Ashnar's Lair

Ashnar's Lair is a turn-based, grid-based traditional roguelike where nothing moves until you do. You make every move, attack and use of a strange fountain carefully, because mistakes can end your run.

A one-life dungeon

You have one character and one save. The game autosaves as you play, so quitting pauses the run rather than letting you rewind. When you die, the run ends and the save is permanently deleted. Class unlocks, achievements and your record in the Hall of Records carry over between runs.

A changing dungeon

The world map stays the same, but each run generates new floors for all 13 dungeons, along with their monsters, traps, fountains, vaults and loot. Dungeon titles reveal their dangers, much like the names of enchanted items: “The Vicious Barrows of Flooding,” for example, describes what awaits inside. Clearing a dungeon rerolls the rest of its region at a higher difficulty. Potions and rings have random appearances that change each run, and some items are cursed, so you learn what they do by using them.

Read the dangers

A champion can appear on the first floor. Elites have rolled affixes, every dungeon has a boss, and 76 kinds of enemy can open doors, hunt your last known position and prepare their strongest attacks. You can examine every creature to see its health, armour, resistances and abilities, while the map signals a major attack one turn before it lands. Death can teach you more about the world.

Build your character

Progress across runs unlocks classes, talents, spells and items. The game includes seven classes: you start as the Adventurer and can earn the Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Ranger, Cleric and Warlock through your actions across runs. Each class begins with its own signature spell. There are 43 talents across three trees, 29 spells found through books, gear and talents, and 138 items with rolled prefixes and suffixes.

Five gods reward devotion and punish broken faith. There is no gold: you barter with merchants according to their hidden valuations, and can spend only what you carry.

Play options

You can switch between sprite art and classic ASCII glyphs at any time. Play entirely with the keyboard, or use the mouse to walk, inspect items by hovering and equip them by dragging. Controls can be rebound, and a tutorial teaches you as you play; an in-depth guide draws on the game's own data. Easy mode is designed for learning and still awards every class unlock, while Normal offers a greater challenge.