Where most action roguelikes cast the player as a chosen hero, UnderMine puts them in control of an expendable peasant—one of many—sent into a cursed mine by an indifferent employer. Death is not dramatic; it is procedural. The next peasant goes in, inheriting what gold was banked and what upgrades were purchased between runs. Thorium released the game on August 6, 2020.
Runs take place across dungeon floors mined and fought through in real time. The peasant swings a pickaxe, throws bombs, and dodges enemy patterns in a top-down action style. What distinguishes the game mechanically is the density of its item interactions: relics, potions, blessings, curses, and prayers can all stack and combine within a single run, creating cascading effects that reward experimentation. Curses are not simply penalties—they are part of a risk-reward calculus that players manipulate rather than avoid.
Persistent progress runs through the hub above the mine. Rescued NPCs, found during runs and returned safely, settle there and offer upgrades that carry across all future attempts. Gold spent between runs improves stats and unlocks options, meaning each failed run still advances the overall state of the playthrough. Boss encounters are staged checkpoints that test how well a given run’s item build has come together.
The game entered early access before its August 2020 full release and received substantial post-launch support. The Royals Update arrived in December 2020, and the WHIP Update followed in August 2021, with a preview and first-anniversary post preceding it that July. A Nintendo Switch version launched in February 2021. A limited physical run through Limited Run Games was announced in August 2022. Thorium announced UnderMine 2 in April 2024; that sequel entered early access in July 2025 and had received two major updates by December 2025. The original game became available on GOG in June 2026.
UnderMine occupies similar territory to The Binding of Isaac—item-driven builds inside procedural dungeons—but replaces Isaac’s religious grotesque with a deadpan workplace comedy and adds a more explicit between-run investment layer tied to NPC rescue rather than passive unlocks.
