Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #1 of 35 in that tierWatch the moment (0:14:37)
Boneraiser Minions
- Developed by
- caiys
- Published by
- caiysware
$4.99
Amass an army of undead to fight endless waves of heroes intent to end your boneraising ways! In this gothic auto-battler rogue-lite Survivor-like, use the bones of slain heroes to raise your minions, collect relics and spells, and unlock meta upgrades, all to survive King Gigald's crusade!
Consensus
A79.4/100
Steam players96.1% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive5,370 reviews
VG Insights estimate ↗≈161K copies · ≈$516K gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2023 · #3 of 6 in that tierWatch the moment (0:51:17)
What players say
A gothic pixel-art auto-battler survivors-like where you play a necromancer who raises and merges undead minions that do the fighting while you dodge and collect bones.
Steam reception is Overwhelmingly Positive (about 96% of roughly 5,400 reviews) for a $4.99 game from solo-ish studio caiysware, with praise centred on sheer content volume, minion-centric build variety, chiptune music and dark humour. Critics coverage is sparse: Metacritic lists the game with no Metascore yet (awaiting 4 critic reviews) and a 7.1 user score from only 12 ratings, and no OpenCritic entry turned up. Indie blogs (GamingOnLinux, a Substack review) were warm, with GamingOnLinux calling it a favourite and Steam Deck Verified. Negative reviews are a small minority but are highly consistent: the visuals are cluttered and hard on the eyes, and mechanics/tooltips are poorly explained. The game left early access and has kept receiving content updates well past 1.0, per player reviews.
Players love
- Huge amount of content for the price: many classes, minion types, relics, spells and bosses; one player reports around 85 hours to 100 percent it
- Minion-centric gameplay feels distinct from Vampire Survivors: your army does the fighting, and combining/mutating minions is rarely seen elsewhere
- Deep, layered meta progression with a deliberate drip-feed of unlocks that keeps runs feeling novel
- Chiptune soundtrack widely singled out as excellent
- Gothic pixel art and crude, innuendo-heavy dark humour give it a strong identity
- Secret extra modes such as a strategy card game (Clashful Cards), Castle Conquest, Architect Mode, endless and daily challenges
- Developer is passionate and keeps shipping updates after 1.0; Steam Deck Verified and runs well on Linux/Proton
- Very low price and few bugs reported even after 90 hours
Common complaints
- Visual clutter: enemies, minions, projectiles, weather and pickups blur together, making it hard to track your own character late in a run
- Color scheme/saturation causes eye strain or headaches for some players; a few compare it to seizure-warning territory
- Poor affordance design: no tooltips for spells, unclear meaning of gems and telegraphs, no way to re-check a class's strengths after a run starts
- Text descriptions for minions and upgrades are written for flavour rather than clarity, forcing players to read multiple sentences or use external guides
- Minions can look like enemies and XP can look like enemy projectiles, per critical reviewers (an early comment said outlines were later added to help)
- Sparse audio feedback for much of the on-screen action, according to one reviewer
- Limited control over minions, which only loosely follow you
Can feel tedious
- Reading dense upgrade text and puzzling out systems every level-up
- Everything can be unlocked within a few hours for some players, after which runs feel like free wins
- Repetitive loop once build variety is exhausted; some say if you have played one survivors-like you have played them all
- Slow, small-feeling start and a few runs needed before options open up
- Completionist tasks such as the achievements monument are off-putting to some
What's unique
- Inverted fantasy: you are the necromancer under attack by heroes, and minions rather than the player deal the damage
- Bones from slain heroes are the resource used to raise the army
- Minion combining/mutating upgrade system
- Hidden upgrade effects revealed only after acquisition, encouraging discovery
- Bundled side modes including a card game and map-hopping Castle Conquest, plus a tongue-in-cheek unlockable plumber character
- Shares a universe/tone with the developer's other game Spirits Abyss
Players want
- Clearer readability: stronger player/minion/enemy/pickup differentiation and options to reduce effects and saturation
- Better tutorial and in-run info: tooltips for spells, a class summary screen, clearer minion upgrade/merge rules
- Plainer, more concise upgrade text instead of roleplay-style descriptions
- More build variety and bosses to sustain interest after the first wins
- Rebalanced difficulty curve, since meta progression makes the game far easier as you unlock everything
- More distinct character classes (a recurring complaint in sentiment summaries)
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeBullet HellPixel GraphicsRogue-lite2DVampireIndieSingleplayerCasualArcade
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Boneraiser Minions is a top-down, single-level roguelike where you play a weak necromancer with no abilities of your own and instead raise minions to fight for you. Despite its simple look, the hub world is packed with upgrades and things to buy, letting you customise the level, traps, enemies, minions, the necromancer and spells. He bounced off it at first because of information overload, but after sticking with it found it fun and chaotic. He places it in a solid B tier, just above 20 Minutes Till Dawn.
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