Cobalt Core

Cobalt Core is a sci-fi roguelike deckbuilder from Rocket Rat Games, published by Brace Yourself Games and released on Steam in November 2023. You pick three crew members, each bringing their own cards and story, and fly through a time loop toward the Cobalt Core.

Combat happens on a single horizontal axis. Your ship sits below the enemy, and each card moves the ship, raises shields or fires cannons and missiles from particular parts of the hull. Lining up weapons with weak points while dodging incoming fire is the heart of the game.

Patch 1.2.0 in August 2024 added a daily mode. Everyone playing that day's daily shares the same crew, the same ship and the same run seed, along with one to three modifiers such as only having one character or a ship that scrambles itself every fight. Dailies are scored and ranked on Steam leaderboards, so you can compare with friends. They unlock after you beat the game, or earlier if you opt in and accept possible spoilers. Updates through early 2026 kept fixing daily runs.

It suits players of Slay the Spire and FTL who want a deckbuilder with a positional twist and a daily run to compare.