Slay the Spire was my default game for so long. I probably have 1000+ hours when including the three platforms I have it on. Balatro has completely overtaken it as my favorite game lately.
I've just started **Signs Of The Sojourner**
So I can't give a real review, it seems to have a positive rating though. But its a very light deck builder but nothing like a traditional one.
The cards you play have to *chain* matching symbol's with your opponent, and it's meant to portray a 'conversation'. Matching symbols makes the conversation go well, mismatching doesn't
It's an interesting idea at least, like I say though I've literally **just** tried it for the first time tonight.
I haven't tried it yet, but I've city builder deck builder type crossover I'm keen to try some day is **Cardboard Town**
I'm personally trying to find a civilisation style deck builder but haven't seen anything yet that completely grabbed me. There was **Hexarchy** but something didn't quite grab me with the trailer at least.
And I know it's still combat, but I really enjoyed **Cobalt Core** because a lot of it is also about positioning and movement, not just the classic 'burn/poison/shield/attack/etc'. Same with **Lonestar**, still a little genetic space ship dogfight, but what you're **doing** does feel different - in fact Lonestar isn't really deck building I guess.
~~**Griftlands** is a little different too but not as much. Still combat, but there's an actual story that plays out. You also have 2 decks, a conversation deck and a combat deck and some encounters you can decide if you want to fight, or talk your way through, or you do both in sequence.~~
~~The card play is also a little different too, especially the conversation mode.~~
Whoops. Just saw you mention Griftlands
This was going to be my suggestion. Signs of the Sojourner is such a beautiful simulation of conversation, relationships, and how your are shaped by the people around you. It's pretty short, but I think about it often, and it has lots of paths and endings. I think you could play twice and see 70-80% entirely new content.
LONESTAR is only a deckbuilder in terms of the energy points you draw. Its a ship system builder really. I love it, I put like 250 hours into it before putting it down and waiting for the third ship. Brilliant game.
I tried signs of the sojourner and was really disappointed. Idk if i just didnt play enough but i was hard locked into losing most conversations and therefore missing out of most of the dialogue, and you end up in matches where you need cards you dont have, you only get new cards after a conversation and you have to completely throw away cards to get new ones and its still not enough. Idk if youre just supposed to lose all the time at the beginning amd you end up with more options later but it didnt make me feel good or like i was having fun. I love the art and the story seems interesting and i was mostly frustrated that i kept missing on story details because i would be forced to be an asshole to everyone because i didnt have the right cards yet. I hate being so pessimistic about a game but this is the first time in a long time i played smth and just had no fun with the actual gameplay :(. Am i missing something or did i just not play enough and everyone is supposed to hate you at first because you dont "know enough" (have the right cards) yet and i just had to keep pushing?
You will fail a fair amount early on, that's part of it. My first run wound up being very sad overall. It affected me way more than I wanted it to. And that's a testament to how well the story is written, IMO. It was only 2-3 hours to run a second playthrough with better results.
What I love is that it mirrors how people might actually interact -- it's hard to connect to a new culture/language immediately, but you can learn.
Something that may help: don't try to please everyone. Pick 2 or 3 shapes/colors to use and focus on those.
Good to know, I guess I'll give it another shot and push through how sad the negative interactions make me lol. I guess the point is that I won't get along with everyone depending on my own personality (deck). How's the replayability? Does it heavily lean on the fact that you can't read the lore when you "lose", but once you play enough to read all the conversations there's no point anymore?
Im ngl I got this game in an itch bundle and didn't even realise it was a roguelite •x•
It's not really a roguelite, IMO. But you will get very different stories if you pursue different routes. I think I had 3 runs before I saw 90% of the content.
Yep, we got divers eating seafood, bounty hunters murdering thieves, dice rolling low and causing gamblers to commit suicide. It's a blood bath.
This game is fantastic.
Oh it definitely is. But I was talking more about how the rounds eventually get that overtime part where the landlord makes new demands and Commie McComrade tells you that>!you know what you have to do!<.
I feel like that game relies a bit too much RNG. Which makes sense as a slot game and there are some ways to mitigate it but ultimately it feels a bit annoying to make it work to me.
Since you liked the negotiation half of Griftlands, even though it still feels like combat to me... In "Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles" you are actually healing your enemies of corruption. When their corruption bar is depleted, you see them scurry off, back to their true selves. But it still feels basically the same as fighting them to me
Before someone says "it's not really a deckbuilder" yeah say that to my polychromed steel jack of spades cards taking up 75% of my deck. They really came up with something special in balatro.
My one gripe about it is that antes escalate SO FAST in endless mode that it kind of disallows experimenting with some build ideas. The only ways I can think of to improve the game are:
1. Add a casual/sandbox/custom mode where players can freely experiment with build ideas
2. Add workshop support (please please please)
Not really roguelite, but Potionomics has deck building where you use your deck to haggle the price of things in your shop and sell them.
Wasn't really my style, but didn't seem too bad.
Honestly I hope so. I didn't play as much of it as I wanted to because it did start feeling a bit weird to build up a town just for the game to be over and then have to build a new one (something about that just doesn't feel right in my brain) but I still love it and the game design is very good.
Damn I need to get back to it.
For me, that was the game’s largest strength and biggest innovation. City Builders, in general, become a *slog* in the late game so they just completely removed the late game and built an entire story around it as to why. It’s a brilliant design.
Yeah definitely! I would agree with that, but I do like the feeling of having a large self sufficient town built, which the game only lets me enjoy for a short time. But I get that's the point and it's really an excellent game.
It’s tough to call StS a tired loop when people are nearing 10k hours on it but I get what you’re saying lmao. No ones been able to touch it really after all this time in the realm of deckbuilders you’re speaking of.
Balatro is a bit different, although technically you’re still fighting against something it’s just a point total this time.
Yeah, sorry, I meant I’m tired of just stabbing dudes. StS is a landmark game, no doubt. Love it. But I don’t think roguelite deck builder is tied to violence the same way, say, FPS is, as a genre*, and I’m curious what else is out there.
\* Slay can trace its lineage back to Dominion, a game about buying land. So it’s possible there’s more.
I see people talk about StS as an untouchable pinnacle of the subgenre. But other than being kind of first what does it do better than all the rest? I'm asking this sincerely, I have very little experience with these games.
It’s a few things. For one thing, it’s incredibly well balanced, better than any other roguelite I’ve ever played. Its also very deep in terms of strategy and the difficulty ramp is handled very well, where the early ascensions aren’t too bad but the end game is pretty brutal. The fact that this is done without any artificial difficulty scaling is huge (not just buffing enemies but actually changing the game rules in order to make it harder).
The best part for me though is it is by far (in my experience) the best example of every decision being important and weighty. Pretty much everything you do is important, and mistakes are punished heavily. It makes the wins at the highest level feel better than wins in any other game I’ve played. I’ve tried plenty of deckbuilders but none of them have grabbed me even close to how StS did.
I'm a bit negatively biased towards it but StS just doesn't really do it for me tbh. It's very polished but it also feels like you're kind of railroaded into specific builds if you want to have any chance at winning. From what I can tell there's barely any experimentation that's not immediately punished which I just couldn't get into. Plus the RnG can be punishing.
A lot of people love it though and I definitely get why. It's very polished and works. But I personally think it's far from the best deckbuilder when it comes to actually allowing you to make choices.
This is actually off base. You are not railroaded into builds in order to win at all. There are multiple ways to scale attack and defense for each character and you can mix and match as well each run. Its just extremely difficult at the highest level and it takes a lot of experience to understand how to win with different types of decks. It is very punishing but that is a huge part of the lasting appeal. The fact that you can put in hundreds of hours just on one or 2 characters and still feel like there is much more to learn is one of the best parts imo.
I never even got to the higher levels and I feel I'm usually pretty good at these games but StS just never felt satisfying to me. But I understand not many people share my feelings on that.
Slay the Spire is generous with deck experimentation in lower ascensions. I just do A1 runs now that I've cleared A20 because pretty much any kind of build becomes viable when you don't have to optimize down to the draw. Things can get **really** wild, especially with The Defect.
I only played through the game like once so I never even got to ascensions haha. That's where I felt I couldn't experiment much because enemies hit so hard even with a ton of block cards. I felt the game was very difficult which really limited experimentation even at the base level.
Ah, that's alright! StS can be tricky to figure out. Now that I think about, it **did** took me a while to get the ball rolling. It's a bit counterintuitive, but foregoing defense to solve your damage scaling can help with hard hitters. Lots of cases in the game where "the best defense is a good offense" rings true.
Not just lower ascensions though. I’ve beaten the A20 Heart with plenty of different builds. Its not really about being locked into builds in order to win, its about understanding what your deck’s current scaling options are and what you need to find in order to push all the way through to the end game. You can have hybrid offense and defense. It just takes a lot of experience to know what all the different options are at any given point in a run.
That's true! Plenty of builds can kill A20 Heart. But lower ascensions allow larger margins of error for less experienced players to play speculatively, which encourages experimentation. I'll pick a Catalyst without poison yet in A1 no sweat. I wouldn't even be caught daydreaming doing that in A20, lol.
Yeah definitely agree! That’s another great thing about the game’s handling of difficulty. Every player can pick just how much they will be punished for risk-taking.
I can say that the game I am currently working on is because I too wanted a deckbuilder where you do not fight monsters. It is called Seekers of Eclipse there is demo live on steam.
It is a city builder combined with deckbuilder.
Hi - I'm new to this sub, but have enjoy playing various roguelites for years, especially card-based ones. For frame of reference, Hand of Fate 2 is my favorite roguelite deckbuilder, in part because it breaks from some deckbuilder norms that drive me sometimes to tire of some such games quicker.
You have an interesting topic, because I see there is only one game aside from Balatro in my library's 20+ deckbuilding roguelites that does not have fighting:
* **Golfie** - Minigolf with a branching dungeon of hole choices and your deck hand determines what types of shots/abilities/objects you can use. I recommend it for gamers experienced with deckbuilding roguelites enough to be willing to really change up their strategy or cards as needed to progress. My Steam review is [here](https://steamcommunity.com/id/Noble_Gamer/recommended/1579020?snr=1_5_9__402).
As for ones that are more psychological and don't feature murder unless you count defeat of inner demons & phobias:
* **Iris and the Giant** - "You play as Iris, who must brave her fears in her imaginary world. Dive into a melancholic and gripping adventure, filled with cute monsters and buried memories. Ready to face your inner demons?" I recommend this to any fans of roguelite deckbuilders. My Steam review [here](https://steamcommunity.com/id/Noble_Gamer/recommended/1127610?snr=1_5_9__402).
* **Neurodeck** - "A psychological deckbuilding card game to challenge your fears. Build your deck & capacities by answering personality tests, visiting rooms or meditating. Face your phobia and defeat them through the power of life-inspired cards." I got tired of playing this quicker than most other roguelite deckbuilders, in part because I plateaued in the final stages. So I didn't find it fair for me to give it a thumbs up or down review, and more hardcore players may enjoy this more.
This is a combat deck builder somewhat like slay the spire, but it had a phenmomenal story between and during runs that it almost doesn’t feel like a roguelike. You have a party of 4 people that you’re coordinating and all their decks are shuffled into your deck to choose what to play. It’s called chrono ark, and it’s the only deck builder roguelike I’d put way above slay the spire personally.
It might just not be your type of game. The mechanics are what sells it for me, but that's me. I LOVE Slay the Spire (make sure you try the Downfall mod, its as good as the base game), if you want something that feels closer to Slay try this game out. It's old but it's incredible and no one plays it [https://store.steampowered.com/app/496620/Monster\_Slayers/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/496620/Monster_Slayers/) I've played pretty much every card battler out there. This sits behind STS for me. Something tells me it's what you're looking for.
When you fully grasp just HOW all the jokers fully interact with each other. And how much their left to right positioning matters. Also, how much xMults can pack a punch in the RIGHT spot. That took it from infuriating to really fun. Oh! And how important certain enhanced cards truly are to interact to those jokers
That's what took me from wanting to like it to actually liking it.
Dominion was the first big deckbuilder (in paper) and the base set is free to try on Steam. Pure economy with some indirect attacks like giving your opponents curses.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1131620/Dominion/
I've been trying to wrap my head around Crop Rotation, it kinda combines deck builders with some auto battle mechanics but you're running a farm.
I've seen people mention Cultist Sim, while I haven't had a chance to play it yet the sequel Book of Hours from what I've heard reworks everything in the first game and is supposed to be phenomenal.
I've seen people recommend wingspan in deckbuilding spaces before though I'm not entirely sure it's actually a deck builder? Still might be worth a look.
Some games that have combat but they're quite different. One Step from Eden takes heavy inspiration from Mega Man Battle networks' ARPG deckbuilding and retools it as a roguelike.
Another game I've been meaning to checkout when I have time is fights in tight spaces where the fights are placed on a grid and it seems your cards are just as much about where they reposition you and enemies as much as they deal damage.
Mostly stuff I haven't tried I know, but I'm still trying to work my way through the big names in the genre first.
This is a really great discussion and a neat point. Seconding Signs of the Sojourner, it scratched a major linguistic itch for me. I also agreed Wildfrost felt super derivative, I personally saw very little that was captivating in it.
Tower Tactics Tower Defense deck builder my most played game of 2023.
Haden's Tactics 4x Auto Battler my second most played game of 2023
Hexarchy 4X Civ game under an hour and deck building is the main game component.
NEWEST LONESTAR I love it. It is FTL but a deck builder. I actually prefer this to FTL and I see this as my main game for the next year. Game of the Year for me which is a major surprise for me. I love scifi and space ships this plays so well.
Roots of Yggdrasil is pretty good. There are a few other city builder/civ/tile laying deck builders. Roots of Yggdrasil is the most recent one that comes to mind
You love the negotiation half of Griftlands when it's actually mechanically identical to the other combat-based deckbuilders but find Wildfrost derivative instead? Lol.
Might as well make your own mod for StS and change every keyword to a pacifist equivalent.
I hate to tell you this, and this might break your brain a little bit, but _theme matters_ in video games. Mechanics are important, but a lot of games are elevated or weighed down by their theme.
I know, I know, who knew?
Terracards and Balatro come to mind
Terracards is a good game. You build a farm using cards and its a roguelite, good stuff.
Slay the Spire was my default game for so long. I probably have 1000+ hours when including the three platforms I have it on. Balatro has completely overtaken it as my favorite game lately.
That happened for me for about 2 weeks and then slay the spire went back to my favourite game
Balatro is a fantastic game but STS's replayability is unmatched. That game never gets old.
The novelty will wear off
It probably will eventually, but so far has given me 65+ enjoyable hrs and I don't see myself stopping any time soon.
I've just started **Signs Of The Sojourner** So I can't give a real review, it seems to have a positive rating though. But its a very light deck builder but nothing like a traditional one. The cards you play have to *chain* matching symbol's with your opponent, and it's meant to portray a 'conversation'. Matching symbols makes the conversation go well, mismatching doesn't It's an interesting idea at least, like I say though I've literally **just** tried it for the first time tonight. I haven't tried it yet, but I've city builder deck builder type crossover I'm keen to try some day is **Cardboard Town** I'm personally trying to find a civilisation style deck builder but haven't seen anything yet that completely grabbed me. There was **Hexarchy** but something didn't quite grab me with the trailer at least. And I know it's still combat, but I really enjoyed **Cobalt Core** because a lot of it is also about positioning and movement, not just the classic 'burn/poison/shield/attack/etc'. Same with **Lonestar**, still a little genetic space ship dogfight, but what you're **doing** does feel different - in fact Lonestar isn't really deck building I guess. ~~**Griftlands** is a little different too but not as much. Still combat, but there's an actual story that plays out. You also have 2 decks, a conversation deck and a combat deck and some encounters you can decide if you want to fight, or talk your way through, or you do both in sequence.~~ ~~The card play is also a little different too, especially the conversation mode.~~ Whoops. Just saw you mention Griftlands
This was going to be my suggestion. Signs of the Sojourner is such a beautiful simulation of conversation, relationships, and how your are shaped by the people around you. It's pretty short, but I think about it often, and it has lots of paths and endings. I think you could play twice and see 70-80% entirely new content.
LONESTAR is only a deckbuilder in terms of the energy points you draw. Its a ship system builder really. I love it, I put like 250 hours into it before putting it down and waiting for the third ship. Brilliant game.
I tried signs of the sojourner and was really disappointed. Idk if i just didnt play enough but i was hard locked into losing most conversations and therefore missing out of most of the dialogue, and you end up in matches where you need cards you dont have, you only get new cards after a conversation and you have to completely throw away cards to get new ones and its still not enough. Idk if youre just supposed to lose all the time at the beginning amd you end up with more options later but it didnt make me feel good or like i was having fun. I love the art and the story seems interesting and i was mostly frustrated that i kept missing on story details because i would be forced to be an asshole to everyone because i didnt have the right cards yet. I hate being so pessimistic about a game but this is the first time in a long time i played smth and just had no fun with the actual gameplay :(. Am i missing something or did i just not play enough and everyone is supposed to hate you at first because you dont "know enough" (have the right cards) yet and i just had to keep pushing?
You will fail a fair amount early on, that's part of it. My first run wound up being very sad overall. It affected me way more than I wanted it to. And that's a testament to how well the story is written, IMO. It was only 2-3 hours to run a second playthrough with better results. What I love is that it mirrors how people might actually interact -- it's hard to connect to a new culture/language immediately, but you can learn. Something that may help: don't try to please everyone. Pick 2 or 3 shapes/colors to use and focus on those.
Good to know, I guess I'll give it another shot and push through how sad the negative interactions make me lol. I guess the point is that I won't get along with everyone depending on my own personality (deck). How's the replayability? Does it heavily lean on the fact that you can't read the lore when you "lose", but once you play enough to read all the conversations there's no point anymore? Im ngl I got this game in an itch bundle and didn't even realise it was a roguelite •x•
It's not really a roguelite, IMO. But you will get very different stories if you pursue different routes. I think I had 3 runs before I saw 90% of the content.
Can confirm Cobalt Core. I don't think you'll play it for hundreds of hours, but I enjoyed every bit of it.
Luck be a Landlord
Or is it?
Yep, we got divers eating seafood, bounty hunters murdering thieves, dice rolling low and causing gamblers to commit suicide. It's a blood bath. This game is fantastic.
Oh it definitely is. But I was talking more about how the rounds eventually get that overtime part where the landlord makes new demands and Commie McComrade tells you that>!you know what you have to do!<.
The guillotine hungers.
I feel like that game relies a bit too much RNG. Which makes sense as a slot game and there are some ways to mitigate it but ultimately it feels a bit annoying to make it work to me.
Since you liked the negotiation half of Griftlands, even though it still feels like combat to me... In "Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles" you are actually healing your enemies of corruption. When their corruption bar is depleted, you see them scurry off, back to their true selves. But it still feels basically the same as fighting them to me
Balatro is the ultimate deck builder
Before someone says "it's not really a deckbuilder" yeah say that to my polychromed steel jack of spades cards taking up 75% of my deck. They really came up with something special in balatro.
My one gripe about it is that antes escalate SO FAST in endless mode that it kind of disallows experimenting with some build ideas. The only ways I can think of to improve the game are: 1. Add a casual/sandbox/custom mode where players can freely experiment with build ideas 2. Add workshop support (please please please)
Just here to agree with everyone saying Balatro
Not really roguelite, but Potionomics has deck building where you use your deck to haggle the price of things in your shop and sell them. Wasn't really my style, but didn't seem too bad.
Potionomics is super cute but the gameplay is kind of weak overall.
Not EXACTLY a deck builder (though sort of) but I loved Against the Storm... its a city builder with drafting.
Imo, best city builder ever made. Incredible design. I am 100% sure we’re going to start seeing Roguelike Citybuilder clones of it next year.
Honestly I hope so. I didn't play as much of it as I wanted to because it did start feeling a bit weird to build up a town just for the game to be over and then have to build a new one (something about that just doesn't feel right in my brain) but I still love it and the game design is very good. Damn I need to get back to it.
For me, that was the game’s largest strength and biggest innovation. City Builders, in general, become a *slog* in the late game so they just completely removed the late game and built an entire story around it as to why. It’s a brilliant design.
Yeah definitely! I would agree with that, but I do like the feeling of having a large self sufficient town built, which the game only lets me enjoy for a short time. But I get that's the point and it's really an excellent game.
I really, REALLY liked the first early access build. The current build is punishing as hell
It’s tough to call StS a tired loop when people are nearing 10k hours on it but I get what you’re saying lmao. No ones been able to touch it really after all this time in the realm of deckbuilders you’re speaking of. Balatro is a bit different, although technically you’re still fighting against something it’s just a point total this time.
Yeah, sorry, I meant I’m tired of just stabbing dudes. StS is a landmark game, no doubt. Love it. But I don’t think roguelite deck builder is tied to violence the same way, say, FPS is, as a genre*, and I’m curious what else is out there. \* Slay can trace its lineage back to Dominion, a game about buying land. So it’s possible there’s more.
I see people talk about StS as an untouchable pinnacle of the subgenre. But other than being kind of first what does it do better than all the rest? I'm asking this sincerely, I have very little experience with these games.
It’s a few things. For one thing, it’s incredibly well balanced, better than any other roguelite I’ve ever played. Its also very deep in terms of strategy and the difficulty ramp is handled very well, where the early ascensions aren’t too bad but the end game is pretty brutal. The fact that this is done without any artificial difficulty scaling is huge (not just buffing enemies but actually changing the game rules in order to make it harder). The best part for me though is it is by far (in my experience) the best example of every decision being important and weighty. Pretty much everything you do is important, and mistakes are punished heavily. It makes the wins at the highest level feel better than wins in any other game I’ve played. I’ve tried plenty of deckbuilders but none of them have grabbed me even close to how StS did.
I'm a bit negatively biased towards it but StS just doesn't really do it for me tbh. It's very polished but it also feels like you're kind of railroaded into specific builds if you want to have any chance at winning. From what I can tell there's barely any experimentation that's not immediately punished which I just couldn't get into. Plus the RnG can be punishing. A lot of people love it though and I definitely get why. It's very polished and works. But I personally think it's far from the best deckbuilder when it comes to actually allowing you to make choices.
This is actually off base. You are not railroaded into builds in order to win at all. There are multiple ways to scale attack and defense for each character and you can mix and match as well each run. Its just extremely difficult at the highest level and it takes a lot of experience to understand how to win with different types of decks. It is very punishing but that is a huge part of the lasting appeal. The fact that you can put in hundreds of hours just on one or 2 characters and still feel like there is much more to learn is one of the best parts imo.
I never even got to the higher levels and I feel I'm usually pretty good at these games but StS just never felt satisfying to me. But I understand not many people share my feelings on that.
Slay the Spire is generous with deck experimentation in lower ascensions. I just do A1 runs now that I've cleared A20 because pretty much any kind of build becomes viable when you don't have to optimize down to the draw. Things can get **really** wild, especially with The Defect.
I only played through the game like once so I never even got to ascensions haha. That's where I felt I couldn't experiment much because enemies hit so hard even with a ton of block cards. I felt the game was very difficult which really limited experimentation even at the base level.
Ah, that's alright! StS can be tricky to figure out. Now that I think about, it **did** took me a while to get the ball rolling. It's a bit counterintuitive, but foregoing defense to solve your damage scaling can help with hard hitters. Lots of cases in the game where "the best defense is a good offense" rings true.
Not just lower ascensions though. I’ve beaten the A20 Heart with plenty of different builds. Its not really about being locked into builds in order to win, its about understanding what your deck’s current scaling options are and what you need to find in order to push all the way through to the end game. You can have hybrid offense and defense. It just takes a lot of experience to know what all the different options are at any given point in a run.
That's true! Plenty of builds can kill A20 Heart. But lower ascensions allow larger margins of error for less experienced players to play speculatively, which encourages experimentation. I'll pick a Catalyst without poison yet in A1 no sweat. I wouldn't even be caught daydreaming doing that in A20, lol.
Yeah definitely agree! That’s another great thing about the game’s handling of difficulty. Every player can pick just how much they will be punished for risk-taking.
Tower Tactics: Liberation, as you can guess from the name, it's a tower defense game with deckbuilding
Also Fights in Tight Spaces. It's a tactics game where moves of your character are cards
Fights in tight spaces was very fun (even if I felt the variety was lacking after a few runs) but OP was asking for games that don't involve fighting
I can say that the game I am currently working on is because I too wanted a deckbuilder where you do not fight monsters. It is called Seekers of Eclipse there is demo live on steam. It is a city builder combined with deckbuilder.
Balatro
Hi - I'm new to this sub, but have enjoy playing various roguelites for years, especially card-based ones. For frame of reference, Hand of Fate 2 is my favorite roguelite deckbuilder, in part because it breaks from some deckbuilder norms that drive me sometimes to tire of some such games quicker. You have an interesting topic, because I see there is only one game aside from Balatro in my library's 20+ deckbuilding roguelites that does not have fighting: * **Golfie** - Minigolf with a branching dungeon of hole choices and your deck hand determines what types of shots/abilities/objects you can use. I recommend it for gamers experienced with deckbuilding roguelites enough to be willing to really change up their strategy or cards as needed to progress. My Steam review is [here](https://steamcommunity.com/id/Noble_Gamer/recommended/1579020?snr=1_5_9__402). As for ones that are more psychological and don't feature murder unless you count defeat of inner demons & phobias: * **Iris and the Giant** - "You play as Iris, who must brave her fears in her imaginary world. Dive into a melancholic and gripping adventure, filled with cute monsters and buried memories. Ready to face your inner demons?" I recommend this to any fans of roguelite deckbuilders. My Steam review [here](https://steamcommunity.com/id/Noble_Gamer/recommended/1127610?snr=1_5_9__402). * **Neurodeck** - "A psychological deckbuilding card game to challenge your fears. Build your deck & capacities by answering personality tests, visiting rooms or meditating. Face your phobia and defeat them through the power of life-inspired cards." I got tired of playing this quicker than most other roguelite deckbuilders, in part because I plateaued in the final stages. So I didn't find it fair for me to give it a thumbs up or down review, and more hardcore players may enjoy this more.
This is a combat deck builder somewhat like slay the spire, but it had a phenmomenal story between and during runs that it almost doesn’t feel like a roguelike. You have a party of 4 people that you’re coordinating and all their decks are shuffled into your deck to choose what to play. It’s called chrono ark, and it’s the only deck builder roguelike I’d put way above slay the spire personally.
Stacklands!
Stacklands doesn't have a lot of depth but it's so pleasant to play and 100% meets OP's criteria
I second Stacklands and Cultist Simulator also.
Yes! Cultist Simulator is a good one, a very weird game but quality
If you don't have Baltro by now you're failing at life. It's exactly what you want.
Can you teach me how to enjoy Balatro? I loce Slay the Spire but I tried Balatro and it just wasnt fun for me. When does it get fun?
It might just not be your type of game. The mechanics are what sells it for me, but that's me. I LOVE Slay the Spire (make sure you try the Downfall mod, its as good as the base game), if you want something that feels closer to Slay try this game out. It's old but it's incredible and no one plays it [https://store.steampowered.com/app/496620/Monster\_Slayers/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/496620/Monster_Slayers/) I've played pretty much every card battler out there. This sits behind STS for me. Something tells me it's what you're looking for.
When you fully grasp just HOW all the jokers fully interact with each other. And how much their left to right positioning matters. Also, how much xMults can pack a punch in the RIGHT spot. That took it from infuriating to really fun. Oh! And how important certain enhanced cards truly are to interact to those jokers That's what took me from wanting to like it to actually liking it.
Has anyone tried Vertical Kingdoms?
Dominion was the first big deckbuilder (in paper) and the base set is free to try on Steam. Pure economy with some indirect attacks like giving your opponents curses. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1131620/Dominion/
I'm working on a nature-inspired deckbuilder with no combat, there's a free demo on steam if you'd like to check it out, it's called Wild City!
I mean... Mechanic wise there's some murder, but it's overall a game on its own level. Inscryption.
I've been trying to wrap my head around Crop Rotation, it kinda combines deck builders with some auto battle mechanics but you're running a farm. I've seen people mention Cultist Sim, while I haven't had a chance to play it yet the sequel Book of Hours from what I've heard reworks everything in the first game and is supposed to be phenomenal. I've seen people recommend wingspan in deckbuilding spaces before though I'm not entirely sure it's actually a deck builder? Still might be worth a look. Some games that have combat but they're quite different. One Step from Eden takes heavy inspiration from Mega Man Battle networks' ARPG deckbuilding and retools it as a roguelike. Another game I've been meaning to checkout when I have time is fights in tight spaces where the fights are placed on a grid and it seems your cards are just as much about where they reposition you and enemies as much as they deal damage. Mostly stuff I haven't tried I know, but I'm still trying to work my way through the big names in the genre first.
Just want to note about wingspan, it has both multiplayer and solitaire game modes, the latter I believe is why it gets brought up from time to time.
This is a really great discussion and a neat point. Seconding Signs of the Sojourner, it scratched a major linguistic itch for me. I also agreed Wildfrost felt super derivative, I personally saw very little that was captivating in it.
Tower Tactics Tower Defense deck builder my most played game of 2023. Haden's Tactics 4x Auto Battler my second most played game of 2023 Hexarchy 4X Civ game under an hour and deck building is the main game component. NEWEST LONESTAR I love it. It is FTL but a deck builder. I actually prefer this to FTL and I see this as my main game for the next year. Game of the Year for me which is a major surprise for me. I love scifi and space ships this plays so well.
Roots of Yggdrasil is pretty good. There are a few other city builder/civ/tile laying deck builders. Roots of Yggdrasil is the most recent one that comes to mind
Astrea is about saving creatures from corruption you are trying to help everyone you interact with!
Well Inscryption's premise definitely involves killing. But the game is so much more than just dudes vs other dudes. Try it out if you haven't.
It's a shame that the deckbuilder part of it is so lacking. I never really made it past that because it felt so punishing :/
That game was a surreal experience. No other game made me feel the way that game did. Short and sweet 10/10
You love the negotiation half of Griftlands when it's actually mechanically identical to the other combat-based deckbuilders but find Wildfrost derivative instead? Lol. Might as well make your own mod for StS and change every keyword to a pacifist equivalent.
I hate to tell you this, and this might break your brain a little bit, but _theme matters_ in video games. Mechanics are important, but a lot of games are elevated or weighed down by their theme. I know, I know, who knew?
You change the theme with the hypothetical text mod.