The Dungeon Beneath offers players an inviting opportunity to explore a dungeon, slay a variety of monsters from skeletons to floating eyes, outsmart their leaders, defeat a couple of gods, and then do it all over again. In this great tactical rogue-like auto-battler, you start by picking a hero (or letting the game select a random one for you). Then you work toward creating a synergistic party and positioning your team for success against your enemies, one automated battle at a time. The more enemies you overcome, the more gold, gear, and experience you’ll have to level up and outfit the party members you like and replace the ones you don’t, which will make battling the deeper dungeon denizens easier and more fun.

The hero you choose will have an ability and start with one or more helpful relics. On my last playthrough with the hero Taz’gyn, he started with the relic Lyra’s Quiver (in addition to the Essence Distiller he always carries, which is useful for damaging all enemy units once after the first round of each battle). This relic increases the attack of Archers on your team, and I hadn’t used a lot of Archers in previous playthroughs, so I thought it would be fun to stack my team with them this time and decimate my enemies with arrows. (I was right; it was very satisfying.)

After you choose a hero, you’ll start off with three party members: two Followers and a random Mage, Archer, or Fighter. Followers are weak, they have no special abilities, they can only equip one piece of equipment, and they cannot level up. So once you’ve won a battle or two and earned some gold, they should usually be dismissed at a Campfire and replaced with better party members. The “A True Leader” Achievement is available for anyone brave enough to reach a god battle with a Follower still in their party, but even after almost 40 hours of playtime, I still haven’t tried it yet.

In addition to Taz’gyn and the standard two Followers, I started my last run with a Druid. They’re a variety of Mage that can summon two allied beasts after the first round of each battle, and leveling them up allows them to summon progressively stronger beasts. They’re one of my favorite party members, so I decided to keep the Druid while I looked for Archers at Campfires.

Your hero can only be targeted when an enemy has no other valid targets, so always put party members in all of your enemies’ way. (Damage to your party members heals after each battle, even for those who died, but damage to your hero will linger and can only be healed in a small number of ways.) In similar fashion, the enemy leader cannot be targeted unless your party members or hero have no other valid targets in front of them.

You can move your party members and your hero around freely before you begin each battle, which allows you to position Fighters with higher health or defensive abilities on the front lines (if you’re using them, unlike me for much of this last run). Most Mages belong on the back lines, where they can deal damage. All the Archers I have used can attack from either the front or the back, which allows for a nice amount of freedom.

After you begin each battle, only heroes and party members with the uncommon “Inexhaustible” ability can move between rounds without losing a chance to attack that turn. So as important as it is to start with your hero and party members in the right place for the enemies you’re facing, it’s also imperative to know when to reposition them and when to leave them put.

You’ll find different and more difficult foes on every floor of the dungeon, and you’ll need to come up with different strategies to overcome them. Their mechanics are quirky and fun. Some enemies switch positions after they attack, others get more powerful when you defeat their allies, and others can target any of your party members no matter their position.

Defeat enough enemy teams, and you’ll reach a boss for that dungeon level. (You may notice what boss is coming next if you keep an eye on the statues around you as you progress.) Defeat the boss, and you’ll get to choose one of three new relics. One relic increases the power of your hero’s first attack, another heals your hero a little at the beginning of each battle, and there are many more to choose from. You may get choices that align well with your current strategy, or you may not.

Between battles, a Campfire is just one of the rooms you can choose to visit. Other rooms include a Merchant selling gear (like bows that increases an Archer’s attack), a Witch selling potions (like one that increases a party member’s experience level), and so forth. But you’ll always have to pick between one of two rooms, and the amount of gold you’ll have to spend in that room will usually be limited.

Since there are only two kinds of Archers available in the beginning level of the dungeon, I knew I needed to find one of them early on for this last run. Campfires at deeper levels have higher level and different party members available, so I also knew I wanted to wait to buy some better Archers at later Campfires.

Luck was not on my side at my first couple of Campfires, so it took me a while to find my first Archer for this run: an Aguatilis. I had to click “Refresh Campfire” a few times at the cost of one gold apiece, which added up quickly. But finding my first Archer was paramount to creating a team that worked well with my hero’s relic, so I was willing to waste some gold trying to get one.

Having an Aguatilis on the team also meant that every time an ally died, the Aguatilis’ next attack would cause more damage. Abilities that trigger when your allies die pair well with summoned units, which count as allies and are unlikely to survive a whole battle anyway, especially when I so frequently put them in harm’s way intentionally just to keep other party members alive. So my Druid and my Aguatilis were good companions.

On a deeper level of the dungeon, I found my second Archer: a Night Marksman, whose next attack is buffed every time an enemy dies. So now whether allies were dying or enemies were dying, one of my Archer’s next attacks was always getting more powerful. Power increases started happening frequently in most battles, especially when Taz’gyn would pull out his Essence Distiller and kill multiple low-health enemies at the same time.

Soon I had picked up my third Archer: a Ranger, whose next attack is buffed every time an ally is summoned, another nice pair for my beloved Druid. My now very offensive team made quick work of most of the enemy teams I encountered throughout the last level of the dungeon, allowing me to progress to the god Illifar faster than I ever had before.

I reached him in less than 60 rounds of combat this time, which is the requirement to receive the “Speed Run” Achievement. (Alacrity has never been my strength really, so this was not something I ever expected to accomplish.) I also earned the “No Tanks” Achievement for challenging him without any Fighters. Luckily, that Achievement is not dependent on defeating him because tanks are extremely helpful in battling a god, and I did not win without one. You need a little defense to take down a god, it turns out, and Illifar slowly overcame me this time.

The game knows I’ll be back though. The dungeon feels deep at first, and the path to the gods seems long and grueling, but making the right choices along the way gets easier with each playthrough (even at times when luck just isn’t on my side). And there are still strategies I haven’t tried and a lot of party members left to unlock. I may wait to see if some new enemies, dungeon levels, or even just new pieces of equipment are released in a future update before jumping back in though. Playing on a higher difficulty hasn’t offered a different enough experience so far and won’t keep me entertained forever. But I’ll definitely be waiting to see what Puzzle Box Games does next.