Where to start: a roguelite for every kind of player

Pick by what you already enjoy. Every game below sits near the top of our consensus rankings and is loved by players on Steam.

Brand new to the genre

• Hades: fast action with a story that moves forward every time you die, and a God Mode if you want a gentler ride.
• Slay the Spire: the deckbuilder that defined its subgenre. Turn-based, so you can think at your own pace.
• Vampire Survivors: cheap, simple, and over in about half an hour. Your weapons fire on their own while you dodge.

Fast action

• Hades II: the sequel, with two full routes to fight through.
• Dead Cells: a side-scrolling action game with flowing combat and branching paths.
• Enter the Gungeon: a bullet-hell shooter with hundreds of strange guns.
• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth: one of the genre’s foundations, with an enormous item pool.

Thinking games

• Into the Breach: tactics where every enemy attack is shown in advance, so each turn is a puzzle.
• Monster Train 2: a deckbuilder where you defend several floors at once.
• Balatro: poker hands and jokers that break the rules in delightful ways.
• Slice & Dice: a party of heroes built from dice, and a full heal after every fight.

Something different

• Inscryption: a card game that turns into something much stranger.
• Blue Prince: a puzzle mansion whose rooms you draft as you explore.
• The Void Rains Upon Her Heart: a bullet-hell boss rush with a huge cast of bosses.

With friends

• Risk of Rain 2: a 3D co-op shooter where difficulty climbs with time.
• Roboquest: a fast co-op shooter.
• R.E.P.O.: co-op horror chaos.

The classic way

• Caves of Qud: a deep, turn-based science-fantasy world.
• Crypt of the NecroDancer: a traditional dungeon crawl where every move is on the beat.

Want to narrow it down further? Browse every game and filter by subgenre, price, co-op and player score.