Field manual

Crossplay & cross-progression, precisely

Yes — PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S play together at launch, a series first. But it's server-side, not matchmaking: every server declares its platform policy, and you filter in the browser.

How crossplay actually works

Official Dev Q&A: "Server owners will be able to configure which platforms can access their servers, including full crossplay, PC-only or console-only options."
Servers are labelled in the browser (cross-platform / PC only / console only) and you can filter by them. Cross-platform squads are supported.
There is no input-based matchmaking — the game uses a server browser. Platform isolation exists mainly for input fairness (mouse/keyboard vs gamepad) — see the Aim Assist breakdown below.
The July 24–27 crossplay playtest already ran Xbox-only, PS5-only and console-crossplay variants live.
Last-gen (PS4 / Xbox One): not supported.

Aim Assist, officially explained

Team17's Aug 14 dev-comms post addressed the crossplay Aim Assist debate directly, since this is the launch's first crossplay entry for the franchise. Key points, straight from that post:

Available to any gamepad player, on PC or console — not console-exclusive. Mouse/keyboard players don't get it.
Same values as the original Hell Let Loose — this isn't a new system built for Vietnam.
Four settings: High (default), Medium, Low, or Disabled — and PC gamepad users get the identical values console players do.
Only active while aiming down sights (ADS) — it does nothing from the hip.
No "snap-to" when you enter ADS, and it does not make your aim "stick" to or track a moving target.
What it actually does: a subtle slowdown of your aim's input speed when it's already moving toward an enemy, to help stick-aiming land shots — the effect is limited at range and turns off entirely if the enemy is occluded (behind cover, foliage, etc).

Team17 says they'll keep assessing balance as more players weigh in — this section will get updated if the values or behavior change.

Cross-progression: the honest matrix

Between	Progress carries?
Microsoft Store PC ↔ Xbox Series X\|S	✅ Yes (Xbox Play Anywhere)
Steam ↔ PS5, Steam ↔ Xbox, PS5 ↔ Xbox	❌ No cross-progression announced
Beta / playtest → full game	❌ Nothing carries (XP, unlocks, skins)
DLC & skins between platforms	❌ Tied to the store you bought on

Battalions (the in-game clan system) is not in at launch — it arrives in a post-launch update.

Read this before you link an Epic account LAUNCH-WEEK TRAP

The game offers to link an Epic Games account, and the prompt sells it as the route to cross-progression. In practice, several players report linking reset them to rank 1 and hid their existing progress. Team17's own support team has explained why, and the explanation is not what the prompt implies.

Team17 Support, replying to an affected player on Aug 16 (quoted in full): "This is because you've effectively created a second profile. You can do cross-play without linking your account, you just won't be able to form parties. If you unlink, you will get your progress back again." (support thread)

So the linked Epic identity behaves as a separate profile rather than a container your Steam progress moves into. The player in that thread confirmed the fix from their side: "when i unlinked my epic account i have my progress again". A second player, in a separate thread the same day, described the mechanism from the other direction — never prompted for Epic on their home PC, prompted on a second PC, signed in, and got "a fresh toon with progression at zero"; back home, signing in to Epic again showed the new empty profile instead of the original. A third thread reports the same rank reset. Three independent reports plus an official explanation is well past our single-source bar.

Choice	What you get	What you give up
Don't link Epic	Your existing progress stays exactly where it is; crossplay servers still work normally	You can't form parties with friends on other platforms — you join the same server manually instead
Link Epic	Party formation across platforms	Per Team17 Support, you're creating a second profile — expect to appear at rank 1. Unlinking has restored the original progress for at least one reporter

Our read, stated plainly: if you already have hours invested on one platform, don't link until Team17 ships a real merge. Nothing we've found says progress is deleted — the accounts sit side by side — but "reversible by unlinking" is a support workaround, not a documented feature, and only one player has publicly confirmed the round trip. Linux and Steam Deck players hit a related wall from the other side: Epic account linking has been reported to fail outright there (see Steam Deck & Linux).

Exact unlock times — Aug 13, 2026

Region	Time
UTC	16:00 (PS confirmed; Steam listing aligns at 9 AM PT)
US	9:00 AM PT · 11:00 AM CT · 12:00 PM ET
Europe	5:00 PM BST · 6:00 PM CEST
Asia/Oceania	12:00 AM CST · 1:00 AM JST/KST · 2:00 AM AET (Aug 14)

Sources: official Dev Q&A #2 (via Low.ms) · Steam store page · Xbox Store (Play Anywhere) · PS Store (unlock time) · Insider Gaming (timezone table) · official "Dev Comms Thread & Launch Updates" (live-updated thread, Aim Assist explainer, checked Aug 15)

Last verified Aug 20, 2026 ~04:10 UTC — added the Epic-account-linking progression section after finding three independent Steam threads (Aug 16) plus a Team17 Support reply explaining the "second profile" mechanic; all three threads and the official reply were read at source this round and the support quote is reproduced verbatim. Unlock times/platform matrix from Aug 8, re-verified at launch; Aim Assist explainer re-checked against Team17's live dev-comms thread, unchanged since first added.