Barony is a first-person roguelike dungeon crawler developed by Turning Wheel LLC, set in the cursed barony of the lich Baron Herx, where players descend through procedurally generated dungeons to break his hold on the town of Hamlet. The perspective is old-school first-person, deliberately recalling dungeon crawlers like Ultima Underworld and Daggerfall, but the structure is roguelike proper: permadeath, randomized layouts, no handholding, and death means starting over.
Each run is built around a class chosen from thirteen options, spanning familiar archetypes like warrior, wizard, and rogue alongside more unusual picks such as the joker, sexton, and arcanist. Class choice shapes which weapons, spells, and equipment synergize well, and the loot system runs deep enough that stat analysis and item combinations are a meaningful part of navigating each floor. Traps and monsters are plentiful and unforgiving; the game sits toward the punishing end of the spectrum and does not soften that with tutorializing.
One of Barony’s clearest distinctions within the genre is its cooperative support: one to four players can run dungeons together via local split-screen, internet multiplayer with crossplay, or wireless play between Switch consoles. Players who die mid-run respawn as ghosts with their own limited set of abilities, letting them remain engaged rather than spectating. Three DLCs expand on the base game with additional character classes and playable monster races.
- Permadeath, procedurally generated dungeons, no in-run hand-holding
- Thirteen classes with distinct gear and spell affinities
- Up to four-player co-op with crossplay across platforms
- Ghost mechanics that keep dead players active in the run
- Three DLCs adding new classes and monster-race playstyles
- Free ongoing updates alongside paid content
Barony released on June 23, 2015, and has received sustained development since. By mid-2025 the game marked its tenth anniversary, and Update 4.3.2 added proximity voice chat for co-op sessions. A major content arc built through the back half of 2025 with teaser reveals for new systems including cooking and a magical redesign, alongside previews of new playable characters such as a Salamander Paladin, Myconid Hermit, Dryad Scion, and Gremlin Sapper. This culminated in January 2026 with the V5.0 release, titled Instruments of Destruction: Part 1, which launched alongside the Deserters & Disciples DLC. Hotfix patches followed through early 2026, and as of mid-2026 the team had announced further arsenal expansions in a subsequent major update. The game reached one million players, marked during the 2026 Steam Summer Sale.
