Iron Saga Confirms a Gunbuster x Diebuster Collab on July 24, Chinese Server Only
Gameduchy confirmed a Gunbuster and Diebuster collaboration for Iron Saga on July 24, 2026 at 12:00 CST, in a 26-second teaser posted to the game's official Bilibili channel under the id BV1oTgx6fEp5. The card reads 《飞越巅峰！》X《飞越巅峰2！》X《机动战队大作战》联动决定！, "collaboration confirmed". Nothing else came with it: no window, no unit list, no shop, no rates.
It landed on the Chinese service only. The Japanese official channel has not uploaded since July 2, 2026, the English channels have said nothing, and the Chinese game wiki still had no event page on August 1. Iron Saga runs four services with independent calendars, so the first useful thing to know is that this announcement does not yet touch a Japanese, Taiwanese or Global account.
The announcement art carries both anime licences on its own copyright strip: BANDAI VISUAL, FlyingDog and GAINAX for Gunbuster, 2003 GAINAX / TOP 2 PROJECT for Diebuster. The publisher line reads GAMEDUCHY.
The name is Diebuster
The sequel is Diebuster, die and not dia. Its Japanese title is トップをねらえ2！, Aim for the Top 2!, a six-episode OVA released between November 2004 and August 2006, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and written by Yōji Enokido as Gainax's 20th-anniversary production. English posts carrying the news have been spelling it with an a, and one community thread title has been recopied as if it were the event's name. It is not.
The proof that both works are licensed sits on the announcement art itself. It carries three logos, 「トップをねらえ！GunBuster」, 「トップをねらえ2！」 and 「机动战队大作战 IRON SAGA」, over two separate anime copyright lines: © BANDAI VISUAL・FlyingDog・GAINAX for Gunbuster and © 2003 GAINAX / TOP 2 PROJECT for Diebuster, next to © GAMEDUCHY. That second line is what makes Diebuster confirmed rather than assumed.
The teaser's one line of copy is 「在无尽潮流的尽头，她们和她们回来了！」, "at the end of the endless tide, they and they are back". Two female duos, phrased as two groups: Noriko Takaya and Kazumi Amano, who piloted the 2025 event, and the Diebuster pair, Nono and Lal'c Melk Mark. The video names neither.
Does this apply to your account
The same collaboration reached the three documented services at three different times in 2025, which is the pattern to read the July 2026 card against.
| Service | 2025 Gunbuster event | Gunbuster × Diebuster |
|---|---|---|
| CN 机动战队大作战 | June 30 to July 31, 2025 | Announced July 24, 2026, window not published |
| JP 機動戦隊アイアンサーガ | June 30 to July 31, 2025 | Nothing announced |
| Global/EN | Opened November 27, 2025 | Nothing announced |
The Chinese and Japanese services ran it on the same day. Global opened it 150 days later, on November 27, 2025, a date stated by the game's official English account two days ahead of launch. The Taiwanese service's 2025 window was not recovered. Global's close date was never posted either, and the English wiki's own definition of a collaboration is a month-long event, which would put it in late December 2025 without confirming it.
Apply that 150-day gap to July 24, 2026 and Global sees Diebuster around the turn of 2027, which is also when its seventh anniversary falls. That is arithmetic, not a schedule.
What the 2025 collaboration actually shipped
The publisher's own PV for the 2025 event, 機動戦隊アイアンサーガ公式チャンネル, July 18, 2025.
The Japanese event was titled 「トップをねらえ！：裂隙を駆ける漂流者」. Noriko and Kazumi drift into a space called the Rift (裂隙) straight after the Absolute Defense Battle of the Solar System and fight Rift Beasts (裂隙兽). It reads standalone and it also slots into the long super-robot arc that Iron Saga has been stitching its crossovers into.
Three mechs shipped, and only three: Gunbuster (钢巴斯塔), Buster Machine 1 (巴斯塔一号机) and Buster Machine 2 (巴斯塔二号机). None of them was pulled. On the Chinese service, Gunbuster cost 4,000 Dimensional Laboratory points for a single copy, Buster Machine 1 was free on first clear of the collaboration stage with four more at 1,000 points, and Buster Machine 2 was 2,000 points for four buildable plus one granted. The whole track was gated behind commander level 10.
The pilots came the same way. Takaya Noriko arrived through tavern recruitment or the timed Heart Box exchange, Amano Kazumi at 3,000 research points. Neither shipped with voice acting: both are listed CV：なし, in line with Gameduchy dropping new collaboration voice tracks around 2023. Companion content on the Chinese side ran a boss challenge, 「守护之炎」, from June 30 to July 30, a five-day login roulette paying a 【高级代金券：飞跃巅峰】 voucher that expired July 31 at 17:59, and 「次元大作战」 from July 1 to July 21.
One house rule matters more than any of those numbers: acquisition is limited to the event window, while the story stays readable afterwards through the recollection log. Reruns are frequent and often add chapters, as the February 2026 Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann rerun did to a 2020 event.
<!-- image: CN event banner and shop screen for the 2026 event. No patch note published as of 2026-08-01, BWIKI has no page yet -->The roadmap being passed around is a different game
The image doing the rounds as "the Iron Saga 2026 roadmap" is the 2026 Content Roadmap for Iron Saga VS, the Steam fighting game, published February 15, 2026. It lists a PS5 version for 2026, a Super-Robot-Wars-style Saga Mode in Q2, an unnamed silhouette labelled ??? (DLC) in Q2, Great Zeorymer in Q3 and a New Arsenal. The copyright strip along the bottom includes ©BANDAI VISUAL・FlyingDog・GAINAX, and that line under an unnamed silhouette is the entire basis of every "Gunbuster confirmed" post.
That DLC has not shipped. Iron Saga VS still lists exactly two, Shin Getter Robo from June 18, 2025 and Zeorymer from February 10, 2026, checked August 1, 2026. Sizzler is not on the roadmap either: Black Sizzler is a genuine Gunbuster mecha, 130 metres and 2,900 tonnes in its source material, and it has never been an Iron Saga unit in any service.
Iron Saga VS also predates that roadmap by eleven months. It launched on Steam on March 21, 2025; the February 2026 news was the PlayStation 5 port, not the game.
This is the roadmap being passed around as evidence of the collaboration. It belongs to Iron Saga VS, the fighting game, not the gacha, and its Q2 tile names no unit at all.
Four products carry this name
Iron Saga: ZERO is a different application with a different calendar. Launch PV, Iron Saga Official, April 23, 2026.
Iron Saga is the 2017 mobile mecha autobattler, package family com.gameduchy.jdzd.*. Iron Saga VS is the Steam fighting game. Iron Saga: ZERO is a separate app, com.gameduchy.jdzdZero.*, revealed in December 2025 and released March 19, 2026. Only the first of the three is getting a Diebuster collaboration.
The launch dates settle the anniversary question that has been attached to this story. The Chinese service opened July 13, 2017 and turned nine in July 2026. The Japanese service opened June 29, 2018 and turned eight in June 2026. Global opened December 11, 2019, per its App Store listing, and its sixth-anniversary video went up January 9, 2026. No Iron Saga service was having a sixth anniversary in July 2026.
The publisher is Gameduchy on every store listing, copyright strip and legal footer: GAMEDUCHY LIMITED on the App Store, 株式会社ゲームダッチー in Tokyo, 杭州玉尊信息科技有限公司 on the Chinese copyright line. GameBeans does not publish Iron Saga.
Confirmed and expected
Confirmed, from the publisher: the collaboration exists, it covers Gunbuster and Diebuster, it was announced July 24, 2026, and it is a Chinese-service announcement.
Expected, and labelled as such: that the Gunbuster half returns as a rerun. The teaser copy supports it and reruns are a house habit, but Gameduchy has not used the word. Expected too: that the Diebuster units are drawn from Dix-Neuf, Buster Machine 7, Quatre-Vingt-Dix and Cinq, which are the machines the OVA actually contains. Gameduchy has shown none of them, and the 2025 event shipped a three-unit set rather than one headline mech.
<!-- image: first Diebuster unit reveal, Dix-Neuf or Buster Machine 7. Nothing shown by Gameduchy as of 2026-08-01 -->Three things will date this
The Chinese patch note. In 2025 Gameduchy posted the 联动决定 card on June 22 and opened the event on June 30, eight days later. Eight days after July 24, 2026 is August 1, and no patch note had appeared by then, so this tease is already running longer than the last one. The window becomes exact the day that note lands on the Chinese wiki.
The unit count. Whether Diebuster brings one mech or a set the size of 2025's decides whether the Dimensional Laboratory bill lands near 4,000 points or several times that.
The Japanese and Global announcements. The Japanese service ran Gunbuster on the same day as China in 2025; Global waited 150 days. The English account teased a "big announcement at the end of July" on July 1, 2026 and had not resolved it by August 1, which is the one thread that could pull Global's date forward.
FAQ
Is the Iron Saga Diebuster collaboration real? Yes. Gameduchy announced it on July 24, 2026 at 12:00 CST with a 26-second teaser on the game's official Chinese Bilibili account, and the key art carries Diebuster's own copyright line, © 2003 GAINAX / TOP 2 PROJECT.
Is it spelled Diebuster or Diabuster?
Diebuster. The Gainax OVA is トップをねらえ2！, Aim for the Top 2!, billed in English as Diebuster or Gunbuster 2. No Gunbuster-universe property is spelled with an a.
When does the collaboration start? No date has been announced. The precedent is eight days: the 2025 Gunbuster collaboration was teased on June 22, 2025 and opened June 30, 2025 on the Chinese service.
Will Global and Japan get it? Neither has announced anything as of August 1, 2026. In 2025, Japan ran Gunbuster on the same day as China and Global received it 150 days later, on November 27, 2025.
Which mechs are in the collaboration? None has been shown. The 2025 event shipped Gunbuster, Buster Machine 1 and Buster Machine 2, with Takaya Noriko and Amano Kazumi as pilots. Sizzler has never been an Iron Saga unit.
Is the original Gunbuster collaboration coming back? Expected, not confirmed. The teaser says "they and they are back" and shows both logos, but the word rerun does not appear in anything Gameduchy has published.
Who publishes Iron Saga? Gameduchy, listed as GAMEDUCHY LIMITED on the App Store and 株式会社ゲームダッチー in Japan. The game launched in China on July 13, 2017, in Japan on June 29, 2018 and on Global on December 11, 2019.