Rune Dice may be a deck-building battle game, but this deck is filled with dice instead of cards. Then there’s also the snooker precision with which you’ll need to roll said dice, oh, and your rolls deal damage in whatever fight you’re involved in at the time. It’s a bit like Peglin, except instead of playing a pachinko machine, you combine dice.
You start a fight with dice of different values scattered on the game board and you receive a 1 to throw out of order. Truth be told, saying you’re “rolling” the dice is a bit of a stretch, when it’s more about already having a result and sliding across the board as if it were an ice hockey puck or curling stone.
If that 1 hits another 1, they will combine and become a 2, which will then bounce in the general direction of the nearest 2 on the board, with the value of the combined dice becoming the damage dealt to enemies up to a maximum damage of 9. Plan things well enough, or get lucky enough, and you can chain together huge amounts of damage like this.
If it hits a die of a different value, it will simply bounce. This allows you to pull off some trick shots: bounce your 1 off a 2 so they both hit an even die, dealing 6 damage to you, then they bounce to other dice, hoping to continue the chain. Unsurprisingly, this is incredibly satisfying, as it quickly turns risk into huge rewards. I took out entire groups of enemies in a single round with a trick shot that turned into long chains.
It’s incredibly satisfying…most of the time. There are some shenanigans with post-combination dice bounces that can cause them to miss and there’s not much you can do to influence it. I’ve had dice that managed to bounce all over the game board to hit and combine with the only other dice of equal value on the board, but I’ve also had dice that failed to connect with anything when surrounded by dice of equal value as well. You can consider this a little extra chance while still having a lot of fun. Just keep in mind that the board resets every few turns – if it didn’t, you’d be out of dice – so if you don’t use your most valuable dice, you risk losing them.
This is especially important for special dice. The class you choose at the start of a game comes with its own special dice to use. The thief, for example, has dodge and stab dice that allow you to avoid some damage taken and deal additional damage. The only thing nicer than taking a lot of damage in a round is also managing to dodge enough to avoid any damage. The other classes work quite similarly so far, with the warrior for example having a shield equivalent to dodge. There are also coin dice, which give you money when you combine them, which are not class specific.
The battles are linked together by a pixelated world map, choosing which paths to take based on the available encounters. Standard battles, hard battles, and mini-bosses are the most obvious, but there’s also a jester who can buff or heal you based on a single roll, which is pretty clever if inexplicable, plus an altar that can give you a chance to buff a die. There is also the usual shop which is the most reliable option for finding items, which are rarer than health and runes in encounter rewards. Items will give you a bonus or modify an ability. One lets you fire another shot each turn if your first doesn’t combine any dice, which is very useful for practicing your trick shots, while another changes the casting die from 1 to 2, which is huge.
Runes are consumable items that can be used during gameplay. Gravity, for example, pulls all the dice in a radius towards the center, which can be extremely useful when they all have the same value. Trigger gathers all the dice in a smaller radius to add to the damage, but also consumes the dice rather than combining them. Other runes can give you a shield, improve all the dice on the board by one rank, and so on. Basically, they are very powerful when used at the right time and can really save you when things go bad.
It all combines into an enjoyable roguelite, even if there are a few hiccups. Firstly, the runs are very short and can be completed in half an hour – basically, they end just as your build starts to get good. Some bosses also have guaranteed damage, even if you shield or dodge, in the form of a poison that applies regardless of defenses – this surprised me on several occasions and discourages the use of a defensive build when they can bypass your shields.
The other problem is that the game doesn’t change much as you continue to play. Most roguelite games scale as you unlock more things, making you more powerful and becoming more difficult or giving you access to more difficult areas. That doesn’t happen here, partly because of how quickly you’ll reach the final boss. This makes the game shallow because you don’t get long and have no reason to really tinker with your character build.
