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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Arena Monarchy
Kevin Zhang · Published by Kevin Zhang
Content notice: There are ways to trigger decapitations and crush heads during combat. Some character biographies allude to sexual content and there is some occasional cursing.
8 user reviews — 100% positive (8 reviews)
Last updated 3 Oct 2026
Arena Monarchy is a gladiator management game with a heavy focus on turn-based combat. Collect loot, theorycraft builds, upgrade your ludus and become champion!
£4.29
Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Indie, RPG, Strategy, Early Access · 2025 · More under £5 games
In Arena Monarchy, strategize and theorycraft as you build a formidable ludus, facing off against opponents in turn-based battles. Collect loot and upgrade your fighters to claim the championship title.
About this game
Arena Monarchy is set in the same world as Dead Monarchy. This is a challenging game with no handholding, the inevitable mistakes that you will make will become part of the learning experience. This is a game that requires you to actually think, to plan several steps ahead and to come to terms with loss. It is also a game that costs about as much as a coffee but if you are willing to look hard enough, it is a game with a frightening amount of depth just below the surface.
Arena Monarchy Features
Manage a ludus and personally lead your gladiators in the arena. You are a desperate lanista, every fight could be your last. It is game over if your player character dies in combat.
Lead up to 12 gladiators during combat. Supports both manual saving and ironman mode. Death is permanent for your fellow gladiators.
Survive in an anachronistic world inspired by ancient and medieval history. Weapons and armor are loosely inspired by real world civilizations.
Collect over 500+ pieces of equipment, consisting of visually unique helmets, armor, trinkets and rings. 6 tiers of quality for helmets and armor.
Light, medium and heavy armor types that change your fighting style. Hunt for masterwork equipment that has unique effects and much higher stats to turn your gladiators into champions.
Master 35 melee weapon types, 5 shield types and 1 ranged weapon type. Gladiators have backgrounds assigned to them which determine what weapon type they will be proficient with. Collect over 250+ visually unique weapons. Just like with the helmets and amors, there are 6 tiers of weapon quality with acquiring rare masterwork weapons as the ultimate goal.
A combined total of 500 abilities and perks. Each weapon type is entirely unique with its own weapon abilities and upgrades. Specialize your gladiators by focusing on weapon abilities or round out your gladiators with general perks. Once you are familiar with the combat system, go even further and combine weapon abilities and general perks together in the same build and swap between two weapon types to create hybrid fighting styles.
Over 35 factions to fight against with their own fighting styles and visually unique unit designs.
The new weapon abilities greatly expand upon the combat system from Dead Monarchy which already featured an elevation system that affects hit chance, as well as counter attacks, attacks of opportunity, ranged combat and a flanking system where unit positioning actually matters.
8 upgradable buildings, each with their own unique effects which creates an additional layer of strategy. Balance between investing directly into the infrastructure of your ludus and upgrading your gladiators.
Solo Indie Developer
This game has been developed by a solo developer. As a commitment to remain transparent to my fellow gamers, Arena Monarchy in some ways can be seen as a standalone expansion to Dead Monarchy or a spin-off title. That being said, I wholeheartedly believe that I have created enough new content to justify the price.
Cheers,
Kevin.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7 3.4GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 20 GB available space
- Sound Card: Sound Card Compatible With DirectX.
- Additional Notes: 64-Bit Only, storage requirements may increase as the game is updated.
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Build 4
- Patch for the Unity Engine security flaw issue. - Fixed some small UI lockup issues. - Fixed combat calculation errors in some abilities.Read full article on Community Announcements (Kevin Zhang)Patch NotesOfficial
Hotfix 3.1
- Transfer All button in loot menu has been moved up to the top and made more obvious. - Exit Button and Return Button has been made more obvious. - Units that spawn in "Local Championships" now drop "Championship Insignias" used for crafting endgame trinkets. - All the new weapon types up to "Ancestral" tier have now been added to crafting. A new game is required to see these new recipes, however this update does not break existing playthroughs, you just cannot see them since the recipes are only added at the game start.Read full article on Community Announcements (Kevin Zhang)Patch NotesOfficial
Dev Update #2: Build 3 (Arena Champions)
Hey guys,This large content update mainly focuses on implementing the remaining 5 Grand Arena champions for Arena Monarchy. AM launched into EA with 90% of the content already implemented with the main goal just being tweaks and catching bugs. The scope and scale was a lot smaller compared to Dead Monarchy but at the same time, given that combat is still the main focus, overall each content drop is quite meaty.This update will be the last major update for Arena Monarchy as now I am shifting towards implementing this content back into Dead Monarchy.Grand Arena Champions:- Krixus, Auctus, Darcus, Tacius and Maximus. The Grand Arena champions become available after defeating all the Pit champions.- New unique equipment has been added, from the new bosses.- Grand Arena champions and by extension "Argonaut" type units are the most difficult enemies that AM and by extension DM have to offer. Since they have stats and perks that go beyond the standard level, I'm happy to announce that the level cap has now been extended.- Maximum level is now increased to level 31.- Maximum experience is now increased to 850,000.- Maximum number of perks increased to 30, that is +10 from 20.Cheers,Kevin.Read full article on Community Announcements (Kevin Zhang)Patch NotesOfficial
Dev Update #1: Build 2 (Pit Champions)
Hey guys, This update introduces the 4 remaining pit champions which will round out all the champions for the pits. This is the first pass and there will probably be further updates to this. You will need to start a new playthrough in order to get access to the new pit champions. Pit Champions: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45376518/941293a328ee501d98c1fb06ad10fca72af4170d.jpg Overhauled Lighting: - Overhauled the lighting in all interior arenas. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45376518/e0e637a30fcfa7be5c0bd15cbf9bf2ad305261fa.jpg New: - The equipment of recruits will now be displayed in the Shelter and Lodge. - New masterwork armor sets have been added to "Local Championships". Changes: - Sped up time transition when ending the day. - Slowed down the height/zoom transition of the camera. - You can now select your 3 starting companions rather than have them be randomly selected. - Marketplace, lodge and shelters will now restock each day rather than each week. Fixes: - Fixed the issue of the Lodge having Midland recruits when it should have only had Northlands/Southlands/Eastlands/Westlands recruits. I will continue to go through feedback and iterate. However, with the limited time that I have the next update probably won't be for a few months. Cheers, Kevin.Read full article on Community Announcements (Kevin Zhang)AnnouncementsOfficial
Arena Monarchy Released
Hey guys, Well, this will be the last of the "spam" for a while. Arena Monarchy has now been officially released into early access. It will be 10% off for 2 weeks. As mentioned before, the vast majority of the content in Arena Monarchy has already been implemented, a lot different to the initial EA release of Dead Monarchy. The only major content left in Arena Monarchy that needs to be implemented are the various arena champions that form the "goal" that the player works towards. Overall, the focus in Arena Monarchy is a lot more refined, focusing solely on combat, theorycrafting builds and collecting loot with some base management on the side as well. Main Differences: To reiterate again, here are the main differences between Dead Monarchy and Arena Monarchy. Arena Monarchy has waypoint plotting for grid movement during combat, this feature will eventually find its way into Dead Monarchy as well as the majority of the content from AM. Arena Monarchy has base management, the interactions between each building in AM has been streamlined and is a lot more "snappier" than DM. Click on the battle grid to plot a grid waypoint. The orange outline will project the path. You can place multiple waypoints. Click to cancel a waypoint. Click on the destination tile to move the character along the plotted path to the selected tile. Wild Strike has gotten a rework. It now costs 10 AP across all weapon types, maximum hit chance is reduced to 50% after getting the bonus perks. All weapon abilities have a minimum of 50% chance to hit. This is an attempt at trying to bring Wild Strike back in line and make weapon abilities competitive especially after implementing all the new weapon abilities, I want them to be used. Time progresses forward by one day only when you fight. This means that you can only do one fight per day so you have to pick your fights carefully as you'll need to manage daily wages and intake. Most of your loot will come directly from the arena fights rather than buy...Read full article on Community Announcements (Kevin Zhang)
