Battle codex · Unofficial // Solo dev // Demo live
A classic real-time strategy game with grand strategy and a non-linear campaign, built by solo developer rtsDimon. Command infantry, tanks, aviation and super-heavy artillery across a procedural world buried under soot and concrete. This wiki documents what the developer has actually shipped and said — nothing else.
The setting
Dust Front RTS is an indie real-time strategy game developed and published by rtsDimon, a solo developer. The Steam page describes it as a classic RTS with grand strategy elements, a procedural world and a non-linear campaign. The setting is a planet wrecked by repeated wars, where what is left of humanity survives under a thick layer of soot and concrete behind gas masks.
The structure is two games in one. RTS battles handle army composition, resource gathering, unit production and base building. A global map layer handles territory capture, economy between battles, text events, technology branches and garrisons that carry veteran units from fight to fight. The developer has described the target as C&C-style RTS combat with a Dawn of War: Dark Crusade campaign sitting on a more complex global mode.
Quick facts
Start here
New commanders often lose the first mission in the opening ten minutes. These three pages fix the three mistakes that cause it.
Controls, the MCV deployment, harvester economy and the strike-group screen — the mechanics you need before your first battle.
Read guide02Parts are the resource everything runs on. Where they come from, why passive income matters, and what to do when you run dry.
Read guide03Space pauses the battle and still lets you build. It is the single biggest quality-of-life tool in the game.
Read guideThe codex
Twenty-nine search terms, twenty-nine pages. No keyword stuffing — each page answers one question and links to the official source it came from.
Controls, opening build order and the three mistakes that end a first run early.
Infantry squads, tanks, self-propelled artillery and the Dreadnought — what each role does.
The resource everything runs on: harvesting, passive income and reclaiming wrecks.
The Fourth Industrial Empire, Bandits, Mutants and the robot faction still in reserve.
Tactical pause, directional armour arcs, spotter-directed artillery and terrain hazards.
MCV deployment, macro-building buffs and building outside your starting footprint.
What the free demo contains, the full D-30 changelog and how players received it.
Everything confirmed about the full game, and an honest answer on the date.
What is confirmed about saving, and what the developer has not stated yet.
No console, no codes. What actually exists instead, and what the risks are.
The only published spec tier, what it means for laptops, and platform status.
rtsDimon: solo developer, funding model and how he handles feedback.
Store page, demo page, news hub and community hub — every official Steam link.
The only legitimate way to install Dust Front RTS, and why we list no others.
Where to find official captures, and what the art direction looks like.
Official art sources and how to make your own at the right resolution.
Demo
The demo launched on June 15, 2026 for Steam Next Fest carrying a single mission type — Siege of an Industrial City — against either the Bandit faction or the Mutant faction. The developer expected around two hours of play. Players logged 30 to 70. It was extended past the festival and then left up indefinitely.
Recently verified
Guide
The complete index of every Dust Front RTS guide on this wiki: what a new player should read first, what the free demo teaches, and what is still unconfirmed.
Guide
The best Dust Front RTS tips come from the developer: build battalions not squads, treat economy as everything and move your base, and hold a wide frontline.
Guide
How to play Dust Front RTS: deploy the MCV, run a harvester economy, use strike groups and reinforcements, and use tactical pause. Controls player-compiled.
Units
A guide to Dust Front RTS units: infantry, tank forces, aviation and specialist vehicles, plus squad and vehicle handling rules, no invented stats.
Units
No official Dust Front RTS best units tier list exists, so this is a role-based read: Dreadnought, artillery, spotters, repair vehicles, harvesters, Brutes.
Units
Where the Dust Front RTS MLRS comes from, how its deploy-to-fire mode works, and what is unconfirmed — no official stat block exists for rocket artillery.
Editorial standard
Most Dust Front RTS pages on search engines are built from trailers and guesswork. This one is built from three sources only: the Steam store page, the developer's own Steam news posts, and the pinned community FAQ written by rtsDimon. Anything that cannot be traced to one of those is marked as unconfirmed rather than filled in. That especially applies to redemption codes — the game has none, and this site will publish an empty panel rather than invent strings that do not work.
Quick answers
No date has been announced. Steam lists the release as "To be announced", and the developer has said he will not give a date until it is official because he dislikes postponements. What he has confirmed is roughly 15 hours for a single campaign.
Read next →No. Dust Front RTS is a single-player game. rtsDimon has explained this at length: he has no intention of splitting attention between a single-player and a multiplayer community, and he does not consider multiplayer a required part of the genre.
Read next →No. There is no redemption system in the game. Any site listing Dust Front RTS codes is publishing fabricated strings.
Read next →Step 01
The demo is free on Steam and still live. Read how the economy works first — then deploy the MCV.