Hey Tank!
AHITR is, and always be, free. There are a few dreams that are Patreon exclusive, but everything else is available in the free version of the game.
The Alpha build of a new version is released at the start of each month. About a week later the Beta build is released. Then after another week the Early Access version is released. Then about a month later this version goes free and public.
This is the Patreon schedule, it drops everywhere else a bit later, and with changes here on Itch on how adult content is handled, we've had to approach things differently for Itch (We're still figuring things out for those who had previously purchased the game here).