Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 03:58 am
Cavern – Adventure Game Review
Cavern is a Adventure/Entertainment/Roleplaying game from Sami Sierla, first launched in 18th December 2009.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 65+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Cavern Stand Out
Cavern is a dungeon crawler in the vein of genre classics like Rogue and Nethack – but with original game world not based on any existing roguelike. Each level is randomly generated so no two games are the same.
Cavern was full of ancient treasure which surface people dug up to keep their high standards of living. Caves were inhabited by hostile creatures of the nether but Mystery Object of the surface kept the evil weak with it's power. Somehow, creatures of the deep managed to steal the Mystery Object and took it to the deepest levels of the Cavern. Now You, the Hero, must retrieve it before it's powers are used against the Surface!
Features:
•Shops to buy equipment and sell treasure
•Three characters to play:
Fighter : strong melee character.
Adventurer : specialises in bows.
Mystic : uses wands and scrolls.
•Vintage game art by DeBray Bailey
•16 randomly generated dungeons
•In-game tutorial
•Over 40 different monsters
•Randomized item attributes and special unique items.
•Online Highscores and ranking for each game played.
•Saves your exact game state when receiving call or switching to another app.
•Juicy sound effects.
•Permadeath
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Cavern is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 25th October 2021
Recent improvements include:
Fixed UI issues with newer iPhones.
Download & Availability
Cavern is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Solid game, simple controls, wish there was more explanations of what some effect meant or did.
It may not be Baldurs Gate 3, but for a good game to whittle away some hours on a trip or something its perfect.
We hate tap to move but at least there is an action button. We love this game we just wish at the very least your character didnt have to finish moving before you can tap again. Also we wish they had an endless mode because once you beat the game its not as fun to replay unless there are more challenges or something. Still 5 stars.
We've found a "walk out of bounds" issue in the "cave shop" level… The area where the exit is located was also generated so far south that the south wall is completely missing, exposing the out of bounds area… Oops! That said, still enjoying it, 500+ playthroughs in.
Great retro style rogue-like. We like the fact that the dungeon levels aren't all rectangular (which makes sense given the name). Also like coming across previous hero bodies to loot and find the hero's spirit fighting monsters for you. One complaint is that followers will follow you back to town but not to other levels? The king gave us two followers, but because we'd teleported to town right before going down the stairs to the next level (which happened to be the last level), they were useless.
We had a great time playing the game through, but it is tremendously easier to play the Mystic class, as its base damage is twice that of the other classes, along with the fact that its a raged attack. Ill be trying the other two classes for a personal challenge, but we highly recommend a balancing fix.
1.) we cannot zoom in and out :( we do not have the best vision and sometimes its a little difficult to see our own character. 2.) we are not sure what level we are on. We do not know if we are missing something or not but it would be cool if you can add a level count in the corner or something. 3.) game crashes after death. Otherwise, A hidden gem in the store. This game is easy to get a hang of, easy to get lost in, and awesome pixel graphics! Keep up the amazing work :).
The game seems fun, but how do we find the secret rooms? Theres supposed to be a tell, but the only way we find them is by clicking in every single wall panel. It makes the game annoying.
Playing the game a few times and found that certain times, usually as we approach farther than half way into the dungeon our game fails to boot up and we have had to retire the game. Not sure what thats about but its not that great after we spent money to buy it. Lol.
Decent roguelike made for the iPhone with its controls. There are better on the market, but this is well made and will keep your interest. Do hate the fact that you have to talk to king each time to start.
Must have missed something, because in our first training bout, we did about 20 rounds of battle with a big, but it seemed to suffer no damage, although we were destroyed. Moving on.
Its a full-fledged dungeon crawl. Very difficult at first, but oh so fun! Ive played off and on for years.
But texts are too small in iPhone XR.
Hey guys thanks for fixing the tutorial with the latest update! Now we can get back to exploring those caves.
Unplayable as retro gamer unless you are new age gamer(gen z or alpha) and like to spam tap without seeing the screen or see what your doing. Unbelievable that such a good what should be retro game wasted for new age gamers.
It doesnt have all the bells and whistles of Nethack but it streamlines the roguelike genre into a very smooth yet still satisfyingly deep game. The controls are the most elegant of any roguelike Ive played. Our suggestions for improvement would be: 1. More items, especially weapons. Not a lot, but the current selection feels a little repetitive. 2. More cross-class applicability for the attributes. For instance, something the wizard can do with strength other than just carry more stuff. 3. More shops at random intervals in the cavern.
We love this game, although its intensely difficult; even when you think you have won, it pulls an almighty surprise! Lots of replayability, and we love spending time on this.
Live the game and recently won and was hoping to beat our high score. How are high scores calculated? Cant figure it out. We see people above us with lower levels and longer play times.
It's a crime this game doesn't have more notoriety. It's a great rogue game. Very challenging, simple to play. It really rewards you for knowing the minutiae of the gameplay. So much of the game is resource management and maximizing your damage output while minimizing risk. Highly recommend.
This game is awesome and worth the buy. Very addicting and just the perfect D&D type game we were looking for. We hope they make another one like this. We exclusively mute all game sounds with the exception of this single game. The sounds are very juicy. Mildly frustrating at first because when you die, you're actually dead. But once we developed a strategy it became very fun. It's more than worth the buy.
Then we played Cavern. We didn't understand it the first couple times we played but once you start learning and understanding all the little quirks and tricks in the game it's really fun. The maps are all procedurally generated so every time you play you'll have to do some exploring. We hope this game comes out with a content update that adds secret floors, more things to explore similar to the water fountains and bookshelves, or more character designs. We like the fact that the ghosts in the cavern are named after other player's characters that died. It's kinda like dark souls how you can summon a ghost to fight with you except instead of a real player it's a dumb cpu. They're useful anyway.
Only played for about an hour but really love it so far..however, we used a scroll of town portal and now our character is unable to move. The app support link just takes you to like an advertisement with a leaderboard so not really sure how to report a bug. Is happening every time we teleport to town..and we end up in the walls when we teleport back.
We are really enjoying this game! We've been on the prowl looking for a faithful Nethack-style roguelike on iOS for years. We're pretty sure we've tried them all, and Cavern is the one we keep coming back to! Very nice work.
The meager amount this costs offers more hours of decent play than many other mobile games. On top of the challenging and rewarding game mechanics, the different play styles adds more variety. Just get it if you think it looks good! You won't be disappointed.
Just played for couple hours, it was really fun.
This game is ridiculously addicting, but we do have one complaint. Even after turning off the walking and ambient noises it still makes sound any time you battle or open containers. It drives us nuts that we can't listen to our music while playing and there's no way for us to shut it off. If they fix that the game will be perfect.
Now, Im a fan of roguelike and indie RPG games, having played such great ones like Tales of Majeyal or Avernum, and this one, unlike many of them that stand out there, doesnt have much to it. You have three basic classes and an attribute system, but the system is so simplistic, it may as well not exist. Putting points in anything other than your main stat (strength, dexterity, or intelligence) or vitality is completely pointless, because theres no more mechanics than swinging your sword, shooting your bow or staff, and using scrolls… If you have a lot of intelligence. Something only mages can do without sucking. So really, the attributes may as well not exist. Just have some health on level up and damage boosts, and you have the same effect. Speaking of the gameplay, it is pretty much just a bare bones dungeon crawler. The only real mechanics to it are positioning and using your weaponry. Throwing in a load of healing consumables for good measure. Combat tends to consist of Move back to the corridor, smack/shoot until things die or you lose health, where you eat a snack, rinse and repeat. It doesnt have any diversity in classes, and it doesnt have any real tactics to it either, so again, its very bare bones in that regard. Now, that isnt to say that we had a bad time playing it. It was just kind of underwhelming. If you want a mindless hack and slash, this is a good game for it. If you want to play a game that stands out and has personality, or that has interesting mechanics and gameplay, this isnt the one.
One of the few Rogue-Like games in the App Store that we've come back to over and over. Very well done.
We're so thrilled that this is being updated again. This game is awesome. One of the few that has had a continual home on our phone.
This is by far our favorite roguelike game for the iPhone, and the new features are great! The new quick-use bar makes using food, potions, and scrolls in the heat of combat a snap. You can quick-swap between two weapons now. There's a nifty tutorial. The king gives you rewards for every new dungeon level explored. So much new stuff, it's almost like a whole new game.
Really happy to see a new update for this excellent roguelike! Good work, excited to explore the new changes.
If you are looking for the perfect little Diablo-esque dungeon crawl, look no further. The update (overhaul) is fantastic. This game has a permanent place on our phone.
We absolutely love this game, and the recent update was amazing. However, it now crashes almost every time we play it and we can't even get to a "losing" place without getting kicked out. Otherwise would be 5 stars.
The game is a lot of fun, but some of the RNG can mess you up right at the beginning. This leads to a lot of frustrating instant deaths the moment you enter the cavern, as you can get swarmed by 8-10 creatures in 2 turns. Later on in the game we experienced many crashes, it seems as though this occurs any time we take elemental damage. If these 2 things could be fixed we would happily give 5 stars.
This is awesome, and why you don't charge us another dollar is beyond us. This could have been a sequel, not an update. Why won't you let us give you a dollar? We want to give you a dollar.
This is one of if not the best rouge-likes around. Perfect for the iPhone and your thumb. Plus it's been consistently upgraded (read: better than updated) through the years.
Perfect. We'll be playing this one for a while.
Finding a very good rougelike on iOS is pretty hard. Definitely the best one on iOS. We highly recommend this game.
It's simple. Clean. And really hard. Very well done.
Loved it. Exactly what we were looking for.
We originally played Cavern not long after its initial release and was surprised to see it was still receiving updates by the developer. Overall the changes they made have made the game much more enjoyable since we last played. The game system is rather simple: four stats, three basic classes, and a small handful of weapons/spells, but we feel its clean enough for quick mobile play while interesting enough to try the various combinations through multiple play throughs. The simple sprite graphics are clean and nice looking and the interface is very usable. Movement and attacking are intuitive and easy to control. One grip we have that has cost us runs are the friendly NPC ghosts that can follow you through the dungeons. Maneuvering around them can be difficult and they can block you in the path of enemies that you otherwise dont want to engage. Overall a very enjoyable game and definitely worth $3 if you like the rouge-like genre.
This is one of the roguelikes we have yet to beat. We were close though! Great game, though the floor with the fire ants is annoying.
Tried so many roguelikes and have always been disappointed. This one was finally worth it.
Great game for IOS. It is challenging because death is final–there are no do-overs. Being one potion short can mean the end of your adventurer's life! We have lost MANY adventurers in the caverns, but enjoyed every second of it. Oh, and we love the sound it makes when you kill a bug, quite satisfying.
This is a very decent and not too hard dungeon crawler for the iPad. This makes it ideal for casual dungeon crawling, which you can come back to anytime. What makes this game shine though and stand out from all the rest is its rogue-like character. When you start a new game everything is fixed (once it comes out) although wares will change now and then as you gain levels. The game features permadeath. Once you die you have to start a new game and then everything is randomized, and you don't find or get the same gear or potions. This makes the game infinitely replay able. Well worth the three bucks. Highly addictive.
This game is easily the one we've spent the most time playing on our phone. It's fairly simplistic, yet the itemization and need to use potions and consumables and tactical positioning still require enough strategy to make things tricky, especially following a little twist thrown in once you actually do make it to the bottom level. Furthermore, the inclusion of set pieces and boss fights means that you're never gearing up in the blind: you WILL face them again if you lose. On top of that, the ability to travel back to the surface at will, to sell or stash things, gives this that extra level of Diablo flavor that so many roguelikes are missing, making gear and food actual commodities, instead of junk to just litter the dungeon floor with. Overall, we'd say Cavern wins out handily over much flashier contenders like Fargoal (which is too Playskool) and even Nethack (too complex and random to be fun on a bus). Ease of play and clarity of focus make this the best roguelike on the App Store.
That's our triumvirate of adjectives on this game. It's just pleasant and a bit addictive. Enjoy.
We're not even a big fan of rogue-likes but this one has a lot of charm. For example if you don't make it to the endgame and die, it's possible you'll encounter your ghost as an ai controlled character that'll help you. It's also possible you'll get helper ghosts from other people too. There are three classes, loot, and while the world is random each game… It's fixed until you die. So drop an item somewhere, it'll be there later when you come back. There's no IAP or other shenanigans, this is a pure premium game.
This is a really fun rogue like. Simple but has enough depth and looting to make each playthrough unique. The only thing we wish was added: seeing the armor and weapon you have equipped on your actual warrior. We were bummed out when we equipped the awesome serpent bow but it only showed the generic bow in gameplay. That's always a fun aspect of an RPG is customizing your warrior. Other than that it's really fun and addictive. We love that it keeps track of details for each run.
There was a major frustrating bug that made us start over when we were on the path to winning, but the Dev responded personally. Later we beat the game, but it took several hours, and there is good replay ability, so we consider it a good buy considering a movie ticket is $10. A solid game in a genre we like.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.6.5
- Size: 114.21 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Sami Sierla
Last updated: 25th October 2021 | Genre: Adventure, Entertainment | Developer: Sami Sierla