Soul Land began as Douluo Dalu, a web novel Tang Jia San Shao serialised in 2008 and 2009. From that novel came four sequels, a manhua, a 263-episode animation, two live-action seasons and, since 2021, a run of licensed games. The one to open first is Soul Land: Awakening World, an open-world action MMORPG from 37Games released in June 2026.
It runs on Steam, Android and iOS, weighs about 20 GB on PC and 16 GB on a phone, and carries one account across all three. It is free to start, and its gacha sells power rather than costumes. This page tells you what the thing is and where each question goes. Four dedicated articles do the rest.
Soul Land is a novel first, and every game keeps its one rule
Douluo Dalu is a 2008 web novel by Tang Jia San Shao, serialised on Qidian and finished in 2009 at 336 chapters. Tang San, a sect disciple reborn into a world where every child awakens a martial spirit, hunts soul beasts and absorbs their rings to grow. That hunt is the rule every adaptation keeps.
The novel grew into four direct sequels, a manhua, a 263-episode animation that ended in June 2023, its sequel Soul Land 2 airing since, and two live-action seasons on Tencent Video. The animation is where most English-speaking readers arrive, and it is the version the games quote, voices included.
The games in one table
Three Soul Land games matter in English today. Awakening World is the current one: an open-world action MMORPG from 37Games, released in June 2026 on Steam, Android and iOS. New World, from late 2024, is the older MMORPG with its 400-player skirmishes. Reloaded is a 2021 hero collector, and a few card and duel games survive in some regions.
If you want the wider free-to-play landscape before you commit, our pillar on free games to play on PC sets the launchers and the money models side by side.
Awakening World is alive, and its next content is named but undated
Soul Land: Awakening World is three months old and still patching. Steam reviews sit in Mixed territory as I write this, and the complaints are about the gacha and the autoplay opening, not about empty servers. Most of the population is on phones, and PC is the smaller half of it.
What the roadmap lists
The publisher's Soul Land pages name two additions: a ninth spirit ring that comes with a domain skill, and Omni soul cards awakened with divine stones. For Awakening World, neither carries a date, and I will not print one the publisher has not.
- Ninth spirit ring: listed, undated
- Omni soul cards: listed, undated
- Servers: split by region, and the split decides who you can group with
The news piece on the ninth ring and Omni cards keeps the current state of both features and explains the server split before you pick one.
The Soul Land gacha sells power, and free play has a visible ceiling
Yes, Soul Land: Awakening World is pay-to-win, and it does not pretend otherwise. Summoning unlocked for me at level 17, about ninety minutes in, and the shop had shown its first paid power pack before that. What you summon is stats, not skins.
The rates the wiki reports
- SSR spirits at roughly 2 percent, SR at 16
- Hard pity between 80 and 100 pulls, depending on the banner
- Vanguard summon: a guaranteed SSR at 30 pulls
- Rate-up banners: the featured spirit on half of the SSR hits
A free account clears the story chapters and runs the daily loop. In my time with it, free play stalled in ranked fights and the top dungeon tier, where paid rings set the pace. That ceiling has a level, and the pay-to-win review names it, with what a monthly pass changes and where it stops helping.
For the games that fund themselves on cosmetics only, how free PC games actually make money is the wider comparison.
Play Soul Land: Awakening World free tonight, Steam and phone
Official page. Create the account once and bind it to an email; the same account then signs in on Steam, Android and iOS.
Play Soul Land free →Pick a martial spirit before a character: Thunderex leads
Your Spirit is your class. You awaken it at the start, and once you own several you can swap between them mid-combo. Six sit at the top of the current rankings: Thunderex, Firedrake, Gold-Feathered Owl, Wraith Cat, White Tiger and Hepta Blade. Thunderex deals the most damage; Wraith Cat trades some of it for a safer dodge window.
How a party is built
You field four. The reliable opener is a support that builds SP, Ning Rongrong for most people, then your damage dealer to spend it. Swapping spirits mid-combo is the skill the game rewards, and it took me a few evenings of ordinary mob fights before it became automatic.
Which spirit to awaken first, which to save tickets for, and which to skip until the ceiling rises: the tier list ranks every one of them with the fights that justify each place.
Soul Land on Steam and phone: 20 GB, 16 GB, one account
One account, three platforms. The Steam page asks for 20 GB of disk and 12 GB of memory, with 16 GB recommended, and names no specific graphics card. The phone build starts near 1.5 GB and grows to about 16 GB through in-game patches; mine passed 15 GB before the first boss.
Cross-save in practice
I played the opening chapters on my desktop, then signed in on my phone the same evening. The quest marker, the inventory and the summon history were all where I had left them. Bind the account to an email or a social login before you switch; a guest account is the one thing I would not trust to travel.
- Steam: 20 GB, 12 GB RAM minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Phone: about 16 GB once patched
- Same account on all three, once bound
Which platform to make your main one, how the frame rate holds on a laptop without a dedicated card, and the binding steps in order: the PC and cross-save article covers all three. If 20 GB is more than your drive can spare, our light free PC games roundup lists the ones under 10 GB with the settings that hold 60 fps.
Where Soul Land lives, from the novel to the games. Awakening World is the current entry point; the rest is context.
| Work | Form | Where to find it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douluo Dalu (novel) | Web novel, 336 chapters, four sequels | Qidian; English fan translations | Complete, 2008 to 2009 |
| Soul Land (animation) | 3D donghua, 263 episodes | Tencent Video, WeTV | Ended June 2023 |
| Soul Land 2: Unrivaled Tang Sect | Sequel animation, ten thousand years later | Tencent Video, WeTV | Airing since June 2023 |
| Douluo Continent / The Land of Warriors | Live action, 40 then 38 episodes | Tencent Video, WeTV | Two seasons, 2021 and 2024 |
| Soul Land Reloaded | Hero-collector RPG, 2021 | Android, iOS | Live, older |
| Soul Land: New World | MMORPG, 400-player skirmishes, late 2024 | PC client, Android, iOS | Live |
| Soul Land: Awakening World | Open-world action MMORPG, June 2026 | Steam, Android, iOS, one account | Live, start here |
Read next
- The news piece on the ninth ring and Omni cards — Same silo, News: the current state of the two listed features and the server split, kept up to date.
- The pay-to-win review — Same silo, Reviews: the level where free play caps out and what the monthly pass changes.
- The tier list — Same silo, Guides: which spirit to awaken first and which to skip, ranked with the fights that justify it.
- The PC and cross-save article — Same silo, Setup: the hardware bridge, 20 GB on Steam versus 16 GB on phone, frame rate on a laptop, binding steps.
- Our light free PC games roundup — Hardware bridge for the reader whose drive cannot spare 20 GB: lighter free games with the settings that hold 60 fps.
- Free games to play on PC — Transversal pillar: launchers and money models across free PC games, for context before committing.
- How free PC games actually make money — Reviews reference on monetisation models, for the reader who wants a cosmetics-only alternative to gacha power.