Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Overview

One reckless step into an unlit branch can end a run five hours deep, because Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup saves nothing for the dead. Death is final here — when your character falls, the save file is wiped and the only thing carried forward is what you learned. This is a turn-based, grid-based, permadeath roguelike descended from Brent Ross's Linley's Dungeon Crawl (final alpha v4.1, released 2005) and carried forward since 2006 by the Stone Soup team under the GPLv2+ license.

You pick a species and a background, descend a procedurally generated dungeon, and try to retrieve the mystifyingly fabulous Orb of Zot and climb back out alive. What sets it apart is build-defining breadth: over twenty species (Minotaur, Gargoyle, Spriggan, Felid and more), as many backgrounds (Fighter, Berserker, Conjurer, Necromancer), and a pantheon of gods who grant power on their own terms — Trog gifts weapons and berserks but despises magic, Sif Muna feeds spellbooks to the devout, The Shining One forbids underhanded tactics in exchange for holy aid. Mutations stack onto the body over time, evoked items and memorized spells layer over melee, and a single unprepared fight in a side branch can end the run. It rewards players who want a punishing but fair tactical sandbox where knowledge, not reflexes, decides who reaches the Orb.

How to Play

Each press of a movement key is one turn, and enemies act only when you do. Move in eight directions with the arrow keys, the numeric keypad, or the vi keys hjkl plus yubn for diagonals; walking into a monster attacks it with your wielded weapon. Press o to auto-explore cleared rooms, Tab to auto-fight visible foes, and g to pick up items. The i key opens the inventory, w wields or wears gear, z casts a memorized spell, a invokes a species or god ability, and p prays to your deity. Use the greater-than key to descend a staircase and the less-than key to ascend, ? opens the help index, and ?Q pulls up the in-game frequently-asked-questions list. The objective is to reach the Realm of Zot deep below, seize the Orb, and escape — and WebTiles serves the entire game free in a browser with no download.

Tips & Strategy

Resist the urge to clear every level. Staircase-dancing — retreating up the stairs to fight on a floor you have already cleared — turns ugly encounters into winnable ones, and running from a fight is almost always correct when you are unsure. Worship a god early; piety and gifts compound across the whole run, and most backgrounds start with a recommended deity whose abilities cover their weaknesses. Train one or two skills to a high level before spreading experience thin, because a focused character kills faster and survives longer than a generalist. Read unknown scrolls and quaff unknown potions only when you are near full health on a safe, cleared level, never inside an unexplored side branch — identification by use can summon hostile creatures, strip your stats, or ignite the floor beneath you. Treat the Abyss and the deepest unlit branches as advanced content: if a monster carries a name you do not recognize, walk away.