Free on Epic: Mechabellum Is Yours to Keep Until Thursday
Mechabellum is free to keep on the Epic Games Store until Thursday, October 1 at 11 AM ET. It’s a tactical mech auto-battler from Game River that normally costs $14.99, and Steam players rate it Very Positive. Claim it once and it stays in your Epic library for good.
This is the first time Mechabellum has ever been given away, and it’s still $8.99 on Steam today. Free beats $8.99 every day of the week, so grab it even if you’re only mildly curious.
Show Mechabellum at a glance
| Price | Free to keep on Epic (normally $14.99) |
| Claim by | Thursday, October 1, 2026, 11:00 AM ET |
| Genre | Tactical auto-battler, strategy, PvP |
| Developer / Publisher | Game River / Dreamhaven |
| Platform | PC (Windows); Steam also lists Mac |
| Reviews (at time of posting) | Steam: Very Positive, 84% of about 19,700 reviews |
| How long to beat | No finish line: it’s a competitive game you play match by match |
| Jump to | Trailer and claim button · How it plays · How to claim |
The Scroll in Brief
- What: a mech auto-battler. You draft and place your army, then watch it fight on its own.
- Deal: free to keep on Epic (normally $14.99). Its first-ever giveaway, so this is its all-time low.
- Deadline: Thursday, October 1 at 11:00 AM ET.
- Reviews at time of posting: Very Positive on Steam (84% of about 19,700).
- Gary’s call: claim it. Best for strategy fans who’d rather out-think than out-click.
Meet Mechabellum
Mechabellum Official Trailer 2025 (Mechabellum). Playing muted; tap the video for sound.
Free · Normally $14.99. Free to keep on the Epic Games Store until Thursday, October 1 at 11:00 AM ET.
Mechabellum is a sci-fi strategy game where armies of mechs fight it out across open battlefields. It’s built by Game River, whose team cites Warcraft 3 custom maps as its main inspiration, alongside Command & Conquer and StarCraft. It entered early access in May 2023 and fully launched on September 26, 2024.
Paradox Interactive published it at first. Dreamhaven, the studio founded by former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, took over publishing in March 2025, and the game has kept getting seasonal updates since, including native Mac support in Season 7 and an Epic Games Store launch alongside Season 8 in June 2026.
Best for: strategy fans who like planning more than fast clicking.
How It Plays: All Strategy, No Clickfest
Every round, you get resources to buy units and place them on your half of the map. Once the battle starts, you can’t move or control anything; your army fights on its own, so the whole game is in the draft, the upgrades and the formation. Win the round and you knock down your opponent’s health. Resources also buy temporary and permanent upgrades, so each match snowballs in its own direction.
The Steam page lists 1v1, 2v2, free-for-all and a Survival Mode. The developers’ own pitch is “All strategy, no clickfest,” and that’s the hook: it plays like a real-time strategy game with the frantic hand speed stripped out.
Reviews and Price History
- Steam reviews at time of posting: Very Positive, 84% of about 19,700 reviews.
- Critics at time of posting: not enough reviews for a Metascore yet. The two listed on Metacritic both gave it 90, and Rock Paper Shotgun named it one of its favorite games of 2024.
- Price history: lowest ever is free, right now, on Epic. GG.deals lists this as its first giveaway. Today it’s $8.99 on Steam (40% off $14.99), so the Epic claim beats every paid price.
The complaints worth knowing: some Metacritic user reviews mention performance problems and say the game leans hard on online play, with less to do solo. That’s the trade-off with a competitive game, and it’s why free is the perfect price to find out whether it clicks for you.
Who It’s For
- You’ll like it if: you enjoy auto-battlers like Teamfight Tactics, loved StarCraft or Command & Conquer but hate the button-mashing, or want a strategy game you can play with a friend in 2v2.
- Maybe skip it if: you want a long single-player campaign. This is built around matches against other players.
- How long to beat: there’s no ending to reach. Matches are short, and how long you stay depends on whether climbing the ladder hooks you.
How to Claim It Before Thursday
- Open the Mechabellum page on the Epic Games Store and sign in (a free Epic account works).
- Click Get, then Place Order. The total should read $0.00.
- Do it before Thursday, October 1, 2026 at 11:00 AM ET (8:00 AM PT, 15:00 UTC). After that it goes back to full price, but anything you claimed stays yours.
It’s free alongside Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles this week. Both claims end at the same time.
Gary’s Take
Claim it. A Very Positive strategy game that still sells for $8.99 on sale, going for zero, is the kind of loot I don’t leave on the table. Even if competitive auto-battlers aren’t your thing, it costs nothing to own and nothing to try. The only way to lose here is to miss Thursday’s deadline.
Keep digging: Free Games to Claim This Week and more free games.
Sources
- Epic Games Store: Mechabellum (free promotion Sept 24 to Oct 1, 2026, per Epic’s free games feed)
- Steam: Mechabellum (price, modes and user reviews, September 28, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Mechabellum
- Metacritic: Mechabellum
- GG.deals: Epic’s free games for September 24
- Dreamhaven: Mechabellum Season 8 on Steam and the Epic Games Store (June 2026)
- Mechabellum on YouTube: Official Trailer 2025
