How to play The Underledger

The Underledger is a browser-based text roguelike set in a dungeon beneath the city: five floors of locked routes, machinery, creatures, and unpaid accounts. A new shared dungeon opens each day. You can explore solo while other crawlers leave their own marks on the same place.

Start with a crawler, not a class

Choose “Sign in. Descend.” on the game page to begin. No registration is required: a private guest account is saved in your browser. Keep that browser data to retain access to your account and journal.

Your starting kit includes a weapon, protective gear, a utility tool, healing supplies, and a Stat Stone. Choose a starting trait, then adapt to what you find. Weapons, equipment abilities, traits, and Stat Stones shape your build rather than locking you into a class.

Explore the floor before you descend

Rooms form a branching map with loops and hidden passages. Moving into a room can bring an encounter, a hazard, or an opportunity. Revisit known rooms to take another route; progression depends on the floor’s mechanisms and exit conditions.

• Scout an adjacent room for information before committing to its route. Perception and equipment can improve what you learn.
• Investigate a specific object or unresolved lead. Read its hint: examining evidence can reveal routes or mechanisms, and some objects carry a warned risk.
• Prepare for danger before entering a threatening room to prevent an ambush and improve your opening, or limit a trap’s initial damage. Preparation costs time; unused preparation can leave you overextended.

Actions that take time can advance conditions, raise pressure, or give pursuing enemies time to move. Use the map and action reports to see what changed.

Read the enemy before choosing an action

Combat proceeds one decision at a time. Enemy intents, distance, stamina, and your weapon affect which action is useful. Read the intent and action hints before striking: defending, moving, using an ability, spending a consumable, or fleeing can be the better choice.

Weapon families support different tactics. Equipment abilities can also open choices outside combat, so compare what an item lets you do as well as its numbers.

Keep room in your pack

Inventory space is limited. A healing item, a tool, and a promising piece of gear compete for the same room. Stat Stones improve an attribute for the current run; remedies treat particular conditions. After clearing an encounter, check your health, conditions, and supplies before moving on.

Merchants offer a single transaction before their counter closes for that floor. Decide whether supplies, treatment, or advice solve your most pressing problem.

Use the traces other crawlers leave

Warnings, deaths, dropped items, and notable events belong to the dungeon’s shared history. A note is another crawler’s judgment, not a guarantee. Read it against the physical clues in the room.

You can leave warnings or drop an item for someone else. Shared objectives can change the dungeon, but basic progression remains possible on your own.

Your crawler ends. The record stays.

Death ends that crawler’s expedition. Start another with a new kit and use what you learned. The Journal keeps current and past runs and lets you download a run as text; the Ledger records daily crawler standings and events. When the daily dungeon changes, previous expeditions remain in your journal.