Hadean Tactics

Hadean Tactics: The Roguelite Deck-Builder Meets Auto-Battler

Hadean Tactics is a unique and acclaimed indie game developed by Emberfish Games that strategically fuses the popular roguelike deck-building genre with elements of auto-battler or auto-chess games.¹ Set in the dark fantasy depths of the underworld, the player’s goal is to navigate the six circles of Hell and defeat the formidable Six Wings of Hell using a combination of powerful card synergies and tactical unit placement.²

 Dual-Genre Combat System

The heart of Hadean Tactics lies in its innovative battle system, which splits your attention between two distinct strategic layers:³

1. The Auto-Battle Grid: Combat takes place on an ⁴$8\times8$ grid.⁵ You deploy your Hero and a squad of recruited Souls (units) into the battlefield slots. Once the battle begins, these units act on their own, moving, attacking, and utilizing their unique skills automatically based on their position, stats, and proximity to enemies.⁶ This is the auto-battler layer, focused on initial placement and team composition.

2. The Card Influence Phase: Every seven seconds, the frantic real-time action pauses, and the game switches to a familiar card-based strategy phase reminiscent of Slay the Spire.⁷ You draw a hand of cards from your deck, constrained by an Energy meter.⁸ These cards are Tactics—they are not used directly by your units to attack, but rather to influence the ongoing battle.⁹

 Strategic Depth and Synergies

The true challenge and depth emerge from mastering the interplay between these two systems:

• Tactical Card Play: Cards can be used to dramatically alter the state of the auto-battle.¹⁰ Examples include applying temporary buffs like Might (increased attack) or Shield, inflicting debuffs, or, most critically, manipulating the enemy's positions on the grid using cards like Bash or Slide.¹¹ Knocking enemies into each other or into traps can cause massive collateral damage, rewarding clever card placement.¹²

• Unit Alliances and Relics: Your units belong to various Alliances.¹³ Collecting multiple units of the same Alliance provides powerful, compounding global buffs, much like traditional auto-chess games.¹⁴ Furthermore, discovering and collecting Relics throughout your run grants game-changing passive abilities that can form the backbone of your strategy, similar to artifacts in other roguelites.¹⁵

Roguelite Structure and Replayability

Like its roguelite predecessors, each run is unique, offering massive replayability:¹⁶

• Procedural Map: You chart your course through a procedurally generated nodal map, choosing between paths that offer different encounters like fights, shops, random events, and card upgrade camps.¹⁷

• Deep Customization: The game offers multiple Heroes, each with a unique starting deck and set of skills.¹⁸ Successfully clearing a run also unlocks the ability to create your own Custom Heroes, mixing and matching skills and alliances to craft entirely new strategies.¹⁹

By demanding both foresight in team composition and deck construction, and quick, tactical decision-making during the brief card phases, Hadean Tactics delivers a unique, highly addictive, and immensely satisfying strategy experience.