Songs of Rats’ Free Update Brings Clan Warfare, High-Stakes Deals & Survival Horror

If you’re an RPG junkie craving macabre thrills, Songs of Rats has just beckoned you deeper into its grim underbelly. Tesseract Games’ minimalist noir roguelike debuted on March 10, 2025, for Windows, Linux and Steam Deck—and today it unleashes its most ambitious free update yet. Sharpen your razor wit and ready your rusty blade: three brand-new campaigns, an unchained sandbox mode, an extensive lore vault, quality-of-life upgrades and a bite-sized demo await in this sprawling patch.

Campaign One: Clan Politics & Morale

Step into the shadow-lit tunnels as a rat clan leader jockeying for supremacy. A turn-based meta layer tasks you with balancing scarce resources, morale and fragile alliances. Will you broker peace treaties or bankroll underhanded coups? One ill-advised bribe can spark rebellion, while a timely gift might bind warring houses—if only until the next power play. Seasoned tacticians will relish how morale ripples into every skirmish, turning each mission into a blend of diplomacy and bloodshed.

Campaign Two: High-Stakes Diplomacy

In this narrative-driven arc, words slice as sharply as blades. Navigate smoke-filled chambers of power, where every promise, threat or bribe teeters on the brink of betrayal. Forge precarious truces, manipulate rival leaders and watch your reputation hang by a thread. A single broken vow can transform trusted allies into vengeful foes. With multiple branching endings shaped by your cunning, High-Stakes Diplomacy proves that in Songs of Rats, survival often hinges on silver tongues rather than steel.

Campaign Three: Wilderness Survival

Cast out from the neon-lit warrens into a savage wilderness, you’re armed with little more than a worn knife and street smarts. Scavenge rusted ruins and rotten carcasses for rations and medicine. Outsmart mountain hawks, poison-fanged insects and desperate scavengers who view you as prey. Harsh weather and dwindling supplies force gut-wrenching choices: trust a hooded trader at moonlight or risk starvation? Every scrap of food is a lifeline, every misstep a ticket to a cold, silent grave beneath the pines.

Sandbox Mode: Chaos Unbound

For those who crave open-ended mayhem, sandbox mode shatters all campaign restrictions. Random calamities—plague outbreaks, smuggler raids, clan rebellions—spawn without end. Tweak difficulty, spawn special events or adjust resource abundance to your liking. Permadeath is optional, so you can experiment with audacious strategies or role-play eccentric rat rulers without the dread of restarting. Whether you draft oppressive laws for a ruthless empire or simply sit back and watch the chaos, sandbox mode elevates Songs of Rats into a playground for creative tacticians.

Deep Lore Vault & Extras

This update opens a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes content. Browse dozens of concept art pieces tracing the evolution of rat society, dive into developer essays on the game’s gritty world-building and pore over detailed lore documents that reveal the mythic forces haunting each clan. These extras enrich the atmosphere for lore hounds who savor every unsettling detail of Tesseract’s dystopian labyrinth.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Heeding community feedback, Tesseract Games has refined the experience across the board. Customize controller mappings—ideal for Steam Deck and gamepad users—adjust text speeds to suit your reading pace and enjoy more balanced resource spawns that smooth out sudden difficulty spikes. Minor UI tweaks polish menus and dialogue windows, while a suite of bug fixes ensures slicker runs on all supported platforms.

Try Before You Buy: Free Demo & Launch Discount

Still undecided? A free Steam demo delivers a bite-sized prologue that captures the game’s dark narrative and branching choices. If you’re hooked by the time the hourglass empties, a limited-time launch discount makes diving into the full game even more tempting. No strings attached—just a chance to discover whether you have the stomach for Songs of Rats’ grim charms.

What’s Next?

With three sprawling campaigns, an untethered sandbox, lore vaults brimming with secrets and thoughtful quality tweaks, Songs of Rats stands taller than ever in the roguelike pantheon. Players have already spotted teasers for an upcoming PlayStation 5 version, suggesting that the rat-run saga may soon spill onto new consoles. Ready to plunge into darkness and carve your own legacy? The tunnels await.