Part 3 (Apr 2025) · #4 of 17 in that tierWatch the moment (1:16:23)
Dungeon Clawler
- Developed by
- Stray Fawn Studio
- Published by
- Stray Fawn Publishing
$14.99
Dungeon Clawler is a Roguelike Claw Machine Deckbuilder. Build your deck, grab weapons and items from the claw machine to battle enemies, discover powerful perks that create game-changing synergies and unleash crazy combos as you fight your way through the dungeon!
Consensus
B72.8/100
Steam players88.9% positiveVery Positive4,027 reviews
VG Insights estimate ↗≈309K copies · ≈$2.2M gross
What creators say
What players say
A roguelike deckbuilder where your 'deck' is a pile of weapons and items in a physics-based claw machine, and you grab them turn by turn to fight through a 20-floor dungeon.
Players rate it Very Positive on Steam (about 89-91% positive across roughly 2.4k-4k reviews, depending on the snapshot), and the core idea of clawing your attack turn is widely called satisfying and surprisingly addictive. The 1.0 release came on April 30, 2026 after Early Access that began in November 2024, and the developer kept shipping new characters and items through and after launch. The long-running complaints are heavy RNG (where items land, which combos you draw), weak balance across a bloated item pool, a single repeating final boss, and runs that take 30-60 minutes. Critic coverage is thin: Metacritic lists only three Switch reviews (78-80 from two outlets, 60 from a third) and no final Metascore, and no OpenCritic page was confirmed. It is a niche, well-liked indie with a dedicated following rather than a critical darling.
Players love
- The claw itself is fun and tactile: grabbing a cluster of items for a huge damage turn, or fumbling a grab, produces a constant dopamine-and-frustration loop
- Strong 'one more run' pull, with some long-time roguelite fans comparing playtime to Balatro, Slay the Spire and Monster Train
- Large cast of characters with distinct playstyles and many viable build archetypes (poison, frost, fire, melee and strength, gold/money builds)
- Cute, charming art and animations (bunny protagonist, strong intro and ending animations) that give it a distinct identity
- Easy to pick up; cheap price and a lot of hours for the money, with a cheap Steam price noted by several reviewers
- Token system that lets you nudge the odds of getting certain item types
- Frequent free updates adding new characters, items, pachinko/slot style minigames and difficulty changes during Early Access and after 1.0
- Relaxing enough to play casually or while watching something; full controller support
Common complaints
- Heavy RNG in both item drops and physics: key items land in corners, get stuck out of reach, or get flung out of the machine, and a run can be lost before your build comes together
- Balance is poor: many items are niche or never used, some characters are near-automatic wins while others need very specific pieces, and several builds (fire vs poison, water items with little water support) are seen as redundant or weak
- Item pool bloat from each update's new characters makes builds more RNG-dependent; some players say it now feels like a slot machine rather than a claw machine
- Only one final boss regardless of character or difficulty, and limited enemy and boss variety, so runs feel repetitive after the first few wins
- Difficulty spikes: enemies that are trivial and then one-shot you, and a last boss that floods the machine with debuffs and counters some builds outright
- Long runs (about 30-60 minutes even on the fastest speed) with mundane early fights; some say time-to-fun is poor
- Shallow meta-progression: unlocks are mostly tied to winning runs with each character, and higher 'Debt' difficulties mostly raise enemy damage
- Basic, unattractive map navigation screen
- Losses often feel unearned: enemies that are easy until they suddenly one-shot you, so a run can end on a bad grab or bad item spawn rather than a decision (top-voted negative Steam review)
Can feel tedious
- Stalemates where a scaling item is stuck in an unreachable corner, the enemy cannot kill you, and the battle drags on
- Having to win a run with every character before unlocking their paws/items for others, which slows experimentation
- Relearning the game after updates that add characters or rework the difficulty system, particularly for completionists chasing achievements
- Slot machine minigame and long fights in early floors that get skipped or endured
- Repetitive runs after the first win: once a combo is set around floors 7-9, the remaining floors play out identically
What's unique
- Combines a real physics claw machine with deckbuilder and roguelike structure, so your 'hand' is whatever the claw manages to hold
- Items can be given different materials (for example floating or buffed ones) that change how they behave in the machine
- Pachinko, slot and other gamble-style minigames and mystery locations mix into the dungeon route
- Claw-specific 'paws' per character and escalating difficulty levels (reviewers mention 'anger' levels; the store/dev term may be 'Debt') that add handicaps
- Rare genre mix: very few games make a claw machine the central mechanic, and it also exists on mobile/Switch/consoles
Players want
- Add more bosses, enemies and act variety, especially alternate final bosses
- Let unlocked claws/paws be used by other characters immediately instead of requiring a winning run with each character first
- Add claw-machine-level modifiers or tools (extra grabs, bigger claws, a shake/jostle to reset a stuck board, swappable claws) to reduce dead runs from bad item placement
- Rebalance the item pool and trim dead items; give materials/alchemy/transmutation and water-themed items real payoff
- Stronger meta-progression and more customization, plus more music and layout variety
- Respect player time with a faster-than-fastest speed setting, shorter run option, or skippable long minigames (slot machine minigame repeatedly called too slow); also requested: modding support, a short opt-in tutorial, and mobile cross-platform progression
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Early AccessRogue-liteRetroRPGReplay ValueSingleplayerTurn-Based Strategy2DRoguelike DeckbuilderDeckbuilding
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Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Dungeon Clawer is a turn-based claw-machine roguelike in early access, where you fill a claw machine with items and grab them to drop onto enemies. He finds it very enjoyable and charming, and it does what it sets out to do well. His main gripes are that the base claw never improves, that missed grabs feel wasteful, and that the fixed final boss is too specific. He places it at a high B tier and is curious to see it after early access.
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