Below the Crown

About Below the Crown

Below the Crown mixes roguelikes, dungeon crawlers and chess. You command a small army of pieces such as knights, rooks and archers, each with its own movement rules and skills, and play cards from a battle deck to move, attack and cast spells on grid boards. Between floors you buy upgrades, pick up runes and answer odd psychological questions about how you feel toward your pieces, which change how the run unfolds.

The game comes from Misfits Attic, the studio that made Duskers and A Virus Named TOM. It spent time in early access from late 2025 and reached version 1.0 on Steam in April 2026, published with Shochiku.

The Daily Challenge gives everyone the same dungeon for the day. The developers have patched it specifically so that the daily plays out identically across builds, and finished runs are compared with the community. You can watch replays of top players to see how they handled the same boards, and players can also post their own victories as challenges for others.

It suits players who like tactical puzzles with chess-like movement, short competitive runs and learning from other people's solutions.

How to play Below the Crown

1. Start the game and open the Daily Challenge from the challenge menu in the castle.
2. Lead your pieces through the day's boards, playing or drawing cards from your battle deck to move and attack.
3. Use each piece's movement and skills, plus spells, to clear enemies and reach the exit.
4. Spend gold on upgrades between boards and answer the psychological tests as they come.
5. Finish the run, compare your result with the community and watch top replays.

Screenshots

Tips

• Learn each piece's movement and special skill, for example the rook's Hurdle, before committing to a move.
• Use Undo while you are still learning, then plan whole turns ahead.
• Watch replays of top players on the same daily to pick up routes and tricks.
• Play Infinite and Random Dungeon modes to practise outside the daily.

Questions