Circadian Dice is a free strategy video game wherein you fight evil with the power of your dice. Developed by Shuffle Up Games, this 2D rogue-lite game features dice-based combat that’s been inspired by single-player deck-building games. Here, you must dabble in probability manipulation, repetition, and risk-taking in order to build a powerful set of dice. This game has high replay value thanks to its variety of character classes, upgrade opportunities, and game modes.

Fix the corrupted time

The story of Circadian Dice begins with the malevolent intentions of a cosmic entity. It has twisted time into an endless cycle and aims to control reality—abolishing the power of probability. However, a group of warriors somehow managed to step outside this unnatural cycle and can now fight back against the dark forces. You get to play with 6 unlockable character classes: Cleric, Elementalist, Barbarian, Necromancer, Ninja, and Timebender. You can only use one per scenario.

This game is a turn-based dice-building experience wherein you wield a set of dice and the abilities on their six sides to take action during the battles. These actions include basic attacks, arrow attacks, shield defense, healing, and getting coins or gems. Your character’s abilities can be used with enough gems but have limited use. The enemies will come in waves and you have only a few turns to defeat each wave to progress to the next one. 

After each scenario, your levels and dice are reset. However, you retain any upgrades, relics, abilities, and modifiers you’ve unlocked. There are 11 scenarios—available in Normal and Hard modes. You can also unlock the difficult Endless and Campaign modes. Beginners at deck-building strategy games may find this one overwhelming but the tutorial is always accessible. However, players eager to nab five-star clears of each scenario are always forced to choose the streak bonus as their reward.

A great dice-based game

Circadian Dice looks like a simple game at first—especially if you’ve dabbled with games like Slay the Spire and The Endless Wyrd. However, it has a surprising amount of depth with its vast amount of combos and its extensive tutorial and active tooltips. While getting five-star high scores for every scenario will require you to always get the streak bonus reward, that’s a small issue in an otherwise thrilling strategy game.