PC (Microsoft Windows)Nintendo Switch2023

Cobalt Core

A sci-fi roguelike deckbuilder with a deep new single-axis spin on tactics games! Dodge missiles, line up your cannons, and blast 'em out of the sky... Then get to the bottom of these time loops, before it's too late!

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Overwhelmingly Positive

4,121 Steam reviews

Review History

Reviews

4,121 total

≥h

Steam User 4252STEAMRecommended

Peak, simply peak.

Somehow I understood this way faster than StS so that's a good sign.

Heavily reccomended.

Mar 26, 2026·12h

Steam User 6545STEAMRecommended

SIX SEVEEEN

Mar 25, 2026·75h·2·Verified

Steam User 4016STEAMRecommended

Much like Shogun Showdown this rougelike deckbuilder focuses on movement as a reasource and vital part of your board planning. It is a very fun mechanic although I'd admit not for everyone. Gameplay loop is pretty satisfying although approaches to deck building varieties are somewhat limited to characters you are taking onboard each run. Still I had a blast and I can safely recommend it for any fan of the genre. 7/10

Mar 24, 2026·20h·1·Verified

Steam User 2723STEAMRecommended

One of the finest roguelikes I've played. It's fun, cute, well-written, has a ton of content, good audio... just everything about this game is nice. It's not super hard, but I'm totally ok with that.

Mar 24, 2026·18h·Verified

Steam User 0941STEAMRecommended

Charming
Challenging
Cheap
Cheezy
Check it out.

Mar 24, 2026·44h·Verified

Steam User 5454STEAMRecommended

a solid deckbuilder with a suprisingly nice set of characters and story
the mechanics are interesting, the game lets you pick 3 charcters and combines thier card pool which lets the player customize the card pool and find synergies between charcters the card pool for each character felt a bit shallow though, the game is less challanging then avarage for the genre even at the hardest difficulty, the combat itself is pretty fun and tactical with interesting desicion making spots

Mar 23, 2026·36h·Verified

Steam User 3702STEAMRecommended

animalitos lindos

Mar 23, 2026·11h·Verified

Steam User 8037STEAMRecommended

難度相當簡單的小品卡牌Rogue，有著輕鬆好懂得規則以及目前我遊玩過同類遊戲中最有趣的角色互動。
可惜的是遊戲流程偏短玩家很難享受牌組成型後的快感，且各角色之間的牌庫特性互動並不容易，更多時候都在環繞幾個強勢機制構築。
另外，身為臺灣人必須給製作組對珍珠奶茶的理解與熱愛給予好評。

Mar 23, 2026·37h·1·Verified

Steam User 0133STEAMRecommended

The game is super chill, I love the aesthetic and the characters are great! 10/10, no regrets on buying this game.

Mar 23, 2026·14h·Verified

Steam User 9142STEAMRecommended

They took Slay the Spire, added a couple new mechanics and gave it a shiny new coating. That basically guarantees that Cobalt Core is fun to play because the mechanics that they recycled from Slay the Spire are so good. The primary new mechanic that they added to the formula in Cobalt Core is movement - your ship can move left or right to evade attacks or line up your shots with enemy weak points. This adds some welcome variety to the gameplay. The graphics have a nice retro charm and the characters and humor are enjoyable. I've been playing a lot of Slay the Spire 2 lately, and if Slay the Spire 2 is a 9.5 out of 10, Cobalt Core is probably like an 8 out of 10. Worth picking up but waiting for a sale is recommended.

Mar 23, 2026·2h·1·Verified

Steam User 6989STEAMRecommended

I am not beating the allegations of “only plays deckbuilding roguelikes”, because I have been playing Cobalt Core, which is another wonderful deckbuilding roguelike. It’s also a turn-based tactics game, in the vein of Shogun Showdown or Into the Breach.

There’s the usual combat formula of shooting and blocking, and the usual deckbuilding formula of energy and card manipulation. To these, the game adds the element of positioning and movement. You can prevent damage by raising shields, but you can also dodge out of incoming fire. This also matters for offense, as many enemies have weak spots, and some attacks disable the part they fire at. So sometimes, turns play out somewhat like a puzzle. And sometimes, you draft the cards that let you ignore the puzzle and shoot the enemy with abandon.

The story involves a crew of anthropomorphic space critters stuck in a time loop. While the plot is sparse, each character brings their own charming personality, which shines in little bits of battle dialogue and event text. I found myself caring a little more about each cast member than I would in other games in this genre. I’d argue that the main meta-progression comes in the form of memories, which are brief cutscenes centered on each character.

Expect tens of hours of gameplay, not hundreds. It’s not that Cobalt Core isn’t challenging, but there isn’t a lot of content and variety. I’m before the point where runs start to feel same-y, but I worry it’ll happen before I see the game’s ending.

Mar 23, 2026·10h·Verified

Steam User 0329STEAMRecommended

Cobalt Core has excellent roguelite design fundamentals and fun presentation, although the game taps the brakes before it can fully hit warp.

Biggest positives:
+ Ship positioning is a nice, unique strategic vector that helps elevate the ‘dogfight’ feel of fights
+ Excellent OST; Aaron Cherof’s brisk, sci-fi-tinged chiptune-adjacent soundscapes provide the perfect ambiance for the spacefaring gameplay

Other notes:
- Missing some of the truly powerful ‘broken’ builds and combinations that are characteristic of the genre
- Meta-progression is very light. Some players may lose interest after clearing the story due to lack of further unlocks or run tracking

Read the full review here: https://toothbrush.blog/review/cobalt-core/

Mar 22, 2026·22h·Verified

Steam User 7421STEAMRecommended

Solid rogue-lite, good balance of difficulty, nice pace of runs, surprisingly decent story

Mar 22, 2026·23h·Verified

Steam User 4131STEAMRecommended

Simple design, but wildly addictive. Super-satisfying gameplay loop that feels just challenging enough. Reminds me of another great game, StarVaders, but with shorter play-throughs and slightly more precision in its design.

Mar 22, 2026·4h·Verified

Steam User 2492STEAMRecommended

slay the spire + ftl but in a way that's actually cohesive and very fun and i liked it a lot

Mar 22, 2026·26h·1·Verified

Steam User 3930STEAMRecommended

Wow! A lot of love went into this one. Play it!

Mar 22, 2026·15h

Steam User 0033STEAMRecommended

[h3]My Rating: 8/10[/h3]
[b]Completion:[/b] Reached the ending. Found all Cards, Artifacts, Map Events, and Memories.
[b]Achievements:[/b] 15/15 (100%)*
[b]Time to Beat:[/b] ~19h+ (probably more; I don't think my offline time synced correctly)
[b]Price:[/b] Slightly high
[hr][/hr][h3][u]Conclusion[/u]: Recommended[/h3]
If you're looking for a deck-builder with something new, try out Cobalt Core. It's charming, enjoyable, and it scratches that itch.

While a sale is preferable, the game has enough content and enjoyment factor to be worth it at full price.
[hr][/hr][h3]Review[/h3]Really cool roguelike deck-builder! There's a lot of familiar cards and artifacts, but the ship mechanics are innovative and fresh. Not only can you defend by using shields, but also just moving or using drones, which is really neat. Moreover, since you play with three characters at a time and there are five different ships to choose from, your runs often end up quite different and stay unique for a while.

Speaking of the characters, they actually have some fantastic, hilarious dialogue. Each of them has their own personality and it was a joy to read through the text. It's not an overwhelming amount either, just enough to have a fun story and entertaining characters to back it up.

It's not overly difficult as far as roguelike deck-builders go. Even on the harder difficulties, things aren't terrible -- though, you should still be prepared to lose sometimes on the Hardest difficulty.
[hr][/hr]*Technically, at the time of writing, I still need to attempt 20 more Daily challenges for 100% achievements, but I'll get there soon.

Mar 18, 2026·19h

Steam User 8959STEAMRecommended

Lovely little deck builder, very much a run or two a day kinda deal where your reward is endearing character moments. Also very much a game designed to be finished rather than be an endless obsession which is nice in it's own way.

Mar 17, 2026·34h

Steam User 2203STEAMRecommended

very cool!

Mar 16, 2026·54h

Steam User 6827STEAMRecommended

10 hours in, and it’s already my favorite roguelike deckbuilder. The movement mechanic adds a layer of positioning that most card games miss—it feels more like a tactical ship-to-ship duel than just "playing numbers." The writing is genuinely funny, the soundtrack it's *really* a banger. This is the one I keep coming back to, for a quick run or a long session. 9/10.

Mar 15, 2026·10h

Steam User 9963STEAMRecommended

Cute and some interesting puzzles

Mar 15, 2026·10h·Verified

Steam User 9573STEAMRecommended

Great game

Mar 15, 2026·46h·Verified

Steam User 5210STEAMRecommended

An adorable turnbased deckbuilding roguelite with great character design and personality. It has a wonderful story and ending as well. Highly recommend.

Mar 12, 2026·21h·Verified

Steam User 4545STEAMRecommended

This has been my favourite roguelike deckbuilder since Slay the Spire. The mechanics are very satisfying, the combos can make you feel like a god, and I really love the storyline/characters with it (something that Slay the Spire and other roguelike deckbuilders haven't done nearly as well imo). Highly recommend this game 10/10.

Mar 12, 2026·60h·1·Verified

Steam User 7766STEAMRecommended

probably one of the best deckbuilders ive ever played. its the full package. its well written (i cant tell you how many times i laughed reading interactions between characters), the art is super cute with nice ship designs. the mechanics are very fun and when everything clicks into place it makes me feel so smart. and to top it all off its got a good (albeit short) soundtrack with nice little adaptive elements ala balatro. if youre into cute funny games with a lot of depth and replayability, you can do substantially worse than cobalt core.

Mar 12, 2026·32h·1·Verified

Steam User 6804STEAMRecommended

Гра подарувала цікавий геймплей та багато емоцій. Персонажі відчуваються живими, сюжет дуже хороший. Нічого поганого не можу сказати про гру. Проходив з насолодою кожен момент.

Mar 12, 2026·16h·1·Verified

Steam User 5734STEAMRecommended

This is a great game! I wish it was a little longer, although I could play more if I wanted to, but the time I did have with it was amazing. Like all deck builders, some of the decks weren't for me (or maybe weren't as good in general?) but they were all unique and interesting, and because the game is designed around choosing combinations of decks, you can really get some variety here.

Perhaps more importantly, the core conceit of being a spaceship and having to move left and right both to position yourself for attacks and to try to dodge enemy fire is really unique and interesting, it definitely sets this game apart from others like it. It's not brutally difficult, which I like, but some of the specific combat encounters absolutely turn that difficulty up so there should be something here for everyone. There's one fight in particular that will often end my run, so it's not stupid easy either.

The art style is incredible, definitely part of what drew me to the game, and it's not disappointing as you continue to play. There's so much to see and do here! The story was also kinda cute at first but does develop into something very interesting in my opinion, I ended up playing with the decks I didn't like as much just to unlock story content which is huge since I'm not really a story guy.

Honestly, I can't really remember any complaints I had, if any (it's been a while since I played), I'm just writing this review because I'm about to share this game with my younger sibling and I realized I never left these poor devs/creators a positive review despite having lots of fun with their game! If you like games like this, you will not be disappointed as long as you aren't expecting like 50+hrs of content. For the price, this is worth it for sure!

Mar 11, 2026·22h·Verified

Steam User 5239STEAMNot recommended

It's a turn-based ship combat simulator on a 2D plane. Like most roguelikes runs can gets repetitive fast, though you can change your crew to have slightly different runs. You can complete a run in about an hour and it's fun enough for a few runs, though I don't think it's anything I haven't seen before. I haven't paid much attention to the plot. The music is alright, but I wish there were more tracks.

I don't like that you have to beat the game about 18 times to see the ending. I wish it would at least reward me for taking the challenge and playing on higher difficulties if it expects me to play the game that many times.
Perhaps let me unlock more memories at once? You also have to fight nearly the same bosses every time, and will use a similar strategy nearly every run because some crew combinations are awful and are unfun to play. I think I'd like it more if it weren't so artificially long and I give it a C rating.

Mar 11, 2026·19h·2

Steam User 1948STEAMRecommended

I played Cobalt Core through a couple years back, and even though I didn't leave a review then, I have really fond memories of this game!

As someone who generally likes tactics-based roguelikes, I purchased Cobalt Core as something I wanted to try for myself. From there, I found the gameplay loop extremely unique & fun to work with. and I loved the bit of story given too. :3

Mar 11, 2026·23h·Verified

Steam User 7398STEAMNot recommended

有点创意，但是实际玩起来感受不好，平衡性很差，位移特别重要，所以有的船员和有的飞船玩起来就是受虐。价格偏贵，性价比低。

Mar 10, 2026·12h·3

Steam User 2037STEAMRecommended

That I won my very first run tells you this isn't a super hard roguelike (unless you turn up the difficulty modifier). That I loved every second of the 2+hours it took tells you how much fun is packed into the game. Not just in gameplay, but the retro graphics, neon electro-soundscape, and the incredible story. The narrative is fed to you in little bits and pieces (appropriate for a bubble of time that was shattered and is stuck in a loop), with every encounter, every fresh memory, and the quiet moments with the crew all weaving a complex tapestry of de-synched storytelling into a masterwork of worldbuilding. You pick things up about what happened, in a general sense, quite quickly. You also get the rug pulled out from under you about the details almost every run. Even when you fail, you almost always get some kind of advancement.

In terms of gameplay, one thing I really love is how no ship, character, or combination seems especially overpowered. There are synergies to be unlocked, sure. But that's just a matter of learning patterns and exploiting positive feedback. Artifacts let your crew feed off of one another's abilities, or enhance your control of the ship. I've been looking to collect more of the cards to fill up my codex, and even going out of my way to take things I'd never chosen before, I was still making new combos and finding ways to keep pushing ahead.

I have a long way to go, still. But I'm eager to see what happens when the last memories are unlocked. And I expect I may be cruising the loops long after, too.
9/10

Mar 10, 2026·32h·1·Verified

Steam User 1990STEAMRecommended

Excellent.

Mar 9, 2026·1h·Verified

Steam User 9299STEAMRecommended

Я искал что то на подобии SL/SL 2 и эта игра пушка по скидону. Кто любит всратые билды и прочее веселье - рекомендую

Mar 9, 2026·12h·Verified

Steam User 7085STEAMRecommended

Phenomenal game. I typically don't like deck builders, but the art was so good with this one I wanted to play it anyway (and the deck building ended up being fun too). Thank you for making this gem!

Mar 8, 2026·34h·1·Verified

Steam User 7524STEAMRecommended

I haven't personally started doing the daily runs yet, having JUST fully completed the main story content (and all the non-daily run achievements), but I have to say that even with the oft-mentioned slight lack of variety, this game was pretty much everything I had hoped it would be, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

In terms of gameplay, most of the mechanics should be recognizable if you've played any similar games, with this game's major twist on the deckbuilder subgenre being it's positional combat (something that ALWAYS catches my eye, personally). You can spend evasion given by your cards and artifacts to avoid attacks, position yourself to take more or less damage based on the armor/weakness of your individual ship parts, or exploit the enemies' very same per-part weaknesses.
It's incredibly satisfying to just barely dodge heavy fire, or perfectly line yourself up with a weakpoint for extra damage. The selection of ships you can unlock also plays into this very well by giving you unique ways to take advantage of said system, altering the way you approach avoiding, blocking, and throwing out attacks.

What I personally feel brings this whole game together, though, is everything surrounding the gameplay.
The cast of characters and what they each bring to the table, the beautifully clean and colorful visual style, the way the game is constantly giving you new interactions between its characters every run, and of course its absolutely STELLAR soundtrack...
It's all very well-refined and adds up to an incredibly endearing game that I haven't been able to put down (and probably still won't!), playing a handful of runs every day since getting it.

This is also all without mentioning the modding community, which is from what I can tell officially-endorsed, and has added plenty of new characters, ships, enemies, and QoL...
If you're still looking for even more out of the game once you "complete" it, there should be more than enough to satisfy you!

Even at full price I have to say that the game is very much worth it, let alone the half-off I got it for.
Highly recommended!

Mar 8, 2026·41h·Verified

Steam User 8175STEAMRecommended

Epic FTL / Slay the Spire cross-over. Love it.

Mar 8, 2026·6h

Steam User 4514STEAMRecommended

some ships are not as intersting

Mar 8, 2026·17h·Verified

Steam User 0430STEAMRecommended

Ты управляешь группой созданий, обречённых на скитания в холодном, переполненным беспричинным насилием и бесконечными смертями, космосе. Где герои, как в колесе сансары, раз за разом повторяют один и тот же полёт, то ли в отчаянии, то ли в надежде, что что-нибудь когда-то возможно изменится. Для них уже не существует разницы добра и зла, друга и врага, жизни и смерти, ибо всё это не имеет смысла, когда застрял в бесконечном аду.

Но при всём этом создана очень уютная атмосфера игры, никакой ненависти и злости, без напряжения за провал своей миссии. Все герои это милые дружелюбные зверята, общение с противниками проходит совершенно обыденно и по доброму, словно это встреча старых приятелей. И так бы они и продолжали бесконечно обмениваться любезностями, пока не достают пушки и не начинают шмалять.

Помимо того, что игра сильно цепляет своим противоречием, так же отлично сделано повествование, сюжет, диалоги. Непринуждённый юмор просто жжёт, местами чёрный, но всё равно добрый. Сколько же души было вложено в этот проект. Однозначно рекомендую

Mar 8, 2026·24h·1·Verified

Steam User 1731STEAMRecommended

I bought this game because it reminded me of FTL, but with deckbuilding. I'm a sucker for pixel art space games. I also liked what music I heard in the trailer, and the marketing materials suggested a greater emphasis on the characters than the disposable ones in FTL. I found the learning curve to be approachable, which cannot be said of most roguelikes or deckbuilders. The character development is not very deep, but I liked the various interactions. The meta-narrative is interesting and I enjoyed unlocking memories. Nearly every card and artifact is viable. Each ship plays drastically differently. Difficulty is balanced, and you can luck/build your way into an unstoppable force, but not every crew combination works well together. All this said, and much like FTL, the standout aspect of the game is the music. The first time I destroyed a ship and the layers of the soundtrack filtered/faded out, I was captivated and immediately wondered why I had never seen this done before. Maybe it's not a new idea and I just haven't played other games that utilize this technique, but I love it. Each track is fantastic, and I rank this soundtrack up there with the likes of Ben Prunty, Marty O'Donnell, and Jeremy Soule. Absolute props to the composer(s). The finale track made me openly weep, so thanks for that. I prefer this to Slay the Spire.

Mar 8, 2026·33h·Verified

Steam User 3070STEAMRecommended

Very simple rougelike deckbuilder :) 10/10 game

Mar 5, 2026·3h·1·Verified

Steam User 5420STEAMNot recommended

Seems like a decent game (I liked StS and Vault of the Void) but I'm just not feeling it. The movement mechanics are tedious and the systems don't feel as deep and balanced as I had hoped. Vault of the Void had me fully hooked after 10 minutes, this one seems to have the opposite effect.

Mar 4, 2026·1h·Verified

Steam User 2596STEAMRecommended

Super recommended!
Choose 3 crew members and a ship. Combine the 4 starter decks to create the starter deck for the run. The cards / artifacts you encounter depend on the crew members and ship (besides the common ones)
The upgrade system is interesting, offering A and B upgrades. You choose which one to upgrade to. If a card comes upgraded as a reward it will say A or B (you can't choose here)
The combat is column-based. The enemy will attack on some columns. There can be empty columns where attacks just pass through. Many resources stay turn after turn (e.g. shields) so there's less of a chance of a one bad draw ending a run.
The humor is on point, and Riggs is best girl

Mar 4, 2026·15h·Verified

Steam User 6460STEAMNot recommended

Game becomes repetitive and boring after your first few runs, the jump in difficulty from normal to hard is too high, which makes certain characters useless on hgher difficullty's. Same goes for ships, the Jupiter is a fun ship with Isaac but anything higher than normal and it's useless.

I hope the devs update and balance the difficulty aswell as buff some of the weaker characters especially Max and Isaac. Honestly it was really fun for my first 10 runs, but once I started playing hard, the game lost me, attempt after attempt, just to get bad luck and lose, and you're not even componsated for your attampt, usually in rouge likes the more you fail, the stromger your character or items become makeing you go a little bit further each time. But you lose everything of defeat and only gain a useless buff to like 2 cards.

Honestly it's a good game, but the more you play it the more cracks form and eventually your experience is just soured and you leave feeling nothing but Apathy.

Mar 4, 2026·14h·Verified

Steam User 4771STEAMRecommended

Genuinely amazing, where do I start...
The music is great and fits the vibe (Self Defense is a must have on any bgm playlist)
The characters, while lacking depth, are great within their limited scope, the fact that they react to certain actions, artifacts u pick up (like Peri always commenting on enemies who lack a cockpit when u have Cockpit Lock-on), and team comps.
The ships are also a great spin on the genre, each one being unique (especially TideRunner and Jupiter). Its a great balance of simplicity and challenge.
The characters also having unique cards is the most enjoyable aspect of this game. Finding out who works best with who and what ships they can wield effectively is just a fine example of trial and error.
And the artifact system is super nice. It elevates the character/ship choices.
I can only list off 4 (not really major) downsides to this game is that I don't think there's a way to freely customize your runs like how daily runs modify your runs (which is a shame because the dailies have so many cool set ups). No shops which feels like a missed opportunity and would've made travel more interesting.
Riggs is just overpowered and its kinda unfunny when you think about it because no character comes close to how much she enables her team while the last unlockable character (being vague cuz spoilers) just feels weak in comparison.
And finally, the game is a bit on the easier side but this "complaint" isn't really a big deal I just wish there were more difficulty options.
But all in all, its a wonderful time. Thanks for a great game Rocket Rat.

Mar 4, 2026·62h·Verified

Steam User 7402STEAMRecommended

Recommended, yes, but tentatively.

Pros:

- Cute characters each with their own backstories to unlock, adding replay value to your runs as you try to piece together the events leading up to the time loop.

- Fun/cute visual style.

- Tactical card based combat with ship mechanics

Cons:

- RNG-itis. Most enemies will unleash absurd barrages at you every turn that can destroy you outright if you can't dodge, block, or stun them. All it takes is a bad hand or two during a rough fight to end your run, and there is very little to mitigate this. An example is a tanky enemy that quickly ramps up damage to 2x 1x8 barrages, if you don't draw enough cards to dodge or stun the ship's armaments you implode in a single unlucky turn.

- Drop table issues. You have overall not a lot of opportunity to streamline your deck and artifacts. You start with some very lackluster basic cards in most runs, which you would need to visit every shop along your way to upgrade or remove. Strong card/artifact synergies are also far too RNG dependant, and I found that while early on I had a decent success rate, it quickly nosedived as the drop tables got bigger.

- Balancing issues. Some characters have rock solid decks while others have nothing but RNG dependent cards. Some just have cluttered drop tables, while others have problematic cards. For example Max's cards require you to draw the correct card combo, AND have the correct secondary card on the leftmost spot of your hand, though there are ship-specific cards that usually fill those slots every turn. Most of his cards have significant drawbacks or requirements, interact badly with ship cards, have few synergies, and they never seem to come up in the right combinations at the right times. (Edit: He has a few very strong synergies that require upgrading his and combo cards, but the rest are very unpredictable) Combine that with the unforgiving nature of mitigating incoming damage and you will have a bad time. TLDR it's a mess.

Conclusion:

It's a cute game but needs a balancing pass. Gameplay is decent but somewhat par, becoming repetitive fairly quickly. The game does have a unique charm but I find myself wishing it was more streamlined.

Edit:

Character Breakdowns

-Recommended ship, Ares, since it doesn't have any weird gimmicks and is versatile, with the ability to switch the firing hardpoint while the other gains armor.

-Recommended staple character, Riggs, you can't go wrong with her movement cards and she supports or synergizes well with everyones decks in some way or another.

- Dizzy is also quite solid, and while you can't entirely rely on defence, he has good cards to keep you alive.

- Peri has some good attacks and buffs, and synergizes well if you need more damage in your loot table. Many of her cards high high cost however.

- Issac is good for drone builds but will take over your build a bit, since they need micromanagement and reliable draw of drone movement and ability cards. Drones can be good in hybrid builds, but the barrages that enemies fire generally means they don't survive long or in great quantity. Bubble shield is a must, so cross your fingers. Issac generally wants to play on the Jupiter ship, a drone based ship that doesn't function as well without his drone synergy cards.

- Drake has great card synergies, but will take over your build, as you will need to get both heating and cooling cards in order for her to reach her potential. Too many cards from others will make it difficult to manage your heat. Too many heat or other-character cards in proportion to her cooling cards will cause you to damage yourself or not use the more powerful ones. Too many cooling cards in proportion to heat or other-character cards will lead to not drawing her strong cards as often as you can cool the heat they generate. Good character but needs to have the build focused around her.

- Max is a black sheep. Most of his cards involve tradeoffs and create absolute chaos based on what order they are drawn in your hand. Many of his cards synergize very poorly with ship ability cards, which will usually fill the side-slot/s. Generally building around him is too unpredictable and will hold you back, since most of his combos need to align perfectly for them to be effective. He does however make a good support character if you can get the correct cards, upgrade them, and have them drawn together with the right cards from other characters. One example of this is his Admin Deploy card, which takes the leftmost card and plays it for 'free' (it costs one point to play Admin Deploy), while exhausting/destroying the selected card for the rest of combat. Good luck getting the card you want in the left slot reliably, but upgrade it and you can pick any card in your hand and it will no longer exhaust it. This makes a strong synergy with high cost cards, especially buffs which last for the rest of combat. It is still a risky strategy as it's very common, even with two admin cards and multiple buff cards, to just not draw the two together for entire encounters. Luck. Be careful how you tempt it.

Edit: I played a few runs with Max's Admin Deploy card, keeping my deck minimal (including removing several starter cards) while trying to pair it with 4-cost buff cards. I still had very mixed luck getting both to draw together, even with a minimal deck. I ended up eating the cost of the cards and skipping a turn fairly often just to get the buffs up. Combine that with the fact that the card draws alongside 1-cost cards more often than not, and it is essentially a dud draw most times it comes up, taking the place of a more useful card. This further reinforces my opinion that Max is too unpredictable. Upgraded Admin Deploy is one of the least situational of his cards, so it only gets jankier from there if you try others. Cloud Backup has a spot in some builds, to get exhausted cards back, but can become a liability in longer fights if you rely on if for attacks. He's just too situational.

- Books (one of my favs) can either be a support character with very specific cards, or you can double down on an alchemist build. Like Issac and Drake she will need to be built around for a solid build, and is a bit susceptible to RNG. Good build examples include a crystal generation and overwhelming power buff build with multishot (stacking damage buff and multiple hits), or a crystal generation build with the healing artifact and bloodstone bolt (sap tank).

- ??? Pretty obvious but possibly a spoiler. Lots of flexible card options, very good choice.

Further Edit:

Still don't like Max's cards, too unpredictable to get them to line up. Cat is my fav, lots of synergy options with any other characters if you keep your deck lean. Summon control artifact lets you keep good cards, good for stockpiling several crystal shards if books is chosen. There's another one, I forget the name, that boosts the damage of basic shot cards by 1 which makes them much more useful and helps declutter.

Ares is the most reliable ship on account of flexible gun positioning and armor. Other ships all have weird gimmicks that will trip you up when a boss decides to fire a volley and nuke you in a single turn. Artemis is good too, but less upfront power. Jupiter has issues with bosses shooting down drones every turn unless you have bubble field and Issac for movement, it also presents a large attack surface. The sail ship is my most hated, the anchor ruins it and goes against it's core mechanic. If it was free from the start it would be good, but it presents a constant energy drain and annoyance.

Ares + Riggs + Peri + Drake have generally presented the most predictable and successful loadout. Lots of damage to shorten fights and lots of movement to hit weak points and avoid volleys. Could sub Cat for drake with the right cards.

Another random tip, always upgrade your directional move cards early, they only evade in one direction until you do.

Mar 4, 2026·31h·Verified

Steam User 4073STEAMRecommended

Fast paced, great soundtrack and story, every run feels unique and fresh. A must for every roguelite enthusiasts.

Mar 3, 2026·30h·Verified

Steam User 3676STEAMNot recommended

Cool idea but imo it feels way too slow to play & there isn't a lot of impact to most of the cards. Most recent example I got stuck in the 3rd encounter of the 1st area for genuinely at least 20 minutes because neither I or the enemy could consistently do any damage. I just can't recommend it unless your favorite part of Slay the Spire is the turns where you lose out on lethal because somehow every turn in this game feels like that

Mar 2, 2026·2h·Verified

Steam User 3944STEAMRecommended

This feels like it was made for me specifically. You play as a swap-able team of characters that banter with each other as you fight (I promise it's endearing and not annoying.) It also strikes a perfect balance between being simple and having a lot of depth.

Mar 1, 2026·48h·1·Verified

Steam User 4949STEAMRecommended

[h1]Recommended on a DEEP SALE[/h1]

First off, the gameplay is awesome. It's very tactical and strategic and you can make informed choices every turn to optimize the outcome of every round, which alone gives this a thumbs up. That said, it has [b]very limited content[/b]. Runs are very samey, very little event variations or gameplay changing elements. You can force a build very consistently and some pilots can auto-win the game with the starting deck on the highest difficulty, so optimally there is no need to even include new cards (you can skip rewards after seeing the cards offered). There is not much to unlock (4 new pilots, 4 new ships, no new cards or artefact from what I have seen).

The game wants you to play through it 21(!) times minimum to unlock the 'true ending' and with runs taking around 30m to over an hour, the system simply doesn't support that kind of grind and investment. You will have your fill after playing through with some combinations of pilots, ships and difficulty. Eventually you will have your fill, definitely under 10h. Your mileage may vary tho.

Mar 1, 2026·9h·Verified

Steam User 7941STEAMNot recommended

Fun at first and then gets repetitive quickly. It is not a rouge-LITE, so there are no permanent upgrades to work for. So you are just doing the same thing over and over and hoping to win to tease out five sentences of story at the end.

Feb 28, 2026·14h·3·Verified

Steam User 0473STEAMRecommended

This was an incredibly fun game which offered a comparable amount of challenge to games of its caliber in the deck-and-resource-managing genre. Once you learned how to use the game mechanics to your advantage and properly balance offense, defense, and evasion as efficiently as necessary to progress, the game felt quite addictive. It also possessed an interesting story-telling mechanic that further incentivized players to play the arcade-like game multiple times with different team compositions, offering a means to understand the individual characters better, understand their strengths, and how they fit into the underlying story. Truly a game that I hope fans of the deck-building and resource-management genres won't miss out on!

Feb 27, 2026·56h·Verified

Steam User 2006STEAMRecommended

good

Feb 26, 2026·16h·Verified

Steam User 8758STEAMRecommended

good

Feb 26, 2026·33h·Verified

Steam User 3724STEAMRecommended

This was an interesting take on the deckbuilder roguelike genre. I highly recommend this game if you enjoyed STS and Balatro. Charming characters, great pixel art, tight gameplay. Was satisfying to play through the whole 30 hours.

Feb 25, 2026·32h·Verified

Steam User 2372STEAMRecommended

tons of fun. the spaceship system is really cool with how it plays with movement, different currencies, and a row between the ships. plenty of personality in the characters and the fact they each have a set of cards with their own mechanical theming is sick. the music is great to with a few tracks entering my general rotation whilst still working well in game

Feb 25, 2026·24h·Verified

Steam User 8752STEAMRecommended

it is a good stratigic rougelike

Feb 24, 2026·26h

Steam User 8710STEAMRecommended

Probably one of my favorite games ever??? Top tier characters, top tier dialogue, top tier music, and I absolutely love the way the story is told. Despite not generally being for turn-based combat, the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay completely sucked me in and I found myself experimenting with decks and finding crazy builds to be some of my favorite gameplay in any roguelike.

My only real complaint is that I wish there was a bit more story, and on paper the length of the game should be a complaint (it's surprisingly thin for what will take most people about 40 hours of gameplay), but the game was so enjoyable to me that I honestly didn't really care.

Feb 23, 2026·11h

Steam User 1438STEAMRecommended

Fun and fairly easy to understand. Most upgrades feel impactful.

Feb 23, 2026·31h·Verified

Steam User 6994STEAMRecommended

Très bon roguelite, mécanique de jeu fun et intéressante, à tester !

Feb 22, 2026·11h

Steam User 3842STEAMRecommended

peam

Feb 21, 2026·4h

Steam User 1554STEAMRecommended

Fantastic art, great dynamic music that you cant get bored of, and a ton of charming characters and humor. Fun game design rewarding creativity and experimenting, one of my favorite games of all time

Feb 20, 2026·53h·Verified

Steam User 6706STEAMRecommended

I like this over Slay the Spire.

If you want s'more information then well...
I really enjoy the interactions our crew have with each other, the encounters, the environment and the items or abilities you use.
Hearing a character have a name for every drone you throw out- as well as when they explode has put a big smile on my face. The story is interesting and I've got myself invested. The combat is fun and snappy and I find myself burning time away like nothing. Another hour and a half run went by? ... I wanna try again.

Oh to suffer my hubris of "I'M UNSTOPPABLE! HAHAHA!" to "Oh ♥♥♥♥ I'm dead" in a single encounter doesn't leave me mad but puts me in a sobering state of "I gotta think better next time."

Oh right- THIS GAME HAS ADAPTIVE MUSIC AND IT ROCKS HARD! <3

Feb 20, 2026·46h·1

Steam User 1578STEAMRecommended

好玩好玩好玩好玩

Feb 20, 2026·19h·Verified

Steam User 2519STEAMRecommended

I like this game. The music is relaxing until combat, where the track switches to an arcade-type battle music. The combat also feels like an old-style arcade game, but fought with a deck instead of a joystick, and the fight is between spaceships. The characters are cute and wholesome. I finished the story, but still play because it's fun.

Feb 20, 2026·241h·Verified

Steam User 5008STEAMRecommended

The ost made me play the game. The simple but efficient story made me attached. The gameplay was varied until the ending. The ending itself makes me replay the game just to enjoy it regularly. I love this game.

Feb 19, 2026·10h·Verified

Steam User 0205STEAMRecommended

Fantastic game. Came for the deckbuilder + simple positioning formula, stayed for the storytelling that frequently charmed and never over-stayed its welcome, plus an endlessly replayable Daily Mode.

The game sings when all the bits and pieces are unlocked. The early runs offer a lot of gradual tutorial experiences and might feel a bit like there are only a couple winning strategies at first, and you *can* skip ahead to the Daily Mode if you crave having all the toys upfront and learn by experimentation... but at some point consider resetting your profile to play the core loop of the story.

Most of my hours of logged have been with the Daily Mode. For ease of completability, the base game rewards just surviving to the end, so any build that gets you across the finish line with 1 hull point will work, but the Daily Mode scores you by having an allotment of points per encounter and you lose 1 point each turn and lose 3 points per point of hull damage taken.

So if the basic run of the game is clicking with you but you feel like you 'get it' and have figured out too many ways to break the opponents, the very simple rules of the scoring system create a satisfying new challenge. Just surviving isn't enough, and you're really forced to optimize your deck while being both hyper-aggressive yet rarely willing to trade damage for a win right before a repair point.

Also, fantastic sound track. I have played this game for hundreds of hours and have never tired of hearing 'that same battle music' again because there's multiple tracks that stand up to repeated listening. I still turn up the volume at the final battle and still appreciate the chill ambience tracks in between encounters.

Feb 16, 2026·384h·1·Verified

Steam User 1571STEAMRecommended

I've played most of the deckbuilding roguelites and this one deserves a spot on the top shop shelf with the best. It's a perfect game for the Steam Deck.

Feb 16, 2026·14h·Verified

Steam User 1118STEAMRecommended

I thought the game wont be very fun i love roguelike, but because i don't usually play card battle games, deckbilders i was reluctant to try it at first, few friends recommended it to me and decided to give it a chance, the game is actually very fun, perfect ration of challenge and ease to overcome it, nice story and mechanics.
* The story mode pushes you to try and unlock each character each ship progressively
* It includes arcade mode which have everything unlocked if you want to play just with certain characters and enjoy your favourite set up
* Different deck varies by characters and decks are fun to build
* The gameplay runs are not too long which makes it perfect for playing it once or twice in the evening. ^^

Feb 16, 2026·7h

Steam User 4785STEAMRecommended

Great game. The visual is cute, the gameplay is well balanced, even the story is intriguing. Highly recommand it, but after completing the principal sotryline I don't feel like playing anymore.

Feb 16, 2026·28h·Verified

Steam User 4071STEAMRecommended

Pretty solid legacy-lite deck builder with space animals. Satisfying to win a run, and the difficulty seems tuned just right. Rumor has it the story is quite touching, but I've probably unlocked only half of the vignettes so I can't comment. 20 hrs in, and I think I'm running out of steam with this one, so it's not a top-tier DBG.

Feb 15, 2026·23h·4·Verified

Steam User 6834STEAMRecommended

Es un juego fantástico, mezcla de rogelike y deckbuikding, ambientada en el espacio, donde manejamos una nave y nos enfrentamos a otras usando nuestras cartas. Los artefactos nos darán ventajas en el combate. La nave estará tripulada por hasta tres personajes que podremos combinar según los vayamos desbloqueando. Las cartas nos permiten mover la nave, usar escudos (y otros tipos de defensa) o disparar. El juego es tremendamente divertido y está impregnado de un peculiar sentido del humor. Seguro que a más de uno despertará una sonrisa. Rejugable hasta el infinito. Recomendable 100%.

Feb 14, 2026·13h·1·Verified

Steam User 9455STEAMRecommended

A masterclass in roguelike design.

Feb 12, 2026·34h·Verified

Steam User 5923STEAMRecommended

Where do I begin here?

A neat little roguelite deckbuilder with a gimmick to differentiate from the others. This is not the first nor will it be the last in a literal swarm of games covering this genre. But there's something different, something special about this little title.

The game is a bit short for my roguelite tastes, getting to the final ending after a minimum of 18 runs. But the replay-ability is plenty high to go back again and again and try out different ships, different pilots, different modes, etc.

The story itself isn't particularly deep, but it has its charm and humor. Some of that may be hard carried by the following bit:

The music. Aaron Cherof, take a bow for this magnificent work. Possibly my favorite indie soundtrack of all time, and definitely in the top 10 without a doubt. Swerving through quiet mystery, poppy little combat music for the weaklings, intimidating and aggressive for one boss, and emotional buildup for another boss. The finale made me cry, which is saying a lot for how little time you get with this cast.

Self-defense and the ending songs are the highlights but the whole soundtrack is a platinum star.

But if you like deckbuilders, or if you like roguelites, or if you like A.C.'s work in Minecraft, or you want to see a possum with a gun flying with reckless abandon, this is a game that should be at the forefront of your radar.

Feb 12, 2026·52h·6·Verified

Steam User 8019STEAMRecommended

super duper cool and lesbians

Feb 11, 2026·14h·1·Verified

Steam User 0729STEAMRecommended

Wasn't expecting a roguelike deckbuilder to get me invested in its story, but this game is truly a work of art. Wonderful and charming experience.

Feb 11, 2026·25h

Steam User 2970STEAMRecommended

I'm not always a fan of deck-building games, but Cobalt Core has such good vibes and it really gives me the same feeling FTL did.

One complaint, there's no color-blind mode, so the blues and purples blend together.

Feb 11, 2026·47h

Steam User 0233STEAMRecommended

surprisingly charming with sold rouge like card game mechanics

Feb 10, 2026·63h·Verified

Steam User 2827STEAMRecommended

Just one more run!

Feb 8, 2026·30h

Steam User 6188STEAMRecommended

The music during the crescendo of the story is really haunting and beautiful. Very well done deckbuilding game. I would welcome more cards and artifacts in the pool.

Feb 8, 2026·92h·2·Verified

Steam User 0504STEAMRecommended

Shmoove your little ship around threats (and victims).
Quality pixel art and music.
Simple enough on the normal difficulty, brutal on the hardest.
You will see repetition with enemies, but it isn't actually a bad thing.
Not tons of content overall, still has great replayability, in addition to a good modding community.

Totally worth it on a sale!
Would still very much benefit from a last content update though.

Feb 8, 2026·48h

Steam User 7556STEAMRecommended

It was fun, and i understand people liking it a lot. i just dont see myself grinding it again and again, with that simple graphics. still, recommendation, if you can swallow the graphics

Feb 7, 2026·1h·Verified

Steam User 5085STEAMRecommended

fantastic game. Charming artstyle, great music, and characters. Gameplay isn't too hard to understand, but can get pretty challenging.

Feb 7, 2026·16h·Verified

Steam User 5536STEAMRecommended

很可爱的卡牌肉鸽，飞船、小行星和单轴移动的机制非常有创新性，不同维度上的策略让战斗的思路很多样化，比单纯拼数值有趣了不少。探索各个角色、各个流派之间的相性也是很有意思的体验，每次都能对游戏机制有一些新的理解。熟悉了之后难度不算高，感觉游戏机制的潜力还能被深挖一些。
像素画风简练而且可爱，音乐也非常有氛围感，剧情虽然不复杂但是也有沉浸感，角色形象也在幕间和事件里生动地塑造出来了。我个人很喜欢这种碎片化、生活化的叙事节奏，[spoiler] 结局跟着灵猫一起冲破循环的演出非常经典非常王道 [/spoiler]。游戏整体的沉浸感很强，整体的呈现很流畅很统一，是特别优秀的一款游戏。

Feb 7, 2026·40h·1·Verified

Steam User 4466STEAMRecommended

This game is an absolute delight. The soundtrack is fantastic (especially The Dreadnought one), the humour makes me audible laugh out loud at times and the gameplay is super tactical and there's a lot of variation in terms of crew makeup and the cards you choose along the way. A must play.

Feb 7, 2026·27h·Verified

Steam User 9097STEAMRecommended

Cute game, cute characters, and you get to pull the most absurd ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ later in the game. 10/10.

Feb 7, 2026·43h·Verified

Steam User 1974STEAMRecommended

Cobalt Core is an amazing turn-based rougelike that continues to amaze. If you like turn-based games, deckbuilders, or rougelikes, I would consider playing this game.

Feb 7, 2026·11h·Verified

Steam User 2925STEAMRecommended

really fun spire-esque game, the evasion positioning system and minion-summoning with drones gives it a wholly unique play aspect compared to clones

Feb 6, 2026·22h·1

Steam User 3878STEAMRecommended

it's good

Feb 5, 2026·26h·Verified

Steam User 5284STEAMRecommended

Really fun roguelike deckbuilder with charming characters, good music and a fun aesthetic.

This game is like Slay the Spire, except your deck will consist of cards from different characters that have their own pro's and cons, and you take control of a ship performing evasive maneuvers and manipulating your weapons, aim and shields.

You unlock more ships and characters as you play the game and there is plenty of replay value. It can be pretty addictive, though the difficulty can sometimes get a little frustrating if you're trying to experiment with different character and card combos.

Feb 3, 2026·17h·Verified

Steam User 1234STEAMRecommended

Great game!

Feb 2, 2026·19h·Verified

Steam User 1626STEAMRecommended

Great game. Came for the cute critters, stayed for the engaging gameplay.

Feb 2, 2026·75h·Verified

Steam User 7653STEAMRecommended

oh this game is going to consume my life for a few weeks

Feb 2, 2026·7h·Verified

Steam User 4132STEAMRecommended

Fun, but doesn't quite scratch the itch from having played Slay the Spire. Card variety is uninteresting, relics feel repetitive to almost useless, and map traversal is bland. Mechanics are all good and fun, but the runs are too short, i think.

Yeah, I think my main criticism is it feels to be about a third of the stuff of slay the spire. It's fun, it's worth playing, and the story is interesting, but the variety just isn't where I want it. It is more friendly to just popping on for a combat or two before logging... StS felt much more involved, for better and for worse.

Feb 1, 2026·19h·1·Verified

Steam User 8407STEAMRecommended

Slay the spire with space ships - it's so well made.

Feb 1, 2026·10h·2

Steam User 8418STEAMRecommended

Très intéressant jeu de cartes. Slay the Spire a définitivement inspiré toute une génération de roguelikes basé sur la construction de decks, souvent greffés à d'autres mécanismes qui viennent diversifier et enrichir leur usage. Dans Monster Train, les cartes gravitaient autour de monstres qui élaboraient la défense du cœur du train, ici les cartes viennent définir les habiletés des membres d'un vaisseau spatial de style FTL.

Tout ça pour dire qu'il n'y a pas vraiment de révolution ici, mais un mix-and-match bien fait de mécanismes éprouvés qui vient titiller agréablement le deck builder en moi.

Je n'ai pas détecté de bugs, et les contrôles se prennent bien en main et sont intuitifs.

Je suis toujours un peu surpris par cette tendance à intégrer des animaux anthropomorphisés (des furries quoi) comme protagonistes de beaucoup de jeux; la seule raison que je peux voir est le facteur "cute" qui doit aider les ratings. L'histoire est un peu clichée, mais avec juste assez de hooks pour donner le goût de faire une autre run pour voir où cela se terminera.

Certains irritants mineurs sont présents pour le complétionniste qui veut compléter l'acquisition de tous les items du jeu: lorsqu'on est dans une run, il serait VRAIMENT agréable, lorsqu'on rencontre une carte, un artefact ou un événement de savoir s'ils font partie de notre Codex ou non; en ce moment il faut ouvrir manuellement le Codex, aller chercher si nous avons déjà rencontré l'item en question, et [i]alors[/i] prendre une décision. Fastidieux.

Aussi, pourquoi ne pas permettre de faire ses propres runs avec les modificateurs que le jeu alloue plutôt que d'obliger à faire la run journalière pour en découvrir ? Surprenant manque de customisation pour le joueur qui voudrait expérimenter avec un ou plusieurs modificateurs qui sont déjà présents dans le jeu de toute façon.

Mais somme toutes ces défauts sont mineurs, et je recommande.

Feb 1, 2026·65h·2·Verified

Steam User 7828STEAMRecommended

Slay the Spire x FTL just done right

Feb 1, 2026·83h·2

Steam User 1541STEAMRecommended

Super fun, relaxing (sometimes lol), and just hard enough. I love the art style and humor. Very charming game!

Feb 1, 2026·16h·Verified

Steam User 9222STEAMRecommended

I want her

Jan 31, 2026·29h·Verified

Steam User 2120STEAMRecommended

It's a cute deck builder that I enjoyed playing and finding the silly combos in

Jan 31, 2026·41h·Verified

Steam User 3408STEAMNot recommended

I'm clearly missing the joy others feel. The game is move left or move right x number of spaces and hope you draw the card you need. At least for me that occurs less than 50% of the time even with a slim deck. I feel like Will Wheaton trying to play an RPG. Range in this game isn't my friend. Your milage will vary.

Jan 31, 2026·16h·Verified

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Chinese (Simplified)	—	—	Y
Chinese (Traditional)	—	—	Y
German	—	—	Y
Japanese	—	—	Y
Korean	—	—	Y
Portuguese (Brazil)	—	—	Y
Russian	—	—	Y
Spanish (Spain)	—	—	Y