Monster Train 2 DLC The Punished: Release Date and Price

Image: Shiny Shoe and Big Fan, Steam store screenshot

Release time and price

Shiny Shoe's DLC announcement of October 28 says The Punished "is launching on November 10th on PC and consoles and will be available for $7.99". The Steam page lists Windows and Mac, and on November 8 it said the content "plans to unlock in approximately 2 days". Neither post gives an unlock hour. The page's embedded release timestamp reads 14:00 UTC on November 10, which is 6 AM Pacific, so we treat that as probable rather than promised.

What	Your time (UTC)	UTC	US Eastern	US Pacific	UK
Steam page release timestamp (not stated by Shiny Shoe)	Tue, Nov 10 2:00 PM	Tue, Nov 10 14:00	Tue, Nov 10 9:00 AM	Tue, Nov 10 6:00 AM	Tue, Nov 10 2:00 PM
Launch-day dev stream	Tue, Nov 10 10:00 PM	Tue, Nov 10 22:00	Tue, Nov 10 5:00 PM	Tue, Nov 10 2:00 PM	Tue, Nov 10 10:00 PM

What is announced is a launch-day dev stream, "Tuesday, November 10th at 2:00 PM PST", where the designers will answer questions. The last DLC, Destiny of the Railforged, cost $9.99 when it launched on February 2, so The Punished is $2 cheaper. It needs the base game, which Steam sells at $24.99. Eneba listed a Global key for the base game at 13.53 USD when we checked.

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What The Punished adds

The clan is led by Archus, "Darkness Incarnate", the boss from the first Monster Train, now on your side, with Zariel as the second champion. The Steam page builds the clan around damaging your own units. "Punish" triggers when your units are hurt by your own spells or abilities. "Bloodshed" rewards you when a friendly unit takes damage on the same floor. "Chained" makes enemies take damage alongside yours, and Tenacious stops friendly damage from landing the killing blow. A new Monolith takes Tribute from spent Ember and discarded cards, and a rising Devotion level gives new units Zeal, which adds Attack and Health.

Shiny Shoe's pre-launch deep dive of November 4 covers the champion paths. Archus has the Zealous, Dark Worshipper and Inquisitor paths, and Zariel has Matriarch of Chains, Pain Maiden and Devout. On the Dark Worshipper path, Archus's flight summons Darkshards, and the Shattering one deals 40, 120 or 300 damage at its three levels. Each Chained stack deals 50% of the damage the friendly unit took. The screenshots show the idea in card text: Collective Punishment reads "Deal 3 damage to all units, twice", which is the sort of card a Punish deck wants and an ordinary deck does not.

Image: Shiny Shoe and Big Fan, Steam store screenshot

What players are saying

On Reddit, u/OozeMenagerie wrote that they were "kinda glad that one Champion is actually strong and straightforward and the other is more of a challenge". In a separate thread the same day, u/brandonandzeus said it "looks like" the DLC "will be the final content update of the game". u/Blue-Light-Reducer replied that the awkward logbook pages are still there and that, from the AMA that day, nothing like more Celestial Alcove events has been added.

Image: Shiny Shoe and Big Fan, Steam store screenshot

Who should buy it

Buy it on day one if you own Monster Train 2. The base game sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam, 95% of 5,119 English reviews, and the recent score is 89% positive across 86 reviews in the last 30 days, so the audience for a $7.99 clan is a happy one. If you do not own the base game, start there rather than with the DLC, and consider timing: our Steam sale calendar lists the Winter Sale from December 17, and Shiny Shoe's post on December 18 last year said "20% Off Monster Train 2". If you want a deckbuilder to play while you wait, our Slay the Spire 2 review is the obvious comparison, and our Autumn Sale indie picks show what else the last sale offered.

What we have not confirmed

We have not played The Punished, and no early-access impressions are used here. Shiny Shoe has not stated an unlock hour or said The Punished is the final content update, and the console release times are not given in its posts. All details were checked on November 8, 2026.

References

• Monster Train 2: The Punished on Steam
• Monster Train 2 on Steam
• Monster Train 2: Destiny of the Railforged on Steam
• DLC announcement, October 28
• Pre-launch deep dive, November 4
• r/MonsterTrain, early-access thread, November 2
• r/MonsterTrain, hopes for the final update, November 2
• Shiny Shoe on Steam