‘Slay the Spire’ Lovers, I Finally Found It — The Roguelike Deckbuilder Holy Grail

For those of you who have stuck around for a while, you’ll know that VICE Games loves roguelike deckbuilders. Slay the Spire is the game the entire team points to as the one. Since its release, many roguelike deckbuilders have tried. And, to be fair, many of them have gone on to become iconic in their own right! But few can match the highs and strategic nuances of Slay the Spire. …Until I happened upon Die in the Dungeon. An Early Access game I bought on a whim, played for two hours, and realized I felt those familiar StS highs again.

So, Die in the Dungeon is, duh, a roguelike deckbuilder. Except, instead of gathering cards as you do in Slay the Spire, it’s all about dice. Attack Dice, Defense Dice, Health Dice, Boost Dice — and within all those lie individual properties (attachments, basically) to add to your schemes. If all that wasn’t enough, you also have a few “classes” to choose from. And, of course, you can bring along a companion!

When I started my Die in the Dungeon journey, it was just me and Cinder (our stoic green frog protagonist). Cinder had a decent little kit. It’s clear, however, that this is the “Getting your feet wet” class. Your initial Draw Pile of dice is a good balance of Attack, Defense, and Boost dice. And now, I’m going to try my damnedest to explain the “Grid” you have to work with.

eat your heart out, ‘slay the spire,’ ‘die in the dungeon’ is on your tail

Every turn requires you to place the dice you roll into a 9-slot Grid. Each die has a range (that you can later customize) of faces it can roll. First, you’re at the mercy of RNG. Then, when you know what you have, you can start filling up the Grid. Now, the exact placement of dice in your grid will really come into play the deeper you go into your run. There’s a certain rush of dopamine here that I’d go as far as to say Slay the Spire didn’t even tap into!

You’re able to influence your rolls with rerolls and Relic abilities later. But even if you know exactly what’s in your dice deck, you can’t control how well you roll. This creates an “Oh, no, what do I do now?” player-driven feedback loop where every turn is a new battlefield. Maybe you get all Defense Dice on a turn when an enemy must take damage or it’ll hit even harder. Maybe you get all Attack Dice on a turn when being a glass cannon is an awful position for you to be in. So, you depend on a reroll to at least give you one Defense Dice — and not that trash basic one I have that’ll only give me 3 Block.

Along that, you have your random events, Elite encounters, Shops, Treasures, and all the other roguelike deckbuilder fixings. Slay the Spire may never be usurped, it’s true. But, Die in the Dungeon is that game. Trust me. It’s available in Early Access for $12.99. But, for a few extra bucks, you can grab the “Supporter Pack,” which gives you an adorable Cinder skin, a companion, and the complete boppin’ OST!