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Casualties: Unknown is a hardcore 2D survival game for PC from Orsoniks, available on Steam. You are a test subject dropped into the caves of an alien planet to bring back lost cargo. You dig, climb, scavenge and craft your way down, one layer at a time.
What makes it different is your body. Every limb, wound and heartbeat is simulated, so you bandage cuts, pull out shrapnel, fight infections and stop bleeding by hand. Your mood matters too, and a character who loses hope gets harder to keep alive.
The full game came out on November 9, 2026, after a free demo that publisher Oro Interactive says more than 500,000 players tried. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, plays with mouse and keyboard, and comes in English and Simplified Chinese.
Already down in the caves? Tell us the deepest layer you have reached. Got questions before buying? Reach out to us directly.
What You Need to Know
- It is a full release, not Early Access. All 11 layers, three characters and the endings are in.
- A free demo with the first five layers is on Steam.
- It is sold on Steam only. It is not on the Epic Games Store or GOG.
- It is single-player. Co-op exists only as a fan mod.
- It runs on almost any PC: Steam asks for a Core i3 laptop chip and 500 MB of space.
- It deals with heavy themes, including depression and self harm.
Quick Facts
How to Download Casualties: Unknown on Windows
Casualties: Unknown is on Steam only. It is a small download, well under 1 GB.
- Step 1. Install Steam. Get Steam and sign in.
- Step 2. Open the store page. Go to Casualties: Unknown on Steam.
- Step 3. Buy the game. Click Add to Cart and check out.
- Step 4. Install it from your Steam library.
- Step 5. Launch it and play the basics course before your first run.
Want to try it first? The free demo installs the same way and has the first five layers.
Casualties: Unknown Price and Editions
Casualties: Unknown costs $22.99 on Steam, with regional pricing in other countries. There is one edition, and it is the whole game.
The only add-on is the Casualties: Unknown Soundtrack for $9.99, made by Orsoniks. It has more than 50 tracks and runs over three hours, as MP3 files. Steam also sells a bundle of the game and the soundtrack together. The soundtrack is a way to support the developer and adds nothing to the game itself.
💡 Your PC is too weak? Cloud gaming is an option. Check on Boosteroid.
What Is Casualties: Unknown?
Casualties: Unknown drops you on a hostile planet as one of thousands of test subjects. Your captors want their lost cargo back, so they send you down into a cave system with 10 main layers, a shorter 11th layer and an optional bonus ending. No one before you has made it back up.
The world is a side-on 2D cave you can dig through, climb and blow apart. Each layer has its own dangers: hostile animals, traps, radiation, flooding and the machinery that earlier expeditions left behind. Old pods and caches hold good loot, but some of it can kill you just as easily as it helps.
The health panel tracks every limb, your blood, your heart rate and your stats.
Injuries are where the game lives. A deep cut keeps bleeding until you bandage it, a dirty wound gets infected, and losing enough blood knocks you out. The heart is simulated too, so blood pressure, heart rhythm and drugs all affect each other. Lose a limb and you can replace it with a prosthetic, and the best tier is better than the original.
Bandaging is a hands-on minigame: drag the dressing around the wound to stop the bleeding.
Your mind is the other half of survival. Your character reacts to pain, hunger and fear, and low mood makes everything harder. Between those two systems, every run turns into a story about how far you can push one fragile body. Finish a run and you unlock the next of the three playable characters, each with their own stats and quirks.
Official Trailer
Watch the official release date trailer for Casualties: Unknown to see the cave layers, the injury system and the creatures you meet on the way down.
Key Features
Every limb can be cut, broken, infected or lost, and your heart and blood are simulated in detail.
Your character reacts to what happens to them, and despair makes survival harder.
Turn cave plants and scrap into bandages, medicine and tools, from more than 300 items.
Each layer brings new dangers, from traps and radiation to flooding and hostile wildlife.
Unlock new species by finishing runs, and reach different endings depending on how deep you go.
Presets and sliders for loot and danger, plus an endless mode after the story.
Is This Game for You?
Our Take
🎮 Our Take
Casualties: Unknown is one of the most detailed injury systems we have seen in a survival game, and it fits inside a small pixel art cave crawler. That contrast is the hook: a cute-looking creature whose blood pressure, infections and mental state you manage like a field medic. Three years of work by one developer show in how many systems connect. The flip side is a steep learning curve and runs that can end after an hour of progress, and the heavy themes are not just decoration.
If you like hardcore survival and do not mind dying a lot, buy it, since the full game doubles the demo and adds the endings. If you are unsure, play the free demo first: it has the same core systems, so it will tell you quickly whether the medical side clicks for you. If you want co-op or a controller game, this is not it without mods.
System Requirements
Casualties: Unknown is a light 2D game. Steam lists only a minimum spec: 64-bit Windows 10, a Core i3-8130U laptop processor and 500 MB of space. There is no separate recommended spec and no listed graphics card, so integrated graphics should be fine.
Thinking of a gaming PC for heavier games? See our Best Gaming Desktops guide.
Tips for Beginners
Play the courses first
The basics course teaches movement, eating and treating wounds. The First Aid course opens once you reach layer 2, and Crafting once you reach layer 3.
Stop bleeding right away
Blood loss is what kills most new players. Bandage a cut as soon as it happens, before you black out.
Keep your mood up
A miserable character performs worse. Eat, sleep and avoid needless pain to keep their spirits from crashing.
Hold Left Control
It shows the labels of every item nearby, which makes it much easier to spot loot in a messy cave.
Tune your first run
Use the run settings on the main menu to raise loot or lower danger while you learn. There is no shame in it.
Best Casualties: Unknown Mods to Start With
Casualties: Unknown has a busy modding scene that started during the free demo. There is no Steam Workshop: mods live on Nexus Mods, and most of them need BepInEx (a free mod loader for Unity games) installed first. All four mods below have been updated for the full release.
💡 These are fan-made mods, not official ones. Many older mods on Nexus were built for the demo, so check that a mod says it supports the full release before you install it. The game has no anti-cheat, so mods carry no ban risk, but a game update can break them until their authors catch up. If the game acts up, remove the BepInEx folder and use Steam’s Verify Integrity of Game Files option.
Casualties: Unknown Screenshots
The inventory wheel, a hungry run in a dim cave, a crystal cave trader and what it looks like when your character starts to pass out. Click any image to open it full size.
- Casualties unknown inventory wheel from
- Casualties unknown hungry cave from
- Casualties unknown crystal cave from
- Casualties unknown blurred vision from
Casualties: Unknown FAQ
Is there a free Casualties: Unknown demo?
Does Casualties: Unknown have co-op or multiplayer?
Can you make Casualties: Unknown easier?
Is Casualties: Unknown suitable for younger players?
Does Casualties: Unknown support controllers?
Is Casualties: Unknown on Epic, GOG or consoles?
What are the Casualties: Unknown system requirements?
Support and Community
- Orsoniks on itch.io, the developer’s own page, where the game first started.
- Oro Interactive, the publisher’s website.
- The official Discord, for help and bug reports.
- News and patch notes on Steam, for every update.
- Steam discussions, for questions and tips.
- r/casualtiesunknown on Reddit, the game’s own subreddit.
- Casualties: Unknown on Nexus Mods, for fan mods.
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