Ring of Pain

About Ring of Pain

Ring of Pain was made by Simon Boxer and Twice Different and published by Balor Games, released on Steam in October 2020 for Windows and Mac. Its dark, scratchy art and cryptic rhyming lore set a creepy tone.

Each floor is a ring of cards: creatures, items, mimics and exits. You choose which way to step around the ring, deciding whether to fight, loot or sneak past. Creatures show what they will do next, so the game is about reading the ring and planning your route. Mimics offer gear choices for a price, and combining items with passive powers lets you build toward styles such as quick and evasive, heavy and tanky, or explosive.

The Daily Dungeon is unlocked as you progress and adds a run built around modifiers, with more than 40 of them in the pool. Patch notes show named daily modifiers such as Bloodlust, Dominant, Particular Taste and Demolitions, each changing how that day's dungeon plays. Results go on Steam leaderboards so players can compare the same day's dungeon.

It plays as fast or slow as you like, with no timed input, and it has a Twitch extension that lets viewers draw replacement art and vote on items. It suits roguelike fans who prefer careful, turn-based decisions over reflexes.

How to play Ring of Pain

1. Buy and install Ring of Pain on Steam and unlock the Daily Dungeon by playing.
2. Start today's Daily Dungeon and read its modifiers.
3. Step around the ring of cards, choosing to fight, loot or sneak past each encounter.
4. Reach the exit of each floor, survive as deep as you can, and check your place on the leaderboard.

Screenshots

Tips

• Watch each creature's shown action before moving: positioning decides most fights.
• Sneaking past dangerous cards is often better than fighting them.
• Read the day's modifiers closely, since they can change which items are worth taking.

Questions