Dungeon Stalkers is a third-person PvEvP dungeon crawler extraction where you loot a dangerous dungeon influenced by a witch against other players. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the early access, and more.
Everything We Know About Dungeon Stalkers
Dungeon Stalkers Plot
As a Dungeon Stalker, you venture into dungeons to seek wealth, honor, and the truth. Fight alongside fellow Dungeon Stalkers as you look to escape the ever-changing dungeons filled with dangerous monsters plagued by the witch’s curse.
Dungeon Stalkers Gameplay
Dungeon Stalkers is a third-person PvEvP dungeon crawler that combines dungeon crawling and the escape survival genre. Choose among 9 different Dungeon Stalkers, each outfitted with their skills and abilities to go against the denizens of the dungeon. Discover and find stronger weapons and armor to fortify yourself as you delve deeper within.
The game features several game modes and matchmaking options that allow players to experience its intended PvEvP design or opt for a purely PvE mode called Adventure, which doesn’t match them against hostile players. Since the game is primarily a live service, it also features microtransactions like season passes and cosmetics that players can purchase to net them more rewards for playing the game.
Dungeon Stalkers Release Date
Dungeon Stalkers was released in Early Access on August 13, 2025 for PC (Steam). The developers have stated that the game will be in Early Access for approximately 12 months or a year.
| Digital Storefront |
|---|
 Steam |
| Free-to-Play |
Dungeon Stalkers Review (Early Access)
Dungeon Stalkers is something.
While I never really expected much out of it since its announcement back in 2023, it was steadily changing throughout its development. What stood out was its visuals and questionable armor mechanic that was relevant to how the game plays out. Even if it looked like a ripoff of the cult classic Dark and Darker, it was a game that was at least trying to make it in a genre that needs more options for you to play. That being said, there are a couple of things that changed during the playtest, but was it enough to make it stand out from the competition in its subgenre?
It Looks Eye-Catching and That’s It
In what can be described as its main selling point, the visuals stand out as the most appealing part of the game. The character designs are distinct and noticeable. While I’m not here to argue semantics about armor and all that, the game at least doubles down on trying to catch as many eyes on it as possible. That, I can respect.
The good things end there, however.
Animations are slow and stiff, to the point where it seems as if they are meant to make you feel that the characters struggle with moving around. Similar to what was already said in the playtest review, the characters’ visuals don’t fit the dark theme and the world it’s trying to build around it.
To make matters worse, the audio aspect of the game is pretty much nonexistent. I was surprised at the intro cinematic since it was better than expected, but the same level of voice acting isn’t in the game. There’s not even a speck of ambient noise and music to really hammer in the atmosphere, which was such a missed opportunity.
Slow, Uninteresting, and Filled with RNG
Playing a normal or quick game of Dungeon Stalkers goes like this: You load in, kill monsters for loot, look for elite monsters for better loot, fight against other players for even better loot, and try to extract afterwards. It’s an oversimplification of how things go, but 80% of matches will involve you trying to kill something. The other 20% will be finding the occasional treasure and other interactable doodads in the area.
Fighting is the main aspect that drives the game, and sadly, I just never enjoyed it. The game is structured in a way where you’re supposed to build yourself up first in the PvE-only matches so that there’s no risk involved. After, you can try your hand in quick matches, competitive (solo), or even ranked if you want way better loot. Quick matches tend to have less risk, since you’re only losing the items in your inventory and not those that are equipped.
So why is the whole loop unsatisfying? Your first few hours will literally be to just farm things for your hideout. The game has a faux base system where you construct and upgrade your base so that you can unlock merchants and buy items from them. When you start the game initially, you only have access to two merchants, and unlocking the rest will require you to upgrade your hideout. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process to get things going and have a way to recover after losing your gear.
To top it all off, fighting isn’t even all that interesting as well. In my experience in both the full release and in the playtest, ranged combatants felt a lot easier to use as opposed to the melee characters. Using Nave and Urud felt much better to kite with, while melee characters like Barad and Hilda felt extremely sluggish and vulnerable. I won’t blame everything on the game, as this could easily be a skill issue, but that’s how it went.
It Costs How Much?!
One of the first things that I noted in the playtest was that the live-service model will be the straw to break the camel’s back. And well, I guess I was right. The monetization of the game is absolutely horrific, with some of these directly increasing the speed of your progression.
It’s not surprising that a free-to-play game will launch with one; hell, some paid live service games already have season passes to be able to milk even more money out of their players. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing, and it’s not even the more acceptable style similar to Helldivers 2, where it stays in the game forever.
While the skins are purely cosmetic, I was still curious about how much they cost since they’re the first thing to pop out in the game’s cash shop. The Dawnlight Bundle
was listed at 2430 Wish Stones with a 10%, and upon checking the currency exchange to know how much real-world money it was equivalent to, my jaw dropped. It cost a whopping $50 for a single premium skin and an emote.
Sure, it looks good, but man, $50 for a single skin and an emote for a completely new game seems insane.
Prime
membership and the monthly subscription stash. Paying for a Prime
membership lets you get priority queue and some items and equipment to get you started. While this isn’t extremely expensive at $5, the fact that you’ll want to get one is due to the priority queueing, and that’s very unfair to the free players.
The game limits your inventory and your stash so that you’ll have to choose and prioritize certain items during your runs and whatever you store after them. Games like Path of Exile offer players additional stash tabs, but tying them to a monthly subscription? That’s MMO levels of robbery.
Did I forget to mention that the new characters are locked behind a paywall? While you can earn them through playing countless games, you can just buy them with real money instead so you can play them immediately.
Everything regarding the cash shop in the game is textbook predatory monetization: the FOMO battle pass and skin bundles, microtransactions, and manipulating the cost of premium currency. Sure, the game is free-to-play, but the sheer number of things that the game has to let you spend your money on is asinine.
It’s Still Not Enough
In a niche genre where your player base is some of the most dedicated, Dungeon Stalkers feels as if it has way too much to push you out instead of inviting you in. Outside of the character designs, the lackluster UI, sluggish gameplay, stiff combat, weak audio design, and predatory monetization really hammer in the game’s state at the moment.
So does it have enough to stand out in its own subgenre? No. If you count its horrible monetization and anime girls, then sure it can. But it just doesn’t have enough to entice players to explore more of the dungeon extraction genre, at least in a good way. Can it be fun? Sure. Most games can be fun if you have friends to play with you, but even then, it might be hard to recommend a game like this to be a 100 hour foray.
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Dungeon Stalkers Product Information
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| Title | DUNGEON STALKERS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 13, 2025 |
| Developer | ONEUNIVERSE Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher | ONEUNIVERSE Co., Ltd. |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | RPG |
| Number of Players | 1-12 (Online) |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Dungeon Stalkers Official Website |
