KILOROGUE

About the game

KILOROGUE is a turn-based roguelike that squeezes a full cave-diving dungeon crawl into a single kilobyte of PICO-8 code. Every floor is a procedurally carved cave filled with five monster types, potions, swords and a staircase down. Monsters grow tougher and more numerous with depth, so how far you dive is the real score. Best depth is saved, so every run pushes your record a little deeper.

Game features

• Procedural caves on every floor, carved with a drunkard's-walk algorithm so no two maps repeat
• Bump combat: walk into a monster to attack it, across five types from cats up to ogres
• Monsters give chase within about five tiles and sidestep around walls to reach you
• Fog of war with map memory — the cave stays drawn on your map once explored
• One potion per floor heals 3 HP, and roughly 40% of floors hide a sword worth +1 attack
• Depth scaling: every floor adds a monster, every three floors make each type tougher, and ogres join from floor five
• Best depth is saved permanently, and wall colors shift every floor to mark your progress

How to play

Steer your explorer with WASD or the arrow keys — moving into a monster attacks it, and moving into stairs descends to the next floor. Each floor is a fresh cave: sweep it for the potion (+3 HP) and the sword (+1 ATK, about a 40% chance to appear) before diving down. Monsters wake within about five tiles and chase turn by turn; their hits land 60% of the time for 1 damage. Your health and attack never reset between floors, so manage both across the whole dive. Death is permanent — press X to start a new run — and your best depth is recorded in the browser so you always have a number to beat.

Tips & strategies

1. 1.Never take the stairs without grabbing the potion. It is the only healing in the game (+3 HP, one per floor) and your health carries down unchanged
2. 2.Treat the sword as a priority target. It shows up on roughly 40% of floors, and each +1 attack shortens every future fight — fewer turns mean fewer 60%-chance counterattacks
3. 3.Break the chase by distance: monsters pursue only within about five tiles, so stepping out of range resets the fight and lets you pull them one at a time
4. 4.Fight in tight passages — only one monster reaches you per turn in a narrow corridor, while an open room lets the pack close in from every side
5. 5.Budget your HP against depth. Monster counts climb every floor and every type gains HP every three floors, so if the potion is nowhere in sight, clear what chases you instead of racing the stairs

Screenshots

Captured from the game running on Gameplo.

Controls

Frequently asked questions