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Epic Games Store is giving away Mechabellum and Astrea: Six Sided Oracles right now. The deadline is October 2, 2026 at 0:00 JST. Normally they run 4,180 yen (tax included) and 2,800 yen (tax included) respectively, so that’s 6,980 yen (tax included) worth of games going to zero this week.
Both of them support Japanese. That matters more than it sounds. Overseas indie freebies are English-only often enough that you end up claiming one, launching it, and closing it right back down.
Once it’s in your library, it stays playable long after the deadline passes. Which means the only thing on your to-do list is pressing the claim button, and that takes well under a minute.
Epic Games Store rotates its free giveaway every Thursday at 0:00. This week’s pair splits cleanly down genre lines, and honestly, I’d guess most people will only click with one of the two. But they’re free, so there’s no downside to grabbing the one that doesn’t land.
What’s the deadline and how do you claim these?
The deadline is October 2, 2026 at 0:00 JST. Hit “Get” on the store page with your Epic Games account before then and the game stays in your library permanently.
Epic Games Store has run this weekly giveaway continuously since it launched in 2018. It started as a way to punch a hole in Steam’s near-total dominance, and at this point plenty of people keep an account alive purely for it. I’m one of them — honestly, eight out of ten times I launch Epic, it’s to press the claim button.
One thing to watch out for: claiming a game doesn’t install it. You tell yourself you’ll play it later, and then you forget it exists. I’ve done that more times than I want to admit. If you’re planning to run it on a Steam Deck, go ahead and kick off the download the moment you claim it.
| Title | Regular price | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| Mechabellum | 4,180 yen (tax included) | Auto battler |
| Astrea: Six Sided Oracles | 2,800 yen (tax included) | Deck-building roguelike |
| Total | 6,980 yen (tax included) → 0 yen | Both support Japanese |
What kind of game is Mechabellum?
It’s an auto battler where you field everything from small robots up to enormous titans. Paradox Interactive publishes it.
The fighting itself runs on its own. What you do is compose, position, and upgrade your force between rounds, reading what your opponent is about to deploy and stacking counters against it. Wins and losses come down to the accuracy of your reads, not how fast your hands move. It’s built for people who bounced off RTS games because their fingers couldn’t keep up.
The timing here is the interesting part: the game just shipped its big 2.0 update. That update added a roguelite mode and new units, which means even if you hate playing against other people, there’s now a solo track you can grind out on your own terms.
There’s one caveat worth knowing. Around the same time, a free-to-play version of Mechabellum went live on Steam. So if all you want is to poke at it, Steam will let you do that for nothing too. What Epic is handing out is the full 4,180 yen (tax included) retail version, but how the Steam free-to-play version differs in content hasn’t been confirmed as of this writing. If you split your time between both storefronts, just keep that in the back of your mind.
What kind of game is Astrea: Six Sided Oracles?
It’s a deck-building roguelike that uses dice instead of cards. Little Leo Games developed it, Akupara Games published it, and it launched on September 22, 2023.
You start by picking one of six oracles. Each comes with a different starting dice set, different abilities, and a different way of operating, so your character pick is effectively your build direction. The place you’re exploring is the ruins of a lost civilization.
Combat revolves around a binary choice: purify or corrupt. Purifying is the safe play that pacifies enemies, while corrupting takes on risk in exchange for a stronger effect. You pull combinations out of a pool of several hundred dice and assemble your own tactics from them. Plenty of games have poured into this genre since Slay the Spire, but making dice — pure randomness in physical form — the thing you’re trying to control is a genuinely sharp design choice.
And here’s the thing: it’s perfect for Steam Deck. Runs break into discrete chunks, and because it’s turn-based, dozing off mid-session doesn’t wreck anything. It slots right into a “one run on the train home from Ikebukuro” rhythm. …Although I did miss my stop doing exactly that last week, so maybe don’t take my recommendation too loudly.
What’s the next free giveaway?
Starting October 2, 2026 at 0:00, the two games on offer are System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster and Buried Stars.
System Shock 2 is the remastered version of the 1999 immersive sim classic. It’s the game BioShock traces back to, and getting it free in a form you can actually play today is genuinely a big deal. Buried Stars is a survival mystery adventure out of South Korea, and that one is entirely a game about reading.
So October 2 is the day this week’s pair expires and the next pair goes live, simultaneously. Forgetting to claim is the worst possible outcome here, so put it on your calendar.
On top of that, the Epic Discount Sale runs until October 9, 2026 at 0:00. Browsing the library while you’re there to grab freebies generally ends with you buying something you didn’t need. Be careful out there (I’m talking to myself).
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Which of this week’s two should you play first?
Play Astrea: Six Sided Oracles first. The reason is simple: the gap between launching it and understanding why it’s fun is short.
Mechabellum is a game of reads, so until you’ve internalized how the units match up against each other, it’s hard to tell what’s even happening on screen. Get past that point and it transforms completely. Save it for a weekend when you can actually settle in.
And if neither one clicks, that’s fine too. You learned one thing about your own taste for free. Two full retail games worth 6,980 yen (tax included), claimable in a minute if you beat the deadline, yours forever after that — I honestly can’t come up with a single reason not to grab them.
This week’s Epic Games Store free giveaway is Mechabellum (normally 4,180 yen (tax included), from Paradox Interactive) and Astrea: Six Sided Oracles (normally 2,800 yen (tax included), developed by Little Leo Games, released September 22, 2023) — 6,980 yen (tax included) worth of games in total. The deadline is October 2, 2026 at 0:00 JST, and both support Japanese. Mechabellum just added a roguelite mode and new units in its 2.0 update, and a free-to-play version launched on Steam around the same time. Next up, starting October 2 at 0:00, are System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster and Buried Stars. The Epic Discount Sale runs until October 9 at 0:00.
A minute to claim, yours forever. Launch Astrea first.
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Nokko Oda
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