AshburrowAshburrow

Beneath the Goldcrest Hills, the gnolls of the Ashmane Clan have built a warren deeper than anyone who has entered has returned to describe. Ashburrow is a third-person action RPG with a roguelite heart: one life per run, a world that remembers where you fell, and a party of up to six players to venture back in with you.

Play it flat, or play it in a headset — VR is optional. Put on a headset and the character you've been playing steps into the world, weapon in hand. Swing your arm to strike. Raise your shield into a creature's wind-up to turn the blow aside and stagger the attacker — something you physically do rather than trigger with a key. Bows require both hands: nock the arrow, draw the string, aim, and release. Casters form spells in their free palm, hold them, and throw them.

Every swing is a decision. Attacks sweep an arc in front of you and consume endurance, so every flurry is a commitment. Break a creature's guard and it staggers, taking double damage while it reels. Raise your shield to deflect a blow, out-reach a gnoll's claws, or step back before it can strike again. Casters prepare spells into runes and open their spellbook to recover, choosing from forty-six spells of healing, warding, charming, and ruin.

Every run is one life. When your character falls, the run ends. The gold they carried is banked in full, a headstone marks where they died, and the next character to reach it recovers half of everything the fallen one learned. Banked gold unlocks tiles on a 39-tile upgrade tree, with each tile opening the ones beside it. Begin as a Champion, Hunter or Magister, then work your way toward several additional races, five more classes, and permanent perks that carry from one run to the next.

The world keeps its own hours. Four connected regions await: the Goldcrest Hills, the Ashburrow warren beneath them, the snowbound Frostspire Reach, and the Rimehold beneath its glacier. Their inhabitants follow a day-and-night cycle of their own, with ghouls and bats prowling after dark and orcs holding the hills by day. Use the world to your advantage: a creature facing away never sees you coming, while a thrown rock can pull one gnoll away from a camp of three.

Hold the gate. For twenty gold, you can hire a guard to watch any of the four posts at the town gate, and every road you've unlocked can be given a picket of its own. Kill enough of the Ashmane Clan and they will muster a column to take the gate back. Stand the wall and the bounty can pay for itself and more; leave it undefended, and the trainer and merchant who make every run possible will be driven away.

Choose your race, choose your class, and bring a party. Ten races and eight classes give you different ways to approach the same world. A Grimalkin's purr helps a resting ally recover faster. An Irbis pounces for extra damage against an unaware creature. A Tuskar regains endurance with every worthwhile kill. Play alone, or host up to six players online through Steam or over LAN by IP address. Friends can join mid-run with the character they're already playing, scale up to the session's level while they remain, and keep everything they find.

Look beyond the obvious path. Eighteen chests are hidden across the world in every run, drawn from forty-six hand-placed locations, so familiar spots are not always waiting for you. Each chest requires a key and offers a choice of three boons, with your choice lasting for the rest of the run. Illusory walls and hidden levers reveal side chambers, while some of the best finds are hidden beneath water you'll have to hold your breath to reach.

And at the bottom of it all, a dragon. Vorgrath the Cinderwyrm waits in a lava-filled cavern five levels below anything a character can normally reach. The Eternal Judge holds the top of the Old Keep, while the Hollow Jarl rules the Rimehold. Some battles can be survived alone. Some are meant to be faced together.

Feature list

• Third-person or first-person action combat: swing arcs, an endurance pool, shields, staggers, critical hits and knockback.

• Roguelite runs: death ends the run, gold is banked in full, and a grave returns half the fallen character's experience to whoever reaches it.

• A 39-tile upgrade tree of races, classes and permanent perks, bought with banked gold.

• 10 races, each with its own trait, and 8 classes, with 3 of each available from the start.

• Co-op for up to 6 players with Steam online or over LAN by IP address, with mid-run joining and level syncing.

• 46 learnable spells prepared into runes, and abilities that improve the more you use them.

• Four connected regions, from a sunlit valley to a gnoll warren, a snowfield and a giants' hold under a glacier.

• A day and night cycle that changes which creatures are abroad.

• 18 hidden chests a run, drawn from 46 hand-placed spots, each dealing a choice of run boons.

• Stealth by facing, thrown rocks to pull a single creature, and hirelings to recruit at the gate.

• Guard posts to hire at the town gate and at every road beyond it, contested by a waves of the Ashmane Clan.

• 17 named creatures, and bosses beyond the level cap, the Cinderwyrm among them.

• Optional VR: the same game in third or first-person on a streamed PC headset, with the weapon and shield on your own. hands, a bow drawn with both of them, and a spell made in the palm and thrown.