This idea of cheating the game itself by manipulating nearly anything and everything is novel and fits perfectly into the game's overall vibe. By spending some of their essences, players can manipulate health bars, move around buffs and debuffs, change the odds during events and more. Disciples who are knocked out during battle will draw from the essence pool to stay alive, but this is costly - and once your essence hits zero, the run is over. While roguelikes have long been viewed as punishing games, sometimes to the point of feeling unfair, Rogue Lords actually lets players turn the tables by cheating the game rather than being cheated. While automatic healing is generally unheard of within the genre, this is because the real health resource to keep up with is the player's overall Diabolic Essence - which controls what is perhaps Rogue Lords most interesting mechanic. Softening this is the fact that (so long as they don't become Vulnerable and take another hit) Disciples' HP and SP doesn't really matter the way health does in other roguelikes. These serve basically the same function, simply corresponding with different types of damage, but they add a new layer of strategy. Every character - Disciple and foe - has two separate health bars, one for Health Points and the other for Spiritual Points. Each round, the player has a certain amount of energy available that each character's ability will draw from. While not itself a card battler, Rogue Lords' combat will be somewhat familiar to Slay the Spire players.

Each run takes place on a randomly-generated map where players can choose which branching path to take determining what they'll encounter that night, whether that's combat, an event, healing, a shop or a surprise. While the roster starts with just three, more characters unlock as the player levels up between runs or emerges victorious. Players will build teams of three Disciples to take on each run, each of which has their own story, abilities and gameplay options. Rogue Lords' premise is pretty simple: you are the Devil and must exert your power over humanity and all that ails it after suffering a defeat against demon hunters.

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