Duskers
Rate itType commands to steer drones through dark derelict ships, with one seeded salvage mission a day for everyone.
Every day: The Daily Challenge: a derelict-ship salvage mission built from the day's seed, so the ship, rooms, threats and upgrades are the same for everyone. A leaderboard shows each player's mission time and scores for scrap, drones, upgrades and fuel. There is also a Weekly Challenge. New puzzle: Once a day (time not stated by the developer).
Duskers is a roguelike by Misfits Attic in which you pilot salvage drones through abandoned spaceships by typing commands, watching grainy camera feeds and motion sensors for what lurks inside. Its Daily Challenge gives every player the same seeded derelict, then ranks how much scrap, fuel, drones and upgrades each player brings back.
About Duskers
Duskers came out in May 2016 from Misfits Attic, the studio behind A Virus Named TOM. You are a lone drone operator in a universe that has become a graveyard of derelict ships. You dock with each ship, send your drones inside and try to salvage scrap, fuel, upgrades and new drones, while piecing together from old ship logs what happened.
You control everything through a command line. Commands such as navigate, open, close, scan and gather move your drones and work the ship's doors, generators and airlocks. You see the derelict as a schematic map and through each drone's low-quality camera, and motion sensors tell you that something is in a room but not what. Weapons are rare, so the usual answer to a monster is to trap it behind a door, lure it away or vent it into space. Drones and their parts wear out and break, and when you lose everything the run is over.
The Daily Challenge takes this to a single mission. Since patch 1.04 in 2016, every Daily Challenge builds consistently from the day's seed, so all players face the same ship, layout and dangers, and later updates fixed remaining differences between players and operating systems. Update 1.100 in 2021 added Daily and Weekly leaderboards that show each player's mission time and component scores for scrap, drones, upgrades and fuel.
The daily has a small but loyal following: players post their daily runs on YouTube and discuss each day's ship in the Steam forums, comparing how they handled the same rooms. It suits players who like slow, careful planning more than reflexes.
How to play Duskers
- Choose the Daily Challenge from the main menu to dock with the day's derelict.
- Type commands to move drones between rooms, open and close doors and power up generators.
- Read the motion sensors and drone feeds, and trap, lure or vent anything dangerous.
- Gather scrap, fuel and upgrades, then return your drones to your ship.
- End the mission to post your score and mission time on the day's leaderboard.
Screenshots
Tips
- Set up aliases (Duskers reads them from an alias.txt file) so common chains of commands take only a few keystrokes.
- Venting a room through an open airlock is often the safest way to clear a monster you cannot fight.
- Score comes from scrap, drones, upgrades and fuel, so a careful partial salvage that brings every drone home can beat a greedy one.
Questions
Is the Duskers Daily Challenge the same for everyone?
Yes. Since patch 1.04 the daily mission builds from the day's seed, and later patches made it consistent across players and operating systems.
Is there a leaderboard?
Yes. Update 1.100 added Daily and Weekly Challenge leaderboards that show mission time and scores for scrap, drones, upgrades and fuel.
Do I need to be good at typing?
It helps, but the game is not timed like an action game. You can pause to think, and aliases cut down on typing.
Ratings and reviews
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