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Watch trailer on Steam ↗HexLands
Portgate Studios · Published by Portgate Studios · Official site ↗
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
Forge an island kingdom one card at a time. Each card you play raises a farm, mill, or harbor on procedural hex islands. Crack the challenge each new shore gives you before setting sail, carrying your relics and upgrades onward. No combat. The land, the weather, and your own draw are the challenge.
Indie, Strategy · 2027 · More free games
HexLands challenges you to build farms, mills, and harbors from cards on ever-changing hex islands. Navigate the land and weather while Portgate Studios crafts a unique strategy experience without combat.
About this game
Play now!
About the Game
HexLands is a roguelike deckbuilder, except here your cards don't cast spells. They raise farms, mills, and harbors across a chain of procedural hex islands. Every card either places a building, or presents you with options for your deck or your settlement. Every choice changes what the rest of your hand is worth. Chain the right buildings on the right ground and a modest draw snowballs into a thriving settlement.
Banished by a king who feared your ambition, you settle the islands he threw you to. Keep building, and your empire becomes one he can no longer ignore.
Where other deckbuilders hand you a battle, HexLands hands you a coastline. Every island deals you a new hand. Its land, resources, and looming disasters decide which of your strategies can work. But your cards, relics, and upgrades sail with you, so every island builds toward your next. No armies to fight and no workforce to micromanage. The challenge is the land itself, and the deck you shape to beat it.
Will you tune your deck to master the island in front of you, or bet the whole run on the islands beyond the horizon?
DRAW A CARD. RAISE A TOWN.
In HexLands, deckbuilding and citybuilding become one.
Play a card and its building rises where you place it on the island: farms, mills, harbors, and more
Every placement shapes your settlement and unlocks new strategic options
Keep your deck lean. Drawing the right building at the right time is the skill
Draft new cards, upgrade old ones, and cut the chaff when you have the opportunity
EVERY ISLAND DEALS A NEW HAND.
Each new island is a fresh problem. Your deck is the answer.
Some buildings only work on the right ground, so the land itself is the constraint to plan around
Resources, fertile soil, and coastlines are dealt fresh every island
Disasters appear on the timeline before they strike, so you have time to prepare (or gamble)
Optional quests pay out rewards for players who can afford the detour
This is a planner's game. Read the island, sequence your plays, and turn a harsh draw into a running engine. Failure teaches, and the next island is already on the horizon.
YOUR DECK SAILS WITH YOU.
One run is a voyage across many islands, and the deck remembers all of them.
Cards, relics, and upgrades stay with you from island to island within a run
Spend rewards in shops between islands to sharpen your strategy
Self-set burdens raise the difficulty on your terms, for players who want the ceiling higher
Meta unlocks seed every new voyage with fresh strategic possibilities
NO ARMIES. NO MICROMANAGEMENT. PURE STRATEGY.
The pressure is real. It just doesn't carry a sword.
No combat encounters and no enemy AI to fight
No workforce management, no survival meters, no supply babysitting
Challenge comes from the resource economy, the land, and the disasters on the horizon
Turn-based pace. Think as long as you like, commit when you're ready
MADE TO BE REPLAYED.
80+ cards and 2 distinct starter decks
A growing hoard of relics and run modifiers to bend every voyage a new way
Procedurally generated islands, from summer coasts to winter shores, with desert islands off the beaten path
Various quests, disasters worth planning around, and meta unlocks that seed the next voyage
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i3-8300 or equivalent
- Memory: 3 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 960 or equivalent
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 1000 MB available space
Recommended
- OS: Windows 11
- Processor: Intel Core i5-9600 or equivalent
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1660 or equivalent
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 1500 MB available space
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
New Publisher Announcement!
Hi everyone, We have some big news for you today: Portgate Studios is partnering with Aquila Interactive to publish HexLands, which will be released in 2027!Take a look at the trailer here:Those of you who are already a part of this community, you’ll know how much of a unique take this game is.For those of you who are new, HexLands is a roguelike deckbuilder with a unique twist: your cards don't cast spells; they raise farms, mills, and harbors across a chain of procedural hex islands.But that’s not all. Here’s what else makes HexLands stand out:Craft a unique strategy with each new voyage with 80+ cards and three distinct starter decksExperience different biomes, from tropical coasts to winter wonderlands in HexLands’ procedurally generated islandsChoose the bonuses that will benefit you the most in this voyage or self-set your own burdens to raise the difficulty with relics and run modifiersPrepare for and mitigate your own disastersPlan as much as you like before committing to a draw, as this game is turn-basedShape your strategy without the need to fight enemy AI - there’s no combat hereWe can’t wait to take you on this voyage!Want to keep updated on everything HexLands? Make sure you join the Discord to keep up with all the latest news, and don’t forget to follow us on all our social channels for more! Portgate Studios ChannelsDiscordAquila Interactive ChannelsWebsiteDiscordYouTubeTikTokInstagramXFacebookRedditRead full article on Community Announcements (Aquila_Jenny)AnnouncementsOfficial
v0.46: Torments, Challenges, Sacred Island rework, and lots of new content!
Hi everyone!Here's v0.46! This one is all about long-term progression: how you unlock new cards, how much harder you can choose to make a run, and what you get for pushing that difficulty as far as it goes. On top of that there's a fully rebindable hotkey system and a colorblind mode. As always, these new systems could be rough on the edges, so I'm all ears! :)As always: join my Discord server to share your thoughts and receive instant access to the Steam playtest! ;)Anyway, let's begin with the patch notes:Challenges!Unlocking new cards and relics used to be tied to reaching population thresholds. That's gone now, instead, unlocks come from completing Challenges which you can think of as Achievements. There are meta-achievements like reaching Town Rank 3, discovering a certain number of relics, buying or upgrading skills, settling towns, generating enough resources, and also ones which are actually challenges, e.g. leave the island without having any houses, keep your reputation maxed the whole run, win without ever removing a card, and so on.This means that finally the Challenges button in Collections is now live! Also, locked cards and relics now indicate their unlock progress with their overlay, plus a tooltip telling you exactly which Challenge unlocks them. Completing one pops a "Challenge Complete!" notification, and finishing a run shows you everything you unlocked or made progress on during it.Torments!If you've been winning comfortably, there's now a way to make it harder on your own terms. Before starting a run, you can apply various Torments extra negative modifiers you choose to add in exchange for a real reward. Win at your current maximum Torment and your cap goes up by 1 for next time. When playing with Torments, you have a Codex of Torment relic, which shows you the currently active torments if you right click on it. Victory Torment 5 unlocks the third starter deck, which you will know more about in the next paragraph, but first let me show you a fe...Read full article on Community Announcements (Tudvari)AnnouncementsOfficial
v0.45: Disasters and lots of reworks!
Hi everyone!Here's v0.45, which is a huge update, with new features, including Disasters and many reworks! There are tons of polishes and fixes as well, but they are just so tiny besides these big changes. Keep in mind that these new systems could be rough on the edges so I'm all ears! :)As always: join my Discord server to share your thoughts and receive instant access to the Steam playtest! ;)Anyway, let's begin with the patch notes!Disasters!Demands were kind of boring as some of you mentioned it, worst case it way annoying, best case it was chore-like. So now they are gone, but I kept tasks because optional quests for rewards can make the game quite interesting. I also removed quests which heavily forced you not to progress towards the population goal. (e.g. "do not increase the population for X turns")However, a game without threats is a boring one, so above your resource panel now there is a timeline. As you may have "guessed" from the title, every now and then various disasters appear on that timeline. You must plan ahead to mitigate their effect, and lower your chances of being caught off-guard. Some are simple: just reduce your food or wood generation for a few turns. These can sound boring, I know, but these simple ones are there so you can relax a bit between the more complex ones.Some of them put harmful cards into your deck, like Poor Harvest putting Starvation into your deck. Which unless are removed or used (costs food), reduce the population of your towns. To be more specific it targets population provider buildings directly. So you could end up easily with empty houses which should be just demolished to free up the space.Some of them target tiles a few turns ahead, like Storm Surge. It targets coastal buildings, and if you don't reinforce those tiles via the Reinforce cards you are given temporarily in these case, they will be destroyed, leaving Ruins on that tile which should be demolished if you don't want wasted pace.Oh, and you may ask: but how ...Read full article on Community Announcements (Portgate Studios)AnnouncementsOfficial
v0.44: Revamped New Player Experience, Starter Relics, and more!
Hi everyone!Some of you have already tried v0.44 because it has been out for 3 weeks now. But I haven't published an article for it till now because I was on a holiday and wanted to add some additional features and polishes. But now, say hello to v0.44.1! ^^This patch was focusing on making the new player experience much better, improving the tutorial system, and adding some new tutorial bubbles. Besides this huge change, I also implemented various smaller UI, QoL and world map changes, and of course balancing and fixes!As always: join my Discord server to share your thoughts and receive instant access to the playtest! ;)Tutorial Improvements!Tutorial now starts without a user interface, teaching the player the basic controls.Interface elements appear gradually, as the "tutorial monk" introduces their corresponding feature. For example initially only your cards are visible, then as the monk introduces the player to the resources, the resource panel appears, and then while explaining the game's goal, the population circle appears, and so on.Interface elements are highlighted when the tutorial talks about them.Images appear besides some of the the tutorial texts, e.g. when the tile claiming effect of the House card is explained, when the town rank system is introduced, etc.New tutorials have been added! For example about the resource panel, about stone, gold and barbarian camps, also about sacred islands, treasure chests, coins, relics, and finally regarding the unlock system.World Map ChangesAt the start of each run, you can choose from 3 random relics. The relics provided by the starter decks are now called ancestral relics, to avoid confusing them with these "starter relics".First utility layer moved further ahead, so now there are two regular islands before the first utility island.Resting camps are less random: now besides the always appearing camps before the boss island (which are temporarily replaced, see next bullet point), there is now always one camp in eac...Read full article on Community Announcements (Portgate Studios)AnnouncementsOfficial
v0.43: Collections & Unlock System!
Hi everyone!v0.43 is already here, sooner than usually updates are rolled out. This is due to implementing only one, big feature this time: meta progression! However, even though this patch took less time to roll out, it's very important: finally people have a bit more reason to start new runs. Let's begin! (And keep in mind that lots of new art are just placeholders)As always: join my Discord server to share your thoughts and receive instant access to the playtest! ;)Collections & Unlock System!You can now browse all cards, burdens and relics in the game through a Collection dialog. Cards can be filtered, letting you easily look at e.g. all the forest cards. Meanwhile relics and burdens also received the "inspect feature", though right now it just simply shows its icon and description on a bigger scale. (more to come!) However, your collection is obviously not fully collected at first!Most collectibles start out "undiscovered", meaning that their effect is hidden until you meet them for the first time during a run. Undiscovered items are introduced to you gradually, resulting in a better learning experience and flow. On the other hand, some cards and relics are initially locked: even their portraits are hidden! These collectibles cannot be found during a run till you unlock them at the end of a session through... well, through playing. Right now all the population you achieve progress an "unlock bar", it's that simple. However, in the future all unlocks will have some challenge attached to them, which you must complete to unlock those particular cards or relics. (E.g. complete an island without failing a demand.)Post-Game Screen!To show your discoveries, unlock progression and just unlocked collectibles... there is now a proper post-game screen! After finishing or abandoning a run, it shows your run's details (though it's pretty minimal right now, more statistics to come!), newly unlocked cards and relics, and of course your final score compared to your high score....Read full article on Community Announcements (Tudvari)
