Gloom Delve puts players in control of a delver descending through a 100-floor dungeon built by a mad wizard who provides constant narration. The experience blends action, indie development, RPG progression, and adventure elements into a real-time roguelite dungeon crawler where every wall, enemy, weapon, and icon generates through code rather than pre-made assets.
Gameplay
The core loop centers on descending floor by floor through procedurally generated layouts filled with rooms, traps, fountains, locked chests, secret areas, and shops. Each floor presents new challenges as themes shift and enemies grow more dangerous the deeper the run goes. Combat feels direct with melee swings that follow weapon-specific arcs, aimed ranged attacks, dual-wielding options, shield blocking, and a full spellbook featuring individual cooldowns. Weapons and abilities can apply bleeding, poison, or burning effects that add layers to fights.
Power cards form the heart of build crafting. At wizard caches scattered throughout the dungeon and after defeating bosses, players choose from dozens of effects across four rarities. These cards stack without limit, allowing combinations that create exploding corpses, lifesteal, critical hit cascades, bomb drops, enhanced vision, or speed boosts on kills. A single card might feel modest, yet multiple cards together can turn a basic character into something far more powerful.
Loot drops with rolled rarities and includes weapons, armor, scrolls, tomes, and potions. Shops and chests provide additional acquisition methods, while cursed fountains introduce risk-reward decisions. A living bestiary populates the floors with brutes, oozes, floaters, and constructs that feature unique status effects and improved pathfinding on lower levels. Boss floors lock the stairs until the encounter ends, opening into sealed arenas with distinct mechanics and entrance sequences. Each boss guards two signature relics.
Game Modes
Players can tackle the dungeon alone or join others through server-authoritative online co-op that includes built-in proximity voice chat for positional audio during group play. Local split-screen couch co-op supports two players on one screen sharing the same dungeon instance. Controls adapt across keyboard, gamepad, and touch inputs so every action functions consistently regardless of input method.
Five difficulty tiers adjust enemy strength, loot quality, and the wizard's commentary tone. These range from beginner-friendly settings to much harsher challenges where failure comes quickly. Seed-deterministic worlds let players share a specific seed to recreate identical dungeon layouts with friends for coordinated runs.
Side content appears between floors in the form of lost survivors offering quests such as fetching keepsakes, sharing potions, hunting marked beasts, or paying tolls. Completing these tasks rewards strong items, full heals, currency, or additional lore pages.
Classes, Races, and Customization
Nine classes each carry a signature ability that defines playstyle. Warrior, Sorcerer, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric, Battlemage, and Necromancer sit alongside hybrid options Paladin and Spellblade. Several classes unlock through story fragments recovered during runs. Eight races provide further variety with distinct appearances, color options, and stat focuses. Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Ratkin, Mogg, and Yukin each bring their own identity to a delver.
Account-wide progression ties into the hidden story. Recovering lore pages permanently unlocks new classes, races, difficulty options, and color schemes. Collecting all thirty pages grants a special prize coat. The narrative unfolds through journals and fragments that reveal more about the dungeon and the prize waiting at the bottom.
Is It Worth Playing?
Gloom Delve appeals most to players who enjoy roguelite runs built around procedural layouts, deep build experimentation through card drafting, and flexible multiplayer options that range from solo attempts to shared sessions. The code-generated visuals create a distinctive low-poly style that runs efficiently while supporting full controller, keyboard, and touch compatibility. Multiple languages and Steam achievements add accessibility for a broad audience.
The combination of real-time combat, meaningful loot decisions, and a narrative revealed through optional exploration gives the game substance beyond simple descent. Those drawn to games with high replayability through seeds, escalating difficulties, and co-op coordination will find the systems align well with repeated play. The upcoming release positions it as a fresh entry in the roguelite space focused on procedural depth and character variety rather than pre-authored levels.
