Cardborne is a roguelite played on a real deck of playing cards. No deckbuilding. Clubs ♣ and spades ♠ are enemies, diamonds ♦ are weapons, hearts ♥ heal. One rule turns every room into a puzzle: your weapon can only kill an enemy of the same or lower value than its last kill.

Fight order

Equip a diamond and its value becomes your weapon's strength and its uses. Every enemy you kill with it stacks up on the weapon. Kill the 9 first and the 6 and the 4 are still in reach. Kill the 4 first and the 9 and the 6 are locked out for that weapon. Swap to a new weapon and the chain starts over.

When the order goes wrong, you can always fight barehanded and take the enemy's full value as damage. Or spend 1 weapon use on a ranged attack to shave 1 off an enemy's value.

Poker hands

The kills stacked on your weapon form poker hands: Straight Flush, Super Flush, Lazy Flush, Straight and Pair. A hand pays out HP and XP, then clears those cards off the weapon, so the higher enemies are back in reach. That is how a good weapon stays useful. Plan the hand before you swing.

Jokers

Every level-up offers 3 jokers. Take one. Take one you already own and it levels up, all the way to level 3. There are 14 of them. Smith adds strength to your weapon on every poker hand. Grinder adds a weapon use. Iron Will shields you when you fight barehanded. Scare crow makes the weakest enemy flee to another room.

Rooms grow

Each room is dealt from the deck. The first ones hold 4 cards. As you level up they grow, up to 10. Empty the room and the next one is dealt. More cards means more choices, and more ways to get the order wrong.

Diamonds and hearts

You hold one weapon at a time, so every diamond is a choice. Equip it and start a fresh chain, or discard it to give the weapon you already hold +1 use. Hearts heal you. At full HP, a heart gives +1 XP instead.

Enemy abilities

Agro enemies attack you. Guards protect the room. Necromancers pull your kills off your weapon and back into the room. The Jester shuffles your weapon's kill chain.

Two classes

The Escapist can escape a room 4 times per run. The Gambler can reroll the joker offer when you level up.

The boss

When the deck runs out, the boss phases in. Meet the Hive: the Ace of Spades and its bee minions.

Early Access

The full core loop is in. More content comes during Early Access.

Cardborne is a solo project from Lakeborn Studio, made by me, Peter.

But Aces broke the binding law, high and low, a fatal flaw.
Yet fate has drawn a hand anew, a chosen one to cut straight through.