Starless Abyss is a seriously cool Eldritch-themed space strategy deckbuilder out now

My new favourite deck-builder? Could well be. Starless Abyss released late in April from Konafa Games and No More Robots blending together the worlds of Eldritch horror and deck-builders in a space strategy theme. Note: key provided by the publisher.

I love deck-builders, strategy games and everything space sci-fi so this game is like a little dream for me. Blending together a little from the likes of Slay the Spire, FTL and Into the Breach for the mechanics and theme it’s been a huge surprise that really deserves a lot more eyes on it.

Tested on Kubuntu Linux (25.04), it works perfectly with Valve’s Proton.

Starting off like any good deck-builder you pick your captain, which comes with unique skills and off you go to fight off the Eldritch-themed space horrors that are breaking down reality and causing all sorts of trouble. Then we get to the satisfying gameplay loop where you pick between locations to travel, each with their own different rewards and engage in turn-based card-based combat.

During combat you’ll position your ships around a grid each turn, and then play various cards that each have a different energy cost (energy is replenished each turn). What I really liked for the battles is that cards can be used by any ship in your fleet, but ships individually build up heat and so might be unable to use certain cards. It’s up to you to balance the heat on each ship and thankfully there’s cards that can reduce the heat build up, which also goes down each new turn too.

As you face off against the space horrors and destroy them, they don’t just get removed from the grid. They’ll leave a floating carcass which will block movement and line of sight, so you need to deal with that too. Positioning really is important. Being able to hover over a ship and see what enemies plan is also a nice touch, something I’m glad other games took from games like Slay the Spire so you can keep planning ahead but it doesn’t make it easy.

The events system is a unique one here too. You get special Dice (D.I.C.E), which allow you to bend reality to increase your odds during the events. They won’t guarantee you get everything though, and they’re a limited resource, but a sweet tweak for an events system.

You get to upgrade your fleet as the game goes on too. There’s a shipyard where you can buy new ships to replace one of your current set and each with their own amount of movement, armour, heat and health. Add to that the relics system, where you can give each ship their own set of special buffs (like giving all near ships a shield every turn) and there’s a lot of room to really change your play-through on every run.

Another quite clever addition are the Ritual cards. These powerful one-time bonus cards allow you to do certain actions but they come with a cost. They cause other cards to malfunction, which is a nuisance, but they’re often necessary for survival and the malfunctions only last for the current combat.

Highlights:

• Awaken a Proxima with unique skills and downfalls to help you to take on the horrors.
• Command a fleet of upgradable ships across the universe.
• Make pivotal decisions when encountering obstacles between combat, which could help boost or decapitate your run.
• 6 different factions of cards can be combined, collected and combo-ed to defeat the horrors in your own way.
• Control your fate using D.I.C.E to increase your chances of survival during random encounters
• Embrace the occult using ritual cards to powerfully destroy and beat the competition.
• Earn credits to buy and upgrade your cards•Unlock artifacts on your run to transform your ships powers•Unlock multiple different Proxima’s, each with their own unique set of skills and downfalls.

Really crispy pixel art mixed with some great turn-based combat, a thoroughly weird but interesting premise all wrapped up in some pretty cool tunes. Love it. Absolutely worth getting.

It’s out now and there’s also a demo.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.