7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (2024)

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7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (1)

By Jake Buchalter

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7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (5)

Highlights

  • Caution can be deadly in games like Risk of Rain 2, where every second counts and slow play means harder challenges.
  • Rushing through levels like in Ravenswatch forces players to adapt and make quick decisions to survive the boss fights.
  • In games like Skul: The Hero Slayer, being too cautious can lead to an early death, while strategic aggression is more beneficial.

In general, being cautious is usually a relatively good trait to have. Being cautious of surroundings, for example, can lead to someone staying safe in a situation where they typically wouldn't be. In video games, however, the 'safety' of caution depends on the game itself. Some games absolutely reward players who cautiously make decisions, while some other games will punish those very same players.

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Roguelikes, in particular, tend to be very punishing games. One wrong move in a lot of these games can lead to the end of a run, which can be devastating. So, a lot of people's natural reaction when playing a game in this genre is to play cautiously. However, that won't always benefit them, so let's take a look at some of the best examples of roguelike games where this playstyle is actually more of a consequence than it is a benefit.

7 Risk of Rain 2

Time is Your Enemy In This Game

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (7)
Risk of Rain 2

Systems

Franchise
risk of rain
Platform(s)
Xbox One , Nintendo Switch , PC , PS4

Released
September 11, 2020

Developer(s)
Hopoo Games

First up has to be Risk of Rain 2, the game where every second matters. Not only is being too cautious in Risk of Rain 2 deadly in terms of movement (not moving usually leads to death) but it's also deadly in terms of difficulty. The longer one takes in a RoR2 run, the harder the game gets. In fact, there's a whole long-running argument among the Risk of Rain community about whether it's better to fully clear each map of all chests or set a time limit before starting the teleporter.

And to top it all off, the game actually even has a chest in the fourth stage that, if players don't reach it fast enough (10 minutes), it won't open. So, it's safe to say that Risk of Rain 2 is probably one of the best examples out there of a roguelike that punishes the player for being too cautious.

6 Ravenswatch

A Game Designed Around Rushing the Player

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (12)
Ravenswatch
Platform(s)
PC , PlayStation 5

Released
April 6, 2023

Developer(s)
Passtech Games
Publisher(s)
Nacon

Ravenswatch is another roguelike that, similar to RoR2, punishes players for their caution in terms of time. The way Ravenswatch is set up, players only have a certain amount of 'days' before each level forces them into fighting the stage boss. This can be adjusted with in-game modifiers, but the design essentially forces players to play less cautiously in an attempt to gain as many levels and items as possible before going into the boss fight.

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Granted, players can still go through Ravenswatch very cautiously if they so choose, and caution during combat is warranted (to an extent) with how much damage enemies can do on hit, but too much caution and players will just end up too weak to beat any boss without dedicating 10+ minutes to the fight without getting hit.

5 Skul: The Hero Slayer

Don't Let Its Art Style Fool You

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (14)
Skul: The Hero Slayer

Systems

Platform(s)
PC , PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch , Xbox One

Released
January 21, 2021

Developer(s)
SouthPAW Games
Publisher(s)
Neowiz

Skul: The Hero Slayer is a roguelike that not enough people know about. This delightful little game puts players in control of a tiny little skeleton boy, named Skul, with the ability to switch heads and gain different abilities by doing so. However, despite how adorable the game might seem at first glance, both its difficulty and story are anything but. In truth, this game is absolutely brutal in terms of difficulty, with a complete run taking anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how cautiously people take each screen.

However, regardless of how cautiously one approaches the boss fights in Skul, they're almost assuredly going to take damage during said fight. There are just too many attacks happening and too much going on in some of the later boss fights to avoid every hit, so at a certain point, it becomes a DPS race of sorts. Playing too cautiously in these scenarios just means that the player will have to live for longer and avoid more brutal attacks, and the vast majority of the time that'll just lead to an early death more than it'll lead to a cleared run.

4 Astral Ascent

A Tough (But Beautiful) Pixel Roguelike

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (19)
Astral Ascent

Systems

Platform(s)
PC , PS4 , PS5 , Switch

Released
April 12, 2022

Developer(s)
Hibernian Workshop

Publisher
Hibernian Workshop, Maple Whispering Limited

Astral Ascent is another fantastic roguelike that isn't popular enough. It's similar to Skul: The Hero Slayer in the sense that, as the player progresses further and further in their journey to escape this Zodiac-inspired space prison, the more over-the-top the boss fights get. It's a lot more possible to go through the boss fights in this game without getting hit, but it's still incredibly difficult.

So, for much of the same reason as Skul, being too cautious in this game will typically only lead to an early death, unless the player's execution of said caution is 'perfect'. However, when progressing through the stages leading up to the bosses, caution and even over-cautious play are absolutely fine, as there are no real 'time gates' in this game that punish the player for taking too long.

3 Dead Cells

A Truly Difficult 2D Platformer Roguelike

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (23)
Dead Cells
Platform(s)
PS4 , Xbox One , Switch , PC , Android , iOS

Released
August 7, 2018

Developer(s)
Motion Twin

Publisher(s)
Motion Twin

Dead Cells is our last example here of a 2D platformer-type roguelike where caution is usually more detrimental than beneficial and for a lot of the same reasons. Dead Cells is an incredibly difficult game, especially given the whole Boss Cells aspect of the game that can make subsequent runs (and eventually leads to the final ending) even more difficult. And a lot of the time in Dead Cells, at least in our experience, fighting enemies too cautiously usually leads to more damage and more lost runs in the grand scheme of things than it does lead to more progress.

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To elaborate on this a bit more, fighting a tough enemy in Dead Cells very cautiously, such as going in for a poke and then backing far away, is usually a worse idea compared to swinging multiple times after an attack and rolling through to the other side of the enemy (AKA staying in close range). This isn't the case for every enemy, boss, or situation in DC, but typically offense-focused gameplay works better than defense-focused gameplay in this roguelike.

2 Moonlighter

Store by Day, Dungeon Crawler by Night

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (30)
Moonlighter
Platform(s)
Xbox One , PC , Switch , PS4 , Android , iOS

Released
May 29, 2018

Developer(s)
Digital Sun
Publisher(s)
11 Bit Studios

Moonlighter is an interesting inclusion to have on here, as this is a roguelike game that's only a roguelike half the time. During the day in Moonlighter, players will be running their own store while at night they'll be adventuring in the dungeons to obtain items to sell in said store during the day. Because of this, the sort of core gameplay loop of Moonlighter constantly has players questioning if they should push a little further to get more items or even clear the dungeon or if they should exit and head out with the loot they already obtained.

If players choose wrong and proceed further only to run out of health, they'll lose all the gear they had collected up to that point, and this makes progressing the game with new weapons, gear, and upgrades more difficult since they have less product to sell and therefore less money to spend. So, at its core, Moonlighter is a game that is designed to make players second guess themselves when it comes to playing cautiously, which is exactly why it's on here.

1 Darkest Dungeon 1 & 2

Brutal By Design

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (36)
Darkest Dungeon
Platform(s)
PS4 , PS Vita , Xbox One , Switch , PC , iOS

Released
January 19, 2016

Developer(s)
Red Hook Studios

Publisher(s)
Red Hook Studios

And finally, let's talk about Darkest Dungeon. Both the first and second Darkest Dungeon games fit in this list for many reasons. Similar to Moonlighter, the core design of both of the Darkest Dungeon games is sort of built around making the player question if they should keep progressing or turn back. However, when things start going bad in a Darkest Dungeon game, they tend to keep getting worse and worse, which is a big part of why these games are known for being so brutal. In Moonlighter, being overly ambitious can sometimes lead to losing all that hard-earned gear. But in Darkest Dungeon, being overly ambitious can lead to all of the player's characters going insane, killing each other, failing to clear the dungeon, and more.

These are games that are meant to punish players for every decision and for those same players to then understand and adapt to these punishments. Of course, sometimes being overly cautious works out in these games, but often times it just leads to losing out on progress, gear, or character levels.

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  • Risk of Rain 2
  • Dead Cells

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7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious (2024)

FAQs

7 Roguelike Games That Punish You For Being Too Cautious? ›

Additionally, rogue-lites usually blend various genres, such as platformers, beat'em up games or even turn-based strategies with roguelike mechanics, while roguelikes are usually dungeon crawlers/action RPGs with hardcore difficulty. Rogue-lite games also tend to be shorter than classic roguelikes.

What is the difference between a roguelike and a roguelike? ›

Additionally, rogue-lites usually blend various genres, such as platformers, beat'em up games or even turn-based strategies with roguelike mechanics, while roguelikes are usually dungeon crawlers/action RPGs with hardcore difficulty. Rogue-lite games also tend to be shorter than classic roguelikes.

Do roguelike games have an end? ›

As most roguelikes feature the concept of permadeath, this represents the end of the game, and the player will need to restart the game with a newly made character. Roguelikes are nearly always turn-based, with the game only reacting when the player makes an action with the character.

What are the benefits of roguelike games? ›

Rogue likes are usually very challenging games were the player gets a persistent benefit after a loss that helps him next run. So over time the game gets easier and the player can progress further. At the same time the player gets better. That is a design that later games adopting the "roguelike" tag started using.

Can you save in roguelike games? ›

Saving and loading is essential to almost every roguelike, but it can be a pain to manage if you don't start early. By the end of this chapter, our game will be able to save and load one file to the disk, which you could easily expand to multiple saves if you wanted to.

What is the roguelike where you play as death? ›

Have a Nice Death is a 2D action roguelike where you play as an overworked Death, whose employees have run rampant, completely throwing off the balance of souls - and his vacation. In order to restore order, you'll have to grab your trusty scythe and show your employees who's boss!

What is a true Rogue game? ›

Games that are actually like Rogue commonly feature: (1.) Permadeath, (2.) Procedural Generation, (3.) Top-down, grid based worlds, and (4.) Simultaneous turn-based gameplay.

What is permadeath in roguelike? ›

The subgenre of roguelike games is an exception, where permadeath is a high-value factor. While players can save their state and continue at a later time, the save file is generally erased or overwritten, preventing players from restarting at that same state.

What does roguelite mean? ›

rogue-lite (plural rogue-lites) (video games) A genre of video games that possess some, but not all, elements of roguelikes. They usually have permadeath and randomized levels. synonym ▲ Synonym: roguelike-like.

Are roguelikes still popular? ›

Global Roguelike Game Market is projected to reach USD 57,336 Million in 2030, increasing from USD 23,153 Million in 2023, with a CAGR of 12.3% during the period of 2024 to 2030.

Is Don't Starve a roguelike? ›

Don't Starve is an action-adventure game with a randomly generated open world and elements of survival and roguelike gameplay.

What language is best for roguelike? ›

These days it's much more common for a roguelike to be written in Python or C++, however some 21st century roguelikes are still written in C: Martin's Dungeon Bash (2005) Scrap (2005) 2DRL in 2K (2006)

Why is it called roguelike? ›

A Brief Overview of Roguelike Video Games

Roguelike games, which take their name from the 1980 game Rogue, originally began as a subgenre of role-playing games (RPGs) and turn-based strategy games.

What made roguelikes popular? ›

What makes a roguelike good is not only infinite replayability and engaging gameplay. It's also the sense of accessibility and achievement it gives to players from all skill levels.

Is Getting Over It a roguelike? ›

TL;DR If you treat "losing progress" like "permadeath", and take your past experience with you in the next round, the game is practically a roguelike.

Is Hades a roguelike or a roguelike? ›

Hades is not only an incredibly fun, action-packed roguelike dungeon crawler with fun combat and insane replay value, but also contains a captivating story, an amazing cast of characters, and an addictive formula.

Is Have a Nice Death a roguelike or roguelite? ›

Have a Nice Death is a 2D Action Roguelike where you play as Death, CEO of Death Incorporated, who currently finds himself teetering on the edge of burnout. His top executives, the Sorrows, have been running rampant on Earth's surface, leaving him buried in an underworld-sized mountain of paperwork.

Is Minecraft technically a roguelike? ›

The only thing it shares with that genre is proc-gen levels and harsh death penalites (loss of most of your inventory, but that can be toggled), but at that point Minecraft is a rogue-like. That's good to know.

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