RoguedexPart 2 (May 2024) · #8 of 13 in that tierWatch the moment (1:18:09)
Ember Knights
- Developed by
- Doom Turtle
- Published by
- Twin Sails Interactive
$19.99
Ember Knights is an action rogue-lite for 1-4 players where you play as legendary knights, the last spark of hope against the mad sorcerer Praxis and his hordes of unwavering fiends. Wield weapons & skills, build synergies with game-changing relics and free the universe of Praxis’ corruption.
Consensus
B73.7/100
Steam players93.8% positiveVery Positive7,056 reviews
Metacritic ↗Users: 7.5/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈212K copies · ≈$2.7M gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2023 · #14 of 17 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Apr 2025 · #3 of 6 in that tierWatch the moment (1:12:09)
What players say
A Hades-inspired top-down action roguelite by Doom Turtle (published by Twin Sails Interactive) built around 1-4 player local/online co-op, relics, weapon mods and skills, fighting the sorcerer Praxis across planets.
Ember Knights is well liked by players: Steam shows Very Positive overall (about 94% of roughly 7,000 reviews positive in the local snapshot), and is most often recommended as a polished, snappy co-op roguelite with lots of build variety and an endless supply of relic synergies. Critical coverage is thin: Metacritic has only one critic review (God is a Geek, 85) so no Metascore exists yet, and the user score is 7.5 from a handful of ratings. The recurring caveat is value and depth: several reviewers call it solid but not standout, more a discount or co-op pick than a Hades replacement, and some say it gets repetitive or grindy. It left Early Access (April 2022) in July 2023, later got free modes (Daily Dungeon, Boss Rush, Chaos Run, pets) and a paid DLC, Wrath of the Architect.
Players love
- Co-op is the headline: 1-4 players, local split-screen and online, described as easy to access and not drastically raising difficulty
- Fluid, responsive controls and snappy combat; a large build space (7 weapons, 9 mods per weapon, dozens of skills, 100+ relics per the store page) with synergies that can get gloriously broken
- Cohesive, cute pixel-art visuals and charming touches (pet companions, dialogue, secrets, weapon skins from trials)
- Good performance and polish for most players; described as optimized with no crashes or slowdowns
- Plenty of post-clear content: Endless mode, Boss Rush, Daily Dungeon, Chaos Run, trials and the DLC, which adds biomes, weapons and relics
- Reads as Hades-like without being a clone; often recommended to Hades fans and for playing with kids or family as a gentle intro to build-crafting
- Meaningful two-currency meta-progression (ability/weapon upgrades plus permanent health and damage buffs)
Common complaints
- Multiplayer loot flow: rewards are picked one player at a time and stat gems drop in a shared pile, which some find a slow, excruciating time waster and poor design
- Unskippable cutscenes and boss intros/outros, plus invulnerable boss phases that force waiting, are repeatedly called out as killing the pace
- Enemy design: many enemies have ranged or dash attacks from across the screen, which makes ranged weapons much stronger than melee and makes charge attacks impractical
- Balance and depth complaints: weapons unbalanced, build diversity felt lacking by some, and the DLC final boss described as easy or a joke
- Technical problems for some: freezing or stuttering, high CPU use in menus, launch hangs, and it fails to run under Proton for at least one reviewer
- Online lobby friction: hard to rejoin after a crash, no Steam direct join, no visible lobby ID, plus multiplayer lag and lobby-start failures discussed in the Steam forum
- Value: multiple reviewers say it should cost about $10 rather than $19.99, and that the DLC feels like a reskin of the main campaign
Can feel tedious
- Long, unskippable cutscenes and boss invulnerability phases in every run
- Solo players report a grind-heavy progression; the Daily Dungeon pays far more resources per room than regular runs, pushing players to repeat it
- Repeating the same worlds with no checkpoints makes runs feel samey after a while; several reviewers say it wears out its welcome or gets boring quickly
- Taking turns at the end-of-stage loot pick in co-op, and loot piling up on top of each other or under the HUD
- Screen clutter from enemies and effects makes combat hard to read; you can usually only land a light attack or two before needing to dodge
What's unique
- First-class 1-4 player co-op, including couch split-screen, in a genre that is mostly solo
- Abilities recharge by landing attacks rather than on pure cooldowns
- Weapon modification system (9 mods per weapon) layered on top of relics and skills
- Hades-style structure combined with a planet-hopping sci-fantasy setting and cute pixel look
- Game modes beyond the main run: Daily Dungeon, Boss Rush, Endless and Chaos Run, plus pet companions you can pet
- Time-limit challenges per planet and tiered trials that unlock cosmetic weapon skins
Players want
- Let co-op players pick rewards simultaneously and offer personal loot or a shared-out option instead of a shared pile
- Add quality-of-life options: skippable or shorter cutscenes, pause or stop the speedrun timer out of combat, and show the time goal for the time-limit capsule
- Add more skills (one reviewer suggests about 45 versus the roughly 32 they counted) and more build variety or balance between weapons
- Improve online connectivity tools: direct Steam join, visible lobby ID, reliable rejoin after a crash
- Consider checkpoints or shorter runs, since replaying the same worlds is boring for some
- Make unlocks require using items or skills in runs (Binding of Isaac style) rather than unlocking nearly everything in about 10 hours; clearer indicators for attack-recharged abilities near the character
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeRogue-liteCo-opPixel GraphicsMultiplayerDungeon CrawlerOnline Co-OpHack and SlashLocal Co-OpRPG
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Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Ember Knights is a basic, traditional top-down action roguelike dungeon crawler that does not try any unique mechanic but executes the fundamentals very well. He loves its visuals, distinct worlds, bosses with difficulty-scaled forms, and long meta-progression. His main gripes are disconnected spells and overpowered crit builds at high difficulty. He sees it as a very solid Hades-like and places it in A tier.
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