Ember Knights Preview: A 2D Coop Roguelite all about random builds

A coop hack and slash meets a roguelite with plenty of build combinations

Craig Robinson

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Asmodee Digital is back with yet another game, this time it’s the Early Access launch of its Roguelite, Ember Knights. Ember Knights is a 2D coop rogue-lite, that pits either solo or a party of up to four players against several levels, mini-bosses, full bosses and a variety of enemies and enemies in a variety of ways. We will provide you with a preview of Ember Knights for those interested in this indie rogue-lite project.

Ember Knights Preview

The aim of the game is entirely about progressing. The game has a few learning curves to overcome in its bosses, especially with its variety of enemies. Don’t be alarmed if you die, instead embrace it and get yourself embers, the meta progression currency in the game. 

There is a feature in the main base of Ember Knights called the Ember Tree. Whenever you die, you get embers, with the value depending on the length of the run, extra ember levels, and timed bonuses. You then can then use these embers to get upgrades, featuring different ways to get health, start with or earn more money during runs, and different ways to get damage bonuses.

Also, you can get these items called Relic Orbs and Skill Tablets after a few runs. These help to unlock much stronger relics and skills. Once they are unlocked, you become eligible to earn better skills and equipment on your runs, creating opportunities to make great builds and interactions. Once you get enough of these, the game certainly gets more interesting. Ember Knights goes from a simple hack and slash rogue-lite to something much more engaging and complex in some instances.

After a few hours, you will find that the game is certainly more interesting than it first presents itself. But, don’t let the fact the meta progression make you think that the game gets easier, as it theoretically doesn’t. Getting good upgrades and creating a meta character build will help you progress deeper into the acts, where enemies’ damage, tactics and health are much stronger. The final boss of the preview build we had access to felt like a raid boss from an MMO. There were plenty of tactics, skills and other patterns to learn. Before we could take it down. In addition, the earlier levels can get tougher, with champion and elite enemies spawning. These are much stronger and more vigorous, with slight variations from their basic counterparts. These enemies are more than capable of taking you down if you are unprepared or disrespect them. You’re best to consider these levels as mini mini-bosses.

The other important factor to take into account is that every run is likely going to feel different. There are very few methods of helping to determine a build you run at the start of a run. All the skills and relics, (character items) are by and large random. They come from certain levels and the mid-level area shops. You are entirely at the mercy of RNG. You’re best to look at what options you are given and adapt and react accordingly as the run goes for the best chance to make it as deep as possible. A few ember passives allow you to get rerolls on either a skill, relic or stat improvement, offering some minor form of luck protection. However, they require heavy investment and many failed runs before you get to that point, and you can only pick one of these before heading into battle. That classical Roguelike experience makes the game feel interesting and tactical regardless of the player’s skill level.

For a more fun experience, the game does feature four-player coop. We didn’t manage to test this with the preview build. But, for those who want something that feels slightly like Castle Crashers, but with a Roguelite spin, this certainly offers those vibes.

Ember Knight’s early access

While the game certainly has its strengths, it is fairly limited at the minute. The game is in early access, and will very likely change, with many more bosses, enemies, relics skills and more added. We will undoubtedly get to see more areas added to the game, making the runs much more dangerous and longer.

It is worth considering all this as the length of a full run, at least in the preview run, was around 25 minutes. So, it is by far not a long game. Anyone who is quite experienced with roguelite games might find much less playtime in its day one early access experience. But, the devs are going to work on it. By the end of the development, there will be plenty of content, challenges and other roguelite goodness to consider. Keep playing the game and providing feedback to help make Ember Knights a great game for its official v.1 release.

Anyone interested in Ember Kngits can take a look at the store page on Steam.