Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEEmber Knights
Ember Knights is an action rogue-lite for 1-4 players where you play as legendary knights, the last spark of hope against the mad sorcerer Praxis and his hordes of unwavering fiends. Wield weapons & skills, build synergies with game-changing relics and free the universe of Praxis’ corruption.
Why this score?
Original text · Simplified Chinese
合作连击和武器手感扎实，首领变化能支持进一步挑战；构筑平衡和合作流程等待降低整体顺畅度。
Core gameplay
Weight 25%8.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
连击与闪避响应受到反复肯定，合作能围绕控制和输出配合；不可跳过的演出、无敌阶段及轮流领奖会拖慢节奏。
Builds & strategy
Weight 25%7.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
武器改造、技能和遗物可产生协同，但快照指出暴击路线偏强、部分法术贡献弱，高难度的有效选择受压缩。
Replayability
Weight 20%8.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
不同世界、变体首领和挑战模式会要求改变操作；部分战斗与扩展被认为相似，内容体量不直接转成分数。
Randomness & fairness
Weight 20%7.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
敌人与首领有可学习的攻击模式，高难度也有招式变化；屏外远程和冲刺以及近远程不均衡会削弱反应机会。
Polish & usability
Weight 10%7.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
不少反馈肯定性能与基本操作；合作领奖、重连和房间加入有阻力，另有冻结及启动失败的报告，综合保守评价。
- Reviewer
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Rogue by Rogue · AI 资料评测- Version reviewed
Original text · Simplified Chinese
具体构建未知；以所引资料描述的版本为准
Scope and limitations
Original text · Simplified Chinese
未进行试玩；分数是依据已收录评述与社区具体反馈作出的主观资料评测。旧反馈跨版本、部分原始材料为不可重开的本地快照；本次 Steam 核查仅确认玩法与功能，未复测平衡、性能或报告的故障是否仍存在。
Review sources 02
- 01Archived materialView archived external material ↓
Original text · Simplified Chinese
收录评论与社区资料（2026-10-01 快照）
使用 作者观点摘要 的 Tier list Part 2 (2024) 的具体优缺点，以及 玩家好评、玩家批评 与 资料核查说明；不使用旧等级、外部分数或销量反推。
- 02Web sourceView original ↗
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Ember Knights · Steam 官方商店
2026-10-08 访问。核对四人合作、武器改造、遗物协同、首领变体及每日地牢等模式。未据商店介绍推定性能或故障已修复。
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 Hades-inspired top-down action roguelite by Doom Turtle (published by Twin Sails Interactive) built around 1-4 player local/online co-op, relics, weapon mods and skills, fighting the sorcerer Praxis across planets.
Ember Knights is well liked by players: Steam shows Very Positive overall (about 94% of roughly 7,000 reviews positive in the local snapshot), and is most often recommended as a polished, snappy co-op roguelite with lots of build variety and an endless supply of relic synergies. Critical coverage is thin: Metacritic has only one critic review (God is a Geek, 85) so no Metascore exists yet, and the user score is 7.5 from a handful of ratings. The recurring caveat is value and depth: several reviewers call it solid but not standout, more a discount or co-op pick than a Hades replacement, and some say it gets repetitive or grindy. It left Early Access (April 2022) in July 2023, later got free modes (Daily Dungeon, Boss Rush, Chaos Run, pets) and a paid DLC, Wrath of the Architect. Note: the web search budget was exhausted during this research, so community detail leans on Steam reviews, Steam forum thread titles, Metacritic pages and the store page rather than Reddit.
What players praise
- Co-op is the headline: 1-4 players, local split-screen and online, described as easy to access and not drastically raising difficulty
- Fluid, responsive controls and snappy combat; a large build space (7 weapons, 9 mods per weapon, dozens of skills, 100+ relics per the store page) with synergies that can get gloriously broken
- Cohesive, cute pixel-art visuals and charming touches (pet companions, dialogue, secrets, weapon skins from trials)
- Good performance and polish for most players; described as optimized with no crashes or slowdowns
- Plenty of post-clear content: Endless mode, Boss Rush, Daily Dungeon, Chaos Run, trials and the DLC, which adds biomes, weapons and relics
- Reads as Hades-like without being a clone; often recommended to Hades fans and for playing with kids or family as a gentle intro to build-crafting
- Meaningful two-currency meta-progression (ability/weapon upgrades plus permanent health and damage buffs)
What players criticize
- Multiplayer loot flow: rewards are picked one player at a time and stat gems drop in a shared pile, which some find a slow, excruciating time waster and poor design
- Unskippable cutscenes and boss intros/outros, plus invulnerable boss phases that force waiting, are repeatedly called out as killing the pace
- Enemy design: many enemies have ranged or dash attacks from across the screen, which makes ranged weapons much stronger than melee and makes charge attacks impractical
- Balance and depth complaints: weapons unbalanced, build diversity felt lacking by some, and the DLC final boss described as easy or a joke
- Technical problems for some: freezing or stuttering, high CPU use in menus, launch hangs, and it fails to run under Proton for at least one reviewer
- Online lobby friction: hard to rejoin after a crash, no Steam direct join, no visible lobby ID, plus multiplayer lag and lobby-start failures discussed in the Steam forum
- Value: multiple reviewers say it should cost about $10 rather than $19.99, and that the DLC feels like a reskin of the main campaign
Distinctive features
- First-class 1-4 player co-op, including couch split-screen, in a genre that is mostly solo
- Abilities recharge by landing attacks rather than on pure cooldowns
- Weapon modification system (9 mods per weapon) layered on top of relics and skills
- Hades-style structure combined with a planet-hopping sci-fantasy setting and cute pixel look
- Game modes beyond the main run: Daily Dungeon, Boss Rush, Endless and Chaos Run, plus pet companions you can pet
- Time-limit challenges per planet and tiered trials that unlock cosmetic weapon skins
Divided opinions
- Multiplayer: praised by most as the best reason to play, yet a vocal minority calls it one of the worst co-op roguelites because of loot handling
- Solo play: some say it is amazing alone, others say it is not built for single player and is grindy
- Hades comparison: a strength for fans who want more, a turn-off for others who say just buy Hades
- Price and value: many call it a great deal or worth it with DLC, others say it is only worth it on sale
Repetition and friction
- Long, unskippable cutscenes and boss invulnerability phases in every run
- Solo players report a grind-heavy progression; the Daily Dungeon pays far more resources per room than regular runs, pushing players to repeat it
- Repeating the same worlds with no checkpoints makes runs feel samey after a while; several reviewers say it wears out its welcome or gets boring quickly
- Taking turns at the end-of-stage loot pick in co-op, and loot piling up on top of each other or under the HUD
- Screen clutter from enemies and effects makes combat hard to read; you can usually only land a light attack or two before needing to dodge
Hoped-for improvements
- Let co-op players pick rewards simultaneously and offer personal loot or a shared-out option instead of a shared pile
- Add quality-of-life options: skippable or shorter cutscenes, pause or stop the speedrun timer out of combat, and show the time goal for the time-limit capsule
- Add more skills (one reviewer suggests about 45 versus the roughly 32 they counted) and more build variety or balance between weapons
- Improve online connectivity tools: direct Steam join, visible lobby ID, reliable rejoin after a crash
- Consider checkpoints or shorter runs, since replaying the same worlds is boring for some
- Make unlocks require using items or skills in runs (Binding of Isaac style) rather than unlocking nearly everything in about 10 hours; clearer indicators for attack-recharged abilities near the character
Early Access launched April 20, 2022 and 1.0 released July 18, 2023 on Steam ($19.99); it is also on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (Windows only on Steam, no Mac or Linux). Free updates later added Daily Dungeon, Boss Rush, Chaos Run and pets; the paid DLC Wrath of the Architect (2024-25) adds biomes, weapons, relics and a new final boss, which some players found too easy. An older store snapshot showed Overwhelmingly Positive (95% of about 3,900 reviews); the local snapshot shows 93.8% of 7,056 reviews, and recent reviews are still mostly positive with a steady stream of complaints about multiplayer and performance. Steam forum threads include pinned multiplayer-issues and controller-issues threads. Metacritic had only 1 critic review and 13 user ratings at fetch time. OpenCritic page could not be located (no search access) so that value is null.
Community sources
- Local file of top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (main source for praise and complaints) ↗
- Local Steam metadata: appid 1135230, review counts, owners estimate, revenue estimate ↗
- Steam store page: content counts, early access date, free modes, DLC, review summary ↗
- Metacritic page: no Metascore yet, one critic review (God is a Geek 85), user score 7.5 from 13 ratings ↗
- Metacritic user review highlights and score distribution ↗
- Steam community discussion thread titles: multiplayer lag, lobby issues, timer, QoL, DLC end boss easy ↗
- Estimated gross and net revenue for the game ↗
- Developer website listed on Steam (not fetched) ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Ember Knights is a basic, traditional top-down action roguelike dungeon crawler that does not try any unique mechanic but executes the fundamentals very well. He loves its visuals, distinct worlds, bosses with difficulty-scaled forms, and long meta-progression. His main gripes are disconnected spells and overpowered crit builds at high difficulty. He sees it as a very solid Hades-like and places it in A tier.
What the creator praises
- Great visuals and art style, with each world looking completely different, giving a strong sense of adventure
- Cool bosses; higher difficulties give bosses entirely new move sets and forms (e.g. the first-world spider has three forms)
- Meta-progression is substantial, requiring many roguelite elements to reach the first boss and ten more levels of difficulty to reach the true final boss
- Weapons have unlockable forms and play fairly differently from each other
- Satisfying, fun fights and gameplay without needing gimmicks
- Probably fun in multiplayer
Issues raised by the creator
- Spells feel disconnected from the rest of the game and are not impactful
- Crit builds are overpowered and practically required at the highest difficulties, a balance issue
- He could be nearly invincible against the final boss on top difficulty because the game is easy to break
- Can get chaotic on higher difficulties with fast enemy move sets bundled together
Design observations
- Deliberately does nothing unique mechanically; shows action roguelikes can succeed on satisfying fights alone
- Boss difficulty scaling swaps in different move sets and forms rather than just raising stats
- Each world has a very distinct visual identity, which he says many top games struggle with
