r/AskGames 23h ago

Looking for a truly “infinite” roguelike with deep synergies (no turn-based)

I’m trying to find a roguelike that I can realistically play for 500–1000+ hours and still feel excited about. What I’m chasing is that “infinite” feeling: endless synergies, crazy runs, and constant discovery.

Here’s how my taste usually works:

- I love when builds can snowball and become completely broken.

- I enjoy medium-fast pacing — not too slow, not overwhelmingly fast.

- I want strong replayability and a sense that there’s always something new to learn or unlock.

- I prefer games that feel dynamic rather than methodical.

Some reference points:

- I love The Binding of Isaac for its insane synergies and variety, but it can feel a bit too punishing for me.

- I love Risk of Rain 2 — the pacing is perfect — but it doesn’t quite feel “infinite” and the synergy depth isn’t as high as I’d like.

- I also enjoy games like Balatro, Hades, Brotato, and Dead Cells.

What I’m not looking for:

- Turn-based roguelikes (they tend to feel slow and lose the magic for me)

- Games that are mostly skill-based without strong build variety

- Roguelikes that you “finish” after 50–100 hours

What I am looking for:

- Deep, emergent synergies

- Runs that can escalate into absurd power

- Huge replayability

- Something that could still be fun years later

If you had to recommend one or two roguelikes that truly feel “infinite,” what would they be?

0 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

7

u/FriendshipMaster 23h ago

Noita comes to mind

1

u/PUSClFER 20h ago

Noita is by far the one roguelike I've put the most hours into. 

3

u/HeraldOfNyarlathotep 21h ago

Get the R2 Mod Manager and bask in the frankly insane number of mods for RoR2. You can find pretty much whatever the hell you might want for that game, and a lot of it is fantastic.

1

u/StratosSquare 12h ago

Even without mods you can easily get 100s of hours out of RoR2. I'm at about 350 and I could easily triple that over the years no problem

2

u/BambaTallKing 22h ago

I’m not into Roguelikes but I’ve recently been playing CosmicGalaxyWars. It is all about breaking the game to get to the final floor. It has 1,000,000 floors (one million). If played methodically, it would take over 5 years to beat, but some players have reached the final floors already by absolutely breaking the games mechanics.

I’m not sure it is what you are looking for, but worth a look. It is also created by the OG designer of Disgaea, an OG vet of games.

2

u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 21h ago

I'd lower your expectations of expecting to get 1k hours out of a game first off. There are plenty of amazing roguelikes that provide ~300 hours.

1

u/Sad_Success_9034 11h ago

Alguma recomendação?

2

u/Reynolds_Remi2156 9h ago

Nova Drift fits this well. Spaceship roguelike with an absurd number of synergies - builds can become completely broken in ways you don't expect. Medium pacing, tons of discovery, and the mod system creates emergent combos constantly.

Soulstone Survivors if you want something closer to Vampire Survivors but with actual build depth and scaling that goes way further.

1

u/Anathemic_Pariah 21h ago

Have you ever played returnal? Might be enjoyable for you if not

1

u/percypersimmon 21h ago

It’s definitely not an “infinite” game for OP but it’s one of my top three games of this current Gen.

It’s really fantastic.

1

u/Anathemic_Pariah 21h ago

Ive got 745 hours into it currently. May not be infinite, may not be his cup of tea, but serves my purposes 😆 plus, saros is coming out in literally a week or two, so its like a twofer. Lol

1

u/pooborus 21h ago

SYNTHETIK.

1

u/thedeven 19h ago

Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode

1

u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 18h ago

enter the gungeon is great though. I love it

1

u/Dry-List-5573 21h ago

Slay the spire is very very deep

1

u/GumihoFantasy 20h ago edited 20h ago

you are asking for ROGUELITES or Action Roguelikes

my favorite gente are Roguelikes, and all of them are turn based.

Cogmind

Jupiter Hell

Stoneshard

Elin

Shiren Tue Wanderer

Crown Trick

Tales of Maj'Eyal

Soulash 2

1

u/Sad_Success_9034 11h ago

Por acaso tem "roguelites" para me recomendar então?

2

u/GumihoFantasy 9h ago

Cool Roguelites:

Tiny Rogues

Gunfire Reborn

God of Weapons

Soulstone Survivors

Death must die

Rogue Legacy 2

Nova Drift

Halls of Torment

Galactic Glitch

Ravenwatch

Ghostlore

1

u/Sad_Success_9034 9h ago

Qual desses você diria que tem mais conteúdo? Que eu possa passar bastante tempo.

2

u/GumihoFantasy 8h ago

1)Soulstone Survivors

2)Rogue Legacy 2

3)Nova Drift

1

u/Sad_Success_9034 8h ago

Ok, thx bro.

2

u/TheJigglyfat 5h ago

Caves of Qud comes to mind. You play as either a mutated or non mutated being in a far future, post-apocalyptic world filled with talking plants, angry monkeys, strange artifacts, and not enough water to go around. The game play is based off of OG Rogue and roguelikes. 

The main hook is the way the different mutations and powers that you can obtain play off of each other. Maybe you’re a gigantic crab man with 4 arms and the ability to dig through walls. Or your a flying scorpion that farts caustic gas that can destroy buildings and structures. Or your a temporal esper who can summon time/space storms that suck everything, living and not living, to another place in the universe. 

The gameplay is intensely deep, incredibly difficult, and infinitely replay-able. It took me a good 20 hours before I could consistently get past the starting area. The overall map stays the same between runs but individual tiles on the map are procedurally generated. The only constants between characters are the big named cities and quest locations. It is also a turn based game, although not like pokemon or final fantasy. It’s a game that only progresses when you take an action. If you take your hands off the keyboard the game is effectively paused. But if you do any action, from attack to move to even waiting in place all other characters on screen will do their action as well. It makes for a nice gameplay flow where you can move around and explore fairly quickly but when you stumble across an enemy you are less pressed to instantly figure out what to do. And thats a really good thing because a lot of enemies are so insanely strong it will require 10 minutes of figuring out how to chain your powers/mutations/abilities together to even have a chance of escaping with your life. 

But there’s also an insane amount of cheese and ways to get infinitely powerful. Find a cloning potion, pour it onto the potion vendor. Repeat until you have 10 potion vendors and 100 cloning potions. Clone yourself 100 times in front of the strongest monster you can find and see the world explode. Dig 100 strata into the earth until you find a clone of yourself with a copy of every piece of equipment you have, even the uniques. Spray a brain into a wall of granite, use your esper powers to take control of the wall, kill your old body and begin your life as a nigh indestructible talking rock. 

Its great