
Building: Academy
Reduced upgrading cost for all abilities by 30% :
- 1400 → 980
- 1200 → 840
- 1000 → 700
- 800 → 560
- 700 → 490
- 600 → 420
- 500 → 350
- 400 → 280
Audience Entertainment
Adjusted the impact of collecting favors on the Audience Entertainment Level
- Favor uncollected on battle end (positive): +5 → +3
- Favor uncollected on battle end (negative): -5 → -3
- Favor collected by an ally (positive): +5 → +2
- Favor collected by an ally (negative): -3 → -2"
Fixes and Improvements
Audience Quest: Deathmatch
- Reworked, so it only appears if the arena offers at least one permanent (non-destructible) Obstacle that can be utilized to complete it.
Enemy Behaviour
- Adjusted movement logic to avoid unnecessary attacks of opportunity (AOOs)"
Camera QOL
- In Tactics mode (gladiator placement) X and C keys can now be used to cycle through Gladiators
Current Release
Build 22515164
Uploaded Jul 20, 2026
System Requirements
How to Install
Bloodgrounds.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
336 MB
22515164
A68A802B
2f86746a8c557d5955b71a128cd268926e744d28de6787b9f8b74fb7a31dc011
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