Tempest Rising: The Veti's Wrath Expansion Locks September 29 Launch on Steam With Free Multiplayer Update

Slipgate Ironworks and publishers 3D Realms, Knights Peak and Saber Interactive have officially locked September 29, 2026 as the launch date for The Veti's Wrath, the first full single-player campaign expansion for real-time strategy game Tempest Rising on Steam. The date was confirmed today in a press release distributed by the publishing trio, alongside a new release-date trailer and a Steam News post on the official Tempest Rising hub.

The Veti's Wrath centers on the long-awaited third playable faction teased since Tempest Rising launched in 2025. The Veti are described as a technologically advanced, biomechanical force that ruled Earth ten thousand years before the game's alternate-1997 setting, then went into hibernation after losing an earlier war with humanity. In the base game, the faction appears as an enemy force in both the Global Defense Force and Tempest Dynasty campaigns; the expansion now hands them to the player for the first time.

The DLC itself is a paid package built around an 11-mission single-player campaign told from the Veti's perspective, picking up in the wake of the Tempest Wars and following K'uhul the Immutable, an imprisoned Veti ruler who watches the campaign through cracks in his prison. According to the official Steam News post, the early missions double as a tutorial for the faction's signature mechanics, while later missions push the lore toward the "final chapter" of Tempest Rising's narrative arc.

The Veti playstyle is built around subjugation and sacrifice: defeated enemies can be converted into Enlightened infantry, which can in turn be consumed mid-battle to fuel structures, abilities and short-term power surges. The expansion's roster adds new infantry, doctrines and abilities, plus faction-defining units such as the colossal War Ender walker, the veiled Phantom Artillery and a range of teleportation-focused tactics that allow Veti commanders to blink strike squads past defensive lines or pull damaged units out of danger.

The free component is the more unusual part of the announcement. On September 29, a free update will unlock the complete Veti faction for multiplayer, skirmish and custom games across the entire Tempest Rising install base — no DLC purchase required for online play. The expansion will be sold standalone or as part of a new Tempest Rising Gold Edition that bundles all three single-player campaigns (GDF, Tempest Dynasty and Veti) for new players. A two-mission demo of the Veti campaign, plus the first two missions of the existing GDF and Dynasty campaigns, is already live on Steam.

Tempest Rising, Slipgate Ironworks' Command & Conquer-inspired RTS set in an alternate timeline where the Cuban Missile Crisis escalates into nuclear war, was released in 2025 through 3D Realms and Knights Peak, with Saber Interactive's publishing umbrella now folded into the rollout. The Veti's Wrath launches September 29, 2026, on Steam. More information is available on the official Tempest Rising site, the Steam News post on The Veti's Wrath, and the expansion's Steam store page.