The reason you venture into the dungeon begins with a mage who once protected the village. Something went terribly wrong, and he became corrupted. Instead of guarding the people, he now sends waves of monsters to terrorize them. To end his attacks and stop the village from being destroyed, three heroes step forward. Their goal is to descend into the dungeon and defeat anything that stands between them and the fallen mage.
Your first choice is to select one of these three heroes. They follow familiar fantasy roles: a warrior, an archer, and a mage, each carrying their own type of weapon and fighting style. Once you choose your hero, your journey begins. The run takes you through three floors, each made up of ten stages. Despite the dungeon setting, the gameplay feels closer to the survivor genre than a traditional dungeon crawler.
The first sign of this appears when you enter a room. Enemies immediately begin pouring in from all directions, and your only goal is to stay alive until the timer reaches zero. Another clue is that your main focus is movement. Aiming and attacking happen automatically, so your hero fires at enemies without you needing to press anything. The warrior can feel like the toughest option because his attacks only strike in the direction you face, while the archer and mage fire projectiles more freely.
Even though rooms are packed with objects, you can walk straight through them without getting stuck. Enemies follow the same rule. They move through walls and obstacles as they steadily converge on your position. When enemies are defeated they drop coins and experience points, but you do not need to run around collecting them. Once the round ends, everything on the floor flies directly to you.
You could technically stand still and let enemies come to you, but the game rewards those who keep moving. Around the room you will find marked containers such as bags, chests, and tombs. These containers disappear when the round ends, so exploring the room and opening as many as possible becomes part of the challenge. They open when you get near and press a button, and usually drop coins or gear you can equip. Occasionally they contain traps instead. Enemies might spawn nearby, fireballs might rain down on your location for a few seconds, or your controls might suddenly reverse. Thankfully, all incoming attacks are clearly marked, giving you enough time to react and move away.
Gear plays an important role because it gives you additional weapons that fire alongside your main one. You can equip up to three extra weapons. They are simple to understand since their stats mostly come down to damage and fire rate. What makes them interesting is their variety. Some shoot projectiles, some create area attacks, and others support your character by doing things like healing. Accessories are another type of gear with their own slots. These provide straightforward bonuses such as increased health, more damage, faster experience gain, and other helpful boosts.
Experience points are especially valuable because every level grants a skill point. These points unlock upgrades in a fairly large skill tree that is unique for each hero. Progress through the tree is mostly linear and many parts remain locked until you advance further. The tree is divided into seven branches, each representing a different skill. Upgrades along a branch improve only that specific skill. Occasionally the branch splits and forces you to choose between two upgrades, meaning you cannot have both.
When a round ends, the path forward opens and a merchant appears. He offers two random options, but you can choose only one or ignore him. Some of the choices cost coins that you collected from enemies, while others demand a heavier sacrifice. For example, you might gain a powerful bonus but lose the ability to see enemy health bars, or receive fewer offers in future shops in exchange for a boost.
Before entering the next room, you also select an objective. Survival is not always the only task. Sometimes you need to defeat a certain number of enemies, remain inside a marked zone, open every tomb in the room, or complete another challenge. One option is a special shop room where you can sell unwanted gear and buy new items from a random selection.
Certain objectives are not limited by time, which means you can stay and fight enemies for a while. However, the longer you remain in a room, the more dangerous it becomes. Enemies grow more numerous and tougher, and elite units may appear. These elite enemies reward you with valuable loot when defeated. Even so, the game eventually stops rewarding endless farming, since enemies stop dropping loot after enough time passes.
Your overall goal is to clear ten rooms on each floor and defeat a boss at the end. The early rooms start out simple, but around the fifth stage modifiers begin to appear. Enemy spawn rates may increase, enemies might gain extra health, and other twists make survival more difficult. When you die, and sooner or later you will, the run ends and you lose everything you collected during it. Still, you earn rewards that help you progress.
One reward is character experience. The more you play a particular hero, the more perks and abilities you unlock for them. The other reward is crystals. These can be spent at the village blacksmith to unlock permanent upgrades. Most of them are familiar bonuses such as increased damage, health, or movement speed, though there are also unique upgrades like extra projectiles or better shop offers. They can be expensive, but they are often worth saving for. There is even a risky way to gain a large amount of crystals. Occasionally the merchant at the end of a room will offer about twenty crystals, but accepting the deal ends your run immediately.
In the end, the game blends its ideas nicely and creates a satisfying sense of progress. It never feels like you have to grind for too long. Even on your first attempts you can make it surprisingly far, and every new perk or upgrade gives you a small edge that slowly pushes you closer to conquering all the stages.
