Steam Deck news for anyone who fancies a tabletop adventure with friends: For The King II is on a Steam Free Weekend right now. You can play IronOak Games’ turn-based roguelite RPG for free until Thursday 12 November 2026 at 18:00 UK time. It is a free weekend only, not free to keep, so once that UK end time passes you need a purchased copy to carry on. You will find the Play for Free button on the For The King II Steam store page, and there is a big discount running alongside it.
Steam Deck news: For The King II free weekend details
Steam shows the free play window ending on 12 November at 10:00am Pacific. In the UK that is 18:00, because we are on GMT (UTC+0) right now. The trial opened on 9 November at 18:00 UK, so you get a full three days to roll some dice with your party. Install it while the free weekend is live on the store page, and you can play solo or bring up to three friends along.
The UK price is 70% off at the moment: £19.99 down to £5.99 for the base game, according to Steam’s live GB pricing. The store lists it as a Midweek Deal with the offer ending on 23 November, and the earlier character packs and the Smoke & Steel Cosmetic Pack are discounted too. Prices and end dates can change, so re-check the store page before you pay.
What For The King II is
For The King II came out on 2 November 2023, developed by IronOak Games and published by Curve Games. It is the sequel to For The King: you battle against Fahrul’s tyrannical Queen alone or as a party of four, moving across a board-game style map, rolling for every encounter and fighting turn-based battles. It is a roguelite, so runs can end badly and you build up what you unlock over time. Steam lists Adventure, Indie, RPG and Strategy as its genres, and the user reviews currently sit at Mostly Positive.
The multiplayer side is what makes it a good fit for a free weekend. Steam lists single-player, online co-op, shared or split-screen co-op, cross-platform multiplayer and Remote Play Together, plus full controller support and Steam Cloud saves. That means you can play couch co-op on one screen, or invite a friend who does not own the game through Remote Play Together.
The new A Mother Below update
The free weekend lines up with IronOak’s latest update, which went live the same day. It adds a free adventure called A Mother Below, set around the Fahrul Warrior martial arts competition. It brings a new luminescent biome called the Everbloom Canopy, a new enemy group called the Isospore Faction, custom encounters and Fairy Rings, a new dungeon encounter in the Spore Caverns. Rewards include Bardot, a boomerang-throwing mercenary, the Pack Rat trait and the Everbloom outfit. Bardot and Pack Rat are free in the Lore Store for a few weeks before they go back to their normal Lore price.
Alongside it there is a paid Dust to Dust Character Pack with two new playable classes: the Gravedigger and the Pugilist. The Pugilist fights unarmed and can chain up to four attacks if it keeps a combo going between turns. The pack also adds companions, cosmetics, gear and a new trait called Thick Skull. You do not need it to enjoy the free weekend, since A Mother Below comes with the base game once it is updated.
Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame ratings
Valve rates For The King II Verified on Steam Deck. Its report says the default controller configuration is fully functional, the on-screen glyphs match the Deck’s buttons, the interface text is legible on the built-in screen and the default settings perform well. For a slow, turn-based game full of small stat numbers, the legible text check is the one I would care about most, and it passes.
Steam Machine is also Verified. Valve’s Machine report shows a fully functional default controller config, glyphs that match the device and a default configuration that performs well, which suits a couch session with a few controllers on the TV.
Steam Frame has no rating yet from Valve for For The King II, so I am not making any claims about it on the headset. If Frame support matters to you, keep an eye on the compatibility section of the store page.
Who should try it this weekend
If you like turn-based strategy, the Age of Wonders 4 free weekend I covered last week scratched a similar itch on a much bigger scale. For The King II is lighter and friendlier for groups, and much easier to play in short handheld sessions. For other co-op games on Deck, Pit of Goblin’s 1.0 launch with 6-player co-op and Tricky Madness adding free 4-player split-screen are both worth a look.
Bottom line: For The King II is free to play until 12 November 2026 at 18:00 UK, Verified on both Steam Deck and Steam Machine, and £5.99 in the UK if you want to keep your party’s progress going after that. Everything you need is on the For The King II Steam store page.
