Last year the developers over at Shiny Shoe released Monster Train 2 which ended up being one of our highest ranked games of 2025. If you missed the initial review, you can view it here, however the TLDR is a near perfect score of 9.5. Since the initial release, the game has continued to deliver content updates. Previously we’ve seen free content added in Lost Arsenal and Echoes of the Void added into the game free of charge. On February 2nd, Monster Train 2 released its first paid DLC with Destiny of the Railforged.

First – There is Also Some Free Content

Before we dive fully into our review of the new content, it’s worth noting that there is a free playable clan coming to Monster Train 2. Seen in the original Monster Train, the Wurmkin clan returns with a new balanced deck. Players of the original Monster Train may recognize many cards but the art is redesigned to fit the new aesthetic. For those who are achievement hunters, this clan also comes with its own set of achievements for you to collect.

Now – Monster Train 2: Destiny of the Railforged New Content

Of course, this review isn’t for the free new clan that has joined the fight. Monster Train 2: Destiny of the Railforged is adding hours of content to the game through the new clan, new game mode, and the souls that require unlocking. Destiny of the Railforged also makes it feel as though there is a new difficulty level unlocked.

In order to access the new game mode, you’ll have to make your way to the Rift Station. Even if you haven’t completed the main game, you’ll be able to access the Rift Station at any time. The Rift Station will allow you to depart on the Soul Survivor run as well as view all of the Souls you’ve collected in the Soulforge.

Soul Savior Mode – It May Break You

It would be foolish of me not to stress that this is not for beginners. If you’ve just purchased Monster Train 2 and the DLC and you dive into this mode to start, you may not have a good time. The Soul Savior run really expects you to have learned synergies between clans and ways to maximize your abilities. After taking time away from Monster Train 2, it was quite difficult to jump right into the Soul Savior mode. If it’s been a while or you haven’t played the new clans, I’d recommend a few standard runs first. Even if you’ve played the Wurmkin in the original game, it’s worth doing a few runs to learn their new balancing.

The Soul Survivor mode also comes with difficulty levels. You do have to unlock the harder levels so you cannot jump through right away. Start at Bloom, go up to Tangle, and finally Overgrowth. At the base Bloom you’ll just be looking to defeat the Lifemother. Tangle and Overgrowth will see enemies have higher hit points and attack power to take you out sooner. Soul Savior is hard enough on its own so proceed with caution.

Another change in the Soul Savior run is the ability to choose the order you fight the new bosses in. To reach the Lifemother you will need to beat four bosses before the final fight. However, you do get to choose the order of these bosses. To not take this lightly as you progress through. When you defeat the boss, they leave you with a curse that impacts the rest of your run. You’ll want to make sure you read each curse and check out how your current deck can handle these combinations. The curses themselves may make you change your strategy a bit mid run to combat the lasting effects. Players must be very strategic here.

Remember, this is not meant to be easy. You should become very familiar with the synergies to get through a run. Be ready to lose quite a bit. Especially until you find a combination of souls that works for you.

Your Soul is Mine

A wonderful bit about the Soul Savior run is that you’ll get to really vary up your play based on the souls you bring along with you. There are three categories of souls: souls for units, spells, or impacting the run on a global level. At the start of a run, you will get to equip up to three souls on your run. When you begin you’ll only have access to one soul and you’ll have to run through many runs to unlock others. Truly this game mode adds hundreds of hours as you will not only unlock the souls but also upgrade the souls up to three levels.

For those unfamiliar with Monster Train 2 or roguelite deckbuilders in general, this may feel repetitive. However, this is untrue as these souls will truly vary your game to the point of almost making it feel as though it is a different game all together. To their credit, what it does not do is make the game feel easy. This is true no matter what collection and combination of souls you run in with.

The souls also are able to be adjusted as you progress through your run. So while you may put a soul on a Siren to start, you may change it to a Bog Fly summon later on in your run. As you progress you may also get the ability to add new souls to your run. This will take some time and you won’t get to choose which souls mid-run. Just hope that whatever souls you find blend nicely with the strategy you are moving forward with.

Railforged Clan

The Railforged clan is quite interesting. They work very nicely with clans that are very equipment focused such as the Banished. Personally, I found this to be quite a great combination to get me up against the Lifemother and the four before her. Again, it does also rely on a bit of RNG to get the right cards and unlocking the rest of their deck but a powerful combination regardless.

This clan also brings in a new mechanic called Forge. You will use the forge points to buff up your fighters during the battle by increasing their short term attack and armor. Thankfully, you can also turn off your use of forge points if you would rather continue building up your points to buff up just the right card. This does mean that players do need to make sure that you are mindful of these points and turning it on and off. The forge points are automatically spent when you summon a new unit unless you turn off this ability.

Did I forget this quite a few times at the start? Yes. Once you get a groove with this though it can be quite powerful against enemies who hit hard. Having someone with lots of armor who hits hard especially quick the quick mechanic was quite powerful and saved me in quite a few fights.

Herzal, What Have You Been Hiding?

As part of the expansion, we not only are receiving a new game mode, but also a bit more story. As someone who did not play the original Monster Train, I can’t say whether or not this lore was revealed prior. Regardless, it is interesting to learn more about father daughter duo Herzal and Heph.

One odd thing though is that if you dive into the DLC before completing enough runs of the main game the overall lore is disjointed. You could learn Herzal’s story earlier than you should. While it’s a small error in continuity, it almost feels like there should be some fail safe to prevent this. For those who have been playing since MT2’s release, it isn’t a big deal, but for new comers it may feel odd.

Heph and Herzal in scenes meant for the DLC talk about how they’ve beat the Titans and can continue to. Yet for some players, they may not have reached that part of their journey. There’s a chance that these characters will be unfamiliar to players who jump right into Soul Savior mode. The story definitely picks up as though you know who they are and you should before you try this game mode. For those who have completed the standard game, enjoy the story. As always, we won’t spoil it for you, even if the story isn’t always the selling point of the game.

The Grind is Real and Not Logged

The grind is real with this game and you have to go in anticipating this. This may feel like a detriment if you are not a roguelite fan, a deck builder fan, or someone who enjoys honing their skills against difficult runs. For those who enjoy getting better, unlocking new cards, souls, and strategies, this is where the party really starts. The more you unlock, the more strategies are revealed, and the more enjoyment you’ll find. Of course, that is assuming this is where you find your joy in gaming.

That’s not to say this is a perfect DLC. There is one big thing that seems to be missing. A log book would be great for this mode in order to see how your runs have progressed each time. Hopefully this is something we see in the future developments of the game. I have to imagine this is a feature players will be requesting. Part of the fun is seeing your own growth overall, especially as you try new strategies. If you are sticking with this new game mode for the long term, you probably want to see your stats to compare.

Final Thoughts

Easy to learn, hard to master, perhaps even more difficult to complete. It is a roguelite so even if you complete one run, you probably haven’t fully seen everything there is to see. The positive with this DLC is that while it is more of the same Monster Train 2 you’ve come to love, there’s more than enough to rejuvenate the game. Especially for those who love the challenge. The addition of a separate logbook and the ability to make sure that no one can get the story out of order would probably make this a perfect DLC. Perhaps in time these small tidbits will be added. Even without this, the DLC is well worth your time. If you’re a Monster Train 2 fan who has stepped away for a bit, now is the time to return.

Monster Train 2: Destiny of the Railforged DLC is now available on PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. Nintendo Switch players can expect the DLC to be available February 10, 2026. Thank you to Shiny Shoe and Big Fan Games (a Devolver Digital publishing label) for the review code.

The DLC was reviewed on PC.