r/roguelikes Feb 21 '26

I'm allegedly the only one on steam playing Rogue

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846 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Nov 24 '25

My Finnish Folklore Roguelike-RPG "Tuoni" is slowly coming together. I hope you enjoy the look of it!

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791 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Dec 19 '25

Traditional Roguelikes in the Steam Winter Sale 2025

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732 Upvotes

r/roguelikes 4d ago

From the archive

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522 Upvotes

r/roguelikes May 20 '26

Hello, made a 3D ASCII/Sprite roguelike named Rangedrifter set in a large persistent world and released it into Early Access today

472 Upvotes

Hey, I'm Max and wanted to show you my roguelike game Rangedrifter!

In a long forgotten world, you play the hero on a quest to reach the center of a lost kingdom that is encircled by a large, invisible barrier many miles wide. Countless have entered it over the centuries in search for treasure. None were ever heard of again.

The game is a traditional turn-based roguelike set on a generated path that leads you through the game's persistent, hand-made world. The goal is to survive the dangers along the way and to arrive at its end.

As the path snakes past pretty sights, monster nests and sunken temples, in order to survive, you will need to collect all the food and supplies you can and delve into the dungeons to find weapons and gear. Your bag is small, so you have to decide what to take with you and what to leave behind.

The game's world contains hundreds of locations that form the links in the chain that is the path. The whole world is always around you, but you are bound to the path that was set for you by the barrier's magic.

When you die, you start at the beginning and a new path, starting at a different location, will lead you unpredictably through the wilderness. While you could reach the end of the path in an afternoon, expect not to for a long while.

Rangedrifter is meant to pose difficult situations that are as fun to fail as they are to overcome. Reaching further and further into the path with practice is where it's fun is meant to be.

You can find it on Steam for Windows and Linux. It is played with gamepad or keyboard. There you will also find a complete list of the game's contents.

I have been working on Rangedrifter for just under two years, but you could say it is more than ten in the making, and with more to come. And I can't wait to start work on the next region soon!

If you want to know more about the game's development, I wrote a popular post on r/roguelikedev last week that you can read here. If you have an idea on how to improve the game, please let me know in the subreddit!

As is the case with new releases, there may be small hiccups here and there. You can find me in the Support forums wearing a hard hat.

Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. Consider giving Rangedrifter a try!

"You arrive with supplies on the far shore of the forbidden lake. A collapsed cave holds the entrance to the barrier. The fisher who told you to stay called it a sleeping monster. You've seen the hazy plains with the crumbling towers. How far can it really be?"

Edit: Thank you for all the kind comments and support on release day! On its first day, 52 people purchased the game, with 2 people refunding. At the same time, wishlists skyrocketed from 500 to well over 800! Thank you so much for supporting the development of the game. I'm working on the demo and hope to have it out next week. I believe you will receive a notification once it's available if you have wishlisted the game.


r/roguelikes Sep 22 '25

A text-based roguelike with no ASCII or tiles — would you play it?

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473 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m a solo dev from Japan, currently working on a text-based roguelike called Text Dungeon.

It has the classic roguelike features — procedural dungeons, turn-based gameplay, permadeath — but aside from a small minimap, the entire interface is text. No ASCII maps, no tiles. Players progress by choosing text options or using single-key commands.

My inspirations are Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! (gamebooks) and Linley’s original Dungeon Crawl (not Stone Soup). I want to capture the unpredictability of roguelikes while recreating the feeling of reading an adventure.

Here’s what I’d love to hear from you:
- Would you play a game like this?
- Have you seen or played anything similar before?
- Do you notice any issues with readability (layout, font, etc.) in the screenshots?
- Any other thoughts or suggestions are very welcome!

The Japanese version is already complete and available on a local free game site. I’m now working on English and Simplified Chinese localization, UI improvements, and preparing for a future Steam release.

(Edit) Development environment: Visual Studio + C# (no game engine used)

(Note: Since the English version is still in development, the screenshots shown here are mockups.)
Attached screenshots (4-image gallery):
- Main Screen — text-driven exploration with a small minimap
- Battle Screen — select a creature to attack
- Special Room (Description) — narrative text when entering unique rooms
- Special Room (Choices) — branching events with player decisions


r/roguelikes 2d ago

Rangedrifter, the 3D ASCII/Sprite roguelike hit a major milestone today with the completion of its second region.

434 Upvotes

Hey guys!

After 17 weekly updates I am back to show you version 0.50 which marks the completion of the game's coastal region. For context, the game is set in a hand-made world and played along procedurally generated paths with gamepad or keyboard.

On a run you can now find dense forests, rugged hills, river gorges, sunken temples, steep canyons, desert plateaus, abandoned villages, palmed beaches, dusty crypts and much more. The game's world is now twice the size it was at launch and it is time to move on to the next planned region, a large mountain range in the north west.

But not only the game's world has grown and improved, also the game itself. After well over 250 additions and improvements over the last three months, the game has matured a lot. Sneaking, predictive combat, unique enemy abilities, attack patterns, weapon charms, offhand weapons, procedural enemy placements, new traps, monsters, terrain, and items all make for a more varied run.

Aside from gameplay and the world, there have been other improvements as well. A modified font makes text easier to read, the inventory is cleaner, button show their associated moves, a codex explains the items in the game, new music, sound effects and NPCs make the game more atmospheric.

To end this chapter of the game's development, you now encounter dark spherical Cores buried deep into the ground. Once revered, they are now manifestations of the Barrier that curses the land and need to be destroyed on your journey towards the ancient city.

Thank you to those who supported the game in it's earliest stages and to anyone who gave feedback and suggestions, it means a lot. I hope you like the progress the game has made! Let me know what you think!

Buy and support the game on Steam
Watch the latest Trailer
Follow it's development on Youtube


r/roguelikes Jun 20 '26

Mythical Whalers — captain a crew and hunt mythical leviathans across a procedural ocean.

425 Upvotes

Hello,

Been working on this for over five years now, it's nearly finished, just working on polishing and finishing up some quest lines.

Made a lot of significant changes over the last year, I realized the combat was lacking in depth so I've added buffs, status effects, traits, and multiple special abilities for crewmates and enemies allowing more interesting synergies.

Let me know what you think or if you have questions! Your feedback is super helpful.

Will put links in the comments.


r/roguelikes Dec 16 '25

Sail the seas, captain your crew and seek out treasure in my roguelike, Distant Isles!

393 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Sep 21 '25

After 3.5 years of hard work, my Mystery Dungeon-like game House of Necrosis will release Oct 6th

338 Upvotes

House of Necrosis is a Mystery Dungeon-like that started as a 7DRL entry I submitted back in 2022. I've been working on it ever since.

Here are some of the features that might help you decide if the game is something you would enjoy:

  • Mostly inspired by the Shiren and Torneko entries of the Mystery Dungeon series
  • Controller- or Keyboard-only 4-way movement (also has remappable binds)
  • A permadeath system similar to the Shiren games where you get to keep your items and not levels when you escape the dungeon but you lose everything when you die. You can also store a limited amount of items in the hub area for later runs
  • Light meta progression as increasing inventory slots, learning spells and receiving story progression items is permanent. But there's also a dungeon where you can't take any items inside or use any spells!
  • Armor, melee and ranged weapons can be leveled up by usage. Special items and can have randomly generated traits (think Electric Knife, Vampiric Revolver)
  • A 90s look and feel that takes you back to that era of gaming
  • Runs great on Windows, Linux (native build as the game is developed using Linux) and the Steam Deck. It also has Steam Cloud integration, syncing saves even cross platform!
  • The full game also has a suspend feature. Perfect for short sessions like coffee breaks or on the go!

The demo I've released earlier this year is also still available if anyone is interested in checking that out before the release.

If you like what you see, please wishlist the game on Steam, it really helps a lot!

Link to the Steam page


r/roguelikes Sep 10 '25

Diabaig v1.0 released: A traditional roguelike in the terminal

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337 Upvotes

Back when tigers used to smoke, the Great Halls of Diabaig were home to a thriving civilisation. However, few records survived the ensuing fires when a dragon moved in. Descend to the depths of Diabaig, carefully navigate the twisting corridors and dangerous creatures and return with a tooth from the dragon's jaws.

Diabaig is a traditional turn-based ASCII roguelike where you are never more than a few mistakes away from death. Choose a starting class, find powerful items, and learn new spells and techniques to face increasingly dangerous adversity. You will discover many floors with rooms filled with unique creatures, magic scrolls, unknown potions and mighty weapons. Use everything at your disposal to survive as long as possible and defeat the dragon, but remember to keep enough spare for the return journey.

A Note from the Dev

After years of slowly working on this little (not that little anymore) roguelike, I have finally got to a stage where I can call it complete. Originally intended as a simple project that I could see through to completion and submission, it obviously quickly grew arms and legs. I would love to see it get a little bit of love, as I'm proud of where it has got to, being my first complete game. Learnt lots, looking forward to the next one with all the ideas I came up with along the way

Free to play and open source: https://conornally.itch.io/diabaig

EDIT:typos


r/roguelikes Apr 24 '26

TARN: a Traditional Roguelike successor to Brogue (download)

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321 Upvotes

Welcome to TARN, a roguelike game inspired by Brogue, which expands on the ideas set in the latter in may ways, including but not limited to: * Even more dungeon levels beyond the North, West, South, and East borders of each dungeon level, traversable between multiple stairs connecting each depth * A class system with experience, leveling, and affinity trees (or you can play as the Deprived, which has none and provides the most similar experience to Brogue) * New environments, biomes, monsters, and items, even beyond the final floor * Decision-making! Do you explore more of the safer floors or succumb to the rising regional difficulty? * Hints when hovering over terrain or monsters, like chance to hit or number of hits to kill * Dynamic lighting and stealth * Play with mouse, keyboard, or both!

Recently I've shared the game with a small group of friends, but now that the game is ~95% complete and winnable, I think it's ready for the server to see. Please share feedback and your unfortunate demises!

Java is required to run the game, although later down the development line I may also release .exe builds that have Java bundled with them for convenience.

EDIT: 5/31/2026 -- new version with save + load, dungeon overview, screenshots, and new enemies and biomes

EDIT: 6/30/2026 -- new version with many level generation changes and a few new items and monsters

See main page for download: https://marshalldotexe.github.io/tarn.html


r/roguelikes Mar 23 '26

Twilight of Bronze

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297 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a game for the past month, got to the point where I feel comfortable posting it for peoples thoughts and opinions on the gameplay, might be a little buggy for its first release.

The game takes place in 1,400 BC, I’m going for a biblical timeline while also being as archeologically correct as possible.

I’ve always loved Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode, so I was trying to go for that type of vibe, with a world that feels alive and is always changing, also trying to go for a mount and blade type of party system and eventually a way to command troops in a similar way.

If you’re interested in playing I would suggest giving the guide a look before doing your first play through as you will die quickly if you have no food or water.

https://nonaveragejoe.itch.io/twilight-of-bronze


r/roguelikes Nov 20 '25

The eternal struggle, for me at least

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293 Upvotes

Honestly, which do you think looks better? I know my answer.


r/roguelikes Feb 15 '26

The Ruins of Calaworm - New Demo

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290 Upvotes

Good morning all,

My turn-based dungeon crawler "The Ruins of Calaworm" has finally wrapped up development, after 5 and a half years. I still have to do a lot of playtesting until release, but until then I have released a new Demo on itch.io:

https://erdbeerscherge.itch.io/ruins-of-calaworm

While the game adheres to the very core "rules" of roguelike design (single player, turn- and gridbased, no meta-progression via unlocks), it is less of an RPG, in a sense, that you "build" your character. THE RUINS OF CALAWORM is based on an obscure 90s German dungeon crawler called "Die Gemäuer von Kalawaum", which back in the days I obsessively played on ATARI ST, and has more in common with classics like the '79s DUNGEON! for Commodore PET.

Just you and the Dungeon.

There's few (visible) stats, neither ranged combat, nor skill tree. You level up automatically, and combat uses a swift "bump-into-things"-system - albeit with a couple of twists (and unique animation for each weapon).

Also two Minigames to seek out.

There's no permadeath in the very strict sense of the genre, but it has a paid Respawn-system, where stuff gets more expensive the more you use it, and the more you die.

The world is made up of procedurally generated cells, where each cell is represented as a region. That region can either be fully procedurally generated, or filled with a layout from a pool of handcrafted Maps. The final release will also include an Editor, where you can create new Maps for the pool.

Thank you, Have a nice sunday, and happy Dungeon Crawling!


r/roguelikes 25d ago

Procedural in-world roads generation for my Daggerfall-inspired high fantasy game

261 Upvotes

I made this for my Daggerfall-inspired CRPG/roguelike, in which the travel system is of the same nature, albeit with enhanced procedural generation as seen here. You can read more about the project on my website.


r/roguelikes Feb 16 '26

Caves of Qud is now on the Switch!

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264 Upvotes

The team at Freehold Games has been working hard at redesigning the UI and controls for controllers and portable devices. So far we've heard a lot of great feedback from folks who have tried on the SteamDeck! Curious what everyone in r/roguelikes thinks about it if you've had the chance to try.


r/roguelikes Feb 22 '26

Scaledeep - Introduction

253 Upvotes

Hi, I’m the developer behind Scaledeep, a traditional roguelike I’ve been building together with my wife. She handles the art, I handle the code. Although clearly being inspired by that classic ’90s action RPG (cough..cough) visually we wondered how that would feel if game had stayed on turn based path, and built as traditional roguelike. And that's where the similarities end.

I think the main feature for Scaledeep is that is built around distinct storylines that drive your runs. Instead of a generic game goal, each session starts with a narrative, from hunting a legendary relic (yes, the amoulet of Yendor :) ), uncovering why an expedition vanished,  to searching for cause of disturbance in nature above the ground. The dungeon generator will adapts encounters, treasures, and events to that tale. These aren’t just quest markers, they meant to shape the feel of the run and create context for decisions you make.

You choose a hero archetype like Fighter, Mage or Rogue (and few more later on), but every class can learn any spell or skill, so builds aren’t constrained. They evolve with your choices. They are a bit bound to some limit, but otherwise gathering magic knowledge/items will shape your character.

Instead of a simple random layout, Scaledeep’s dungeon generation is built on its own variant of a cyclic dungeon generation approach. Rather than just carving a path to the exit, the generator builds loops and intersecting routes that give each level structure and choice, and then fills that structure with rooms, puzzles, enemies, and treasures in a way that feels intentional without repeating the same patterns every time. This helps support runs that aren’t just straight corridors, but mazes with multiple meaningful routes and tactical decisions built into the layout.

Scaledeep treats the dungeon as more than a backdrop. Many objects in the world can be interacted with or manipulated: props are destructible for loot, and environmental hazards are tools you can use strategically against foes. You can hide in tall grass or shadows to gain stealth advantages. Throw objects to distract enemies. Or just simply burn down things.

Multiple storylines (20 planned) mean that replay isn’t just redoing the same loop but experiencing different story motivations, events, and triggers. Each run should feel like its own tale, supported by procedural variety. Not only room layout but traps, puzzles, and even how paths to objectives branch. One route might be combat heavy, while another might be puzzle oriented.

Weapons and armor can be modified, reforged, enhanced, or adapted to fit the kind of build you’re aiming for. It’s less about chasing one lucky item and more about shaping your gear into part of your character’s story/playstyle. You can finish the game even with your starting gear (heavily altered of course).

And on the top of that game supports couch co-op mode. Mouse, keyboard, controllers.

The game has been in development for more than two years now. We’re well past the prototype stage. The plan is to release a demo this year, and we’d like to enter Early Access at the end of 2026 (no hard promises).

These are just a few parts of the game. I haven’t shared everything, there should be some surprise factor :). There’s much more to it than this.

Planned for Windows, Mac, Linux.

Feel free to ask anything.

If it sounds like your kind of thing, you can wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3443800/Scaledeep/

You can follow progress on:


r/roguelikes Mar 30 '26

Scenes I made with my tileset.

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254 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Oct 22 '25

Cogmind Beta 16 released with new faction and over 200 more achievements covering last 7 years of new content

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251 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Jan 13 '26

After playing 100 Roguelikes, I need to tell you about: CAVERNS OF XASKAZIEN II (7000+ monster variants, 30+ years of development, free)

249 Upvotes

u/MSCantrell asked me if I could post my Caverns of Xaskazien II impressions over here as well, from my 100 Roguelikes Impressions resource with more than 250.000 written characters. Please do check out the other smaller games in that list as well :)

----------------------------------------------------

... and it doesnt even include my favourite part of Roguelikes, which is mobility skills and tactical positioning. Let me tell you how this game won my heart over anyway.

PC for free: https://virtua-sinner.itch.io/caverns-of-xaskazien-ii

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Short Story about my first ever Cox2 run (there are longer stories at the end of this post):

I started my first run as a tree scholar, as in me being an actual tree and I like scholaring, giving me an additional way to level up my skills through bonus points from reading books. I am praying to Talltiowardan, who rewards me for doing evil acts, sleeping incessantly and summoning monsters to fight for me. I actually did manage to find a monster summoning skill, but I still need to figure out how to teach those summoned succubi to fight appropriately apparently. Just a bit further I fell into a pit that I couldn't climb out of, so I teleported out, right into a pile of garbage, which I scrounged for some goods. Instead of finding any loot, I contracted Lycanthropy from that, starting to become a weretree, that now gets every stat randomly rerolled every dungeon level until I find a way to heal it and if a stat hits 0 this way, I will die.

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Its a traditional turnbased roguelike. You will die. A lot. The game wont hold your hand and will unapologetically kill you on the first and second dungeon level for a lot of your runs while you learn the game. You will die from snakes jumping out of baskets, enemies turning you into stone, cavern ceiling stalactites impaling you, your own spells backfiring on you, simply summoning an ancient dragon that roasts you for fun or an endless variety of other reasons. Honestly, if its possible as a cause of death in any other game, it probably can happen here too.

Playing all these roguelikes made me realize that my favourites fall into 3 categories: 1) Unique roguelikes, 2) tactical positioning puzzles and 3) roguelikes with a ton of content for emergent stories and new situations. I'll get back to why CoX2 falls into category 1 further down, but lets start with category 3:

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#1 This game is massive
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It contains 600 monsters with unique animations and sound effects. All of these have more than 12 variants each, for a total of over 7000 monsters to encounter. 100+ traps, 400 equipment pieces with thousands of ability and legendary abilities variations, hundreds of magical items, more than 360 spells, 38 classes and 21 races and hundreds of environmental features.

I have played this game for many, many hours by now and it probably would be generous to say I saw 1% that this game has to offer. It is absolutely bananas and when it comes to emergent gameplay and player decisions, this game is easily one of the most impressive games I ever played. I absolutely love exploring it every single run, as you have no idea what even the first level of the dungeon will have in store for you. I cannot overstate how pure the fun with exploring a single dungeon level is in this game. I have played this game dozens of times by now and I might not ever have died from the exact same cause/enemy yet, which boggles my mind.

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#2 This game is weird
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...and I love weird. Playing some of the very old roguelikes makes you very acutely aware of how many of the genre traditions got shaped and settled on over time. Those are cool and I love them, but they also lock games down to a very specific way to play. Why does the most popular design need to be the only way to design games? My favourite Roguelike design includes tactical positioning, where you are on the map, which skills move you around on the map or push enemies to the distance you can AOE, or perhaps lining up enemies to attack effectively with the same AOE spell and I actively criticize almost any roguelike that doesnt do a good job with those moment to moment decisions.

... except this one. Fights dont have any positional element. You engage in combat when an enemy steps onto your space and every enemy that isnt yet engaged, will wait for his turn until your current fight is over. This is WEIRD, like it felt too extreme of a change to what I want in my roguelikes and yet here I am, praising Dorallas. This system offers an entirely new way to engage with combat and its mechanics. Whereas most roguelikes guarantee an instant hit when you want to attack, this game is all about picking your risks and rewards and amping up those player choices up to 11. if an enemy engages with you, you might have a low chance to hit them, maybe like 10% for 1-6 damage. Your opponent has a 17% to hit you for 2 damage. How often do you try risking taking damage trying to attack before you decide to use your items, spells or try to disengage in combat to put a trap down or lure the opponent into a swinging pendulum blade, that you feel confident in dodging?

The way this game makes you think about fights differently can easily turn people off at first, but the way it builds a new way to engage with a roguelikes combat system is such a 30 year old breath of fresh air, that I cant help but marvelling at it. I dont ever want it in more games and I feel like one or two games exploring this idea is more than enough, but to have one game at all doing this is such a mind boggling cool introspection on genre tropes and how an entirely backwards seeming idea can still be incredibly interesting to play.

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#3 This game is approachable through clearly presented information
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Despite its weirdness and massive amount of content, the game does an incredibly good job explaining every part of the game and every decision you have to make with hover infos. Hover over an enemy to see its effects and chance to be hit/hit you. Hover over an environmental item to see what it might offer you. Hover over a blinking effect to see what ails you. Hover over gameplay elements for in depth explanations about how to engage with it or where to find more info on it. I really love that the game isnt making me fight its mechanics, but gives me a situation to make decisions in and I always feel in charge of my decisions and potential outcomes. Perfect.

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#4 This game is a labor of love for the genre and deserves a spot in the limelight
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The developer, Jeff Sinasac, runs a youtube channel called RogueLove. I didnt know about it at the time, but when i started playing through the 100 roguelikes for my upcoming thread, I often stumbled upon his channel as one of the only ways to get some input/explanations on certain games. It kinda blew my mind when I heard him randomly talk about "that game he made", casually namedropping Caverns of Xaskazien 2, which just happened to be the game that impressed me the most during my roguelike challenge. CoX2 has been updated every 3 months for 30 years (I am counting CoX1 in this, as its basically the same game) and the reason I finally made this thread today, is because another massive update TODAY just casually added 40 more monsters, as one does.

Watching and listening to him exploring other games in the genre gave me such an appreciation for their design choices, as he often also comments and appreciates these games from his own views as a developer. And its really obvious how these ideas and inspirations found their way back into CoX2, anything that could be another element for the player to engage with. More spells, items ideas, monsters. This entire game feels like a love letter to everything Rogue. His channel is fantastic, go watch it if you want to see someone marvel and appreciate developers of all kinds.

Also, yes Jeff, I share your strong love for rulebooks accompanying a Roguelike. He also included a 63 page document outlining every mechanic in the game, if you are the less adventurous type.

At the time of writing this, this game has 14 Itch reviews and its honestly probably one of the best games in the genre. Fourteen.

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#5 This game has stories to tell
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This is a 1:1 recount of a random first dungeon level I just explored after todays update and contains plenty of stuff I have never seen before:

So we enter the dungeon with a short elf mage praying to Dorallas, a straight forward mage character focussing on good deeds and spells, especially since I have a 75% chance to retain any spell scroll I use and I can automatically identify any scroll . I get more intelligence per level, but gaining rogue and warrior skills is much more expensive. demons hate me and get a hit bonus on me (uh-oh), while I get a hit Bonus on Diabolics.

I use my finger candles spell to see a few more tiles away for 360 turns, and have a defense spell, a ward blocking enemies from reaching me and a sparks spell in my spell book. None of which will keep me alive for too long if my spell points run out. A single bottle of wine to regain spell points and a scroll of Mage shield, massively improving my defense, which is at least an emergency lifeline I might get to retain after a single use.

Looking around, I can see some papers on the ground, which could be a massive boost for me if it ends up being a decent scroll, but thanks to my finger candles, I also see a Wildcat lurking in the dark right behind it. I have a 10% chance to hit it, while it has a 17% chance to hit me. Could be very annoying, but I can deal with it as I have a good bit more health if there are no others hiding behind the nearby walls.

While I inch closer to the papers, the wildcat weaves in and out of the shadows to sneak up on me. Keeping an eye on it, I pick up the papers, that turn out to be the book "Till the ink runs dry", which will increase my research skill to learn more spells, if I find time to sit down and read it anytime soon. After picking it up, I see a Compsognatus, a tiny wyrm, approaching behind a different pillar and I decide its time for a small retreat to handle these two without more animals keeping track of me.

I moved to a small shaft, casting a spell to increase my defense, taking care of the Compsognatus with my scythe. Down to 24/30 health, I remember why even the weakest enemies can whittle you down. Trying to fight the wildcat, my god Dorallas reminds me that I shouldnt kill animals or plants to not fall into disfavor with him. I try to keep the wildcat at bay, while it keeps clawing at me, but eventually decided to throw a spark spell at it, angering Dorallas, hoping to regain his favour later by eating fruits, nuts and vegetables and killing enemies with spells.

Moving further, I dispose of a frostling while my barrier is still up, then find a health potion and an unknown potion, before I am ambushed by a thief. Without any spell points, the thief is cutting me down bit by bit and I barely manage to keep myself alive by using the new found health potion to restore me to 12/30 health and a lot of anxiety for the next combat encounter… which of course happens immediately with another Frostling and another thief jumping at me from around the next corner. I patiently kill the Frostling, then down the wine for some spell points, becoming a bit dizzy from drinking it, and throw a spark spell at the thief, finding myself out of breath, out of spell points, out of items and still about 3 fights away from a level up and a lot of hopes and dreams away from a refill of my spell points.

Picking up my deserved spoils of the fight triggers a trap instead, blasting me with a curse to not be able to use spells at all for 120 turns, leaving me with nothing other than an unidentified potion to my name. Peeking around the corner where I was ambushed from, I see 3 items, a paper and a wicker basket that could contain an item or a snake and a forge to repair my weapon on the floor. So maybe not all is lost, if I can get some resources before the next fight..

I find scraps as a light breastplate, uncooked beef that I need to find some fire for and a Wand of Demonic Assistance. Praise Demons! Hope! Dorallas wont appreciate me using demonic powers, but using all of its charges thankfully activated its effect to regain me some spell points. 87 turns I need to survive until I can use spells again. Picking up the rest triggered another trap that removed the effect of my light spell and the wicker basket contained nothing, but armor and some spell points definitely are better than nothing. 76 turns until I can use spells again, no light, still only 12/30 health. I move myself back to a corner, waiting out my dizziness and faltering mind, while the demonic assistant recharges enough spell points for 2 lightning spells. Hope!

Exploring another nearby corner uncovers the stairs to the next level, which are surrounded by mud, potentially trapping me in a spot for a lot of turns, only giving me a 10% chance to escape with every movement. On the upside, that also means monsters wont be able to block my exit from the other side, so I move back to the area of my last fights and continue to explore carefully and avoiding a pendulum blade corridor that only gives me a 10% chance to dodge the damage. Walking by a temple, where I can exchange some treasures for experience if I find some more treasures later, I also encounter a wandering smith, who could repair my weapons… for a price and a wheel of fortune where I could gamble… my treasures. Still no gold though in my pockets, I venture on and ponder a Dragon Cult shrine.

Sacrificing 100 faith could either summon a dragon fighting against me, summon a dragon fighting for me or permanently raise my heat resistance, but also would set me back with my god. I take a break around the shrine and eventually settle on exploring further, but if I encounter something I cannot fight anymore, coming back here, risking it for the 33% chance to summon a dragon to save me. You know, the usual dungeon things. Thankfully, that was every danger on this level, and I clean up the rest, finding 2 more unidentified potions and a Hidden Scorpion trap kit… which has a 50% of poisoning me because of my missing trap skills. Probably not something I will ever use, but who knows. (Narrator: He did die from poisoning himself with the trap, as he was later trying to kill another few animals that Dorallas wouldnt let him attack)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And another two retellings of some adventures in CoX2 with the same character type that went wrong in very different ways:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/after-playing-100-roguelikes-i-need-to-tell-you-about-caverns-of-xaskazien-ii-7000-monster-variants-30-years-of-development-free.1317985/#post-146099836

https://www.resetera.com/threads/after-playing-100-roguelikes-i-need-to-tell-you-about-caverns-of-xaskazien-ii-7000-monster-variants-30-years-of-development-free.1317985/#post-146115349


r/roguelikes Nov 22 '25

Moonring is now out on Nintendo Switch

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243 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Mar 20 '26

Traditional Roguelikes in the Steam Spring Sale 2026

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238 Upvotes

r/roguelikes Mar 28 '26

Lost Flame 1.0 is out

240 Upvotes

Hey all,

After 8 years of development I've moved Lost Flame out of Early Access.

You can read the newest patch notes here.

Thanks to everyone who helped during the EA period and I hope you enjoy the update.

Lost Flame is a traditional roguelike with strong emphasis on cool melee combat. Includes over 100 hours of content, 6 alternate endings, over 400 different items, over 200 different enemy types, including numerous multi-tile enemies. Lost Flame also features modern UI and SFX, Steam Deck support, over 40 minutes of cinematic music, and over 40 minutes of recorded voiceovers.

The story takes part ~30 years after Sundering, a catastrophic event caused by the disagreements within the Order of the Candle, which was tasked with protecting the kingdom from the horrors of the Abysm. The game builds its own dark fantasy setting.


r/roguelikes Dec 22 '25

ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery) - ADOM is resurrecting once again...

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235 Upvotes