Hollow Mine

Run through random mine floors, battling enemies, crafting gear, and surviving roguelite challenges with no lasting upgrades. The story in this game is simple. You play as a nameless adventurer chosen by the king to carry a cursed ring deep into the heart of a mine. Beyond that, you know almost nothing about yourself, only your profession, which is determined at the start of each run. Each character class comes with its own unique set of attributes, advantages, disadvantages, and starting equipment. Every class also has a special perk that changes how you approach combat. While the game clearly outlines how to unlock these characters, some of them require very specific conditions or actions, which can only be met across multiple playthroughs. Each character’s abilities are defined by three primary stats, strength, dexterity, and intelligence. These determine what gear they can use effectively. For example, a character high in intelligence but lacking strength will be unable to wield heavy melee weapons such as swords or axes. The game’s combat system focuses primarily on ranged attacks, though melee fighters still contribute through short-range shockwaves that extend from their attacks. These waves have limited reach compared to the arrows of archers or the spells of mages, but they allow even close-combat characters to fight at distance. The gameplay is a blend of several genres but remains intuitive enough that players can dive in with minimal explanation. Your core actions revolve around movement and attacking, whether it’s enemies, objects, or occasionally walls. Staying true to its mining theme, the game allows you to break through sections of the mine itself. You can carve out shortcuts, uncover treasures, or dig your way to exits. However, there are limits to how far you can dig, as the game restricts you from breaching the boundaries of each stage. Progression through the mine occurs via a series of randomly generated rooms. Most of the time, you must defeat all enemies in a room to move forward. In this sense, the game resembles many other roguelites, where you sometimes get to choose the next room type. Although the layouts are procedurally generated, the rooms aren’t excessively large because each can be completed in just a few minutes. The randomization mainly affects modifiers like enemy health and speed. While standard rooms simply require you to clear out enemies, there are several variations. Some rooms operate on a wave system where you must defeat multiple enemy waves to progress. Others are timed challenges that require you to survive until the clock runs out. There are also safe rooms, which contain teleporters that bring you back to the starting area. Here, you can visit the merchant, craft new items, and sometimes heal. Crafting is one of the game’s most distinctive mechanics. As you descend through the mine, you’ll gather resources such as minerals, wood, and other materials. With the right blueprints, these can be combined to create new weapons, armor, potions, or magical equipment. Crafting, however, is limited to specific stations found throughout the game. The anvil is used to forge weapons and tools, the kettle is for brewing potions, and the magical orb is for crafting spells. Both the anvil and the orb can also repair their respective gear types, though doing so costs materials or money. Repairing an item is always cheaper than crafting a new one, so it’s smart to unequip your favorite weapon before it breaks completely. While all three crafting stations are available in the starting hub, you may also find them randomly in certain rooms later on. However, two mechanics can make the experience more challenging. The first is the stamina system. Every attack consumes stamina, with the cost depending on the weapon type. A sword might use a small amount per swing, while an axe drains much more. Although stamina recharges quickly, it still forces you to manage your timing carefully and retreat periodically to recover. Fortunately, your character also has a dash ability that recharges every second, allowing you to dart around or escape enemy attacks efficiently. The second drawback is weapon durability. Each hit you land reduces the durability of your weapon, and once it reaches zero, the item breaks permanently. When that happens, you must either switch to another weapon or fight barehanded. Fists are handy for breaking weak walls if you lack a pickaxe, but they aren’t useful in combat. While you’ll frequently find new gear in treasure chests throughout normal floors, this system becomes much more punishing during boss fights. Bosses are notoriously durable and can easily destroy multiple weapons before going down, especially if they summon reinforcements mid-fight. After every room you clear, you’re rewarded with a perk selection screen. You can choose one of three randomly generated perks, some of which include drawbacks. If you’re not satisfied with the available choices, you can reroll them by spending gold earned from breaking objects or opening chests. You also gain experience orbs from defeated enemies, and when you level up, you’ll access a special perk screen filled with more powerful, purely positive upgrades. The core objective is to survive a sequence of rooms leading to a boss encounter. Defeating the boss unlocks a new environment filled with fresh enemy types and hazards. The game’s design is generally fair, because enemies telegraph their attacks by glowing red, spawn locations are clearly marked, and foes will only engage if they’ve detected you. However, death has harsh consequences because you lose everything and must start again from the beginning. The only lasting progress comes from unlocking new characters, but they are not necessarily better. There are no permanent upgrades or persistent perks that carry over between runs.

My first experience with Hollow Mine was during PGA, two years ago, and I enjoyed it then, despite all sorts of jank. I've followed the development somewhat, and it's nice to see dev cycle finalised and the game released on Steam. It is still a little bit janky in places, but it's overall enjoyable game. I especially like the degree you can tune your stats midgame, allowing some crazy OP builds (100% evade chance? Why not!)

The game is great, I really like its difficulty and pace. A job well done. I have been following the development of Hollow Mine on Discord for a long time, I have tested its earlier versions and I am convinced that it was created with great care and attention to detail. I highly recommend it.

Nie udało mi się za daleko dojść. Nie wciągnęła mnie ta gierka. Mam wrażenie że rozwój postaci jest niezbalansowany.

Preety preety cool roguelite dungeon crawler! Definetly made with passion

Trudna ale fajna gra.

Very cool game, quite a lot of rng follows you in every run you start - from room layouts to resources you can find. It doesnt hold your hand at all besides showing you base mechanics in tutorial, everything else is left for you to explore and find. Besides unlocking characters, there is no metaprogression, no skill trees or permanents abilities, every run is just you and whatever you can find to make it to the end - which makes it both fun and frustrating at times. Would recommend if you want to try a game where you need to move, dodge, do damage, manage inventory and see yourself get better at it with every run.