Frostrail updates hub

Frostrail is still an upcoming Steam Early Access title. FakeFish and Shiro Unlimited have been unusually chatty for a pre-release: announcement in April 2025, FAQ, trailers, a small November test, a larger April 2026 playtest, a 400,000-wishlist milestone, a spring development letter, and a closed beta from 31 August to 7 September 2026. This hub is the timeline plus the three pages people actually need: Closed Beta for the live gate, Playtest History for April versus August, and Roadmap for Early Access.

If you want to play tonight, skip the history and open closed beta. If you are mixing up playtest footage with the May Relic letter, open playtest history. If you want to know whether Linux, pads, or mods exist at 1.0, open the roadmap.

Timeline (verified)

• 10 April 2025 — Reveal. FakeFish (Barotrauma) and Shiro Unlimited. Survival FPS, steam train, Penitent Gardeners, Revenants, Eden Engine. Early Access “next year” at the time — now locked in store copy as Q4 2026.
• 24 April 2025 — FAQ: Unreal Engine 5, crews of 1–4, no Barotrauma-style full moddability, controller later, PC Steam first, Linux tentative, price unannounced.
• February 2026 — Gameplay trailer (IGN Fan Fest / Shiro). Art pass. Wishlist past 200,000.
• April 2026 — Triple-i playtest announcement. Playtest 16–27 April, later extended to 4 May after 400,000 wishlists. Invite-a-friend chain. Focus: early loop and “Fun Factor.”
• 13 May 2026 — Spring letter: tutorial level, progression between levels, multiple exits, dungeon art, tundra expansion, train-defense in obstacle-clearing, Relics, enemy variants, clothing sets, repair workstations. 100,000+ playtest applications mentioned around the first closed test.
• 20 July 2026 — Closed beta dated 31 August 2026. Prior sign-ups auto-considered. Wishlist chatter in press around 500,000.
• 31 August–7 September 2026 — Closed beta during Steam’s PvE Survival Crafting Fest. No NDA. Three invites per accepted player, recursive. Bug button, survey, Discord testing-corps role.

What “current” means on this wiki

Today’s useful facts:

• Not a retail launch. Early Access is still the next public milestone, Q4 2026, expected to last about a year.
• Online co-op 1–4 plus solo. That has not changed since the FAQ.
• Specs TBA on Steam. Anyone posting a GTX 950 minimum as official is wrong; see system requirements.
• Closed beta has an end date. If you are reading this after 7 September 2026 and the Steam button is gone, you are waiting on the next wave or on Early Access. The closed beta page will say so.

How we update these pages

We follow Steam news, Shiro/FakeFish posts, and the socials listed on links. We do not invent patch numbers. When Early Access ships, this hub should grow real patch notes. Until then, treat Discord leaks as unconfirmed.

Guides such as Getting Started and Train and Eden Engine absorb systems from this timeline (Relics, repair benches, multiple exits). If a future post reverses a system, the update page should change first, then the guide.

Reading order for different headaches

• “Can I play this week?” → Closed Beta
• “When is it out, and will it be on Xbox?” → Roadmap
• “What did they add after the first trailer?” → Playtest History, then How to Play
• “Is the wiki unofficial?” → yes. Always prefer the Steam post.

Price, 1.0 date, and console ports remain not announced. Anyone selling a day-one bundle is guessing.