Expeditions: Samurai has a release date. Campfire Cabal and THQ Nordic have confirmed the fourth entry in the Expeditions series enters Steam Early Access on August 7, 2026, and dropped a new Companions trailer introducing the eight allies you’ll be recruiting, arguing with, questing alongside, and — if you play it right — turning into something more than crewmates.
Your hero will always be a Flynn, but the rest is yours: choose their first name, customise their appearance, and pick from one of four classes. Everything after that depends on who you bring with you and how you treat them.
The Companions
Eight companions join your crew across the campaign, each with their own story and a dedicated quest chain. Earn their trust and an ally becomes a friend — or something more. The trailer introduces four of them:
A skilled burglar who excels at stealth and has a genuine knack for cracking open doors and locks. If there’s a way in that doesn’t involve the front door, Antje has already found it.
A relative of the late captain — and just as arrogant as he is deadly with a sword. The kind of companion whose competence is never in question and whose personality very much is.
A warrior seeking her place in history. The Onna-Musha were the female warriors of Japan’s feudal era — Tora-Hime’s presence signals the game is engaging with the setting rather than just using it as backdrop.
The diplomatic superhero of your crew. In a game about arriving somewhere foreign and trying not to make everything worse, the guy who can talk his way through a situation is worth more than a sword.
Four more companions are shown in the trailer. Each of the eight brings their own quest chain and their own reasons for being aboard — the Expeditions series has consistently built its best moments out of the friction and loyalty between the people you’re travelling with, and Samurai looks to be leaning into that hard.
The Expeditions Series
Expeditions has built a quietly excellent reputation across three entries, each dropping a party of outsiders into a specific historical moment and letting the tactical combat and companion relationships carry the weight. If Samurai is your entry point and you want to see where the series has been:
Campfire Cabal will publish a roadmap ahead of the August 7 Early Access launch, detailing what’s included at launch and what’s coming in future updates. For a series with this much narrative and companion depth, an Early Access rollout gives the studio room to build that out with player feedback — which is exactly the right use of the model.
