The Best Roguelike Games You Can Play Right Now

The roguelike has eaten gaming from the inside. What started as a niche genre defined by ASCII dungeons and permadeath has become the default structure for half the indie games released in any given year. Roguelike deckbuilders, roguelike platformers, roguelike shooters, roguelike farming sims, if a genre exists, someone has made a roguelike version of it.

That's great for variety but terrible for figuring out what to actually play. This guide covers the best games across every roguelike subgenre, from the traditional dungeon crawlers to the modern roguelite hybrids that most people mean when they say "roguelike" in 2026.

What are the best action roguelite games?

The best action roguelites in 2026 are Hades, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain 2, Enter the Gungeon, and Spelunky 2. Each delivers tight combat, procedural variety, and strong build-crafting, but they differ in specialty: Hades excels in narrative, Dead Cells in platforming fluidity, Risk of Rain 2 in co-op chaos, and Spelunky 2 in punishing mastery.

Hades remains the gold standard. Supergiant Games solved the roguelike narrative problem, how do you tell a story in a game where the protagonist keeps dying? The answer is that death IS the narrative device. Every failed run is a conversation with characters in the underworld. The combat is tight, the writing is sharp, the voice acting is exceptional, and the boon system creates genuinely different builds every run. Hades II is currently in early access and expanding on everything the original built.

Dead Cells is the best roguelike platformer. The movement is incredibly fluid, wall jumping, dodge rolling, and chaining attacks feels like the game is reading your mind. The biome variety keeps runs feeling fresh even after hundreds of attempts, and the weapon diversity is absurd. Motion Twin kept adding content for years after launch, and the DLCs are all worth it.

Risk of Rain 2 took the 2D original into 3D and proved the formula scales beautifully. The item stacking creates exponential power curves, by the end of a good run, you're a walking catastrophe destroying entire screens of enemies. The co-op mode with friends is where it truly shines.

Enter the Gungeon blends roguelike dungeon crawling with bullet hell dodging. The weapon variety is legendary, guns that shoot guns, guns that shoot bees, a gun that's just the word "bullet." The humor carries you through the difficulty.

Spelunky 2 is the hardest game on this list and the most rewarding to master. Derek Yu's platformer roguelike demands perfect play and rewards it with some of the deepest hidden content in gaming. If you haven't found the secret final area, you haven't seen what this game is actually about.

What are the best roguelike deckbuilder games?

The best roguelike deckbuilders are Slay the Spire, Balatro, Inscryption, and Granny's Gambit. Slay the Spire defined the format with card-based combat and relic synergies. Balatro proves the formula works without combat, Inscryption wraps it in psychological horror, and Granny's Gambit brings Victorian monster-fighting personality to the genre.

Slay the Spire invented the format and it's still one of the best. Four characters, each with a completely different card pool and playstyle. The relic system creates build-defining synergies that make every run feel unique. Slay the Spire 2 is coming and the indie world is collectively holding its breath.

Balatro proved the deckbuilder format works without combat. Poker hands plus joker modifiers plus mathematical escalation equals one of the most addictive games in years. The depth is staggering, you're still discovering new joker interactions dozens of hours in.

Inscryption wraps a deckbuilder in psychological horror and then does something nobody expected with the format about three times. Daniel Mullins made a game that uses the medium as the message.

Granny's Gambit brings the roguelike deckbuilder to Victorian monster-fighting territory. The Slay the Spire bones are there, branching map, card rewards after combat, shop, rest sites, but the personality is all its own. Tea-based healing, spectacle-based abilities, and a mercy mechanic for when the old lady's running low on fight.

What are the best bullet heaven roguelikes?

The best bullet heaven roguelikes are Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Halls of Torment, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, and Granny's Rampage. All share the core roguelike loop of procedural upgrades, permadeath, and escalating difficulty, but each brings a distinct twist to the auto-attacking, horde-survival formula Vampire Survivors popularized.

The bullet heaven genre is inherently roguelike, procedural upgrade offerings, permadeath per run, escalating difficulty, and build-crafting through randomized choices. If you love Vampire Survivors, you love roguelikes whether you think of them that way or not.

The variety within this subgenre is wider than most people realize.

What are the best traditional roguelike games?

The best traditional roguelikes are Caves of Qud, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and Cogmind. These games stay closest to the genre's roots with turn-based systems, deep mechanics, and punishing permadeath. Caves of Qud offers unmatched procedural worldbuilding, DCSS is free and browser-playable, and Cogmind features modular robot-building with gorgeous ASCII art.

Caves of Qud is the best traditional roguelike for people who want deep worldbuilding. It's set in a far-future science-fantasy world where you can be a mutant with four arms and psychic powers or a pure-strain human with cybernetic implants. The procedural history system generates entire civilizations, religions, and artifacts unique to each playthrough. It's dense and demanding and absolutely worth the investment.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is free, browser-playable, and one of the most refined traditional roguelikes ever made. The species and class combinations create wildly different playstyles, and the community has been refining the balance for over a decade. If you've never tried a true roguelike, DCSS is the best entry point because it's free and runs in your browser right now.

Cogmind is a roguelike where you're a robot building yourself from parts scavenged from destroyed enemies. Every component you attach changes your capabilities, guns, wheels, armor, sensors, utilities. The ASCII art is gorgeous (yes, ASCII can be gorgeous) and the tactical depth is immense.

What are the most unique roguelike games?

The most unique roguelikes twist the genre into unexpected shapes. Luck Be a Landlord turns it into a slot machine, Dicey Dungeons builds tactical combat around dice rolling, and Void Bastards adds FPS exploration with comic book visuals. These games prove the roguelike structure can power almost any game concept imaginable.

Luck Be a Landlord is a roguelike slot machine. You spin slots, build synergies between symbols, and try to make rent. It shouldn't work as well as it does.

Dicey Dungeons turns dice rolling into tactical combat. Each character uses dice differently, the robot needs exact values, the witch builds spellbooks, the inventor recycles equipment. Terry Cavanagh (of VVVVVV fame) made a game that's deceptively deep underneath its cheerful exterior.

Void Bastards is a roguelike FPS with comic book art and dry British humor. You explore derelict spaceships, scavenge resources, and manage a crew of randomly generated prisoners. The strategic layer of choosing which ships to board adds a planning dimension that most action roguelikes lack.

What we make at Choost

Choost Games makes two roguelikes: Granny's Rampage, a bullet heaven where grandma grabs a minigun and fights through hell, and Granny's Gambit, a Victorian deckbuilder roguelike. Both are available on itch.io, with Granny's Rampage also on Steam and Google Play.

We're a small indie studio. Our games: Granny's Rampage, a bullet heaven where grandma grabs a minigun and fights through hell, and Granny's Gambit, a Victorian deckbuilder roguelike starring a card-slinging nan with a chip on her shoulder. Granny's Rampage is $2.99 on itch (Windows) and free on Google Play (Android), and on Steam since June 22 (also $2.99). Granny's Gambit is pay-what-you-want on itch.

Why are roguelikes so popular?

Roguelikes dominate indie gaming because procedural generation multiplies content, permadeath removes save-system complexity, and run-based structure creates addictive "one more run" loops. The format also bolts onto nearly any genre (deckbuilders, bullet heavens, farming sims), making it the most versatile and developer-friendly structure in indie games today.

The roguelike structure is the best format for indie development. Procedural generation multiplies content, a developer designs the rules and the system generates infinite variations. Permadeath eliminates the need for save systems and checkpoint design. Run-based structure means sessions are self-contained and satisfying. And the "one more run" psychology is the most powerful retention loop in gaming.

It's also why the genre keeps expanding into new territory. The roguelike structure can be bolted onto deckbuilders, bullet heavens, farming sims, dating sims, cooking games, anything that benefits from procedural variety and meaningful decision-making. The most popular indie games right now are disproportionately roguelikes, and that's not a coincidence.

The genre isn't slowing down. If anything, it's accelerating. The best indie games of 2026 include multiple roguelikes pushing the format in directions nobody expected, and the pipeline of upcoming titles suggests this is a permanent fixture, not a trend.