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Wishlist on SteamSunken Realms Deep Dive: Aedaria Dungeon Guide for the Solo ARPG
Overview
Sunken Realms is a dungeon-crawling action RPG with rogue-lite elements, made by solo developer Brad Warren under the studio name Magic Puncher Games. It launches on Steam September 18, 2026 after six years of development. The pitch: a young man named Alric descends into the cursed underground city of Aedaria looking for the father who vanished years before.
The city fell decades ago. The gods cursed Aedaria, it sank into darkness, and legend says it swallows anyone foolish enough to pass its gates. Adventurers still go anyway, drawn by promises of riches. Alric is not an adventurer chasing gold; he's a son looking for answers. The setup is personal and small: no open world, no battle pass, just a sword, a dungeon, and a question that won't let go.
Warren names his influences openly. The game that inspired him to make his own was Outward, and he wanted that same feeling of adventure and the wide unknown. The storytelling is modeled on Hades, with a campfire between runs where the story unfolds between two friends. The sense of adventure borrows from The Legend of Zelda. Sunken Realms went its own direction over time, but those three reference points run through the whole design: exploration freedom, relationship-driven storytelling, and a loop that keeps pulling you back one more run.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer / Publisher | Magic Puncher Games (solo dev Brad Warren) |
| Genre | ARPG dungeon crawler, rogue-lite |
| Platform | Windows (Steam) |
| Release date | September 18, 2026 |
| Price | To be announced |
| Players | Single-player |
| Settings | Aedaria, a cursed underground city |
| Rooms | 109 hand-crafted rooms across 6 sections |
| Dungeon layout | Procedurally rearranged every entry |
| Combat | Fluid melee and ranged, plus learnable spells |
| Camp systems | Craft weapons, cook food, brew potions, trade, Soul Forge upgrades |
| Difficulty | Escalating tiers when you re-enter the dungeon |
| Controller | Full controller support |
| Demo | Free demo available on Steam |
| Wishlists | 10,000+ before launch |
Who it is for: players who loved Outward's sense of a dangerous unknown, Hades fans who liked the between-run campfire storytelling, and dungeon crawler players who want hand-crafted rooms instead of endless procedurally generated corridors. The 109 rooms are individually designed, then rearranged in sequence, a middle path between full handcraft and full procedural.
Who it is not for: people who need multiplayer or open worlds, players who expect a fast twitch action game without preparation, and anyone allergic to grind-adjacent loops. The camp systems expect you to engage with crafting, cooking, and potion brewing.
Getting Started, First 30 Minutes
A free demo is live on Steam right now, and it was updated for Steam Next Fest. The demo saves carry a taste forward if the structure stays the same as the full game's opening.
- Play the demo first. The demo was rebuilt in 2026 after Warren spent four years on another project; he says it's a night and day difference from the 2022 original. It's the same opening loop as the full game.
- Respect your first descent. The tutorial section teaches melee, ranged, and spell basics through actual combat, read the enemy windups, don't brute-force it.
- Learn the room-arrangement rule. The six sections each contain handcrafted rooms that get rearranged every time you enter. Learn room types by their features, not their position.
- Return to camp early. Your first upgrade matters more than your first extra meter of dungeon. Craft a basic weapon or cook food before pushing deep.
- Read the story at the campfire. The personal story between two friends unfolds between runs. The game wants you to return, and the story rewrites the reason why.
- Set a rhythm: descend, return, upgrade. Don't be greedy on run one. Grab materials, survive, come back, spend at camp, then push a new difficulty tier.
Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
| Mistake | Why It Hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Never returning to camp | Death costs everything unbanked; the camp is where gear, food, and potions convert run loot into permanent progress | Make camp a deliberate stop after every section or two |
| Ignoring cooking and potions | Healing and buffs come from camp prep. Running dry at a boss is a run-killer | Cook food and brew potions before every deep descent |
| Fighting every room blind | Rooms rearrange, so you can't memorize a path, but enemy types stay consistent within a section | Learn each section's enemy set; position yourself to fight on your terms |
| Saving spells for later | Forgotten spells are a core combat tool, not a boss-only nuke | Test every spell you learn in normal rooms until its use case is second nature |
| Overcommitting to one weapon | Claymore and spear play differently; forcing one through every fight is slower than adapting | Practice both early so you can swap to the right tool per enemy density |
| Skipping the story nodes | The campfire conversations are the game's emotional engine and tie into progression beats | Always exhaust camp dialogue before heading back down |
Core Mechanics Deep Dive
The rearranged handcrafted dungeon
Sunken Realms' signature system is a hybrid. All 109 rooms are individually hand-crafted, but the order they appear in is randomized each time you enter the dungeon. The same six sections exist every run, a total of 17 room types per section plus extras, but the sequence changes. This keeps the level design quality of a handcrafted game while giving each run a different map. The July 2026 dev update confirmed all 109 rooms were complete.
Combat: melee, ranged, and spells
The action layer has three tools. Melee is the backbone: the claymore is the heavy, deliberate option and the spear is the fast, spacing option. Ranged combat handles enemies you don't want near you. Spells are the roguelite flex, learn them in the dungeon, then weave them into the melee loop. Recent dev updates focused on improving later-section enemy behavior and redoing the claymore and spear attack animations, so expect the combat feel to be tuned at launch.
The camp and the loops above ground
Between runs you return to camp on the surface. This is the meta-progression hub: craft new weapons and armor, cook food, brew potions, trade, and upgrade your character at the Soul Forge. Materials and gold come from vanquished foes and treasure chests in the dungeon, so the loop is descend → gather → craft → go deeper. The camp is also where the story happens, the heartfelt, personal narrative plays out between two friends around the campfire between runs, in the Hades tradition.
Difficulty tiers and the price of depth
When you're ready, you head back down and choose a greater difficulty for tougher fights and better loot. This is the rogue-lite escalation: deeper sections and higher tiers demand the gear you forged above ground. The game is built so that repeatedly returning to camp and upgrading is the intended way to break through the difficulty walls.
Advanced Tips
The Two-Descent Plan. Don't push to your limit every run. Do one descent focused on gathering crafting materials and gold, return, spend everything at camp, then do a second descent with the upgrades. The first run banks progress; the second run pushes depth. Alternating the two keeps death cheap and upgrades steady.
Soul Forge Priority. Spend Soul Forge upgrades on stats that match your weapon choice. If you're on the claymore, favor damage and poise; on the spear, favor attack speed and stamina. A spread build feels weaker at every checkpoint than a focused one.
Spell Rotation. The strongest combat pattern is spell → melee punish. Open an engagement with a spell that staggers or zones, then close with the melee weapon while the enemy recovers. Save your highest-damage spell for when you're outnumbered, not for the boss.
Read Section Enemy Sets. Because the room order reshuffles but the section roster doesn't, you can preplan your loadout per section. If you know the third section's enemy set, cook the food and brew the potion that counters it before you ever hit the door.
The Re-entry Difficulty Gambit. When you're farming rather than pushing, re-enter at the lowest difficulty tier. It's faster per run, cheaper on resources, and the loot still feeds the camp loop. Save the higher tiers for when you have a completed loadout.
FAQ
When does Sunken Realms release? September 18, 2026, announced August 25, 2026 alongside a release date trailer.
What platforms is it on? Windows via Steam. No console or Mac builds are announced.
How much does it cost? Unannounced. The game has 10,000+ wishlists as of the release date announcement.
Is there a demo? Yes, a free demo is available on Steam and was featured in Steam Next Fest.
Is it single-player? Yes, fully single-player.
Does it support controllers? Yes, full controller support is listed.
How long has it been in development? Six years. A 2022 demo was shelved when Warren took full-time work on another game; development resumed and the game was rebuilt.
What inspired it? Brad Warren cites Outward (which inspired him to make a game at all), Hades (storytelling), and The Legend of Zelda (sense of adventure).
What are the system requirements? Minimum: Windows 7 or newer. Full specs will be confirmed closer to launch.
Is there an open world? No. The design is explicitly focused: no open world, no battle pass. One dungeon city with six sections, camp loops between runs.
How does the dungeon stay fresh? 109 hand-crafted rooms are procedurally rearranged every time you enter, so no run has the same room sequence.
Final Tip and Verdict
Bank your progress. The most common way to stall in Sunken Realms is pushing one long run when you could have done two short ones and converted the loot at camp. Descend, gather, return, upgrade, then go deeper with the loadout that your spending choices built.
Verdict: Sunken Realms is a personal, focused dungeon crawler that wears its Outward and Hades inspirations openly and builds a real identity out of its rearranged handcrafted rooms. For solo ARPG fans who want preparation and story between the action, this is an easy launch-day recommend. If you need multiplayer or a wide open world, skip it. 4/5 for its niche.
Last reviewed by Game How To Editorial. We play each game, verify controls against official sources, and update guides when game mechanics change.
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