Fae & Fauna

What Is Fae & Fauna?

Fae & Fauna is an open-world creature-collecting RPG from Aurora Arts, a five-person studio in Skövde, Sweden founded by CEO Tilla Segerstedt. The studio won Best Pitch at the 2023 Sweden Game Conference and has since raised roughly 11 million SEK, including investment from Ellen Mellåker, co-founder of Redbeet Interactive, the Raft studio. Aurora Arts self-publishes, and the game is wishable now on Steam with a launch currently slated for early 2027, opening with about two years of early access.

You play a new research assistant at Saltwick Academy, an institution on the islands of Saltwick that studies magical creatures and definitely has nothing suspicious going on behind its doors. The job sends you across mountains, caves, and coastal wilds to befriend Faeons, the mysterious creatures at the heart of the game. You collect them, fight alongside them, cook for them, and can even create new ones through alchemy.

The pitch sits deliberately between two comforts: the collection loop of a creature RPG and the home-and-hearth loop of a life sim. You decorate a granted house, craft gear and furniture, build relationships with townsfolk, and can find romance among your peers. The mischievous Knytt creatures lurking in the forests supply the combat.

Fae & Fauna Details

How to Play Fae & Fauna

The full game is months out, but the store page and previews define the loops clearly enough to plan around.

Collection runs on befriending, not beating. Faeons are befriended, collected, and fought alongside. Chinese previews describe feeding and playing with them to raise bond levels, with closeness affecting evolution and combat performance. Treat wild Faeons as recruits, not trophies.

Your team is a trio. Coverage of the game describes assembling up to three Faeons per squad, each contributing distinct powers. Party composition is the combat layer: a team that covers weakness types will outperform three favorites.

Alchemy creates creatures, not just potions. The standout system is using gathered materials to create new Faeon companions outright. Resources feed three parallel sinks: gear crafting, food, and home furniture, so deciding what your forage run is for matters more than the gathering itself.

The house is progression. You are granted a home early and expected to grow it. Decor sets, magical furniture, and knicknacks picked up on adventures all slot in, and Chinese coverage describes expanding the base into a sanctuary for your growing pet collection, nests and play areas included.

The academy plot is the spine. Saltwick Academy is written as "not all is what it seems," and the story of what the institution actually does with its creatures is the campaign. Quest structure follows research-assistant work: field collection assignments with story beats in between.

Controls

Full controller support and no timed inputs are confirmed. The mapping below follows standard cozy-RPG conventions:

Getting Started: What to Know Before Release

Early access is the plan, not a limitation. Aurora Arts has said the game opens in early access in early 2027 and stays there for about two years, with version 1.0 adding more creatures and expanding the story. Buying at EA entry means a longer runway of free content updates. The store page still shows an undated tag, so treat the window as intent, not a locked date.

Wishlist timing matters for small studios. Aurora Arts is five people with independent funding. Wishlist counts drive Steam visibility for launch weeks, and for a studio this size, early wishlists measurably change the launch.

Expect melee combat, not just creature battles. Previews mention the player using different melee weapons against enemies alongside the Faeon squad system. The combat layer has a personal component in addition to team commands.

The comparison set is Stardew-adjacent, not Pokémon-adjacent. Coverage keeps placing it near life sims, with NPC merchants, gift relationships, and home decoration carrying as much weight as collection. Go in expecting a slower pace than a monster-battling RPG.

Localization starts narrow. The store page lists English only for now. Chinese outlets are covering it heavily (the game already has a Chinese fan-translated name), so additional languages during early access are plausible but unconfirmed.

Tips and Tricks

Grounded in the confirmed systems and how creature collectors behave:

Befriend before you battle. The collection loop rewards bond-building. Feed and play with new Faeons immediately; a bonded creature performs better in fights and unlocks more interactions than a freshly caught one at the same level.

Build your trio around roles. Three slots and a world full of Knytt means you want coverage: a damage Faeon, a tank or disruptor, and a support. Fill the third slot last, after you have seen what the first two lack.

Forage with a purpose. Materials feed alchemy, cooking, crafting, and furniture. Decide before a run whether you are shopping for a new creature, a gear upgrade, or a home project, and gather for that. Generic hoarding wastes inventory space.

Check the academy between assignments. Research-assistant quests gate progression, and story beats hide in the institution's corridors. The "not all is what it seems" thread advances in places quest markers do not point at.

Decorate for function first. Home decoration affects your growing pet collection in life-sim fashion: nests and play areas for Faeons are the functional pieces. Cosmetics can wait until the sanctuary is running.

Talk to everyone after story beats. Romance and friendship lines in cozy RPGs advance after major quests, not before them. The dialogue changes and so do gift preferences. A character who had nothing to say yesterday may open a whole line today.

Advanced Strategies

• Plan alchemy projects around rare materials. Creating new Faeons through alchemy is the deepest system, and rare components gate the best results. Identify which creature you want to make before spending rares on food or furniture.
• Match melee weapon choice to your squad's gap. If your trio lacks burst damage, carry a heavy personal weapon. If it lacks survivability, carry something defensive. The player is effectively the fourth party member.
• Farm Knytt camps for crafting components. Mischievous forest creatures are the renewable source of combat materials. Learn camp locations near fast-travel points and loop them between quests.
• Watch early access patch notes for creature stat changes. Two years of EA means balance churn. The Faeon you invested bond in may get reworked; diversify bonds across your collection so one nerf does not gut your roster.
• Sequence story quests to unlock biomes early. Open-world creature collectors gate biomes behind assignment chains. Prioritizing academy quests expands forage maps faster, which feeds every other system.

Final Tips

Fae & Fauna is a collection game that keeps pulling you home. The Faeons are the hook, but the house, the cooking, the relationships, and the academy's secrets are what stretch the play across early access and beyond. Build a balanced trio, keep your alchemy projects deliberate, and read the academy's paperwork closely, because that is where the story is hiding.

For the months before launch: wishlist it, follow Aurora Arts for demo news, and keep expectations calibrated to early access, a generous creature roster at entry with two years of growth behind it.

FAQ

When does Fae & Fauna release? Early 2027 is the current window, with Chinese and Swedish coverage reporting a Q1 2027 early access launch. The store page itself has not committed to a date yet.

Who makes Fae & Fauna? Aurora Arts, a five-person studio in Skövde, Sweden, founded by Tilla Segerstedt. The studio won Best Pitch at Sweden Game Conference 2023 and is funded in part by Ellen Mellåker, co-founder of the Raft studio Redbeet Interactive.

What platforms is Fae & Fauna on? Windows PC via Steam at launch. Console versions have not been announced.

Is Fae & Fauna like Pokémon? The collection loop is comparable, but the pacing is closer to a cozy life sim. Home decoration, cooking, relationships, and romance carry as much weight as creature battles.

What are Faeons? The magical creatures you befriend, collect, and fight alongside. You can also create new ones through alchemy. Up to three can join your active squad.

Does Fae & Fauna have romance? Yes. The store page confirms building relationships with Saltwick's characters and the possibility of finding love among your peers.

Does Fae & Fauna have controller support? Yes, full controller support, with no timed inputs required. Family Sharing is also enabled.

Will there be early access? Yes. The plan is an early 2027 early access launch running roughly two years, with version 1.0 adding more creatures and expanded story content.