Rules of Engagement: The Grey State
An independent, ad-supported reference for Grey State Studio's PvPvE extraction shooter. We publish what is confirmed, we date every claim, and we say plainly when something is not known yet.
Live status board
| Item | Status as of 2026-08-10 |
|---|---|
| Release date | To be announced |
| Release window | 2026 |
| Playtest | Announced, not yet open — sign-ups run through the official Discord |
| Platforms | Steam + Epic Games Store (PC) |
| Price | Free to play |
| Maps revealed | 1 — Boreas Isle |
| Classes revealed | 3 — Sledge, Pyro, Phantom |
| Interactive map data | Not yet available — needs playtest access |
| Talent tree data | Not yet available — needs playtest access |
What the game is
Rules of Engagement: The Grey State is a free-to-play PvPvE extraction shooter for PC from Grey State Studio, an internal Tencent Games studio. Formerly Aurora Studio, the team behind Ring of Elysium. It was announced on 15 October 2025.
You play a Strider, an operative hired to enter the Grey State — an unstable parallel dimension the developers call a “Horrorverse” — in squads of 3. You scavenge gear, fight monsters, and decide whether to take a safe low-value extraction or push for The Vertex and fight rival squads at the final exfil.
Where to go next
- Boreas IsleThe one map revealed so far — what is known about its layout.
- Sledge, Pyro, PhantomThe three confirmed Strider classes and what each is built to do.
- Release dateWhat is actually confirmed, and what is press speculation.
- Playtest accessThe only confirmed route into an early build.
- PvE vs PvPTwo modes, two very different risk profiles.
- Is it free?Free to play, and what the developers have said about monetisation.
Interest so far
As of 2026-08-10 the game sits at #39 most wishlisted on Steam with 50,822 Steam followers, and the Steam release date field still reads “To be announced”. That combination — high wishlist rank, no date — is why so little concrete information exists yet.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against primary sources on 2026-08-10. Nothing here is invented.