The Skaven are a skittering, somewhat helpless little species from the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. Usually they’re depicted in large hordes of fleshy hitboxes (In Vermintide) or even larger hordes of sneak-kill swarm-swarm (in the new Total War Warhammer update which features a “rat counter”). Warhammer Age of Sigmar Deathmaster is changing all that by giving us insight into how, inside the rats’ convoluted society, one Skaven ascends from a lowly pack-rat to a fearsome Deathmaster of Clans Eshin. Releasing just next year, here’s everything we know from the trailer.
The extended look at gameplay from Gamescom 2026 illuminated a few details about this sneaky-stabby Skaven adventure:
- 2.5D Metroidvania. The world of Deathmaster is laid out as the burrows and caverns and battlefields of the Skaven are: vertically. You see the world as a vertical slice, bisecting their horrid homes and gnarly passageways. It’s not an uncommon genre, but for a game balancing stealth and violence like this it’s a perfect choice.
- Tools and Traps. Clans Eshin are the sneaky, opportunistic members of the Skaven. From throwing stars to plague wind vials and lightning-fast pounces, your Deathmaster-to-be learns more and more Eshin tricks as you play. The trailer showed plenty of opportunity for distraction and stealth as well as straight up rat-murder.
- Boss Fights. Unlike some stealth-based games, you can put up a fight in response. In the trailer we were treated to a giant armoured Rat Ogre entering stage right, setting the scene for a boss battle. Let’s just hope our little Night Runner chose the Ogre as his prey this match.
- Skill trees and progression. While the depths of these systems are still waiting to be plumbed, we did see a tree labeled “Night Runner”. For those familiar with Clans Eshin, you’ll be aware that there are 3 main cohorts: Gutter Runners, Night Runners and Deathmasters. It’ll be interesting to see these as two alternate playstyles, followed by the final “Deathmaster” form that combines the two.
- Warpstone. It wouldn’t be a depiction of Skaven life without an unhealthy obsession with the magical green glow of Warpstone. Warpstone serves as the game’s levelling currency, but can also be seen and used in the environment as we saw when a giant Warp Lighting Cannon went off.
Skaven have been oddly absent from the recently overlooked Realms of Ruin, but have been getting plenty of attention in Total War Warhammer 3, Vermintide 1 and 2, and now their own standalone title. In fact, they almost tie with Nurgle for saturation of videogame appearances! But there’s a more exciting bit of news about the involvement of Chaos Gods in videogames right around the corner with Boltgun 2…Slaanesh is in, but so is Vashtor…
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Deathmaster is available to wishlist on Steam now
