Last updated on June 4th, 2023 at 05:00 am
Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG
Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG is one of the best $4.99 to play game in the App Store.
Developed by Rick van der Wal, Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG is a Role Playing game with a content rating of 9+.
It was released on 11th March 2021 with the latest update 13th May 2023
Whether you are a fan of Role Playing, Card, games, you will find this game interesting and will absolutely like it.
Rating
357 people have rated 1.8.08
You can download the game Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG from APP STORE.
Description
Play as a cunning rogue, a brutal warrior, or a mysterious Seeker wielding arcane magic. Or create your own class and play as who- or whatever you want to be! Start playing today, create a unique deck with access to over 600 cards and see how far you can venture into the corrupted lands of Umbris.
STRATEGICALLY CHALLENGING
Every step of your heroic journey offers new tactical choices to improve your deck and strategy. Collect cards that match your playstyle, avoid disastrous events and build your strategy before the forces of evil overwhelm you.
UNIQUE TAKE ON CARD GAMES
Dawncaster offers unique mechanics to even the most veteran card game players. Though most of the gameplay should feel familiar, the ability to combine class mechanics into deck building, weapons, enchantments, and its unique energy system are exciting additions to the card game genre!
VENTURE INTO DARKNESS
Discover the mystery of the missing ‘Dawncaster’, a hero of legend who has been lost in the corrupted realm of Umbris. Slay monsters and explore the darkest depths of a desperate world through handcrafted illustrations, dialogue and shape its future through your choices.
ACCESS TO ALL CARDS & CONTENT
Dawncaster is offered as a complete deck builder cardgame. You get access to all cards, classes, and content with your purchase. No need to buy packs, tokens, or waste time on timers or ads. Future content will be offered through expansions at the same, single price per adventure kind of deal.
ROGUELITE GAMEPLAY
With randomized encounters, unique classes, and choices to explore, playtime could easily reach the tens of hours for those that enjoy a challenge! Additional difficulty options are available for those that seek to push the limits of their strategic insight (and/or luck).
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
As a (very) small indie development studio we’d love to hear from you on our discord server. Drop in, give us your feedback and/or support, and get involved in the next step for Dawncaster.
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/pfeMG9c
Website: https://dawncaster.wanderlost.games
Updated on 13th May 2023
New in patch 1.8.08:
- Balance update to the ‘Riphide Ramparts’ map
- Balance changes to various cards and talents
- 2 New talents
- Bugfixes
Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG Reviews
We have spent probably 300+ hours on this game. We’re still discovering new builds, and that’s the aspect of this game that we like the most. The developers are out of this world with regards to updating and balancing the game. From the discord, it is clear that they are very involved and receptive to feedback. We whip this game out whenever Im in line, whenever we need to pass time, whenever Im bored in bed, bored at work, etc. The game itself is balanced. For the most part. Hard difficulty is indeed hard, and impossible difficulty is appropriately satisfying. The game requires that you really do need to have at least some level of knowledge to really thrive at the higher difficulties, but the learning curve is appropriate. We’ve zero hesitation to buy any future expansions. The gameplay itself is very satisfying, and the animations and speed/responsiveness leaves nothing to be desired.
You cant see the cards to figure out what you are playing. At rest they are obscured by the unneeded design elements. When you move/play them it drags from the middle of the card so your finger is always in the way. Not sure how something so bad could make it to a final release. IMHO this is not even playable on the phone. The tutorial is useless for teaching the game leaving the player to try and figure out the mechanics as they go.
The top deckbuilder. Keeps getting better and better.
We are very glad to have stumbled upon this great game with amazing dev support. The game is simple enough to jump into, but there are plenty of interesting mechanics that keep the game fun. We’re also a huge fan of the design. We’ve been playing similar games for the last few years – Roguelite deckbuilders are one of our favorite genres but it’s been tough finding one with good support and replayability. We have found a few good ones out there but they seem to have been forgotten about, not having received updates in months/years. This is not only one of the best mobile games we’ve ever played but the care and attention the developer puts into this is unlike anything we have seen before.
This game is absolutely a blast to play. Awesome art for cards, environments, and creatures. Lots of options to explore during your runs and tons of build variety and planning. Im not usually into card games but this one definitely pulled us in. Bought the expansions and we will for sure be buying ones in the future to support the developers, great job guys!
This is a very good deckbuilder with an active community and dev team. Highly recommend. The game runs well. There is no PvP.
We normally dont write reviews for games, but this one is an exception. We were looking for a rogue-like card game and came across this as a suggestion. Read the reviews, looked at the pictures, decided to give it a shot. Needless to say we’ve been hooked ever since. We’ve been playing this for months now and we’ve never gotten bored of it. Theres endless replay value, its tough enough to make you think about how to build your deck to win, but not hard to the point where youre going to bang your head against the wall. 10/10 would recommend.
This game is perfect. We’ve played MTG since beta, but we got burned out once we recognized the pay to win nature in competitive after a few years. We’ve since found a few games that came close, but always fell short of what we wanted for one reason or another. Dawncasters not only scratches that Johnny play style itch for us without having to keep up with the joneses, but does so with amazing artwork and a rewarding progression system. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Fantastic card design and class unlock design. Kept us playing all the way through full class unlocks because each one made new card synergies possible. A couple of tweaks we would like to see: Quests auto refresh once completed and one run in which completed is over. With so many cards, shop size should be larger. Maybe each level the selection increases. Single color runs are much more 1 dimensional than dual color runsthis is because of the transmuting mechanic. There are limited epics and legendaries to transmute into for single-color. There are 3x as many for dual color. Since the most powerful cards shape the deck, that means 3x the variety in dual color runs. Perhaps fix this by allowing us to pick the color to transmute into before showing the three cards. That way if Im blue but am looking for a blue-green card to complement our deck, we can get a shot at it when transmuting.
Other than maybe slay the spire this is the best mobile game we’ve played. Bought both expansions and have been playing non stop. Not even close to unlocking all the different ways to play not gone into the higher difficulties. We wish more studios would follow this way to design. The quality is top notch.
Lots of content, different mechanics for each class to build around. Probably the best mobile game we’ve ever played because it’s fully featured and deep, nice visuals, and many mechanics. If you’ve played slay the spire, it will feel quite familiar. Quite a lot of mechanics that you can build around relative to some other deck builder roguelikes we’ve seen on mobile :) Cons: – A bit slow for experience unlocks of new starting options – Can feel a bit limiting in terms of cards you use because you can’t really set up a deck around certain mechanics (e.g. Souls). At least not with the initial decks.
We’ve been playing this game for so long, we had to uninstall it so we could start over from scratch and the enjoyment hasnt seemed to have abated yet. So many different cards and combinations, upgrades, tricks, buffs, its very enjoyable. And now with the Soulforge, a whole new level of challenge is available. The devs regularly update the game and usually, the updates are free. They never stop tweaking the game and sincerely listen to their customers suggestions. Best purchase we’ve made in all the years we’ve played mobile games. We cant gush about this product enough!
Edit: back to 5 stars. There is a way to tell the crappy event apart from the rest. Thank you for that, devs. This game is great. Theres a surprise confrontation that has a creature remove cards from your deck permanently with no recourse. Everything else we have encountered to this point has been fantastic. We abhor this mechanic and am considering asking for a refund on this one encounter alone. We cannot express our loathing enough for this sort of thing. Admittedly we’ve only been playing for a short time, and we force quit once we realized what was happening. We cant decide whether to continue or just give up on the game. We honestly dont even know if theres an opportunity to get those cards back if we decide to approach that encounter again. Ill give it a bit more because literally everything else we’ve experienced so far has been incredible. Is this a core game mechanic that we can expect? If so, ok, this game might not be for us. Our best recommendation is probably this: if you like games like slay the spire and wouldnt mind if cards randomly get removed from your manicured deck during a run, this game is awesome. Im just very upset at the moment and we havent gone back to the game yet. We knocked down the rating from a 5 to a 3 for this one encounter alone. If we play more and it turns out we misunderstood the encounter, this goes to a 5/5 without a doubt. If we get a suggestion to just play in story mode: 1/5. The fun part of these games is developing synergies. Having that taken away due to randomness is infuriating to the point of quitting.
Too much random negative effects. Can hardly play any cards because of all the negative effects. And we dont even know why. Random frozen cards. Random damage. We understand Roguelike and the different play throughs and strategies. Too often you dont have control of anything. If you dont have any control of the rounds whats the point of even playing? This game wants you to lose. A lot. And it wants you to quit playing. So we did. Deleted. Worst RNG ever and worst game on the App Store.
This game is absolutely a blast to play. Awesome art for cards, environments, and creatures. Lots of options to explore during your runs and tons of build variety and planning. Im not usually into card games but this one definitely pulled us in. Bought the expansions and we will for sure be buying ones in the future to support the developers, great job guys!
Just like to thank the developers for fueling our gaming addiction and new love for deck builder games. Im going to put an ungodly amount of hours into this game. We were hooked after our first run.
This is the best deck builder game on the Apple Store thanks for making this game.
Crashes every time we try to open the game.
Was a little put off just based off the pictures but Im so glad we bought this game. The graphics are actually really awesome and the gameplay is very well put together. Bunch of classes and cards to mix and match. So glad we bought this game. Keep up the good work devs!
Picked this up on sale and am very impressed with the quality, wasnt expecting that. We would love it if they ported the iPad version to macOS, it would play great there and probably wouldnt require too much development.
We are very glad to have stumbled upon this great game with amazing developer support. The game is simple enough to jump into but there are plenty of interesting mechanics that keep the game fun. We’re also a huge fan of the design. We’ve been playing similar games for the last few years. Roguelite deckbuilders are one of our favorite genres but it’s been tough finding one with good support and replayability. We have found a few good ones out there but they seem to have been forgotten about, not having received updates in months/years. This is not only one of the best mobile games we’ve ever played but the care and attention the developer puts into this is unlike anything we have seen before.
Youve played these games or you wouldnt be considering buying this one. We’ve played them too. Dozens of them. Dawncaster is far and away the best representation of this genre that we’ve ever played. We could gush in wonky nerdy ways about specific mechanics in the game, but Ill suffice it to say if you were looking for another looping card battler game to play, this is the one right here. The expansion content is well worth your investment, but isnt at all necessary to fully enjoy the best parts of the game. Developer support is too notch for this one too. It hits all the notes, go ahead and buy it.
We’ve played a lot of deck builders. It is our favorite type of mobile game. This one has kept us invested the longest after 200 hours in StS. Great classes. Huge variety of build possibilities. Very, very active devs that really care about the game. If you like deck builders, Buy it and the two expansions (and maybe a cup of coffee). Worth it.
Hello Im 34 and probably have left like 2 or 3 reviews in our life. We love this video game the randomness makings it exciting the fact that your favorite character gets stronger and the different options to start. We’ve purchased everything we can in the app, thank you!!!
Tons of fun unlocks, gorgeous art, and a pay once cost model. We bought all the expansions and have more than gotten our moneys worth of fun. Each run is different and we enjoy making new builds and trying out various card combinations. It has a learning curve and requires flexible thinking to take advantage of the cards you find. We now hardly lose on normal, but find the harder difficulty levels challenging.
Love the game, just maxed each character before playing as Scion, but as Scion the game freezes after a couple fights in Riptide Ramparts. Tried several times, but it always freezes after the fight before the card rewards, so theres no getting further. We really enjoy the game. Please help.
Great gamesometimes some obstacles appeared when there are words that we never learnedmy English level is higher than average in 23-year teens in China.
We could go on forever about this game, but to keep it concise, it has good content, engaging gameplay and passionate devs. Definitely worth the buy!
If you love deck-building roguelikes, this will easily be one of your favorites. Easily recommended 10/10.
We’ve played this game to death for about a year and have enjoyed earlier versions, but the long term vision for this game isn’t what we enjoy in a deck builder. You should bee aware of that vision before making a purchase because the game will continue to move in that direction. From the discord, the developer has a vision for this game as one which offers a large variety of cards in which most runs end in failure. From the posts it seems like they feel that a 10% success rate is about right. It is also clear that the developer feels that "hard" game design means not only that you must master game mechanics but also be lucky to gain workable synergies and win (note: you can play on "story" difficulty in which it is impossible to lose. This is an option if you want to win even without a deck synergy–if you find that fun). The dev has been very active in making adjustments to achieve their vision and we would expect that to continue. We commend their integrity for pursuing what they want the game to be. Those who enjoy a punishing roguelite that rewards mastery of mechanics but sometimes still gates a successful finish behind lucky draws will find this the perfect game with many hours of enjoyment ahead.
We never write reviews but we must say, this is one of the best games we’ve played on mobile. Looks beautiful, full of content, and the quality and love that went into this game is obvious. Kudos to the devs! Pls keep it up!
We have a lot of games but this is our favorite game. It works great with the iPhone in portrait and iPad Pro in landscape (Im using a Magic Trackpad 2.) So much content and so many challenges. Like Dead Cells, you play the same story initially and it branches. It is a roguelike (turn based) in the truest sense, so after death you level up toward more unlockables, abilities etc. The developers are constantly updating the game and interacting with us players in Discord. This is a model for what a good game and development is like. Keep in mind, for iCloud it saves characters permanent achievements so all their leveling, rewards, talents, etc. You will be playing different runs on different devices but whatever you do itll contribute to your meta-progress, which is fine. Im so impressed we purchased all the DLCs and the tip for coffee. :)
The devs are pretty cringe and precious about design decisions and community feedback. Tons of bugs every update but very little ownership or accountability from the creators (some get fixed but you dont see much in the way of apology or taking responsibility for breaking a for-pay product). We think this is just what happens with small passion projects – professionalism takes a long backseat to weird neckbeardy pride. Encounter design is wildly uninteresting and boils down to: -do massive damage turn 1 -know whatever idiotic trick a boss requires (hope you fished for feature X in Y build) -find some infinite cheese build (these are often horrible as they often take literal hours to pull off. A 7 hour run is not unusual, and yes that should give you pause and a massive headache) There are some interesting ideas here but poorly or thoughtlessly executed. We think they need a real game dev; they dont seem to have a real sense of game design, pacing, or game engineering, and trying to engage with them on this stuff feels like a waste of time – youd be better served arguing with strangers on Reddit about MtG.
We really like this gamebut chinese please.
Enjoying the game so far, we bought the expansions to broaden the game and Im having a blast with it, but some mechanics arent properly explained. Can you only play a set number of cards? Ill have energy left to spend but all the cards turn red and we cant play any? Im sure Ill figure it out, but that mechanic wasnt explained at all.
One of the best Roguelike deckbuilders we’ve ever played. Really awesome community who come up with some crazy builds and a dev that acknowledges them and shares in the discussion. We dont know how many hours we’ve sunk into this game, maybe 300+ at this point, but its truly a gem.
Solid rogue-like deck builder.
The dev team is incredibly engaged with the community on Discord and is constantly releasing updates for the game. Card expansions have so far all been free with two paid $5 zone packs that each added a few (3?) alternate zones to choose from. Highly recommend!
Hello developers! Just letting you know there is a bug with arcane bow that is not conjuring arrows correctly. Besides that this game is phenomenal and must have more content hahaha! Thank you!
One of the best deckbuilders we’ve ever played! Dearest devs, please, please, please add very visible tracking of which difficulties we’ve beaten with which class! We know Im not the only one who finds that kind of thing super motivating. See Ring of Pain or Monster Train for examples of this tracking done really well. We literally have 10x time in those rougelike deckbuilders relative to the many others we’ve played for that exact reason alone.
Wow! This deck builder is great. Nice little story, good variation of enemies. Even better variation of tactics for each class. Really loving it so far. Will definitely be picking up the expansions soon. Nice work!
The App will open but will only go 3% before starting over again and again. Have redownloaded twice still will not start.
We’ve played several Card Roguelikes, more especially lately. Games like Slay The Spire, Slice and Dice and Across the Obelisk are among the better games we’ve played in the genre. But the mobility and replay potential of this game has taken up hours of our free time. Youre given a few classes to start from. Each class has a weapon, a weapon power, and a signature card that you can swap out as you level up your characters by slaying monsters and completing runs. On top of that, the cards are unique and fun, and make the game just different enough each run. We’ve easily logged 50 hours into this game and Im surprised at the potential deck builds we could come up with. You can chain electric abilities together for tons of quick damage, or burn your opponent with bury and forecasting combos with the Arcanist. Or play as a rogue, where you can volley your enemies with an onslaught of arrows, or literally charm them to death. Surprisingly, the story isnt all that bad. Its simple enough, and there are choices you can make that change other things up a little. Overall, very enjoyable. We also cant speak to this fact for sure, but it seems like the creators of the game are constantly making improvements. There were a few bugs we noticed with cards not working as intended, and a few hours later an update fixed it. Overall this is a great game for those who enjoy fun challenges, and we recommend getting this, as well as the expansion packs. Theyre well worth the money, and there are 60 dollar games that you will beat in less time and get bored of.
This is polished and fun, streamlined and lots of builds and classes to experiment with. Loving this so far, plan to get the expansions. This deserves even more attention keep up the good work guys! Add a monk class!
First and foremost the game is great for any roguelike/deck building fans. But what we really want to talk about is this style of game developing. Its not a f2p micro transaction nightmare, a clumsy port or a shallow clickbait. No, you can tell the devs put a lot of love into it and decided to not only respect you as a player but the game it self. If you see this devs we hope you are rewarded and we wish you all the best on this game and future projects!
We cant overstate how impressed we are by this game. Excellent deckbuilding mechanics with RPG elements and lots of different varieties of gameplay. Good sound design, solid music, great art, tons of replayability all for a decent price. The game can get a little repetitive if you dont download the DLCs but they are very appropriately priced and definitely worth picking up after awhile if you enjoy the base game. We will definitely be on the lookout for other games by this developer. Very few games scratch the slay the spire itch well without completely copying it but this game does so very well.
Beautiful, detailed graphics, plays in portrait mode, and quite challenging. No crashes – its very solid on our 13 Pro. If you like Slay the Spire, give this a try.
Very annoying dlc why does every enemy haveEvasion?? It destroys a lot of deck builds. Also fighting the annoying statue guy 3 times?!? Seems very lazy and he isnt fun to play against at all.. Lowered stars until you fix this area.
We’ve put a couple hundred hours into this game since its launch on iOS and without a doubt its one of the best games released on a mobile platform. Somehow the developers have pretty well balanced all of these different class to fit different play styles. In a world where gaming companies have actively worked to exploit the worst tendencies in people in order to extract vast sums of money, these guys make a simple well crafted product that will stand the test of time. Everyone should support passion projects like this!