Shadowcrawl

Shadowcrawl is a strategy-focused free-turn roguelike set in the NEXUS, a hyper-dimensional holy ruin. You enter after years of Dreamers being tormented by visions of their deaths among nightmare creatures, and seek a route to the Transcendental Planes of Reality, where a pilgrimage to the Gods may reveal the ruins’ ancient secrets. The battles you experienced in your dreams may have prepared you for what lies ahead, but entering the NEXUS is a one-way journey.

Strategy and survival

Shadowcrawl updates the classic 1980s free-turn roguelike formula with a focus on player skill over luck or loot. As you gain experience, skills, perks and abilities, your character develops traits that help them adapt to features of the maze generator. Spatial awareness is essential for managing the large swarms of enemies that hunt you and overcoming difficult odds.

Some characters can move through shadows to avoid detection. In low light, the Shadowmeld Perk makes you harder to detect; in total darkness, standing still makes you undetectable. The Assassin Perk adds attack bonuses to stealth attacks, while the Maze-Master Perk helps keep enemies off balance.

Quests and lasting changes

Experience points and skills persist beyond death, and changes to the game world can carry over between playthroughs; some also persist between save files. Completing quests can permanently add weapons, armor and enemies, unlock secret mini-bosses, and allow stronger loot to appear in Gold Chests. Some quests replace entire enemy groups with stronger ones. For example, helping Miya the Blood Knight exterminate the Goblins instead permanently replaces them with Orcs throughout your game world. This can be done with every enemy set in the game.

Quests are part of a wider set of systems that includes cults, factions, multiple endings, unlockable enemies, hidden game modes and secret levels. You can worship Gods and other powerful beings for bonuses, perks and powers, as well as access to faction-specific quests, enemies and loot. Some beings can be worshipped in secret without breaking existing pacts, as long as you are not caught.

Gods and world events

The dynamic world is shaped by Dark Gods and occult forces, which you can tamper with. Killing the Goddess who governs health, for instance, permanently turns every character—player and enemy, including characters in new games and other save files—into living piles of undead meat. In this altered health system, characters must steal meat from others while protecting their own.

The game tracks the actual phases of the moon with a functioning Lunar Calendar. During periods of high lunar energy, characters may try to harness that power. This can trigger in-game events, while some enemies may perform dangerous rituals that alter the game world. Shadowcrawl also observes the Pagan Wheel of the Year, with special events every 2–4 weeks that reveal hidden features and add enemies, quests, cults and more as the balance of power between the Gods shifts. You can change the course of the Wheel by tampering with natural forces.

Corruption and Glitches

Breaking the game-world mechanics can release secret enemies called Glitches. Killing the Omnipotent, collapsing dimensions or warping space-time can unleash them. Unlike normal enemies, Glitches can travel between save files and appear in any universe, with any character. Worshipping powerful Glitches can invoke the Age of Glitches, affecting all save files and filling the world with glitched, overpowered enemies.

You can permanently stop Glitches you have released by killing them, though you can unleash more. If too many are free, you may need help from a God who can fight the Corruption.