Forget carefully balancing attack cards with shields, buffs, and a sensible backup plan. Deck of Stabs launches today with more than 250 weapons spread across four heroes, five worlds, equipment sets, potions, forge upgrades, and hidden abilities.
Developed by RetroAction Games, every card in your arsenal is a weapon, so there’s no filling half your hand with defensive blocks while you wait for something useful to appear. You’re here to stab, smash, poison, curse, burn, and occasionally bring the dead back to help.
Four Heroes, Four Different Ways to Fight
Your first choice is who gets to do all the damage. Steelhand prefers heavy hits, brute force, and stunning enemies before they get much chance to respond. Bladedancer is faster, using cheaper attacks, thrown weapons, and poison. Runecutter brings runes and elemental attacks into the fight, while Hexrazor works with curses, corpses, and eventually raising dead enemies as servants.
Each hero has their own selection of more than 60 weapons, so changing characters also changes what can turn up during a run. They’ll pick up skills as they level too, with an ultimate ability unlocking at level 10. Some help you survive a fatal hit, while others make use of fallen enemies.
Found Something Good? Take It to the Forge
Finding a weapon you like doesn’t mean you have to accept it as-is. Forge Stones let you change how it works. Damage can go up, costs can come down, poison can be added, and certain upgrades can even make attacks heal you.
That gives you room to keep improving something that already works, rather than automatically swapping it out the second a new weapon appears.
Equipment is something else to consider. You can carry up to eight items, including armor, rings, and other treasures, with some belonging to three-piece sets. Complete one and you’ll unlock an extra ability tied to that set.
Potions cover healing, armor, extra experience, dodge effects, and stronger bonuses if you manage to find the rarer ones. Put all of that together and a run can shift pretty quickly depending on what you find and what you choose to upgrade.
Five Worlds and Plenty Left to Find
A full run takes you through the Forest, Desert, Dungeon, Graveyard, and Mountain, each with its own enemies and boss waiting at the end. Getting through all five isn’t the end of the job either. Weapons, items, and skills you discover are added to your collection, opening up more options for later attempts. Challenges then start changing the rules, including runs with no items, no skills, stronger enemies, or a build you’re not allowed to thin out.
There are secrets tucked away too, including hidden abilities, scrolls, and codes that aren’t fully explained upfront.
Deck of Stabs has been a large solo-development project from RetroAction Games, with the demo going through major changes before today’s full release. Now there are five worlds to clear, four heroes to learn, and more than 250 weapons to experiment with. That should keep the forge busy.