Dome Keeper

Most roguelikes plant the player in a dungeon and send them deeper. Dome Keeper, developed by Bippinbits and released September 27, 2022, inverts that rhythm: you dig down not to progress but to gather resources, then sprint back to the surface before the next wave of alien attackers dismantles the dome you are sworn to protect. The tension lives entirely in that tug between greed and caution.

Each run is built on a procedurally generated underground map threaded with ore deposits, caves, and relics. The player drills tunnels manually, physically hauling resources back to the dome rather than collecting them automatically. Delivery triggers the upgrade economy: players can reinforce dome defenses, accelerate the drill, improve movement speed, or unlock gadgets, and because each run presents a different map and a different sequence of decisions, no two runs resolve the same way. Dozens of secondary gadgets supplement four primary ones, adding meaningful variance to each attempt.

Combat is active rather than passive. Between mining trips the player operates the dome’s weaponry directly, tracking enemies that approach from air and ground along distinct movement patterns and with distinct attack methods. Timing the return from a deep dig against the incoming wave timer is the game’s central skill expression. Customization extends to the choice of two keeper types, four dome variants, and run modifiers that adjust difficulty, giving players substantial control over how punishing any given attempt feels without softening the underlying structure.

Multiplayer arrived in April 2026 as part of the major Lost Keepers update, adding four-player cooperative defense and a competitive versus mode where players race to survive longest or deliver the most resources. That same update introduced two new keeper characters, the Beastmaster and the Infiltrator, expanding the roster meaningfully. The game’s update arc traces from its 2022 release through iterative patches into this substantial 2026 expansion, with the Lost Keepers content receiving several rapid follow-up patches through May 2026.

Where Deep Rock Galactic spreads its mining-and-combat loop across cooperative missions, Dome Keeper compresses the same tension into a solitary, timer-driven oscillation that never lets pressure fully release.