Ex Sanguis Stains The Tacticon Stage With Strategic Bloodshed
LightBulb Crew, the team behind 2020’s cult tactical hit Othercide, is back and bloodier than ever. Their newest title, Ex Sanguis, carves out its place on the Tacticon 2025 stage this week, offering a fresh playtest on Steam and a teaser trailer to satisfy the tactically curious. Fans of stylish brutality and roguelite structure won’t have to look far for their next strategic obsession.
Running from July 17 to 21, Tacticon now features Ex Sanguis as one of its centerpiece strategy experiences. The game takes everything LightBulb Crew learned from Othercide – the haunting aesthetics, turn-based precision, and thematic sharpness – and evolves it into something even more unpredictable and player-driven.
“With the Tacticon build of Ex Sanguis we are going back to the epic turn-based combat of Othercide while introducing new mechanics and a whole new progression system. We are excited to see the reactions of the players,” said Lightbulb Crew CEO, Anders Larsson.
In a world leeched of color and hope, blood becomes not just a resource but a declaration. Every drop spilled paints the battlefield, turning each tactical encounter into a defiant work of art.
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A Bloodsoaked Rebellion Against Stillness
Set in the dying world of Stasia, Ex Sanguis presents a bleak reality hollowed out by an event known as the Purge. The enemy? Not just monsters, but agents of stillness and order, symbols of lifeless perfection. Players fight back using powers born of blood, infusing the stark black-and-white world with crimson reminders of humanity’s refusal to fade quietly.
Ex Sanguis leans hard into dynamic turn-based combat, giving players the ability to manipulate time itself. With timeline effects, players can delay, hasten, or reposition actions on the initiative bar, flipping the flow of a fight in seconds. Combined with environmental hazards, knockbacks, directional bonuses, and status effects, every encounter becomes a puzzle soaked in consequence.
Pick a Path, Define Failure
As a tactical roguelite, Ex Sanguis offers procedural levels and branching paths through a campaign that adapts to player choices. Want to rush headlong into a boss fight for high risk and high reward? It’s possible. Prefer to build up strength, collect resources, and return stronger? That’s also an option.
Even when players fail, progress doesn’t evaporate. Persistent upgrades and world understanding carry over, giving each run narrative and strategic weight. It’s a loop designed not just to challenge but to teach.
The player dictates the tempo. Whether it’s a slow march toward power or a sprint into chaos, Ex Sanguis rewards calculated decisions with bloody satisfaction.
Familiar Terrain For Divinity: Original Sin 2 Fans
Comparisons to other genre staples are inevitable, but Ex Sanguis sets itself apart through both its style and its systemic innovation. While games like Darkest Dungeon focus on psychological attrition and Into the Breach demands puzzle-like precision, Ex Sanguis bridges the gap between atmospheric narrative and layered tactical combat.
Its closest cousin is undoubtedly Othercide, but where that title was about sacrifice and grim inevitability, Ex Sanguis offers more player freedom and nonlinear structure. The choice of path, pace, and approach makes it feel more open-ended than most turn-based roguelites.
Its combat mechanics also tread into terrain more familiar to Divinity: Original Sin 2 fans, where environments are tools and opportunities rather than set dressing. But where Divinity leans into fantasy and dialogue, Ex Sanguis keeps the focus sharp and surgical – pure tactical execution wrapped in visual elegance.
A Stylish Return to Tactical Form
For LightBulb Crew, Ex Sanguis marks a return to the genre that put them on the map. With an evolved progression system, deeper mechanical complexity, and a bolder narrative style, it’s clear the studio isn’t resting on past successes.
The open playtests launching during Tacticon give players an early look at a title that could quietly bleed its way into strategy fans’ must-play lists. It’s violent, it’s intelligent, and above all, it demands respect – or blood.
