ELbab

ELbab is a roguelite auto-battler set in an endlessly expanding library. You progress by choosing tiles in a dungeon-crawler-like way, while spending most of your time planning and designing your build. Combat is fully automated, and runs last from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours.

Build with books

Your choices include which books to strengthen and which to keep or discard; the inventory is intentionally small, making those decisions part of the gameplay. Each character tends to encounter certain stats more often, so the intended approach is to strengthen books that match that character’s favored attributes. The difficulty is meant to be on the tougher side, though enemy variety and overall balance may be imperfect.

Several rooms offer distinct ways to shape a build:

• The Room of Awakening: provides enough Unique Books to help set a direction for your build, much like choosing a class in a traditional RPG.
• The Room of Treasure: rewards you with a Book and Ink.
• The Room of Conversion: gives you a Unique Book based on the MODs on the Normal Book you convert, letting you aim for specific Unique Books to some extent.

The Library Index

After you clear the Library, you unlock the Library Index. It lets you remove Notables, but does not allow a full respec of Runestone Points. It also includes features such as “enhance anytime,” which let you adjust the Library’s tiles to some extent, including room randomness and when you can enhance books.

Mouse-based play

ELbab is playable entirely with the mouse, and its automated combat allows you to progress while multitasking. You can have a cup of coffee, watch videos or play other games while you play.