Top 16 'One-More-Run' Roguelite Games to play for addictive, bite-sized sessions all weekend long - Goh Ling Yong
It’s 2 AM on a Saturday. Your eyes are a little blurry, but your focus is sharp. You just died—again—on the final boss, a promising run cut short by a single mistake. A sane person would call it a night. But you’re not a sane person right now. You’re a gamer, caught in the loop, and you can hear a voice in your head whispering that irresistible, dangerous phrase: “Just one more run.”
Welcome to the wonderfully addictive world of roguelites. These games have mastered the art of turning failure into fuel. Unlike their stricter "roguelike" cousins, roguelites let you carry something over from each failed attempt—a new weapon, a permanent skill upgrade, or simply more knowledge. This creates a powerful feedback loop where every run, win or lose, makes you feel stronger and smarter, pushing you to dive right back in. The combination of procedural generation, high-stakes combat, and meaningful progression is a recipe for obsession.
If you’re looking to clear your weekend schedule and dive headfirst into some of the most compelling gameplay loops ever designed, you’ve come to the right place. Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we’ve curated a list of the 16 best “one-more-run” roguelites that will have you hooked from the first death to the hundredth victory. Grab a drink, get comfortable, and prepare to lose some sleep.
1. Hades
There's a reason Hades is often the first game mentioned in any roguelite conversation. It’s a masterclass in game design, weaving its narrative directly into the core loop. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, determined to fight his way out of the Underworld. Each escape attempt is a run, and each death sends you back to the House of Hades, where you can interact with a charming cast of gods and legends, advance the story, and spend your hard-earned resources on permanent upgrades.
The "one-more-run" magic here is twofold. First, the combat is incredibly fluid and satisfying, with a huge variety of weapons and boons from the Olympian gods that make every run feel unique. Second, and more importantly, failure is progress. Dying isn't just a reset; it's an opportunity to hear new dialogue, uncover more of the rich story, and deepen your relationships with characters. You'll find yourself wanting to die just to see what a character has to say next.
- Pro Tip: Pay attention to which gods offer "Duo Boons." These are powerful abilities that only become available when you have specific boons from two different gods. Combining Zeus's lightning with Poseidon's knockback, for example, can create a devastatingly effective build.
2. Slay the Spire
For those who prefer strategy over reflexes, Slay the Spire is the undisputed king of the deck-building roguelite. You choose one of four unique characters and attempt to ascend a spire, fighting monsters in turn-based combat. Your abilities are a deck of cards that you build and refine as you go, creating powerful synergies and devastating combos.
The addiction here comes from the infinite puzzle-solving. Every card choice, every path taken, and every relic acquired is a critical decision that could make or break your run. You’re constantly evaluating risk and reward, trying to build the perfect engine of destruction. A run can end in minutes, but the lessons you learn and the new strategies you dream up will have you immediately starting another to test your theories.
- Pro Tip: A smaller, more focused deck is often better than a large one bloated with mediocre cards. Don't be afraid to use the "Remove a Card" service at merchant shops to trim the fat and increase the odds of drawing your best cards.
3. Dead Cells
If you crave fast-paced, pixel-perfect action, Dead Cells is your game. Described by its developers as a "RogueVania," it blends the procedural generation and permadeath of a roguelite with the exploration and ability-gating of a Metroidvania. You are the "Beheaded," a parasitic organism inhabiting a corpse, and you must slash, dodge, and roll your way through a sprawling, ever-changing island.
The combat is tight, responsive, and utterly brutal. The game rewards aggressive, high-risk play, and mastering the parry and dodge-roll is essential. The "one-more-run" feeling is driven by the constant discovery of new weapons, skills, and blueprints for permanent upgrades. Every run offers the chance to find a new favorite weapon combo or unlock a powerful mutation that completely changes your playstyle.
- Pro Tip: Invest your "cells" (the in-game currency for permanent unlocks) into the Legendary Forge as soon as you can. Increasing the chance of finding higher-quality weapons is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make for all future runs.
4. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
A true titan of the genre, The Binding of Isaac is a bizarre, disturbing, and endlessly replayable top-down shooter. You play as a crying child named Isaac, escaping his murderous mother by descending into a basement filled with grotesque monsters. You fight them off with your tears, which can be modified by hundreds upon hundreds of unique items.
This is the game that popularized the power of insane synergies. One item might make your tears bounce off walls, another might make them explode, and a third might make you fire a laser beam. The magic is finding how these items combine in unpredictable and often game-breaking ways. With a staggering amount of content—characters, bosses, items, and secrets—you could play for a thousand hours and still discover something new.
- Pro Tip: Don't be afraid to use a third-party resource like the "Platinum God" website or an item description mod. With over 700 items, it's nearly impossible to remember what they all do, and knowing an item's effect can save a run.
5. Vampire Survivors
Sometimes you don't want to think, you just want to see a screen full of numbers and exploding monsters. Vampire Survivors perfected the "bullet heaven" (or "auto-shooter") subgenre. You move your character around, and they attack automatically. Your only job is to survive increasingly massive waves of enemies by collecting experience gems to level up and choose new weapons and upgrades.
It sounds simple, and it is. But that simplicity is its greatest strength. The dopamine rush of evolving a weapon into its ultimate form and watching it effortlessly clear the entire screen is unparalleled. Runs are short (capped at 30 minutes), and the meta-progression is constant, making it the ultimate "just five more minutes" game that turns into three hours.
- Pro Tip: Focus on Area of Effect (AoE) weapons like the Garlic or Bible early on to create a safe zone around you. This makes it much easier to survive the initial waves and collect experience gems.
6. Rogue Legacy 2
The sequel to one of the games that defined the modern roguelite, Rogue Legacy 2 takes everything great about the original and perfects it. You play as a hero storming a castle, but when you die, your heir takes your place. The catch? Each heir has a unique class and a set of random, often hilarious, traits—like "Clumsy" (you randomly destroy props) or "Colorblind" (the game turns black and white).
The core loop involves earning gold during a run to spend on a massive, permanent castle upgrade tree that benefits all future heirs. This sense of generational progress is incredibly rewarding. The gameplay is a tight platformer-brawler with distinct classes that feel completely different, from a gunslinging Gunslinger to a high-flying Valkyrie.
- Pro Tip: Early on, focus on unlocking new classes and upgrading your base stats like health and damage. A personal favorite of mine, and I know Goh Ling Yong would agree, is prioritizing the upgrades that give you more starting gold, as it accelerates your overall progress significantly.
7. Enter the Gungeon
Prepare for bullet hell. Enter the Gungeon is a top-down, twin-stick shooter with a singular obsession: guns. Everything is gun-themed. Enemies are sentient bullets, chests are mimics with guns for tongues, and your goal is to find a mythical gun that can kill the past. The game is packed with hundreds of bizarre and creative firearms, from a simple pistol to a gun that shoots sharks.
The gameplay is fast, frantic, and requires mastery of the "dodge roll," which grants you a few frames of invincibility. The challenge is steep, but finally conquering a difficult boss after dozens of attempts is an incredible feeling. The constant hope of finding a legendary, run-winning gun on the next floor is what keeps you coming back.
- Pro Tip: Flip tables! They provide temporary cover from bullets and can be a lifesaver in a chaotic room. Also, always save at least one key for a chest on the next floor, just in case it’s a high-tier one.
8. Risk of Rain 2
Transitioning the 2D formula of its predecessor into a fully 3D world, Risk of Rain 2 is a masterclass in chaotic, third-person action. You and up to three friends are stranded on an alien planet, and your goal is to survive long enough to activate a teleporter to the next stage. The catch is that the difficulty constantly increases over time, turning the game into a frantic race against the clock.
The addiction comes from the feeling of escalating power. You start as a vulnerable survivor, but by collecting items, you can transform into a god of destruction, with lightning striking every enemy you hit and missiles firing from your back with every step. The sheer chaos of a late-game run, with dozens of items synergizing on a screen full of giant monsters, is a sight to behold.
- Pro Tip: Don't spend too much time on each stage. The ever-increasing difficulty timer is your real enemy. Aim to spend about 5-6 minutes per stage before activating the teleporter to stay ahead of the curve.
9. Into the Breach
From the creators of FTL, Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game that feels more like a puzzle than anything else. You command a squad of three mechs fighting off giant alien insects called the Vek. The twist is that you can see exactly what the enemy is going to do on their next turn. Your job isn't just to kill them, but to use your limited actions to push, pull, and block them to prevent damage to civilian buildings.
Every single turn is a miniature, high-stakes chess match. A perfect turn where you negate all incoming damage without firing a single shot is one of the most satisfying feelings in gaming. Runs are short, and unlocking new mech squads with completely different abilities provides immense replayability.
- Pro Tip: Protecting your power grid (the civilian buildings) is more important than killing the Vek. It's often better to push an enemy into a position where its attack hits another enemy than to simply deal damage to it.
10. FTL: Faster Than Light
The other masterpiece from Subset Games, FTL is a real-time spaceship simulation roguelite that will test your crisis management skills. You command a Federation ship on a desperate mission, pursued by a rebel fleet. You jump from system to system, encountering random events, fighting enemy ships, and upgrading your vessel.
FTL is a story generator. One run, you might be a boarding party specialist, teleporting your Mantis crew onto enemy ships to wreak havoc. The next, you might be a defensive fortress, relying on powerful shields and ion cannons. The constant pressure of the pursuing fleet and the need to manage your ship's power, crew, and oxygen during chaotic battles makes for an incredibly tense and rewarding experience.
- Pro Tip: The "Pause" button is your best friend. Combat happens in real-time, but you can pause at any moment to issue commands and assess the situation. Use it frequently to make smart decisions under pressure.
11. Monster Train
If you loved Slay the Spire but want a different spin on deck-building, Monster Train is your next stop. You are the last bastion of Hell, trying to reignite its frozen heart by piloting a train through the forces of Heaven. The battlefield is a three-story train car, and you must place monster units and cast spells to defend your "Pyre" at the top.
The game's genius lies in its multi-layered strategy and its focus on creating ridiculously overpowered combos. The "champion" unit you choose at the start can be upgraded in different ways, and combining two of the five unique monster clans leads to incredible synergies. It's faster-paced than Slay the Spire and encourages you to "break" the game with absurdly powerful unit scaling.
- Pro Tip: Don't spread your power too thin. It's usually better to focus on making one floor of your train an impenetrable wall of death than to have three mediocre floors.
12. Cult of the Lamb
What if you mixed a fast-paced action roguelite with a cute-but-creepy cult management sim? You’d get Cult of the Lamb. You play as a possessed lamb, saved from death by a mysterious deity, and tasked with building a loyal following in its name.
The gameplay is split into two halves. You'll embark on short, Hades-like "crusades" into procedurally generated dungeons to gather resources and fight heretical gods. Then, you'll return to your base to indoctrinate new followers, build structures, perform sermons and rituals, and manage the needs of your growing cult. The two sides of the game feed into each other perfectly, creating an addictive loop of action and management.
- Pro Tip: A happy follower is a productive follower. Keep your cult's faith and hunger meters high to maximize the resources they generate for you while you're away on crusades.
13. Inscryption
To say too much about Inscryption is to spoil its magic. On the surface, it’s a dark, atmospheric deck-building game where you play a card game against a shadowy figure in a cabin. The core mechanics involve sacrificing your weaker creature cards to play stronger ones, creating a tense resource-management puzzle on the board.
But that's just the beginning. The game is dripping with mystery, and the "one-more-run" impulse is driven not just by the card game itself, but by the desire to uncover the secrets of the cabin and the story's larger meta-narrative. It constantly breaks the fourth wall and subverts your expectations in brilliant ways. It's a must-play for anyone who loves games that tell their stories through mechanics.
- Pro Tip: Look for "deathcards." When you die, you get to create a custom card based on the stats of the cards in your deck during that run. You might encounter this powerful custom card in a future attempt.
14. Spelunky 2
Spelunky 2 is the definition of a "knowledge-based" roguelite. It is a brutally difficult platformer where every element in its world interacts with every other element in a complex, physics-based system. A single misstep can cause a chain reaction that leads to an instant, and often hilarious, death.
Unlike many other roguelites, there is very little meta-progression that makes your character stronger. You get stronger by learning the game's intricate rules. You learn how to avoid traps, how enemies behave, and how to use your limited items effectively. The runs are quick, the deaths are frequent, but the feeling of mastering a complex system and finally reaching a new area is one of the most rewarding experiences in all of gaming.
- Pro Tip: Take your time. The temptation is to rush, but most deaths in Spelunky 2 come from impatience. Look before you leap, and always have an escape plan.
15. Dicey Dungeons
From the creator of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon, Dicey Dungeons is a charming and inventive game that turns a deck-builder into a dice-based game show. You play as one of six giant walking dice, each a different "class" with unique abilities, competing in a deadly game show run by Lady Luck herself.
Combat is a mix of dice-rolling (the luck) and equipment management (the strategy). You roll a certain number of dice each turn and then slot them into your equipment cards to activate abilities. The genius is in how you manipulate the dice to your advantage, turning bad rolls into good outcomes. It's a lighthearted, clever, and incredibly well-designed game that's perfect for bite-sized sessions.
- Pro Tip: Every class plays completely differently. The Warrior is straightforward, but try the Robot, who has to manage a "CPU" limit, or the Inventor, who must scrap a piece of equipment after every fight. Experiment to find your favorite.
16. Darkest Dungeon
"Ruin has come to our family." With that iconic line, Darkest Dungeon introduces you to its world of gothic horror and psychological torment. This is a challenging turn-based RPG where you manage a roster of flawed, stressed-out heroes attempting to reclaim a corrupted estate.
The "one-more-run" here is the dungeon crawl itself, but the true addiction lies in the overarching hamlet management. Heroes are not disposable; they gain quirks, diseases, and, most importantly, stress. Pushing a hero too far can lead to a heart attack and permanent death. The game is a brutal but compelling exercise in managing not just health and stats, but the very sanity of your adventurers. It's a slow burn, but once it gets its hooks in you, it doesn't let go.
- Pro Tip: Managing stress is as important as managing health. Prioritize bringing characters who can heal stress (like the Jester or Crusader) on long expeditions, and don't be afraid to abandon a quest if things go south. A live hero is better than a dead one.
The beauty of the roguelite genre is its sheer variety and endless replayability. Whether you're a fan of fast-paced action, deep strategy, or mind-bending deck-builders, there's a "one-more-run" game out there waiting to consume your weekend. This list is just the beginning of a deep and rewarding rabbit hole.
So, what are your go-to roguelites? Did we miss any of your favorites that keep you up until the wee hours of the morning? Drop your recommendations in the comments below—we’d love to hear what addictive gems you’re playing
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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