Stronghold 4 Tools: Release Date, Demo, PC Specs

Six tools on this site

• Release countdown: days left to December 7, 2026, in your time zone.
• Demo checklist: 11 things to try in the free demo, saved in your browser.
• Can I run it?: 5 checks of your PC against the minimum and recommended specs.
• Early Access tracker: 20 features sorted by demo, December 7 or 1.0.
• Army cost calculator: 10 units from the demo, 5 with confirmed costs in gold, honor and weapons.
• Building cost calculator: wood and workers for 7 buildings, with the food chains from farm to table.

Stronghold 4 at a glance

What is Stronghold 4?

Stronghold 4 is the next main game in Firefly Studios' castle sim series: you build a castle and the economy behind it, keep your peasants fed, taxed and loyal, and hold your walls against sieges in real time. It is a prequel to the original 2001 Stronghold, following the shepherd Penryn of Wethel through a 22-mission campaign. New are weather that changes farming and archery, larger maps built in Unreal Engine 5, castle cosmetics, traps, and units like the Captain. The Stronghold 4 FAQ answers the most common questions.

Before December 7

The free Stronghold 4 demo has Free Build and Skirmish against three CPU lords; test your PC with the Stronghold 4 system requirements checker, and see on the Early Access page why multiplayer is not in yet (the Stronghold 4 multiplayer guide has the details).

What we are building

Before launch, everything here comes from Firefly's own posts, the Steam page and the free demo. From December 7 we add what players need in the game itself: the CPU lords, buildings, units, popularity and food planning, each checked in the game and dated with the game version.