Roguelikes arent usually my style, but the mines call out to me, and that makes things more interesting for me, and the win condition is usually tied to the mining not the combat, so that makes me a happy fox.
Dome Keeper is a mining and base defense roguelite where you alternate between mining for resources that you can use to upgrade your base, and then using those upgrades to strengthen your dome’s defenses against the aliens that attack you. In the main mode, Relic Hunt, the game continues until you find and retrieve the relic.
The randomness comes from the mine layout. You’ve gotta search for your iron, water and cobolt, and what you have determines what you can upgrade. Do you need that 8 iron to strengthen your laser to survive the wave, or can you spend it on a drill upgrade to dig faster. The whole game is filled with these prioritising decisions. Iron is by far the most common, but also the most used. It spawns in big veins at least 3 nodes large, but sometimes up to even 10 or more nodes all next to eachother. Cobolt is used for defensive upgrades and repairing your dome. Water is used for utility upgrades, but can also be consumed by certain gadgets to provide temporary benefits.
Occasionally you’ll find a Gadget buried in the mines, and bringing it back to the base will give you two options for permanent dome upgrades that unlock new features. Your dome has 6 slots for gadgets: dome surface, spire, 2 basements, a shaft, and a suit upgrade, meaning you’re forced to pick and choose both based on the upgrades offered to you, and what your build needs to work most effectively. Perhaps you’d have to forgo an offered shaft drill because you know you’re going to need the service module in the shaft slot instead. You might also find a supplement, an extrodinarily powerful upgrade to either your suit or your dome, but again you’ll have to make a choice.
At the start of a run, you’ll be offered a choice of one of four domes: laser is the default but you will eventually unlock sword, artillery, and tesla domes too. Each comes with a unique combat style with its own skills, abilities, and learning curve. Personally I find laser and tesla to be easiest, and sword and artillery to be a lot harder to learn. You’ll also get to pick a primary gadget, which is a unique upgrade that won’t be offered during the run. To start with, the only option is the shield generator, which gives you a little bit of leeway in every cycle, protecting your dome, and drastically reducing your cobolt demand, but again there are other gadgets to unlock, the orchard, drone hub, and repellant.
At the end of every cycle, a wave of monsters attack your dome, and you need to make sure you get back to your dome in time to defend it. If you’re deeper in the mines, you need to set off sooner before the end of the cycle to ensure you’re home in time, otherwise the aliens will start attacking you while you’re undefended.
While Relic Hunt is the main mode, there are two others. Guild Assignments are the challenge mode. Each challenge has a gameplay modifier, win condition, and most also give you an extra starting gadget. These range from fighting off harder enemies, mining with no enemies at all, or having inverted gravity! Prestige mode, the third main mode, gives you endless runs where you earn points by selling resources and surviving waves, finishing only when you are defeated or retreat (by choice, or by force).
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320 £14.99 (Demo Available)
Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/dome-keeper £14.99
Dome Romantik, the jam version of this game: https://bippinbits.itch.io/dome-romantik Free to play (Treat it as a demo)
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