10 Best Cozy Roguelikes You Need to Play

Roguelikes are widely known for their punishing difficulties, but not every game in the genre is designed to make you suffer.

In fact, some roguelikes can even be described as cozy, where every victory feels inevitable, and every death is just another chance to start again.

From charming, dungeon-crawling adventures to life sims with roguelike mechanics, these games are proof that challenge and comfort can go hand in hand!

If you love the excitement of roguelikes but hate the sweaty, white-knuckled experiences that the majority of them are, then these cozy roguelikes are your next must-plays.

10 Moonlighter

A Dungeon-Crawl Through Capitalism

If you’ve ever dreamed of running away to lead a double life as a part-time business owner and dungeon-crawling vigilante (who hasn’t?), then Moonlighter is going to be your next gaming obsession.

In Moonlighter, you get to play as Will, a merchant by day and an adventurer by night, selling loot from procedurally generated dungeons to upgrade your shop.

Clocking in the morning after getting covered by monster guts in a dungeon is no easy feat, but somebody’s got to do it.

Though its roguelike elements may seem intimidating at first, Moonlighter is definitely one of the more forgiving titles in the genre. Its laid-back tone and management sim mechanics make it feel far more domestic than many of the other punishing, brutally difficult roguelike games out there.

9 Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Getting Lost Over and Over Again

If getting lost in a dungeon filled with traps, treasure, and talking weasels sounds like your idea of a good time, then Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is your cup of tea.

Besides having a mouthful of a title, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is easily one of the coziest roguelikes that you’re ever going to come across.

In this game, you play as Shiren, a wandering swordsman on a quest to conquer the ever-changing Serpentcoil Island.

Every run is a fresh, new challenge that, like in most roguelike games, will eventually end in failure; thankfully, however, helpful mechanics like item carryover and charitable NPCs help soften your defeats into something less ego-bruising. Also, it has adorable talking animals in it, which makes it even more worth playing.

8 Elin

The Ultimate Sandbox Roguelike

Elin is like the love child of an RPG and a fantasy novel. As the long-awaited successor to the 2007 roguelike RPG “Elona”, Elin throws players into the mystical land of Ylva, where they’ll be able to do literally anything their heart desires (and I mean anything).

As Elin, a young explorer, you’ll be tasked with unraveling the mysteries of a fallen civilization, still shrouded in myth and old wives’ tales.

With each of your runs in this game, you’ll be able to navigate an open world of procedurally generated landscapes, uncover long-forgotten relics, and battle anything that gets in your way (or just looks at you funny).

You wouldn’t think that Elin would be one of the best, most ultimate sandbox experiences in the gaming world, but it is. In addition to being a roguelike, Elin is also an open-world, sandbox RPG that gives its players free rein over every ounce of the in-game landscape. From business ownership to literal childbirth, this game is one wild ride that you won’t want to miss.

7 Windblown

The Most Beautiful Rougelike Ever

If fast-paced roguelikes usually stress you out, then Windblown might just be the game that changes your mind. From the creators of Dead Cells, this action roguelike throws you into a whirlwind of choreographic combat and high-flying acrobatics—all wrapped in a surprisingly cozy, dungeon-crawler package.

In Windblown, you play as a Leaper, a warrior whose goal is to defend your home from the emissaries of the Vortex. While the combat is blink-and-you-miss-it-fast, Windblown is a master of keeping fights engaging rather than punishing, which is really refreshing in a gaming world full of unnecessarily brutal combat mechanics.

With its mesmerizing gameplay and roguelike loop that somehow never feels unfair, Windblown feels like the ultimate roguelike game for those who love being challenged without feeling frustrated.

Also, it’s just incredibly gorgeous; the biggest threat you’ll face is getting distracted by all the beautiful backgrounds while you’re fighting.

6 Gunfire Reborn

Cozy Characters and Massive Weapons

If you’ve ever wanted to go on roguelike crusades as a furry with magical weapons, then congratulations, because Gunfire Reborn exists.

This fast-paced, FPS roguelike throws you into randomly generated levels where you blast through waves of enemies, collect ridiculously overpowered weapons that only become more absurd the farther you go, and pray to the roguelike gods that your next run doesn’t end in immediate disaster (spoiler alert: it probably will).

The best part about this game is that you get to choose from a cast of adorable animal warriors that all look like they want to eat you; because nothing says “cozy” quite like a cat dual-wielding rocket launchers.

The gunplay is crisp, the progression is satisfying, and the characters are fluffy; it doesn’t get much better than that.

5 Cult of the Lamb

A God-Slaying Roguelike Adventure

Cult of the Lamb is what you get when you get Animal Crossing to hook up with a demonic cult. This game is dark but it’s also like the ultimate comfort game; it’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it, but trust me, this game is the ultimate cozy roguelike.

This delightfully twisted roguelike lets you play as an adorable, wide-eyed lamb who, after being ritualistically sacrificed, gets resurrected by an ancient god and promptly starts a cult in his name. You know, normal cozy game stuff.

Between dungeon runs where you hack and slash your way through heretics and non-believers, you’ll be busy managing your cult’s village, building shrines, farming crops, and making sure your devoted followers don’t starve… or start questioning your divine authority.

With its blend of fast-paced, dungeon-crawling combat, base-building, and management sim mechanics, Cult of the Lamb is the perfect title for those who like their roguelikes with a side of cozy and a dash of creepy.

4 SULFUR

Weirdly Adorable Combat

If Bloodborne and a Spaghetti Western had a roguelike baby, it would be SULFUR. This game will have you play as a nameless gunslinger with a thirst for vengeance (and possibly a death wish), using a mix of ridiculous firearms, special abilities, and quick reflexes to take down animated monsters.

If you’re curious about how the combat feels, think of challenging God to a western shootout, armed with nothing but a pea shooter and the undeserved confidence of a chihuahua in a service dog vest. The odds could not be less in your favor, but by god, does that little pea shooter feel good in your paws.

This game offers its players just enough challenge to keep them constantly teetering between “I’m a genius” and “I have made a terrible mistake”, which definitely adds a bit of spice to every run.

The combat is snappy, the atmosphere is dripping with style, and every run feels like a Wild West showdown where the only guarantee is that things are going to get messy.

3 Magicraft

Saving the World… from Everything?

Magicraft is like the ultimate wizard roleplay roguelike. Despite its status as a bullet hell nightmare, this game is actually pretty cozy; it’s like a fantasy novel, except instead of white knights and princesses, it’s got ancient gods, purgatorial nightmare realms, and Demon Lords. Normal stuff, really.

This fast-paced action roguelike lets you craft and combine spells on the fly, creating everything from simple fireballs to screen-filling arcane monstrosities that may or may not backfire on you spectacularly (which they probably will).

Every run throws you into procedurally generated dungeons where you’ll battle hordes of enemies, experiment with new spell combos, and inevitably test the limits of your own magical recklessness. Out of all the roguelike games out there that let you be a fireball-slinging wizard, Magicraft has to take the cake.

2 DICEOMANCER

If D&D and Studio Ghibli Had a Baby

Any game with a title like “DICEOMANCER” has to be good, and this cozy deckbuilder does not disappoint. As one of the few roguelike deckbuilders out there, DICEOMANCER offers a unique experience that not many other titles in the roguelike genre would.

Its deckbuilding mechanics are spectacular, and its unique dice-rolling system almost gives it a D&D kind of vibe.

This turn-based strategy game throws you into a world where the outcome of every situation is decided by a literal roll of the dice.

You somehow stumble upon a magical, god-like set of dice that gives you the power to change and create almost anything, which is a great power to have if you want to go on a Studio Ghibli-style adventure through the countryside.

Using these dice and your deck of magical cards, almost nothing can stand in your way of victory. Well, almost nothing; from tyrannical geese to magical mushroom men, there are a surprising number of enemies out to get you in this game.

While nothing can save you from a bad draw or a rotten roll of the dice, taking down everything else in this game is a surprisingly cozy challenge that never feels overly frustrating.

1 Risk of Rain 2

A Cozy Adventure Through the Cosmos

Anyone who’s played Risk of Rain 2 knows that it’s one of the coziest roguelike experiences you’ll find out there. If you enjoy the thrill of running for your life while being relentlessly hunted by an army of interdimensional horrors, then Risk of Rain 2 is the perfect way to unwind.

This roguelike shooter throws you into an alien planet where survival means looting, shooting, leveling up, and stacking so many power-ups that you eventually become an unstoppable force of destruction—or die trying.

Every run starts off calm enough, but don’t let that fool you; the longer you play, the harder the game gets, until the screen is nothing but brightly colored bullets, exploding monsters, and randomly dropped loot all over the place. I can’t even imagine what this game would look like to a color-blind person.

Whether you’re playing solo or are teaming up with friends, Risk of Rain 2 delivers a wildly addicting loop of frantic combat, over-the-top weapons, and oddly adorable graphics. If you want to get down on some of the most cozy combat known to man, then let this game be your next obsession.