Games Like Darkest Dungeon but Easier (Nine Picks)
The short answer
If losing heroes is what wore you down, play Wildermyth: when a hero goes down in battle you can let them survive with a maiming, and it has the best reviews on this list. If the length was the problem, play Banners of Ruin, which takes about 9 hours to finish (as of October 2026). For the same party-in-a-dungeon rhythm in about a fifth of the time, play Iratus: Lord of the Dead, about 12 hours on HowLongToBeat (as of October 2026). If you would rather keep Darkest Dungeon itself, its Radiant mode is built to take less time to finish, though heroes still die for good.
Below are nine games on Steam, sorted by what they take off your back: permanent death, the long campaign, the dread, or the weight of a party you run alone.
Updated October 2026.
Why do people want an easier Darkest Dungeon?
Darkest Dungeon holds 91.7% positive across 162,858 Steam reviews (as of October 2026), and it is built to grind you down. Its store page lists “character permadeath” and an Affliction System where heroes break under stress into paranoia, masochism and fear. Between trips you rest them at the Tavern or the Abbey to bring the stress back down. The campaign is long too: HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about 57 hours (as of October 2026).
A Darkest Dungeon-like is a turn-based party RPG where you lead a small team of fragile heroes through dark dungeons, manage their wounds and stress between trips, and accept that some of them will not come back.
This list assumes you want to drop one of those parts and keep the rest, so each game below gives up at least one of them: the permadeath, the 57 hours, the dread, or the weight of a party you run alone. None of them is a cozy game, and Iratus and Vambrace still kill heroes for good.
Which games like Darkest Dungeon are easier?
The “What it takes off your back” column is my reading of each store page, compared with Darkest Dungeon. “Hours to finish” is the HowLongToBeat main story average, rounded to the nearest hour.
| Game | What it takes off your back | Hours to finish (HowLongToBeat, as of October 2026) | Mac | Regular price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews, % positive (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildermyth | Death in battle is your choice: a hero can fall back maimed | 28 | Yes | $24.99 | 18,288 (94.6%) |
| Gordian Quest | Permadeath only on hardcore; elsewhere death is a setback | 20 | No | $19.99 | 6,047 (88.6%) |
| Black Book | No roster to lose; a lost battle can be restarted | 21 | Yes | $24.99 | 6,755 (92.2%) |
| Banners of Ruin | Short runs, and every failed run unlocks cards | 9 | No | $19.99 | 3,242 (78.8%) |
| Vambrace: Cold Soul | Your lead character always wakes up again in the hub | 8 (3 players logged) | Yes | $24.99 | 953 (65.6%) |
| Iratus: Lord of the Dead | About a fifth of the hours, difficulty from novice up | 12 | Yes | $29.99 | 8,275 (85.5%) |
| The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos | The dread: a comedy, with a story mode | 32 | Yes | $34.99 | 8,101 (87.2%) |
| Loop Hero | The party: one hero, and you build the map he walks | 29 | Yes | $14.99 | 36,576 (92.7%) |
| Across the Obelisk | Running the party alone: co-op for up to four, Casual as its first tag | 27 | Yes | $19.99 | 13,167 (79.9%) |
| Hellmate (ours · unreleased) | Not the easy option: melt the king’s HP before your turns run out, with permanent upgrades between runs | Not out | Yes | Not set | None yet |
Prices are Steam’s regular US prices (as of October 2026). Sale prices on Steam change from week to week.
Which ones take permanent death off the table?
Wildermyth
Start with Wildermyth if losing a favorite hero is what made you quit Darkest Dungeon. Its store page offers “a new approach to death”: when a hero is struck down, you can let them “fall back” with a maiming that changes their story, or let them die in a blaze of glory. Heroes age, fall in love and retire over a campaign, and you can add favorites to a roster of legends and bring them back in later playthroughs. It also has multiple difficulty levels and co-op. It holds 94.6% positive across 18,288 reviews (as of October 2026), and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Gordian Quest
Gordian Quest is for players who want the dungeon-crawl structure with a safety switch. Its store page puts it plainly: “take on hardcore mode for a teeth-gritting permadeath experience, or play more casually where death is only a setback.” You lead a party of three from ten hero classes through a four-act campaign, and fights are played with cards. A separate Realm mode is the faster roguelite option. HowLongToBeat puts the main campaign at about 20 hours (as of October 2026). Windows only.
Black Book
Black Book suits players who want the folk-horror mood with a single hero. You play Vasilisa, a young sorceress in a world built on Northern Slavic myth, fighting demons in card battles and performing exorcisms to solve the woes of common folk, as its store page describes. There is no party to bury. In August 2021, Update 1.0.36 added a quick restart button to the Game Over screen, and Hotfix 1.0.24 added an offer to skip a battle entirely after five losses, or three for puzzle battles, on every difficulty except Nightmare. It holds 92.2% positive across 6,755 reviews (as of October 2026).
Which ones cut the hours?
Banners of Ruin
Banners of Ruin is the shortest reliable pick here, at about 9 hours to finish on HowLongToBeat (as of October 2026). On its store page you fight through the city of Dawn’s Point with a party of up to six characters, each adding cards to one shared deck. Party members can still fall, and a run can still fail, but the game softens that: you “earn tokens after every run to unlock new cards and passives.” It is the one to try if you liked Darkest Dungeon’s party building more than its dungeon crawling. Windows only, at a regular $19.99 (as of October 2026).
Vambrace: Cold Soul
Choose Vambrace if you want Darkest Dungeon’s expedition loop, stress stat included, with a lead character who cannot die for good. It is also the weakest-reviewed game here, at 65.6% positive across 953 reviews (as of October 2026), which Steam rates Mixed. You plan expeditions from an underground hub into a frozen, cursed city, and its store page warns that you can “condemn your comrades to permanent death.” The Vambrace wiki explains the softer part: each character has Health and Vigor, a stress stat, and when your lead character Lyric hits zero on either she wakes up in the hub with her items and companions intact. Companions who hit zero are gone. Its 8-hour HowLongToBeat time (as of October 2026) rests on only three logged players, so treat it as rough.
Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Iratus gives you the same rhythm of party combat and dungeon rooms in a far shorter campaign: HowLongToBeat puts it at about 12 hours (as of October 2026). Here you play the necromancer, and as its store page explains, you can kill enemies by draining their sanity, so the sanity meter is a weapon in your hands. It keeps permadeath: “minions that die are gone for good and the game saves automatically.” What makes it easier is choice, with “various difficulty levels, satisfying every type of player from novice to hardcore.” It holds 85.5% positive across 8,275 reviews (as of October 2026). For more turn-based games in this mood, see our list of dark fantasy strategy games.
Which ones drop the dread?
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is the one for players who liked Darkest Dungeon’s turn-based fights and hated its gloom. It is a comedy based on a French audio series that parodies role-playing tropes, and you lead seven clumsy classic heroes, the Ranger, the Elf, the Dwarf, the Barbarian, the Magician, the Ogre and the Thief, through one big dungeon. Its store page describes an adaptive difficulty system that runs “from an accessible and fun story mode with simplified combat” up to a nightmare mode. It is the longest game here at about 32 hours on HowLongToBeat, and the most expensive at a regular $34.99 (as of October 2026).
Which ones shrink or share the party?
Loop Hero
Loop Hero takes away the roster entirely. There is one hero, and you build the map he walks: its store page has you place enemy, building and terrain cards along the loop, then spend what he brings back on upgrades to the survivors’ camp. A failed expedition costs you loot. The Loop Hero wiki notes that retreating at the campfire keeps all your loot, while retreating mid-loop costs 40% of it, and its Camp Items page shows that dying costs a share too. It has the most reviews on this list, 36,576 at 92.7% positive (as of October 2026), and the lowest regular price, $14.99 (as of October 2026).
Across the Obelisk
Across the Obelisk lets you share the party. It is a roguelite deckbuilder where you control four heroes alone, or split them with up to three friends in online co-op with crossplay, as its store page explains. Casual is the first tag on its Steam page (as of October 2026), and the store page points anyone “looking for a tough roguelike challenge” to a separate Obelisk mode. It has 500+ cards and 16 heroes to build from. HowLongToBeat puts the main adventure at about 27 hours (as of October 2026). If you want more deckbuilders after this, our post on games like Monster Train has them.
Which one should you play first?
I would start with Wildermyth if your problem with Darkest Dungeon was losing people you cared about, and with Banners of Ruin if it was the hours. If you would rather stay with Darkest Dungeon itself, its Radiant mode is the shorter version of the same game: the developer’s February 2017 update notes describe it as “intended to take less time overall to complete,” with heroes leveling faster, while monsters keep the same stats and “nothing about permadeath has changed.” For roguelites where the town between runs matters as much as the run, see our list of roguelites with management between runs.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Hellmate, sits beside this list as the opposite of what the title promises. Its Steam tags include Perma Death, Dark Fantasy and Dark (as of October 2026), and its store page sets you a turn limit: you melt the king’s HP before your turns run out. It is roguelike deckbuilding chess across the seven floors of Hell, where each floor belongs to a deadly sin and every sin crowns its own king, so it is for the reader who came for the gothic mood and still wants a fight. It is unreleased, due on Steam on 19 January 2027 (as of October 2026), so there are no reviews to point at, but the Hellmate demo is playable now on Windows and macOS.
If the chessboard part is new to you, our explainer on what a chess deckbuilder is covers it, and our list of strategy roguelikes has more runs that do not go easy on you.
Quick answers
Does Darkest Dungeon have an easy mode? No. Radiant mode, added in February 2017, shortens the campaign by speeding up hero leveling and loosening several mid and late game rules. Monsters keep the same stats and heroes still die for good, and the developer’s notes say the mode “is still challenging.”
Which of these let you switch permadeath off? One does it outright: Gordian Quest makes permadeath part of its hardcore mode only. Wildermyth lets you choose a maiming when a hero falls in battle. Black Book has no roster at all: you play one heroine and can restart lost battles.
Which one is the shortest? About 8 hours, for Vambrace: Cold Soul on HowLongToBeat, though only three players have logged it. Banners of Ruin, at about 9 hours from 33 logged players, is the safer figure. Darkest Dungeon’s own main story is about 57 hours.
Is Darkest Dungeon II any shorter? Per run, yes: its store page says each expedition lasts from 30 minutes to several hours (as of October 2026). You still manage your heroes’ stress and how they get along, and our list of dark fantasy strategy games covers it in more detail.
