Monster Train

About Monster Train

Monster Train is a deck-building roguelike from Shiny Shoe, published by Good Shepherd Entertainment in May 2020. Heaven has frozen hell over, and you ride a train carrying the last burning pyre. Instead of one battlefield, the train has three floors stacked on top of each other, and each wave of invaders climbs from the bottom toward the pyre at the top. You place monsters on the floors, cast spells, and choose a route between stops that upgrade your champion, recruit units or improve cards.

A normal run lets you pick a primary and a supporting clan from five, each with its own cards and champion. The Daily Challenge, found under Challenges, takes that choice away and hands everyone the same setup for the day at Covenant rank 1. It adds mutators that bend the rules, usually one that helps, one that hurts and one picked at random. Some days every unit is stronger, some days the run punishes a plan you would normally lean on.

The score is the same system used in Hell Rush and custom challenges: each battle won is worth points, reduced by the pyre damage you take and increased by beating the boss in fewer turns or taking the optional trial, plus a bonus for gold left at the end. Results are ranked on global and friends leaderboards. The daily does not unlock cards or clans, but playing it three days in a row earns a card frame.

The daily run suits players who know Slay the Spire style deckbuilders and want one fixed setup a day that everyone shares, rather than a long climb through the covenant ranks. The game is on PC, Switch, Xbox and phones, and the mobile description lists the daily and custom challenges among its features.

How to play Monster Train

1. Start Monster Train and open Challenges from the main menu, then choose the Daily Challenge.
2. Read the day's clans, champion and mutators before you begin, since they change how the run plays.
3. Each battle, spend ember to play monsters onto the three floors of the train and spells against the invaders.
4. Between battles, pick a route and take upgrades, new units or card improvements that fit the day's mutators.
5. Protect the pyre through the final boss, then compare your score on the daily leaderboard.

Screenshots

Tips

• Read every mutator first: the daily run is often won by building around the one that looks worst.
• Every point of pyre health lost in a battle cuts that battle's score, so stop invaders on the lower floors even when you could afford the hit.
• Taking the trial in a fight adds half again to that battle's score if you can still win it.
• Killing the boss early adds points for every turn it had left before reaching the pyre.
• Gold left over at the end counts toward the score late in the run, so do not spend every coin in the last shops without a reason.
• Play three days in a row to earn the card frame tied to the daily.

Questions