KNELL is a top-down survivor-roguelite with a gothic, undead theme. You pick one of nine characters and fight through waves of enemies across five maps, with a boss fight at the end of each stretch. Your weapon attacks on its own, so you spend the run moving, dodging, and choosing level-up cards to build your character. A single run takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

Your only defensive move is a dodge roll, which gives a short window where you can't be hit.

Features

• Nine playable characters. Each has its own auto-attack, its own set of class cards, and its own ultimate ability.

• Over 40 level-up cards, including chain lightning, orbiting orbs, flame rings, freezing totems, and blood explosions. You get a reroll and a banish each run to shape your draws.

• Evolutions: max out a core ability and combine it with the right keystone card, and it upgrades into a stronger permanent version. You earn these by beating specific bosses.

• Boss fights. A shrinking ring of fire, and each boss drops a relic that changes your later runs.

• Five biomes: Overgrown Ruin, Rocky Wastes, Storm Realm, Hellscape, and Blood Desert.

• Meta-progression: spend the souls you earn on permanent Armory upgrades, unlock new characters, and buy upgrades that make evolutions come sooner. Clearing the final map unlocks New Game+, and optional Dread difficulty levels make runs harder for bigger rewards.

• Full controller support, rebindable controls, and an optional auto-aim.

Characters

• Mourne: melee, auto-swinging with a warping slash ultimate.

• Harlow: a bow that fires piercing arrows in a line.

• Warp: a mage with auto-bolts and a ring of elemental totems.

• Crow: a grenade launcher for clearing packs.

• Roan: a swordmaster with wide arcs and spinning rings of blades.

• Vesper: an assassin who swaps between a sword and a spear, each with its own ultimate.

• Sanguine: a heavy melee fighter who leeches health and rains firerocks.

• Bram: a tank who turns into an invincible beast when his health runs low.

• Malach: a summoner who fields a small army of demons.

The art is from licensed pixel-art asset packs, and the game has a boss-battle soundtrack.