The Underground King

The Underground King is a racing roguelite set on a mysterious island where racing is central to life. You build teams of drivers and vehicles for chaotic events, aiming to win glory and fortune. Each run brings procedurally generated tracks, changing conditions and opportunities to gather loot.

Build your teams

Drivers draw on classic RPG archetypes, reworked to fit the island’s world. Each has a unique name, backstory, body type and stats, as well as a random skill and an activatable ability. These physics-based actions can help you overcome obstacles, damage enemies or navigate the track. Driver types include Hobo (Fighter), Urchins (Rogue) and Biker (Paladin).

Vehicles seat from one to four drivers and receive proportional bonuses based on their seat count. Each vehicle has its own identity, random paint job and random stats. You assemble multiple teams, each with one vehicle and at least one driver, and can sort and match them for specific challenges, such as surviving a meteor shower.

Race the island

Procedurally generated tracks create different challenges. The Countryside is an obstacle course where you race against enemy teams. Other described track types include Freefall, where all teams fall from a plane and the first to hit the ground wins; Manhunt, where you can survive as a contestant or become the hunter; and Tug-o-war, where two opposing cars pull on one chain.

Obstacles can hinder you, but you can also use them to damage or slow your rivals. Weather affects speed and acceleration, and some conditions bring hazards such as lightning bolts and meteor showers. Vehicles are physical objects that collide, trigger traps and break obstacles into pieces. These interactions can cause domino effects and explosions.

The game also describes tracks based on adventure scenarios such as tomb raiding, fighting armies of orcs and slaying a dragon. Boss Tracks offer harder versions of normal tracks; bosses may drop unique Boss Set items, which grant special effects and high stats when you complete a set.

Find loot and events

Text Adventures, called Happenings, are scattered across the island for your drivers to explore, with rewards for those who seek them. Wandering merchants offer to buy or sell items: some request specific item types, while others care only about quality. Procedurally generated loot can appear in different rarities.

Items, drivers and vehicles have traits that add bonus stats or percentage-based effects, such as a 5% chance to deal double damage.

Survive each run

The island changes each week, bringing different weather, Happenings, shops and racing tracks. A new World Law also takes effect and influences the game, stacking with any permanent laws carried over from previous sessions. There are more than 30 World Laws, each with an effect that changes the game’s mechanics.

A game lasts until you survive 30 in-game days or lose by reaching 0 Coin or 0 Fame. For each playthrough you survive, you unlock a permanent World Law that affects future runs; laws can stack. If you lose, you choose one driver, lose a previous World Law and receive a new one for your next playthrough.