ROGUELIKE ELEMENTS
Optional difficulty tiers the player unlocks and stacks after winning — Slay the Spire's Ascension levels, Hades's Heat — each adding modifiers that make runs harder in exchange for prestige or rewards.
Persistent shortcuts or milestones tied to boss progress in otherwise run-based games — defeated bosses stay dead, or beating them unlocks routes that let future runs skip earlier content.
The player navigates a map that forks, choosing among routes that lead to different encounters, rewards, and risks — Slay the Spire's node map, FTL's sector jumps.
New playable characters are earned through achievements, milestones, or currency, each offering distinct starting conditions, abilities, or playstyles.
A creeping negative meter that accumulates from risky choices — picking up cursed items, lingering in tainted zones, using forbidden power — and inflicts escalating penalties or a transformation when thresholds are crossed.
Every player receives the same procedurally-generated run from a shared daily seed, competing on a common leaderboard with one attempt.
The game's world resets on a repeating cycle — a time loop the player relives, a day that restarts, a cataclysm that recurs — with knowledge (and sometimes select resources) persisting across iterations.
Permanent progression that persists across runs in run-based games: unlocked characters, currencies spent on lasting stat boosts, new items entering the drop pool, story advancement.
The roguelike framing of permadeath: death ends the current run and returns the player to a fresh start, usually within minutes.
Meta-progression that survives death — new items entering the drop pool, characters and starting options unlocking, permanent stat purchases — accumulating across runs in games built on losing.
Levels are assembled algorithmically at runtime — room layouts, enemy placement, item locations — so each playthrough traverses new terrain.
The items available in a run are drawn randomly from a large pool, so no two runs offer the same tools and players adapt to what they find.
Optional encounters or rooms offer greater rewards in exchange for greater danger or cost, letting players self-select their risk appetite.
Optional rule changes applied at the start of or during a run — extra challenge, altered mechanics, or wildcard twists — that reshape how a run plays.
Designated safe nodes between combat where players spend currency, heal, upgrade, or manage their build — the breathing room in a run's rhythm.
At the start of a run, players choose from initial weapons, characters, or configurations that shape the run's early direction and strategy.