The best Roguelike games designed around Co-Op

Key things

• Co-op 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 fun game nights.
• Ravenswatch and Gunfire Reborn are challenging yet rewarding cooperative roguelike games with unique gameplay elements.

Roguelikes they're fun enough on their own and have a lot of replayability because that's exactly what they're meant to do. But when friendly collaboration is thrown into the mix, the genre suddenly becomes a lot more enticing—and a lot more interesting.

There's nothing better than 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 alongside. Because roguelikes are made to be played over and over again, they're a good bet when a group of friends can't find anything new to play, often serving as a de facto online meeting place where you can meet and to chat .

8 Ember Knight

Roguelike team action

Inspired by classics like Hades and Dead cells, Ember Knights takes a look at the roguelike genre with all the magic of a pixel game and all the mechanics you'd expect from a well-developed indie game. The game allows co-op for up to four players, so it's great for game nights and long sessions with friends.

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

7 Ravenswatch

Witch vibe

Ravenswatch is a beautiful game that focuses on combat as much as aesthetics. The grim game embraces the emo look and runs with it, creating the identity of the cool older cousin with the sick tattoos in a co-op roguelike world.

The game can be very punishing and requires players to work together and cover each other's backs to win a run. Although the maps can feel a bit generic, especially after you've played them dozens of times, the variety of builds is worth the time investment players will explore.

6 By the wind

Dead Cell Dev's new project

Coming from the developers behind the indie darling, Dead cells, By the wind is a co-op roguelike that is more of the same Hades than its predecessor. The game features an isometric view, faster-than-healthy movement, and vibrant colors that give it a unique identity.

The cooperative aspect of the game is particularly well integrated, allowing players to enjoy the experience with a friend. The game is still in early access and lacks a lot of content that players would expect from the successor Dead cellsbut there is sure to be more to come as the team continues to develop the game.

5 RoboQuest

Robot FPS Roguelike

Inorganic brother Shooting Reborn, RoboQuest immerses players in a first-person shooter experience where they must face hordes of enemy robots alone as a moving piece of metal. The gunplay in this game is pretty fun, and the movement mechanics make downtime between fights relatively enjoyable as well.

The game works well as a single-player experience, but is designed to be played alongside a friend, or “brobot”. Unfortunately, players can only play with one other player. Fortunately, it has public matchmaking, making it much more convenient to find a partner for your sci-fi journey.

4 Crab Champions

Rave Party By the Ocean

What's more roguelike than a crab with a gun? Four crabs with guns. Crab Champions is a game that isn't afraid to have over the top builds, and the powerful creep in the game can be ridiculous at times. However, that's exactly what makes it so much fun to play.

Created by a solo developer with a passion for crab themed games, Crab Champions is a third-person shooter with the promise of pushing high-end computers to their limits in the later stages of the run. It has satisfying movement, plenty of weapon choices, and enough builds to keep the family busy for weeks.

3 Shooting Reborn

First person shooter Roguelikes

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 Shooting Reborn who did such a thing. Combining the roguelike and FPS genres, this game allows the player to experience the destruction they cause in a whole new perspective.

The game has a lot of fun buildings, 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 Hellcard

A co-op card game with depth

• Developer: Thung Trunk
• Publisher: Skystone Games
• Release date: 2024-02-01

Take it Dungeons & Dragonsgive it some classic roguelike elements, add multiplayer options and transform the mechanics to work beautifully as a card game, and Hellcard is born The game is a great single-player experience, but it really shines when two or three people come together to embark on a descent into hell together.

The game takes strong inspiration Slay The Spirebut it has many things that set it apart. Hellcard follows the same path as other deckbuilding roguelikes, but stands out from the crowd with its party and multiplayer mechanics.

1 Risk of rain 2

Petrichor V Never saw it

Risk of rain 2 is the type of game that draws the player in as soon as they pick it up. From the start of your journey until you finally manage to defeat her, every moment is filled with high-octane action, friendly banter, and plenty of challenges for players to enjoy. Risk of rain 2 is a co-op roguelike with a punch that features multiple stages that can be replayed as players want, and a single-player mode that works just as well as co-op.

There's a lot to love Risk of rain 2from different items and enemies to unique survivors that players can choose for their runs. Perhaps the most important part about Risk of rain 2 is the inherent randomness that the game uses quite effectively to make each run feel fresh and engaging.