Grimoire Groves

Every run in Grimoire Groves puts you in the middle of a spell-crafting decision: which of the four magical elements to lean into, and which spells to combine as you push deeper into a forest that has lost its balance. The game, developed by Stardust and released on March 4, 2025, is a roguelite dungeon crawler in which you play as a witch trying to restore the Grimoire Groves, a magical forest whose spirits have vanished and whose plant creatures are nearly gone.

Combat and exploration are built around a spell system that draws on four elements. Players unlock and collect spells over time, filling out a grimoire, and can mix spells across elements to find combinations that suit their approach. No single element dominates, so runs reward experimenting with balance rather than specializing hard in one direction.

Outside of dungeon runs, the game layers in a creature-growing and foraging system. You collect fruits, craft new spells and consumable items, and raise plant creatures that gradually repopulate the forest. Forest spirits, once found, can be settled around your cottage, where decorations boost both their power and your own, creating a feedback loop between exploration rewards and home-base development. A central mystery threads through all of this: recovering an item called the Rainbow Socks, which is tied to whatever disrupted the grove’s balance in the first place.

Grimoire Groves had a visible development arc before launch. A demo appeared as early as mid-2023, and the project was shown at events including Gamescom and the Wholesome Games Celebration in 2024. A release date announcement came in late 2024, followed by a new demo build ahead of launch. After the March 2025 release, Stardust shipped two patches in the same month responding to player feedback.

A new player’s first hour involves entering the groves, gathering initial spell options, experimenting with elemental combinations in early encounters, and returning to the cottage to plant and tend the first creature before heading back in.