Styx: Master of Shadows and its sequel are the Epic Games Store‘s free games for January 15, officially announced as part of the platform’s latest giveaway rotation, which was confirmed significantly later than usual. The stealth duology will mark the fifth and sixth titles offered free to Epic Games Store users in 2025.
Epic’s most recently concluded free game promotion saw it give away the ancient China-set RTS Total War: Three Kingdoms and the futuristic PvPvE shooter Wildgate from January 1 through 8. Boasting a combined retail value of nearly $90, the two titles marked the company’s first week-long giveaway of 2026, concluding a two-week stretch of daily rotating free games that began with Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel and ended with Trine Classic Collection on December 18 and 31, respectively.
Epic Games Store: A Comprehensive List Of Every Free Game It’s Had To Date
Here’s a list of all the games that have been made free on the Epic Games Store. You have until January 15 to get the current free game.
After Unusual Delay, Epic Games Store Confirms January 15–22 Giveaway Details
After Epic’s latest giveaway came to an end on January 8, something unusual took place: it wasn’t automatically replaced by another freebie. While this wasn’t the first time that the company failed to launch a new freebie exactly at 11am ET on a Thursday, today was one of the longest unexpected delays since the weekly free game promotions were introduced in late 2018. It wasn’t until 11:40am ET that the EGS website was at last updated with the cover of next week’s freebie: Styx: Master of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness. As per usual, both will be up for grabs for exactly seven days, from January 15 through 22.
Epic Games Store Free Games Right Now
A Brief Intro to the Styx Duology, the Next Pair of EGS Freebies
Cyanide Studio’s Styx duology consists of Master of Shadows and Shards of Darkness, released in October 2014 and March 2017, respectively. Both are dark fantasy stealth games starring the titular Styx, a wisecracking goblin assassin. Both offer AA production values and a gameplay loop that rewards patience and exploration. Both have “Very Positive” user reviews on Steam, based on a combined total of more than 6,000 player submissions. Neither has ever before been free on the Epic Games Store.
Epic’s Newly Launched Freebie Is Tower Defense Royalty
While waiting for the Styx duology giveaway to kick off, Epic Games Store users are able to claim Bloons TD 6. Developed by Auckland, New Zealand-based Ninja Kiwi, the 2018 release has long been lauded as one of the best tower defense games in the genre’s history. Its stellar reputation is reflected in its “Overwhelmingly Positive” Steam reviews, based on nearly 220,000 user impressions. More specifically, as of January 2026, Bloons TD 6 holds a 96.24% player approval rating on Valve’s storefront, ranking 46th among the highest-rated Steam games of all time.
All the Times Bloons TD 6 Was Free on Epic Games Store
- December 15 – 16, 2022 (holiday season mystery game)
- August 3 – 10, 2023 (weekly giveaway)
- January 8 – 15, 2026 (weekly giveaway)
One of the standout features of Bloons TD 6 is its sheer volume of content: over 80 maps, 25 monkey tower types, 16 power-ups, 130 enemy types, and 17 game modes spanning four difficulty levels. A vast and varied selection of daily missions is also part of the package, together with robust co-op support for up to four players and a no-nonsense Challenge Editor that is so unassuming it’s effectively CPU-bottlenecked, making it possible to spam so many enemies to bring any device to its knees. While Bloons TD 6 was already free on the Epic Games Store on two separate occasions ahead of this week’s giveaway, its hall-of-fame status sets it apart from the platform’s more routine repeat giveaways.
- Released
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March 14, 2017
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Publisher(s)
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Focus Entertainment, Nacon