Best Roguelikes to Play on Steam Deck

Shogun Showdown

• Release Date — September 5, 2024
• Publisher — Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games
• Developer — Roboatino
• Genre — Strategy, RPG, Deckbuilder
• Review Aggregate Score — 88% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Following a fairly lengthy Early Access period in which the title drummed up plenty of positive buzz, Shogun Showdown finally released into 1.0 in September of this year and is quickly becoming one of the highest-rated newer roguelikes on Steam. Part turn-based RPG, part strategy game, and part deck-builder, Shogun Showdown successfully leverages the disparate genres that make up its gameplay into something unique, addictive, and fun. Most importantly, Shogun Showdown is one of those roguelikes that is easy to pick up and play but difficult to master, making its meta-progression from run to run feel all the more satisfying as players adjust to the game’s difficulty curve and find themselves becoming better and better each time they boot it up.

Cult of the Lamb

• Release Date — August 11, 2022
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Developer — Massive Monster
• Genre — Action-adventure, City-builder
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

The first time indie mega-publisher Devolver Digital shows up on this list (but far from the last) is with 2022’s excellent Cult of the Lamb. Like many other roguelikes, Cult of the Lamb mixes two distinct genres into something that is both super satisfying to play and hard to put down, despite it not seeming like it would work on paper. Players take on the role of an adorable animal cult leader who, after making an evil pact with some sort of eldritch horror, must gather followers and cultivate them into an unstoppable force.

Players accomplish this through the twin halves of Cult of the Lamb‘s gameplay, which mixes a city-building management sim with a dungeon-crawling action RPG. The way these two parts of Cult of the Lamb‘s gameplay combine, along with its twisted and dark sense of humor (that rewards and encourages cruelty), are what make Cult of the Lamb special.

[REDACTED]

• Release Date — October 27, 2024
• Publisher — Krafton, Inc.
• Developer — Striking Distance Studios
• Genre — Twin-stick Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 89% (Very Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Despite being one of the newer games on this list, Striking Distance’s [REDACTED] is already proving to be one of the best new roguelikes in years. [REDACTED] puts players back into the same universe from Striking Distance’s last game, the underrated Callisto Protocol, except switches up the gameplay formula from survival horror to twin-stick shooter roguelike. The first few runs will be fairly difficult for most players, but the quick progression and power curve that [REDACTED] follows, along with its super satisfying twin-stick shooter gameplay and sense of humor, soon give way to one run becoming dozens. The sign of a great roguelike is that players just can’t resist hopping back in for “one more run”, and [REDACTED] is definitely fitting that bill.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

• Release Date — 4 November 2014
• Publisher — Nicalis, Inc.
• Developer — Edmund McMillen, Nicalis, Inc.
• Genre — Action-adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 88% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Seeing how many hours players have spent in a roguelike is usually a strong indicator of how great a game it is, and The Binding of Isaac is one in which the average player spends at least 50-100 hours. Undoubtedly one of the most important games in the genre, as well as still one of its best, part of Isaac‘s appeal is its progression curve, which seemingly affords players a near-limitless variety of power-up options, permutations, and strategies to get further and further into the dark and twisted world the game presents. The Binding of Isaac is also a great game to use as an example of both direct and indirect storytelling done right, and proof positive that roguelikes don’t have to sacrifice having a strong narrative to be compelling. It’s like a near-endless and grimdark version of The Legend of Zelda.

Loop Hero

• Release Date — March 4, 2021
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Developer — Four Quarters
• Genre — Auto-battler, RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 93% (Very Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Auto-battlers are a distinct type of roguelike that can be hit or miss depending on their balance and progression curve, which are two things that Four Quarters’ Loop Hero definitively nails. Another massive hit from publisher Devolver Digital, Loop Hero positions the player as the titular warrior who must rebuild the universe following the complete destruction of reality. Things start with a simple looping path that the hero walks endlessly, occasionally stopping to battle foes in encounters that play out automatically. Eventually, though, the game begins to reveal more and more of its layers to the player, including a fairly addictive base management mini-game between runs that contributes toward the player’s meta-progression, and some surprising secret bosses to track down and uncover more of the game’s interesting sci-fi fantasy story.

Against the Storm

• Release Date — December 8, 2023
• Publisher — Hooded Horse
• Developer — Eremite Games
• Genre — City-builder, Strategy
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

For just about all but the most die-hard city-builder fans, the best part of the genre is the initial hours in which players build up their first set of buildings and begin to see their future settlement take shape. Against the Storm taps into this by focusing solely on those super satisfying opening hours of city-builders and turning them into a compelling roguelike in which players must batten down the hatches against unstoppable elemental forces to make sure their city and its citizens survive through the night. While most city-building and base management games tend to be better on a desktop PC with a keyboard and mouse, Against the Storm deserves plenty of credit for making its roguelike city-building gameplay a perfect fit for the Steam Deck, complete with a great controller layout that feels like a natural way to play the game.

Noita

• Release Date — October 15, 2020
• Publisher — Nolla Games
• Developer — Nolla Games
• Genre — RPG, Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

The core conceit of roguelikes (dating back to the original game from which the genre gets its name, Rogue) is that players will die…a lot. Death is a natural part of roguelike gameplay and is part of the genre’s pull, with players trying to see how both mid-run rolls of power-ups and meta-progression affect their success. Noita is such a compelling game because, no matter how powerful the player gets, death is always around the corner and ready to knock players back down to a place of humility. Aside from its inherent toughness, though, Noita is a fascinating game that rewards player creativity. It shows that the only barrier between the player and victory is their imagination, and maybe a well-crafted spell or two.

Balatro

• Release Date — February 20, 2024
• Publisher — Playstack
• Developer — LocalThunk
• Genre — Deckbuilder, Card Game
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

LocalThunk’s Balatro took the world by storm when it released earlier this year, and its vice grip on handheld and mobile gaming continues unabated. Though the game describes itself as a roguelike spin on poker meeting solitaire, the truth is that Balatro‘s somewhat simple card game exterior belies an incredibly complex and deep deckbuilding roguelike that uses rules both familiar and unfamiliar to toy with players’ expectations. Balatro is as addictive as it is accessible, too, making it all too easy to see why the game continues to be a breakout indie success story. The Steam Deck was practically made specifically for games just like Balatro, and it’s not hyperbole to say that it should just come pre-installed on every new Steam Deck at this point.

Enter the Gungeon

• Release Date — April 5, 2016
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Developer — Dodge Roll
• Genre — Twin-stick Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Dodge Roll’s Enter the Gungeon may predate many of the games on this list, but its age cements it as a classic that never goes out of style rather than a game that more modern contemporaries have outdone. Long before roguelikes were as popular as they are now, Enter the Gungeon arrived and mixed twin-stick shooting, action RPG dungeon-crawling, and roguelike perma-death and meta-progression into a compelling brew. It’s an intoxicating beverage that’s just as enjoyable today as it was when the game launched nearly 10 years ago, and that alone is testament to how well-made and addictive Enter the Gungeon is as a game. The title has seen a second lease on life thanks to the Switch version, but nearly every Steam Deck owner should have Enter the Gungeon in their roster of roguelikes.

Risk of Rain 2

• Release Date — August 11, 2020
• Publisher — Gearbox Publishing
• Developer — Hopoo Games
• Genre — Action, Third-person Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 93% (Very Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Another somewhat older roguelike that still carries itself well within the genre is the excellent Risk of Rain 2. While most roguelike games tend to be solo affairs, Risk of Rain 2 invites players to bring along a friend for its frantic third-person shooting, planet-hopping gameplay, and it proves that the best things in life alone are only better with others joining in on the fun. Like other great roguelikes, Risk of Rain 2 balances careful meta-progression and a satisfying power curve with substantial difficulty in each individual run that makes players feel constantly on their toes, and the beautiful highly-stylized visuals do a great job of pulling the player in and not letting them go. The game runs like a dream on the Steam Deck and requires no subscription service to play online, making it the superior version of the co-op roguelike.

Dead Cells

• Release Date — August 6, 2018
• Publisher — Motion Twin
• Developer — Motion Twin
• Genre — Metroidvania, Action-adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

By their nature, Metroidvanias shouldn’t be a great fit for the roguelike genre given that they’re meant to feature sprawling, interconnected worlds that players can return to time and again without penalty to backtrack and discover new abilities and secrets. Somehow, though, Motion Twin figured out a way to make the combination work with Dead Cells, and neither roguelikes nor Metroidvanias have been the same since. While there are several Metroidvanias with roguelike elements now, none of them nail the mix between the two genres quite like Dead Cells, which places a premium on build variety and gradually unlocking hundreds of potentially game-changing weapons, items, and abilities as the proverbial carrot on the stick to keep players coming back for run after run.

Vampire Survivors

• Release Date — October 20, 2022
• Publisher — Poncle
• Developer — Poncle
• Genre — Bullet Heaven, Action
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

At this point, there’s not much about Vampire Survivors that hasn’t already been said. The game’s breakout success and legitimate place as one of 2022’s best games took nearly everyone by surprise, as did the game’s surprisingly deep well of content and extremely consumer-friendly price point. Players can now get Vampire Survivors and all of its DLC for significantly less than the price of most AAA titles (and even less than some indie games), and they’d be in store for literally thousands of hours of content. Not to mention, several now-great roguelikes adhere to the Survivors formula, with Vampire Survivors pretty much responsible for the creation of the survivor-like or “Bullet Heaven” subgenre. Truthfully, you could have a Steam Deck with just Vampire Survivors installed on it and be completely satisfied.

Peglin

• Release Date — August 27, 2024
• Publisher — RedNexus Games, Inc.
• Developer — RedNexus Games, Inc., IndieArk
• Genre — RPG, Pinball
• Review Aggregate Score — 74% (Mixed or Average)
• Steam User Score — 80% (Very Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

The premise for Peglin is so brilliant and simple that it’s a wonder how no one else attempted it prior. As the titular goblin-like creature, players in Peglin gradually progress through Slay the Spire-like roguelike dungeon maps, stopping at stages to battle enemies in turn-based encounters. But where Slay the Spire uses cards to facilitate its battling, Peglin opts for a “pachinko-meets-pinball” system in which players launch various orbs (each with different abilities and effects for damaging enemies) to destroy pegs and rack up multipliers. It’s the type of game that is fun at first, then addictive, then an obsession to the level where you’ve played 300 hours without ever realizing it. The best roguelikes are fast, addictive, and fun, and Peglin meets all three of those criteria.

Slay the Spire

• Release Date — January 23, 2019
• Publisher — Mega Crit
• Developer — Mega Crit
• Genre — RPG, Deckbuilder
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Similar to Enter the Gungeon, Slay the Spire is one of many roguelikes that helped to break the genre through to the mainstream thanks to its top-notch presentation, near-flawless gameplay loop, and brilliant mixing of roguelike mechanics within a popular genre — in this case, a deckbuilding RPG. Like several of the other games on this list, playing just one run of Slay the Spire is almost impossible, as the gains made in one journey through the Spire make it to where most players will be dying to see what power-ups they unlock next or which cards they can add to their ever-growing deck. Ultimately, Slay the Spire has an almost perfect progression curve and power creep that makes each run feel more rewarding than the last. As such, it’s the poster child for how a roguelike should play.

Hades

• Release Date — September 17, 2020
• Publisher — Supergiant Games
• Developer — Supergiant Games
• Genre — ARPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Steam Deck Verified — ✅

Finally, we get to the one game that is arguably the best starting point for someone new to roguelikes: Hades. It’s no surprise that everyone loves Hades given its beautiful visual style, excellent use of narrative, addictive gameplay loop, and buttery-smooth controls. It’s also no surprise given the pedigree of developer Supergiant Games, who continue to release one excellent game after another with seemingly no sign of slowing down. However, Hades is arguably the studio’s crowning achievement and a great stepping stone into the roguelike genre. The action is fast, frenetic, and satisfying, the upgrades and power-ups Zagreus can acquire are fun and game-changing, and the characterization of popular figures from Greek mythology gives the game an undeniable charm and personality. A flawless game if there ever was one.