Desktop Dungeons Puzzles with a body count

Each run starts the same way: a level 1 hero, one screen of unexplored dungeon, and a level 10 boss somewhere in it. The trick is that walking into unexplored tiles heals you, so the map itself is your health potion. Spend it too early and you have nothing left for the boss.

Combat holds no dice. The game tells you exactly how much damage each round of a fight will cost both sides, so you know the outcome before you swing. That turns every monster into a decision: kill it now for the bonus experience of beating something above your level, or save it as fuel for later. You only lose when you have blundered, which makes each death a lesson instead of a coin flip.

Between dungeons you run a kingdom, and the kingdom is where the long game lives. Gold from your runs builds new facilities, and each building unlocks more: races, classes, better starting equipment, new challenges. Writing an adventuring permit, choosing race and class and kit, is the character creation of every run.

The combinations matter. A berserker clears a swamp differently than a monk does, and most pairings have their own strengths and the maps that suit them. Quests ask you to beat specific dungeons with specific classes, and badges track how cleanly you did it. Then there is the Daily Dungeon: a seeded map where you compete against your Steam friends, with locked classes and items up for grabs. That is a joke, but only barely.