Developer Cathedral Studios has launched a pre-registration event for The Bornless on August 8, giving everyone a free opportunity to win exclusive rewards by simply wishlisting the horror extraction FPS on Steam and entering the Gleam Competition.

What Rewards Can You Earn in the Pre-Registration Event?

There are a number of exclusive rewards anyone can earn by pre-registering ahead of the game’s Early Access launch. These include in-game goodies such as a unique player banner, a brand new playable demon, Enigma Boxes, an exclusive player avatar, in-game currency, as well as a unique gun and truck skin. Next to in-game rewards, you can win real physical prizes too, including exclusive merch, an Nvidia GPU, and more.

The number of in-game rewards that everyone who pre-registers will receive depends on the number of milestones unlocked before the early version goes live on Valve’s platform. There are 6 wishlist milestones for the gaming community to unlock. By reaching these milestones, you can unlock the following rewards if you pre-register:

  • 300,000 wishlists – Common Enigma Box
  • 400,000 wishlists – Unique Player Banner & Avatar
  • 450,000 wishlists – Rare Enigma Box
  • 500,000 wishlists – Unique Gun & Truck Skin
  • 750,000 wishlists – 500 Obsidian
  • 1,000,000 wishlists – Unlock Playable Demon

At the time of writing, the number of wishlists is 335,360, with the counter said to be updated weekly. This means that the Common Enigma Box has been unlocked so far, and anyone who pre-registers is guaranteed to receive this item upon launch. It’s not entirely set in stone what Enigma Boxes are actually supposed to be, but for now they seem to be simply items you can sell for in-game currency during playtests. For the Early Access launch, you will likely be able to open Enigma Boxes and find various skins and/or weapons, with rarer boxes featuring rarer items.

Milestone rewards. Visuals of rewards are not final.

How to Join The Bornless Pre-Registration Campaign

To get started, head on over to the official Pre-Registration Campaign page, through which you can enter the game’s own Gleam competition. Login to Gleam and then use the competition page to wishlist the game on Steam with a linked account while subscribing to the newsletter for more rewards. By signing up to the newsletter, you automatically unlock an Enigma Box while guaranteeing yourself access to future playtests on open weekends. You can also request access to playtests on the official store page.

While these two steps are enough to enter the campaign and contribute to global milestone rewards, if you want to support the game further and increase your chances of winning tangible prizes such as exclusive merch and a 50 Series Nvidia RTX GPU, then you will want to do various other social tasks included in the Gleam competition. These tasks include posting on X and Bluesky, referring friends, submitting UGC clips on YouTube, following official game accounts across social media platforms, and more, all of which grant you more entries to the big prize pool.

The Gleam Competition is a long-running 90-day event, so you have plenty of time to support the game on social media and rack up those ticket entries for the prize pool. The winner of the prize pool will be announced once the campaign is over. As for the wishlist milestones, they will continue to be possible to attain all the time until the Early Access release goes live. No official launch date for the Early Access version is available at the time of writing, with the store page simply stating that the game is “Coming soon”.

Whether you just want to get the in-game rewards or would like to put in the effort to win the prize pool, you should pre-register as soon as possible on the official event page, especially if you want to win merch and an 50 Series RTX GPU, as the Gleam contest rewards you with entries daily for posting content about the game on social channels.

What Is The Bornless?

The Bornless is a horror extraction FPS set in the Lovecraftian world of Farmouth Island during the 1960s, off the Massachusetts coast.

The core gameplay loop involves playing the Ritual Mode, a scary PvPvE survival extraction experience in which you and your duo partner explore spooky environments and complete quests while gathering loot and activating ancient ritual sites, with the goal of invoking the demon to hunt down other players. If another team completes the ritual before you do, it’s time to run for your life to the closest extraction point before time runs out in order to escape the island with the loot you’ve gathered.

On this terrifying island, players aren’t your only enemy, as you will also have to face various cultists and monsters on your journey to collect all the Sigils needed to transform into a demon. Before starting a match, you can set up your loadout with different weapons and abilities. As you play and successfully extract from matches with valuable items, you get to progress and improve your character with stronger powers and weaponry.

In terms of web3 features, The Bornless is not a blockchain-powered, play to earn game. According to their “blockchain community notice”, the studio is exploring the use of blockchain technology “for interested community members,” but it is not their active focus for the time being. For now, they do not have any interest in adding crypto elements to the game, “but yes, we think there are cool ways to use it further in the future.” According to the FAQ section of the game’s official Discord server, the developers aim to keep their horror FPS a “traditionally developed game,” but one that features optional, external web3 elements that enable player ownership of in-game assets, NFT trading, and “non-gameplay related features”. There is actually a dedicated Discord server made exclusively for the web3 side of the game, but it’s likely you won’t be seeing many blockchain-focused news from the developers soon, as they are very much focused on making sure they deliver a traditional, quality game with an active playerbase before setting up a player-driven trading economy.

The Bornless is slated to launch on Windows PCs via Steam in an Early Access phase at some point before the end of 2025, but in the meantime, you can sign up for playtests for a potential chance of trying out the game even earlier. Eventually, the developers also hope to bring their action horror game to consoles as well. The game will not be free to play, with the Early Access version set to cost around $15 to $20, depending on your region.