4Divinity's Realm of Taiwu Enters Early Access as a Scroll of Taiwu Spin-Off

Realm of Taiwu is now live on Steam. The game entered Early Access on October 14, publisher 4Divinity confirmed, billing it as "an officially licensed dark Eastern Wuxia survivor looter" built on the universe of The Scroll of Taiwu: Beyond the Dome, the Kunming-based sandbox RPG that left its own early access in June after drawing more than 3.4 million players over seven years.

Developer Leap Studio isn't the team behind the original game — that credit still belongs to ConchShip Games — but the spin-off carries the Taiwu name into a different genre entirely: a top-down, horde-clearing survivor roguelite rather than the sprawling wuxia sandbox that made the franchise a breakout hit in China.

A world where the hero never showed up

Realm of Taiwu is built around a single premise: what if the Taiwu Hero of the original game had never arrived? In this branching timeline, the villain Xiangshu defeats the Fuyu Sword outright, and "heaven and earth" sink into shadow. All that survives of the sword is its spirit, Huanxin, who drifts through the ruin in search of the ten divine blades scattered across the broken realm.

It's a premise built for repeat runs rather than a single story. Players take control of war-torn survivors from the setting's martial sects, each fighting through waves of corrupted enemies — stray fiends, mutated beasts, stage mini-bosses and avatars of Xiangshu himself — to recover the lost swords one expedition at a time.

Ten swords, a floating hub, and recruitable spirits

The structure leans heavily on genre conventions familiar from survivor-likes: clear hordes, collect loot and build toward runs that snowball. Realm of Taiwu layers in common, rare, epic and legendary divine armaments and alchemical elixirs that reshape a character's kit mid-run, alongside random field events — dragon-gate leaping trials, cricket-catching rituals, monster sacrifices and rescues — that hand out bonus rewards before boss fights.

Between runs, survivors return to the Conch Ark, a sky-sailing encampment that serves as the game's permanent hub. NPCs there handle gear refurbishment, character upgrades and ability unlocks, while a Sacred World Tree grants passive buffs to the whole camp as it grows. The game also lets players purify "Tainted Spirits" trapped by corruption and recruit them as Spirit Attendants — companions with their own personalities, backstories and combat abilities who can be leveled up and brought along on future runs.

Steam's store listing also confirms online co-op support, letting players invite friends into runs rather than tackling the fractured realm solo.

What "Early Access" actually means here

4Divinity and Leap Studio are upfront about where the game stands. In the Early Access notes on the Steam store page, the developers describe the current build as "75% ish completed," with every feature listed on the page already playable but more content still needed "to give the game more replay value." They're estimating roughly a year in Early Access before a full release that adds a complete story, more chapters, more playable characters and additional character builds, on top of general polish.

The studio was also clear that the current discounted price won't last: Realm of Taiwu is listed at $9.99, currently reduced to $7.99 through October 28, and the developers note the price is likely to rise at full release — a familiar early-access incentive to get in now rather than wait.

A licensed spin-off, and a publisher betting on the strategy

The licensing arrangement is notable on its own. Spin-offs built on a successful indie IP but handed to a separate studio are uncommon in the space Taiwu occupies, and it signals confidence from both sides: ConchShip Games lending its setting to another team, and 4Divinity — the publishing arm of Singapore's GCL Global Holdings — adding another China-originated title to a Western-facing catalog that already includes Realm of Ink and the upcoming Guns of Eschaton.

For now, Realm of Taiwu stands or falls on whether its survivor-roguelite loop can hold up outside the shadow of its source material. The ink-wash art direction and the mythological trappings carry over from the Taiwu universe, but the moment-to-moment game — swarms, builds, a home base to upgrade between runs — is judged by a different, much more crowded genre.

Realm of Taiwu is available now in Steam Early Access for Windows. More details are available on the Scroll of Taiwu franchise's Wikipedia page and through ConchShip Games' official site for context on the universe it borrows from.