Games like Darkest Dungeon: 14 grim party roguelikes and gothic RPGs
Fourteen games with doomed parties, gothic dread and hard choices, from mercenary companies to necromancers, with where each one runs today.
By The Path of Orren team
Darkest Dungeon is a game about losing people. You send four heroes into the dark, watch their stress climb until they crack, and decide who is worth saving and who you can afford to lose. Few games have matched its mix of gothic dread, turn-based tactics and cruel resource management, but these games like Darkest Dungeon come close, and some take the idea somewhere new. Prices are regular US prices on the day we checked, and every card links to the store.
We are making a dark-fantasy party roguelite ourselves, so this is the corner of gaming we know best. The list goes from the closest relatives to games that only share Darkest Dungeon's mood.
Darkest Dungeon on mobile
Many players look for Darkest Dungeon on their phone, so here is where it stands. The first game is on iPad only, as the Tablet Edition, and has never come to iPhone or Android officially. Darkest Dungeon II is coming to both, announced on October 28, 2026, for release in 2027. Until then, Loop Hero is the best game of this kind you can play on a phone.
The original
Darkest Dungeon
- iPad only: $4.99, no ads
- Not on Android
- PC: $24.99
The original: four heroes, a row of positions that decides who can attack and who can be hit, and a stress meter that matters as much as health. Between expeditions you heal, train and bury your heroes in the hamlet. In August 2026 it even got new content, its first in about six years.
Quick picks
| If you want | Play |
|---|---|
| More Darkest Dungeon | Darkest Dungeon II |
| Darkest Dungeon from the villain's side | Iratus: Lord of the Dead |
| A mercenary company to run | Battle Brothers, Wartales |
| Gothic tactics with permanent losses | Othercide, The Last Spell |
| Something on your phone | Loop Hero |
| Co-op with friends | Gloomhaven |
| A free dark-fantasy party roguelite, coming soon | Path of Orren (ours) |
Our game
Path of Orren
- Free, coming soon to iPhone and Android
- Join the waitlist
Full disclosure: this one is ours, so it isn't ranked with the others. Path of Orren is the game our small team is making, a free dark-fantasy party roguelite for iPhone and Android: you gather a party of unlikely heroes, set them on the field and lead them down a road of fights, forges, treasures and strange events, and the battles play out on their own while your choices decide who makes it to the end. If you love Darkest Dungeon's doomed party and gothic road, you will recognise a lot of it in what we are building: a party of heroes who may not all come back, three grim acts and a road you choose step by step. It isn't out yet, and you can join the waitlist to play it first.
The closest to Darkest Dungeon
1Darkest Dungeon II
- Not on phones
- PC: $39.99
The sequel turns the dungeon crawl into a road trip: four heroes ride a stagecoach toward a mountain, and their relationships form and sour along the way. It is a different rhythm from the first game, and its reviews are lower, but the free Kingdoms mode, added in 2025, brings back a persistent roster and base for players who missed the hamlet. A Switch 2 edition came out in October 2026.
2Iratus: Lord of the Dead
- Not on phones
- PC: $29.99
Darkest Dungeon played from the other side. You are a necromancer escaping his dungeon, building minions out of body parts and fighting the heroes who come to stop you. The combat uses the same four positions, and instead of managing stress you attack the heroes' sanity. It is the most direct answer to "I want more of exactly this".
3Othercide
- Not on phones
- PC: $29.99
Gothic turn-based tactics in black, white and red. Your warriors do not heal normally: to restore one, you sacrifice another. Every fight is a trade, and the art direction is one of the most striking in the genre.
4The Last Spell
- Not on phones
- PC: $24.99
By day you build defences and prepare your heroes, by night you hold the town against enormous hordes in turn-based fights. Heroes die for good, and each run unlocks more for the next one. It has Darkest Dungeon's sense of a doomed last stand, with a lot more enemies on screen.
Mercenary companies and grim tactics
If what you love is managing a roster of people who might not come back, these are the games for you.
5Battle Brothers
- Not on phones
- PC: $29.99
You run a company of mercenaries in a low-fantasy world: hire, equip and pay them, take contracts, and fight turn-based battles on hexes. Recruits have traits and backgrounds, they die constantly, and money is always short. It is brutal, systemic and endlessly replayable.
6Wartales
- Not on phones
- PC: $34.99
An open-world mercenary RPG set after a plague. You lead a band across a large map, pay wages, keep everyone fed and fight turn-based battles where your people can die for good. It is warmer and more forgiving than Battle Brothers, and difficulty settings let you choose how cruel it gets.
7Mordheim: City of the Damned
- Not on phones
- PC: $19.99
Warhammer warbands fighting in a ruined city. Injuries and deaths carry over from one battle to the next, so a lost eye or a lost leg follows a fighter for the rest of the campaign. It shows its age, but nothing else captures the grimdark attrition of a warband quite like it.
8Gloomhaven
- Not on phones
- PC: $34.99
The digital version of the famous board game. A party of mercenaries plays two ability cards per turn, and every card you use brings you closer to exhaustion. It is dark fantasy, deeply tactical, and the best choice on this list if you want to play with friends.
Grim journeys and strange roguelites
These share Darkest Dungeon's mood more than its mechanics.
9Loop Hero
A hero walks a loop and fights automatically. You place cards that build the world around the road, from forests and villages to cemeteries full of monsters, and decide when to retreat to the camp you rebuild between expeditions. It is bleak, clever and the best game of this kind on a phone, free to try on both stores.
10Tainted Grail: Conquest
- Not on phones
- PC: $19.99
A roguelite deckbuilder in a cursed, Arthurian Avalon. You explore at night, fight with cards and rebuild a village between runs. The setting is one of the grimmest on this list, and the village gives it the same pull as Darkest Dungeon's hamlet. Don't confuse it with Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, a different game.
11Hand of Fate 2
- Not on phones
- PC: $29.99
A mysterious dealer lays out your journey as cards on a table. Events play out through card draws and games of chance, and fights become third-person action. Companions join you on the road, and the dealer's voice gives the whole thing a sinister charm.
12Thea: The Awakening
- Not on phones
- PC: $19.99
Survival strategy in a dark world drawn from Slavic myth. You lead a village and send out expedition parties, and fights and challenges play out as card games. It is the closest thing on this list to managing a whole community under threat.
13Stoneshard
- Not on phones
- PC: $24.99
- Early access
A turn-based roguelike RPG with a single mercenary in a brutal open world, where individual wounds, pain and sanity all matter. Preparation and knowing when to run are everything. It is still in early access.
14Mewgenics
- Not on phones
- PC: $29.99
You breed a household of cats with inherited traits, then send teams of four on turn-based tactical runs where losses are permanent. It trades gothic dread for very dark humour, from the creator of The Binding of Isaac, but the roster management will feel familiar to any Darkest Dungeon player.
Questions
Is Darkest Dungeon on mobile?
The first Darkest Dungeon is on iPad only, as Darkest Dungeon Tablet Edition, for US$4.99. There is no iPhone version and no official Android version. Darkest Dungeon II was announced for iPhone and Android on October 28, 2026, for release in 2027.
Are there games like Darkest Dungeon on Android or iPhone?
Loop Hero is the best one today. It shares Darkest Dungeon's bleak world, its push-your-luck expeditions and a camp you build between runs, and it is free to try on both stores.
Is there a game like Darkest Dungeon but easier?
Loop Hero and Wartales are gentler. Loop Hero lets you retreat from any expedition and keep most of what you found, and Wartales lets you set how punishing your campaign is.
Are there co-op games like Darkest Dungeon?
Gloomhaven is the one to play with friends. It is a digital version of the board game, with a party of mercenaries, card-driven tactics and online co-op.
Is Darkest Dungeon a roguelike?
It is usually called a roguelite. Heroes die for good and every expedition is different, but your hamlet and its upgrades carry over from one run to the next.
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