Pawnbarian: a Puzzle Roguelike

In-app purchases
4.2
5.04K reviews
1M+
Downloads
Content rating
PEGI 7
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About this game

Chess-inspired puzzle roguelike. Demo - single IAP unlocks full game.

The ad-free demo contains a single character and dungeon.

Pawnbarian is a turn-based puzzle roguelike with bite-sized, but challenging sessions. Play cards to control your hero like a chess piece on a tiny dungeon board, outmaneuver enemies with their assortment of tricky abilities, and become the mightiest warrior of the Chesslands!

Features
- Use a deck of chess pieces to hack and slash through hordes of monsters.
- Pick up the basics instantly if you're familiar with chess, or learn in minutes if you aren't.
- Carefully plan your moves to navigate challenging, emergent tactical situations.
- Spend treasure to upgrade your cards with additional powers.
- Blitz through quick 15-30 minute runs - or die trying.
- Take on the infinite post-run Gauntlet to see how long you can survive.
- Pick from 6 characters to conquer 3 dungeons, all requiring an unique approach.
- Progress through Chains, a series of extra difficulty modifiers.

Not Features
- No permanent upgrades, and not much that needs unlocking. The progress and satisfaction come from your growing mastery of the game's elegant systems!
- No complex and varied builds. The shops provide a few key decisions, but the bulk of the roguelike depth lies in how you approach the emergent combat puzzles!
Updated on
Oct 23, 2023
Available on
Android, Windows*
*Powered by Intel® technology
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Ratings and reviews

4.2
4.91K reviews
Matthijs
July 27, 2023
Really good game, very original concept. BUT please give enemies that are immune from cardinally adjacent squares some sort of visual indicator even when the player is not on a cardinally adjacent square. It's very annoying when I move into one of those squares expecting to kill the enemy, but it suddenly turning yellow and me taking a ton of damage and wasting a turn. Maybe give them a yellow outline/glow, or yellow eyes?
13 people found this review helpful
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Peyton Mansfield
April 22, 2025
This is a great game to fit quick runs in waiting moments. This has immediate gratification as a game but also long-lasting mental stimulation as a puzzle. If you like chess, the play patterns will feel familiar, but chess knowledge is not necessary. The demo is really fun to try for a while, but the full version is sooooo worth the $5. I am halfway through the chain difficulties with every hero, and I don't see myself getting tired of the game any time soon.
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Centfrolic
March 25, 2024
It's a really fun game, the idea of the game is really unique. I just hope there's more in the customization part of the boards design or colors, etc. What if there's a 'non-stop' mode? Where you get to pick a hero, then the game starts random, with random enemies, and also the board changes size in each run, till you get super OP and end up unalived. Or new systems like 'power ups' randomly popping up in tiles that it may be seen as "High risk reward" plays :)
33 people found this review helpful
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What’s new

Maintenance engine and API version update