Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium

Girls Frontline 2: Exilium is a 2023 turn-based tactical strategy game developed by MICA Team, in which players command squads of android characters, known in-universe as T-Dolls, armed with firearms and melee blades. It is the sequel to Girls' Frontline, set ten years after its closing events.
The game was released in Mainland China on 21 December 2023, and later released worldwide on 3 December 2024 or 5 December 2024 depending on region.

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Gameplay

The gameplay of Girls Frontline 2 revolves around isometric turn-based tactical battles similar to games such as XCOM, Disgaea, and Shadowrun. The player commands a squad of units in order to fulfil mission objectives on a tactical map, which include destroying enemy units, capturing strategic points, surviving waves of enemy attacks, or evacuating all units to an extraction point. These playable units, which are combat androids called T-Dolls, are obtained by the player via a gacha system in standard and seasonal event banners using in-game currencies.

Character classes

T-Dolls are categorised into four different classes, namely:

Sentinel: Primary damage dealing units with high DPS
Bulwark: Tanking units with high survivability and defensive abilities
Support: Units with healing and buffing abilities
Vanguard: Units with high mobility that act in a sub-DPS capacity

Battle mechanics

In addition to a standard attack and a passive skill, T-Dolls have active skills that often consume "confectance index", a resource akin to ability points in standard role-playing games. These skills provide unique offensive or defensive capabilities depending on the T-Doll and have cooldown periods. Each T-Doll boasts an ultimate skill in their kit, which typically costs confectance as well. Confectance index replenishes over time or can be restored using certain active skills.
All units, both player-controlled and enemy-controlled, have a "stability index" which gradually decreases as they receive attacks from other units; when this is reduced to zero, "stability break" occurs, which reduces the effect of battlefield cover. The combat map offers locations with varying cover which reduces the amount of damage a unit receives, and the player is able to mitigate the effect of enemy cover with positional flanking, area-of-effect attacks, melee attacks, and elevated tiles which negate the efficacy of cover, or by reducing the enemy unit's stability index to zero.
Other forms of environmental effectors on the map include hazard tiles which apply damage or negative status effects to units, and interactable levers that alter elevators, conveyor belts or turrets on the battlefield.

Min-max optimization

The combat ability of T-Dolls can be enhanced by increasing their training level, altering their weapon and attachment loadouts, fortifying the T-Doll using duplicates obtained via the gacha system, unlocking enhancement nodes on each T-Doll's "neural helix", and equipping "keys" which provide modifiers to abilities or stats.

Other elements

A secondary game mode, known as "Boundary Push", involves the player controlling T-Dolls in real-time as they traverse through a large dungeon stage to collect loot pickups and locate the stage boss, making use of stealth mechanics and environmental hazards to reach the objective. Meanwhile, the "Artifact Recovery" game mode combines the gameplay with roguelike mechanics, where the player collects randomised T-Dolls and buff modifiers to use during each unique run towards a final boss.
While not in battle, the player can visit the T-Dolls in their dormitory to observe them during their everyday activities and present them with gifts to increase their affinity level, which provides minor stat increases during combat. Following the Deep Oblivion major update, an explorable home base of operations known as the "Crew Deck" was implemented, where the player can interact with acquired T-Dolls, play a cooking minigame in the kitchen, apply decorations and furniture to the base, and listen to ASMR content in the bedroom.
Outside of the main game, the player is also able to read additional in-universe lore using the "Traceback" menu. Time-limited seasonal events have also included assorted minigames, including a rail shooter game mode parodying the aesthetic of Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a Monopoly parody board game, a survivors-like shoot 'em up, a café management simulation game, a Doodle Jump clone, a motorcycle racing game, an auto battler, and a parody of the "butt battle" mode from Dead or Alive Xtreme 3.

Setting

The game is set ten years after the events of the final campaign chapter of Girls Frontline. The T-Dolls, having previously been exclusively referred to by the names of the firearms they've been imprinted onto within their fire-control cores, begin choosing to adopt new, more human-like personal names as their callsigns, either for personal or professional reasons. As the private military company Griffin & Kryuger undergoes dissolution and reshuffling, many T-Dolls find themselves joining other organisations, or ending up settling down in civilian life. Meanwhile, as the URNC grows in size and power, it begins to undertake a major project of purifying contamination zones afflicted by Collapse radiation so that human resettlement can occur.

Narrative

The player takes on the role of "the Commander", who, at the end of the previous game, resigned from their position at Griffin & Kryuger following a catastrophic military operation in Frankfurt, and subsequently was forced by Rossartrist shadow members to sign a contract prohibiting them from coming into contact with their former subordinate T-Dolls from Griffin & Kryuger, and to exile themselves to the contaminated zone, as a condition for not being killed. There, the Commander assumes the role of a bounty hunter who takes on various tasks for commissions, travelling in a Mobile Base Vehicle known as the "Elmo" while accompanied by a team of three T-Dolls and a mechanic named Mayling.
During a cargo delivery job issued by BRIEF, the Commander's team is raided by Varjager bandits. After escaping from combat, they resupply from a black marketeer named Poludnitsa, who shares intel regarding the suspicious nature of the job they have taken. Deciding to head towards the Great Wall Railway at the edge of the contaminated zone, the Commander's team makes a detour to Port Vest, an area with hostile terrain that is teeming with ELIDs, in an attempt to eliminate the remaining Varjagers in pursuit. There, they encounter Colphne, a civilian medical support Doll, who requests to join the team and have her body modified with a fire-control core. Unbeknownst to the team, the same client who had requested the cargo delivery job also hired the Varjager bandits to eliminate the Commander and to secure the cargo.
While inspecting the cargo to be delivered, the Commander's team discovered that the box contains a girl inside, Helena, who is a human experimentation subject seemingly immune to the adverse effects of Collapse radiation. The client contacts the team, and asks to rendezvous at a set of coordinates. Meanwhile, in a call, former Griffin & Kryuger colleague Kalina instructs the Commander to meet with her at ODE-01, a satellite city in Odesa, and so the Commander's team splits up. As the T-Dolls reach the rendezvous point, the client ambushes them, only for the client to be apprehended following the firefight. However, the client is promptly rescued by a hostile T-Doll, Sextans, and the two escape. At the same time, Kalina reveals to the Commander that she is now working at the Non-Military Forces Administration of the URNC, and that she had issued the assignment so that the human sample could be safely secured.
One of Kalina's subordinate T-Dolls, Lenna, spots law enforcement en route to apprehend the Commander, forcing the Commander to make their escape, and loses track of Helena in the process. Lenna explains that the Girard Group, a large machinery manufacturing conglomerate, is involved with the human sample. Upon reuniting with the team, they raid the facility where the client has kept Helena, and then escape by car in an attempt to take the train to depart for Kyiv, only to encounter another hostile T-Doll, Darture, who attacks. Odesa law enforcement agents, under the command of the client, raid Kalina's office and prepare to give her a summary execution, however are thwarted by Lenna who arrives at the last minute in an attack helicopter.
After their escape from Odesa, the Commander seemingly receives a message from Kalina, stating that the meetup point has changed to an abandoned factory within the Yellow Zone. Eventually it is revealed that their comms had been compromised, as they find themselves in a trap set by Darture. After defeating Darture in a firefight, Kalina calls, requesting that the Commander continue making their way towards Kyiv, and that they should resupply with a black marketeer named Saga while on the way. The team encounters a Varjager encampment in Bihor and quickly subdues them, only to find the same band of Varjagers raiding Saga's encampment. Upon encountering a hooded Paradeus cult member, Colphne covertly separates from the rest of the team. The team, hoping to find Colphne, discover Paradeus operating out of clusters of human settlements in the contaminated zone. Krolik and Vepley find Colphne amongst the crowd of hooded Paradeus followers in an abandoned factory, aiming to seek revenge for her previous fallen comrades. Pursued by angry followers, they make their escape, with Groza and Nemesis arriving to provide assistance.
While out on reconnaissance, Krolik and Nemesis spot a Paradeus leader figure known as Niter, whom they proceed to capture and bring aboard the Elmo MBV. Upon seeing Niter's hand, the Commander identifies her as a half-human, half-robotic Nyto commonly used by Paradeus. Niter spots the MBV's control terminal and attempts to remotely hack into its system, and manages to breaks free from Krolik's grasp, resulting in a brief scuffle in the operations room before being subdued again. Following a change of plans, the group decides to attach a tracker to Niter and release her, with the aim of finding the nearby Paradeus congregation. Helena insists to come along as they infiltrate the congregation in hooded disguises, and find Crifium, a former Varjager and Colphne's vengeance target, present at the procession being held there. During the procession, a cult member is seemingly cured of ELID symptoms, however the team soon have their cover blown as the procession causes Crifium's body to transform in shape and indiscriminately attack followers at the procession while Helena progressively falls ill and her autonomous defence system opens fire into the crowd. Colphne attempts to interrogate Crifium, who remains non-responsive, to Colphne's dismay. Amidst the chaos, Sextans reveals herself and pursues the team, who escape the scene by aerial drone and return to the Elmo MBV.
Following Groza's mission debriefing, the team is interrupted by Sextans arriving in pursuit of the Elmo MBV along with a group of Paradeus members; Sextans reveals extensive damage across her body frame, and seemingly has no recollection of her past. Lenna contacts the Commander with a sitrep update, and calls upon Dandelion to assist the team, who then infiltrates the Elmo MBV's systems. After Sextans is subdued by the team, Lenna informs the Commander of Kalina's request to transfer Helena to Non-Military Forces Administration personnel situated in Lviv, in addition to the request of Squad 404, former Griffin subordinates of the Commander, for combat assistance, culminating in the decision to split the Elmo MBV's team up so that Groza can keep watch over Sextans. Dandelion hijacks a Dinergate robot body in order to accompany the Commander, Helena and Colphne to Lviv, and while en route via aerial drone, Helena falls ill again, causing her autonomous defence system to damage the drone; the aircraft loses flight stability, and Helena is ejected. At the same time, a firefight between PMC units and a large-scale ELID is occurring concurrently in the distance. The drone makes an emergency landing, and the group is quickly surrounded by approaching PMC hostiles, however the large ELID suddenly charges towards the Commander's party, crashing into the building where they've garrisoned. Upon regaining consciousness, the Commander is met with Helena digging them out of the rubble by hand. Along with Dandelion, the group make their way into the nearby underground tunnel for refuge, only to discover a Paradeus human experimentation facility.

Development

During a livestream in May 2020 celebrating the fourth anniversary of Girls Frontline, game producer Yuzhong announced four new games set within the Girls Frontline universe. Girls Frontline 2 was described as a tactical game with exploration and character progression mechanics. The development team initially explored a variety of potential genre options, including life simulation and real-time strategy games, however eventually opted for a turn-based tactical game as the developers had prior experience with the genre, considered it an ideal genre for storytelling, and because control schemes for the genre are intuitive on both mobile and PC platforms.
Yuzhong states in a 2021 interview that Girls Frontline 2 is the studio's first attempt at creating a 3D game. As a departure from the previous game's simpler design, Girls Frontline 2 utilises a freely adjustable third-person top-down perspective. The production team also combined the usage of more realistic-looking physically based rendering for objects and environments alongside the non-photorealistic rendering of animesque characters as part of their design of the game's aesthetic, seamlessly combining the characteristics of moe and realism together without breaking immersion. Battle maps with a variety of indoor and outdoor settings were created, along with variations in time-of-day and season, to create an atmosphere of realism for the game's post-apocalyptic wasteland setting. In 2023, filed patents for various rendering components of the game, including "silk stocking object rendering method and device" and "clothing fluff rendering method and device", with the China Patent Office. The game also uses a special processing method to display smooth visual effects on the combat grid when depicting in-battle status effects, blending effects across neighboring grid tiles to avoid blocky appearances, with opacity based on a signed distance field calculated from each tile's sides or corners.
Based on player feedback following the game's initial release in China, the difficulty of campaign levels was lowered, and various optimisations and quality-of-life adjustments were implemented. Successive patches have progressively introduced new game modes and features over time, such as the Aphelion and Deep Oblivion major updates which introduced the Boundary Push game mode and the explorable Crew Deck respectively. The developers have announced future plans to introduce a new support system utilising vehicles and drones, to be implemented in 2026.
In January 2025, MICA Team collaborated with embroidery artist Zhang Xue, a practitioner of Suzhou embroidery as registered by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, in implementing an in-game embroidered costume for the character Makiatto based on Zhang's design; speaking to the Chinese government newspaper People's Daily in relation to the collaboration, Yuzhong states that "Generation Z players regard games as a spiritual vehicle cultural identity... high-quality videogames can resonate with cultures around the world by showcasing the essence of Chinese civilisation".
MICA Team stated in an interview that the development cost for the game exceeds 100 million renminbi. The development turnaround time for each individual playable character is approximately 6 months.

Release

Development of Girls Frontline 2 was first announced in May 2020, and the game received content review approval from the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China in March 2023. The game underwent numerous successive stages of closed beta testing on 29 June 2021, 18 October 2021, 20 July 2023, and 28 September 2023, and was released in China on 21 December 2023.
An English localisation for the game was announced on 20 July 2024, with pre-registrations commencing on 24 September 2024. The game was released in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and various other countries on 3 December 2024, and in most European countries, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and various other countries on 5 December 2024.
Sunborn collaborated with a variety of companies to promote Girls' Frontline 2 following the game's release; in China, collaborations with China Post, Beijing Yikatong, Baidu Maps and Gaode Maps took place, while in South Korea, the game held its first corporate collaboration with Frank Burger in 2025.
Although a one-year gap in content exists between the Chinese and global versions of the game at launch, Yuzhong expressed in a July 2025 interview with 4Gamer.net that the developers intend to gradually accelerate the release of game content for the global version so that it eventually matches the Chinese version, allowing them to unify all regions under a single client build.

Media

An image song for the character Yoohee, titled "Sparking Dream", is performed in Korean by vocalist Mill and guitarist Mmakinalee. On 22 September 2025, Vocaloid producer Hachiōji-P released a Squad 404-themed image song for the game, titled "Luminous Alive", featuring vocals by KMNZ Nero.
The game's theme song, "Unyielding Starlight", is performed by Rei Yasuda with Japanese and English vocals. The version with Korean vocals, titled "굽히지 않는 별", is performed by Raon, while the Chinese version "不屈的星光" is performed by Kinoko, the lead singer of Vanguard Sound.

Reception

Chinese release

Pre-registrations for the Chinese version exceeded 4.74 million players prior to the game's release. On the game's day of launch in China, Girls Frontline 2 reached the top 2 rank among all charting free-to-play games domestically.
A review for the Chinese version of the game by Gcores praised the game's aesthetics and animation quality. Similarly, Youxi Putao noted the high quality in animation and use of camera perspective for the game's exposition sequences, and that the game differentiates itself well from other animesque tactical games on the market. However, Gcores also reported that players in China were critical of early versions of the game, specifically in regard to the difficulty in learning the game's mechanics and the low strategic depth of its tactical combat system from the perspective of new players, and the unsatisfying plot exposition to some veteran players of the previous game. Through the use of player questionnaires and developer livestreams, gradual attempts were made by the developers to address the game's common faults prior to its global release.
Qian Hongyan, writing for Shanghai-based videogame news website CGames, attributes Girls' Frontline 2 as the original powderkeg which sparked the "if there are males, I won't play it" movement, an online campaign by male gamers in China between late 2023 and early 2024 whereby participants refused to play videogames that contained male playable characters that could be obtained via gacha. The boycott had a direct impact on the financial performance of games that did contain playable characters from both genders.

Global release

On 6 December 2024, game producer Yuzhong announced that two million players joined the global release of the game on its first day. The game charted at 3rd place on the Google Play Store and 5th place on the Apple App Store in South Korea immediately after release. According to the "2025 China videogame industry trends and future potential analysis report" released by Chinese analytics firm CNG, the global version of the game had a turnover of over 100 million renminbi within the first 3 days of release. By the end of the year, the global version had an estimated total revenue of 400 million renminbi across all platforms. South Korean games media ThisIsGame reported that the game reached 590,000 monthly active users in South Korea during December 2024, making it the most active anime-style game in the country for that month, based on market data provided by Korean data analytics platform Mobile Index. 60% of the game's downloads occurred though natural inflow from organic growth, such as from fans of the predecessor game, while 30% of downloads came via advertising channels; active marketing was employed by the game's publishers, and in South Korea, the game had the second highest advertising share among mobile games on Korean-language YouTube channels.
Writing for ThisIsGame, Kim Seung-joo attributes a variety of factors behind the game's success in South Korea, including the existing popularity of the previous game along with its well-developed fandom subculture spanning secondary works and internet memes, the pricing of various in-game microtransactions between the 20,000 won to 60,000 won price point, the perception that the developers are sincere in their work as a passion project, and the lowered difficulty hurdle to a game genre which otherwise is perceived as high-difficulty. He also remarks that many of the early fans of Girls Frontline were students at the time, and in 2024 are now aged in their mid-to-late 20s with more disposable income, and thus naturally became more capable of making purchases in-game. According to audience insights from Sensor Tower, 45% of the game's playerbase are aged between 25 and 34, which is notably higher than the average figure of 37% for the same age bracket among other turn-based role-playing games, and this demographic is more likely to make in-game purchases.
Jang Min-young, writing for Sisa Journal, states that the turn-based tactical game genre is not a popular genre in the mobile gaming market, and that Girls Frontline 2 is successful in easing the genre's usual barriers to entry. Des Miller of RPGFan names the game as the "Best Surprise of the Year" for 2024, noting that the game offers a satisfying variety in character builds and that the enjoyment of higher difficulty late-game maps revolves around finding optimum team compositions, while also praising the characters and narrative writing. Max Gallant of GameRant writes that the game's style won't appeal to many players, however is still an enjoyable free-to-play title with deep worldbuilding.
Immediately following the game's release on Steam on 11 February 2025, the version of the game published by Darkwinter received "very positive" Steam user reviews; meanwhile, the version from publisher HaoPlay received much more lukewarm reviews, having only 67% of Steam reviews being positive, with common user complaints involving the price of microtransactions for the game being higher on Steam compared to other platforms and the standalone PC client, technical issues with the Steam launch, and insufficient communication and preparation by the publisher prior to the release.
In March 2025, following the release of the Aphelion major update, Girls' Frontline 2 topped the Apple App Store game ranking in South Korea, with other Asian regions closely following suit with the game ranking among the top 10 titles on iOS charts. The Aphelion update in particular is noted as a well-received turning point in the game's storytelling, reminiscent of the original writing style of Girls' Frontline. Between December 2024 and March 2025, the global iOS and Android revenue for Girls' Frontline 2 reached US$60 million based on estimates from Sensor Tower, and within this figure, the iOS and Android revenue for the South Korean market alone reached US$15 million, recording the highest sales among turn-based RPGs in South Korea during that time period, placing ahead of Honkai: Star Rail, Fate/Grand Order, Limbus Company and Brown Dust 2. The revenue per download for the game in South Korea was US$46, representing the highest RPD across all regions, and ahead of Japan which had an RPD value of US$43. Girls' Frontline 2 also had the highest 30-day and 60-day retention rates among turn-based RPGs.