Ultrakill goes on sale one last time before a price increase hits

Ultrakill is on sale right now, 30% off on Steam, and the developers have made one thing very clear: this is the last discount before the base price goes up for good.

The official Ultrakill account posted the warning this week. "This weekend we'll be putting ULTRAKILL on sale, which will be the last sale before we raise the base price to account for the new content that came in the LAYER 8: FRAUD update," the dev wrote. "Giving y'all a heads up in case you haven't bought it yet and want to get in on the lower price!" The sale runs until May 18.

Layer 8: Fraud portal arenas

Why the price is going up now

The key here is context. New Blood Interactive hasn't touched the early access price since 2022, and a lot has happened since then. The developer pointed out that the last bump came before the P-2 secret level, Layer 7, the ULTRA REVAMP overhaul, and now Layer 8: Fraud, which is the biggest content drop the game has seen in nearly two years.

Layer 8 is no small thing. The update introduced Inception-style environments where the geometry itself bends and folds, and the team had to rewrite every enemy in the game to function properly with the new portal systems. That's not a patch note, that's a ground-up rework of a significant chunk of the game.

The dev was blunt about it: "The game and team have grown a lot!" No specific new price has been announced yet, so the current discounted window is your clearest signal.

What Ultrakill actually is, for the uninitiated

Five years in early access, and Ultrakill has built one of the most passionate player bases in the indie FPS space. The game sits at over 141,000 near-perfect Steam reviews, which puts it in genuinely rare company.

The premise is simple and the execution is relentless: you descend through the layers of hell, killing everything in sight while a character action-style scoring system grades your performance in real time. Think Doom Eternal's momentum married to the style meter from Devil May Cry, wrapped in a retro aesthetic that looks like it was ripped straight from the mid-90s id Software catalog. Blood is also your health mechanic, meaning getting close to enemies and staying aggressive is survival strategy, not just style.

Layer 7 launched back in 2023, which means the gap between major content drops has stretched across nearly two years. Layer 8 closing that gap while simultaneously being the most technically ambitious update yet explains why the team feels the price adjustment is warranted.

The bigger picture for early access shooters

Ultrakill's situation is worth paying attention to beyond the sale itself. Games that grow substantially during early access face a genuine tension: the price players paid at launch reflects a fraction of what the game eventually becomes. Insurgency: Sandstorm navigated a similar trajectory, spending years building out its tactical shooter experience before landing on a price that matched its final scope. Ultrakill is at that same inflection point, just with more demon blood involved.

The dev's transparency here is refreshing. A public heads-up, a clear deadline, and an honest explanation tied to specific updates rather than vague "increased value" language. That's how you handle a price change without burning your community.

The 30% discount runs on Steam through May 18. After that, the base price goes up by an amount the team hasn't specified yet, and the "don't say we didn't warn you" energy from the official account suggests they mean it.