Best roguelike games about co-op

Key insights

• Cooperative play enhances the roguelike experience, making it more inviting and engaging for groups of friends.
• Ember Knights offers fast-paced combat, unique abilities and great co-op potential for entertaining game nights.
• Ravenswatch and Gunfire Reborn are challenging but rewarding co-op roguelike games with unique gameplay elements.

Roguelikes are fun enough on their own and have a lot of replay value, because that's exactly what they're designed for. However, when friendly collaboration is added to the mix, the genre suddenly becomes much more inviting – and much more interesting.

There's nothing like going through the same stages with different builds and characters and challenging the same bosses in different ways with a few friends to enjoy the ride along the way. Because roguelikes are designed to be played over and over again, they're a good choice when a group of friends can't find anything new they want to play. They often serve as a de facto meeting place on the Internet to exchange ideas and chat.

8 Ember Knight

Team-based action roguelike

Inspired by classics like Hades And Dead cells, Ember Knight takes a look at the roguelike genre with all the charm of a pixel game and all the mechanics you would expect from a well-developed indie game. The game allows co-op mode with up to four players, making it great for game nights and long sessions with friends.

The game offers everything a roguelike lover could ever need: fast-paced combat, unique weapons, abilities and relics, and addictive combat highlighted by a fairly simple but charming story.

7 Ravenswatch

The atmosphere of the witch doctor

Ravenswatch is a beautiful game that focuses on combat as much as aesthetics. The dark game embraces the emo look and creates an identity as a cool older cousin with great tattoos in the rogue-like co-op world.

The game can be very stressful and requires players to work together and have each other's backs to win a race. While the maps can feel a little generic, especially after dozens of games, the build variety makes players well worth the time invested to explore.

6 Gone with the wind

Dead Cell Dev's new project

From the developers behind the indie darling: Dead cells, Gone with the wind is a co-op roguelike that's more similar Hades than its predecessor. The game features an isometric view, faster movements than seems healthy, and vibrant colors that give it a unique identity.

The co-op aspect of the game is particularly well integrated, allowing players to fully enjoy the experience with a friend. The game is still in early access and is missing a lot of content that players could expect from the sequel Dead cellsbut there's certainly more to come as the team continues to develop the game.

5 Roboquest

Robot FPS roguelike

The inorganic brother of Gunfire Reborn, Roboquest takes the player into a first-person shooter experience in which he, as a moving piece of metal, has to compete against hordes of enemy robots. The gun play in this game is pretty fun and the movement mechanics also make the breaks between fights relatively enjoyable.

The game works well as a single-player experience, but is designed to be played with a friend, a “Brobot.” Unfortunately, players can only play with one other player. Luckily, there is public matchmaking, making it much easier to find a partner for your sci-fi journey.

4 Crab Master

Rave party near the ocean

What's more villainous than a crab with a gun? Four crabs with guns. Crab Master is a game that isn't afraid to have overpowered builds, and the performance creep in the game can be ridiculous at times. But that's exactly what makes the game fun.

Created by a solo developer with a passion for crab-themed games. Crab Master is a third-person shooter experience that promises to push high-end PCs to their limits in later stages of the game. It has satisfying moves, a wide variety of weapons, and enough builds to keep a family busy for a few weeks.

3 Gunfire Reborn

First first person shooter roguelike

Changing the player's perspective from third-person to first-person may seem like a small thing, but there haven't been many roguelikes before Gunfire Reborn that did something like that. This game combines the Roguelike and FPS genres and lets the player experience the chaos they wreak from a completely new perspective.

The game features many fun builds, characters and weapons, making it perfect for casual co-op sessions with friends. Each character's unique abilities, their upgrades and skill trees, and the variety of weapon choices keep players coming back for more.

2 Hell map

Co-op card game with depth

• Developer: Thung Trunk
• Editor: Skystone Games
• Release date: 02/01/2024

Take Dungeons & Dragonsgive it some classic roguelike elements, add multiplayer capability, and transform the mechanics to work wonderfully like a card game, and Hell map is born. The game is a great single-player experience, but it really shines when two or three people form a group to tackle the descent into Hell together.

The game is heavily inspired by Kill the towerbut it has many things that set it apart. Hell map follows the same path as other deck-building roguelikes, but stands out from the crowd with its party and multiplayer mechanics.

1 Danger of rain 2

Petrichor V. never saw it coming

Danger of rain 2 is the kind of game that immediately captivates a player the moment they pick it up. From the start of the journey until you finally manage to complete it, every moment is full of fast-paced action, friendly banter and a variety of tasks for players to enjoy. Danger of rain 2 is a hard-hitting co-op roguelike that features multiple levels that can be replayed as many times as you like, and a single-player mode that works just as well as co-op.

There's a lot to love Danger of rain 2from the item and enemy variety to the unique survivors players can choose for their runs. Maybe the most important part about it Danger of rain 2 is the inherent randomness that the game uses very effectively to give every run a fresh and addictive feel.