From Press Release:
Snakes, Forests, Spiders, Mirrors, Wendigos, Death itself: what is your deepest fear? Bite the bullet, quite literally, and descend into the American Nightmare. Push through “shotgun therapy” against the Horrors: they are what you fear.
The Tactical Extraction Looter leaves Early Access today. Published by Slitherine and developed by Ice Code Games, makers of Hard West II and Rogue Waters, Nightmare Frontier is set in an alternative 1900s Wild West: the evil Dreadwaver nightmares are here (with their flashes and spindly legs) and are taking over the city.
Players will step into the Ringleader’s shoes, choosing their team to harvest loot from defeated monsters and try to tame the Nightmare and create a new future utilizing the nightmare force. While fighting through the city in ever-changing, randomly generated runs with fast-paced tactical battles, players must watch out for environmental hazards and advantages, carefully studying the battlefield and unit positioning. The gap between losing the whole crew and clearing the board in a single turn comes down to how players read the battlefield: it’s a weapon of its own.
The Dreadwavers
Players will face the manifestations of Bulls, Death, Fire, Puppets, Horse, Plagues, War, Hunger, and many more Horrors. A scavenger’s weakest trait attracts monsters, each of the 16 fears determines the type of terrors and loot that can be found. When building a team, players must consider not only each character’s weapon, health, and class, but also the Dreadeavers they bring with them. Picking who joins the raid decides which monsters and hazards the crew will face, and what resources they will harvest.
Carve the Path
On the expedition map, players can choose their route between various tactical points of interest, each permanent or temporary bonuses of varying rarity. Whether to search for extraction points, engage in combat, or strengthen their team is entirely a matter of strategy.
The Price of Greed
The extraction map is infinite. The deeper the fight in the city, the worse the terrors encountered, but also the better the loot. Players must push their luck, confronting greater monsters and risking the loss of everything, or returning home with rare profits.
Hideout and Seek
The Hideout is the headquarters, the only Nightmare-proof corner of the City. Weapons, gear, Nightmare Essence and monster parts can be combined to upgrade the equipment. Resetting the Nightmare Meter, upgrading the Hideout, the equipment and the characters, regrouping and strategizing, and much more. To achieve new or upgrade mechanics, players must delegate a Survivor to work at the Compound, permanently removing them from the party roster.
The Path of Nightmare Frontier
Developed by Ice Code Games, the game was released in Early Access in June 2025. In December 2025, Slitherine became the publisher of Nightmare Frontier. Over the past year, the game has seen significant improvements based on community feedback.
Through many major updates and several minor patches released since launch, the title has gained a new Fear and enemy type, the Final Boss mechanic, the conclusion of the campaign’s storyline, new gameplay features such as bullet ricochets, and a wide variety of new items, side quests, objectives, and more.
Today the game launched 1.0 and has a promising future ahead. During Slitherine Next, the publisher’s event dedicated to updates and announcements, a roadmap was revealed that included not one, but two DLCs. Players can therefore expect even more content, effort, and fun in the future.
About The Slitherine Group
The Slitherine Group is the world’s leading producer and publisher of digital strategy and wargames. Under the Slitherine (www.slitherine.com) and Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com) brands it has published literally hundreds of games, with many award-winning titles in its portfolio and spanning all digital platforms, from home consoles to PC. Slitherine also works with a wide array of key licensing partners, such as NBC Universal®, Games Workshop®, Sony Pictures, BBC, Osprey, and many others.
