Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEBelow the Stone
Below the Stone is an extraction roguelike about dwarves on the quest for the deepest depths. A place where each and every descent will lead to new adventures -- and where only the most determined dwarves with many lost lives will be rewarded by the hidden world lying below the stone.
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Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A pixel-art mining/extraction action roguelike by Strollart (published by Apogee) in which dwarves dive into procedurally generated caverns, loot and craft, and risk losing carried gear if they die before extracting.
Below the Stone is a modestly successful Early Access title (Steam, Nov 2023) with a Very Positive Steam rating of roughly 84% across about 440 reviews. Players like the cozy dwarven presentation, pixel art and ambient music, and the risk/reward loop, but many describe it as thin, repetitive and unfinished, with progression that stalls once you pass the early layers. It has no Metacritic or OpenCritic scores and almost no outlet coverage beyond news and roadmap posts, so reception is driven by Steam reviews. It is still in Early Access: sources say the developer is working toward a final update (Layer 3 plus bosses on Layers 2 and 3) in summer 2026, and the Steam page lists a planned exit around Nov 2026 that depends on feedback.
What players praise
- Charming dwarven fantasy setting and pixel art that reviewers call cute, chill and easy on the eyes
- Ambient soundtrack (over an hour of music) praised for atmosphere, though one critical reviewer calls it generic
- Core loop of mine, loot, craft, extract, with a risk/reward tension around what to carry down and what to leave safe at home
- Gear progression through ore tiers (tin, copper, iron...) gives clear power increases, and gem socketing and potions add prep depth
- Hub-building and unlocking vendors, NPCs and quests keeps some players going despite the lack of a big goal
- Responsive, community-driven developer with Discord engagement, playtests and regular content updates (combat update, new biomes, Kingdom o' Quests)
- Relaxed, cozy feel for short afternoon sessions; some reviewers compare it to Core Keeper but on a harder setting
What players criticize
- Too little content and no ultimate goal; several reviewers say it feels like an early alpha despite five years of development
- Weak progression: no levels or real meta-progression, only ore-tier crafting and a simple 'resistance' armor stat, so dying mostly just sets you back
- UI described as a nightmare and frustrating, plus reported freezes when buying or selling and unfixed bugs
- Combat is called clunky, with weapon animations not matching enemy hitboxes; one critic says there are few real threats or challenges
- Harsh death penalty: carried items are lost unless you pay to keep them, which some find punishing for a game with limited depth
- Seen as too expensive for the current content at about $15-20 in Early Access
- Economy and quest balance problems, e.g. bar-repair missions costing more in materials than they pay in gold, and many items with no use
- Bugs and unanswered bug reports: reviewers report freezes when buying or selling and community-reported game-breaking bugs left unfixed for months
Distinctive features
- Extraction-style structure applied to a dwarf mining roguelike: choose what you keep safe at home versus what you wear and carry into the dive
- Gem socketing for magical buffs and pre-dive potion brewing/crafting as part of preparation
- Dwarven kingdom hub used for crafting, storage, trading and recruiting NPCs (10-12 planned)
- Dark caves where you must hold a torch, which shapes exploration
- Combat update added secondary melee attacks and armor set bonuses with biome-specific armor recipes
Divided opinions
- Extraction structure: fans enjoy the tension, while one negative reviewer calls extraction a mistake that strips the meta-upgrade feel of action roguelikes
- Difficulty: some call it extra-hard Core Keeper, others say it has very few real threats and the challenge is mostly tedium
- Value and content: many positive reviews accept the early access state and recommend it for potential, others say it is overpriced for what exists
Repetition and friction
- Slow, repetitive loop of mining ore to craft the next tier, with little variety once the early layers are learned
- Early-game grind: the first missions demand large amounts of materials (for example glowweed) and the start is described as a challenge
- Fiddly item pickup and inventory clutter, including aiming at plants and picking up junk you cannot filter out
- Losing everything carried on death unless you pay, which makes failed runs feel like a setback rather than progress
Hoped-for improvements
- Add a long-term goal, more biomes, enemies, bosses and equipment (Layer 3 and boss fights are the announced final update)
- Build real meta-progression and chase items so runs feel cumulative instead of just repeating ore tiers
- Quality-of-life fixes: item pickup filters (auto-ignore tin, for example), better UI, less fiddly picking up of plants and mushrooms
- Fix combat hitboxes and balance difficulty, and squash reported crashes and freezes
- Rebalance crafting ingredient availability and quest rewards (for example missing ingredients on layer 2, gold rewards lower than crafting cost)
- Add localization (Japanese, Chinese, French requested) and more reasons to use the many currently useless items
Launched into Steam Early Access on Nov 17, 2023 (also GOG and Epic listings) at $19.99 with a launch discount, now listed at $14.99. A full release across PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series and Switch was once planned for 2024, and the 2024 roadmap listed a Fashion update, Caves Awaken parts 1 and 2, and a Layer 3 update by mid-2024. Later coverage says the combat update is the penultimate Early Access update, with a final summer-2026 update adding Layer 3 and bosses on Layers 2 and 3, so the schedule has slipped well past the original roadmap. Steam lists the game for Windows only and the store page expects a flexible exit from Early Access around Nov 2026. Metacritic has a page but shows no critic or user scores yet; I could not confirm any OpenCritic entry. Some reviewers complained about old bug reports going unfixed before and after launch. Data from SteamSpy and the revenue calculator are rough estimates.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (local file) ↗
- Steam app data: rating, owners estimate, developer, price, revenue estimate ↗
- Steam store page: Early Access status, features, planned exit, review summary ↗
- Aggregated Steam review themes: praise, criticism, requested improvements ↗
- Combat update details and note that final update is planned for summer 2026 ↗
- Original 2024 roadmap of updates ↗
- Metacritic page showing no critic or user scores yet ↗
- Estimated gross and net revenue ↗
- Early Access launch news (surfaced via search; page fetch was blocked, details taken from search summary) ↗
- Attempted OpenCritic lookup; inconclusive ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Below the Stone is an Early Access Terraria-style digging roguelite: you descend underground, mine gems and minerals, return to the surface for upgrades, and repeat. He was excited to see a real roguelike built on this traditional formula but came away very disappointed. He found the content shallow, repetitive and quickly exhausted, with little reason to keep exploring. He sees potential if the developers add much more content and mobility, and will revisit after updates. He never states a tier letter in this segment.
What the creator praises
- Enjoys the general dig-and-upgrade exploration loop and is a big Terraria fan
- Likes exploration and discovering new biomes in principle
- Sees real potential if it receives substantial content updates
- Design is straightforward and can be satisfying when exploration feels purposeful
Issues raised by the creator
- Gameplay is very repetitive; he felt he had found everything almost from the start
- Underground quests never change (kill X bats, kill X ooze)
- Biomes are essentially the same with different, merely upgraded minerals
- Armor and weapons are the same items with better stats, nothing unique
- Combat/movement is basic, with no dash or roll, just swinging a sword
- No goal to work towards, so he maxed things out and lost motivation to explore
Design observations
- Uses a traditional Terraria-like mining formula as a roguelite structure, which he found promising in concept
- Design lesson: exploration only works if new finds are meaningfully different, not stat upgrades
- Lack of other activities (unlike Stardew Valley's mines) leaves the loop hollow
