Pawnbarian
Experience one of the top-rated Free games on the App Store, Pawnbarian! Developed by the innovative team at Jan Wojtecki, this Strategy game provides a unique gaming experience like no other. With a content rating of 9+, it’s perfect for a wide range of players. Since its initial release on 26th July 2022, the game has seen numerous updates, with the latest version launched on 14th April 2023.
Are you a fan of Strategy, Puzzle, games? Then Pawnbarian is right up your alley! You won’t be able to resist its appeal.
User Ratings of Pawnbarian
Over 210 players have rated Pawnbarian. Join them and share your thoughts!
How Much Does Pawnbarian Cost?
Good news! You can download Pawnbarian on your iOS device absolutely free!
Pawnbarian Release Date
Eager to know when Pawnbarian first graced the App Store? It was launched on 26th July 2022.
When Was Pawnbarian Last Updated?
The latest version of Pawnbarian was updated on 14th April 2023, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience for all players.
Where Can I Download Pawnbarian?
To get started with Pawnbarian, head over to the official Apple App Store.
A Glimpse into Pawnbarian
Chess-inspired puzzle roguelike. Demo – single IAP unlocks full game.
The demo is ad-free. It contains a single character and dungeon.
Pawnbarian is a turn-based puzzle roguelike with bite-sized, but challenging sessions. Play cards to control your hero like a chess piece on a tiny dungeon board, outmaneuver enemies with their assortment of tricky abilities, and become the mightiest warrior of the Chesslands!
Features
- Use a deck of chess pieces to hack and slash through hordes of monsters.
- Pick up the basics instantly if you’re familiar with chess, or learn in minutes if you aren’t.
- Carefully plan your moves to navigate challenging, emergent tactical situations.
- Spend treasure to upgrade your cards with additional powers.
- Blitz through quick 15-30 minute runs – or die trying.
- Take on the infinite post-run Gauntlet to see how long you can survive.
- Pick from 6 characters to conquer 3 dungeons, all requiring an unique approach.
- Progress through Chains, a series of extra difficulty modifiers.
Not Features
- No permanent upgrades, and not much that needs unlocking. The progress and satisfaction come from your growing mastery of the game’s elegant systems!
- No complex and varied builds. The shops provide a few key decisions, but the bulk of the roguelike depth lies in how you approach the emergent combat puzzles!
What’s New in the Latest Update?
Find out what’s new in the latest version of Pawnbarian updated on 14th April 2023:
Small changes to the infinite mode
User Reviews on Pawnbarian
Looking for more information? Read a comprehensive review of Pawnbarian below:
We love the game itself, the only thing we didnt like was a user error. We bought the full game but we didnt like any of the other pieces. But the game is a challenging and fun spin on the different kinds of chess or similar games that support very different play styles.
The combination of new mechanics and rules and the familiarity of chess pieces is a really cool concept. A concept that the game developer executed perfectly. We have not bought the full game yet but we definitely plan on it. Another thing to note is the sound design. Wearing headphones while playing this game is a whole different experience. The sound effects used really captures the dungeon style aesthetic. We really hope to see more updates to the game and we highly advise you give it a shot!
Im not the type of person to write a long review, so we are not going too. This game is fun and unique and worth getting. Game deserves more publicity. We hope more content is added in the future.
Having finished all the dungeons with all the characters, we have only one nit to pick: Where are the expansions? More dungeons? Loved the game.
Good game, wish they made it easier to tell which squares are blighted and wish they would add more content.
We do, we like chess. These guys made a great game that you can try for free to satisfaction, and then, if you so desire, you can pay for way more content and support local small business development team. Im speechless. What more can we say? This game is freakin awesome. Are you sick of playing mobile games riddled with advertisements and microtransactions? We am! Im sick of it. But this game is different. Though it follows a demo model, its so refreshing to be able to pick up a game and have a seamless experience. No seams in this game! Except the paywall. Which is only $4.99 b-t-dubbs as a one time in-app purchase to unlock 2 new levels and 5 new characters with unique chess pieces and gameplay. Wow! What more can we say? This game is fre*kin awesome. We reviewed this game in more detail on the Free Game Podcast.
The game is awesome but you can only play one level. Then you have to buy game.
Surprised at how much we enjoyed this game, disappointed there isnt more content to explore yet. Chess mechanics are cool, roguelike style is fitting and enjoyable. Excited for the full release.
(Easy) -Make dungeon area a bit wider -limit cards to begin with to be weak (Medium) -rework the life system to have rare cards heal you, make the life be out of 100 -Enemies hit you for different amounts to incentivize tactics -After limiting cards to be weaker, make reaching the end upgrade cards to make strategy more deep and way to get stronger as dungeon goes on (Hard) -After limiting cards and adding upgrades, make a system after death and add currency for permanent upgrades to make you stronger (Complete overhaul) Reply if youd even like more ideas.
If you are bored and want to get mad play this game.
DEAR DEV, Please add auto orientation, we do most of gaming on our iPads. Please add auto orientation. A beautifully & masterfully woven, execution of passion and fresh creativity. (only giving four stars because no controller support) otherwise, masterpiece. This game is a mental stimulation, with simplistic chess patterns, and board positioning to memorize, once you remember the enemies striking distance and your own characters abilities – huge fun starts as you start becoming a chef to combo type recipes. Theres about 6 different archetypes: rogue, knight.. Etc.) INTUITIVE AND CREATIVE COMBAT SYSTEM Your hero classes: (knight, rogue, barbarian etc) have different combat styles. The game achieves these very different play styles by providing each class their own set of chess moves. For example ROGUE: is all about stealth & movement (Skyrim Dark Elves) so she will have access to bishops & rooks move set (and her very own ability that seems to mix knight & rook > its dope) BARBARIAN: is all about being Brutal all out attacking (Skyrim Nord) so his move sets are pawns, knight, bishop (his ability is, when you make it to the top of the board, he promotes (at random) one of his cards into a queen. Notice the classes have their own chess piece move sets, once you figure out your class play style, and the enemies attack patterns, youll have a lot of fun, its a very addictive game. GAME MECHANICS: <<Cards>> Your attacks, movement and special abilities come in the form of cards. These cards in (in bottom of screen) are basically chess pieces: (rook card) allows you to attack or move across the board like a rook. The cool thing about these cards some of them, will have an extra move, depicted as a lightening bolt icon this means, that the action point it would had cost you, to play that card, is given back to you. Yes, every move requires an action point (THINK: mario rabbids or xcom2) the light bolt gives you a free action point. Some cards will have splash damage icon allowing you to kill multiple enemies at once, whom are adjacent to the tile you attacked some cards will have a shield icon that will make you invulnerable to damage Whats important about this is how it flows into the next mechanic <<Action Points>> Just like XCOM, Mario Rabbids: 2 ACTION POINTS to move or attack, etc. It will always require an action point, you only get 2. This game has plenty cards that upon using them, grants you an extra move, shield and splash damage as we explained above. Whats crazy about this, is the amount of chained combos you can pull off. When you start coming up with combos.. The game turns into street fighter from all the combos youre putting together, and you literally feel like you are in a fighting game. Its a wonderful and rewarding feeling. Once you memorize which cards will give you extra moves, there will be times when your getting like 3-4 turns. DEAR DEV: Please update Pawnbarian for AR by giving it controller support. We now have powerful Augmented Reality glasses (not headset) but glasses. These Thin and light glasses are called: N-Real (ar) Air These glasses project a holographic 130 inch tv screen directly in your eyes. Its an amazing experience! Literally your own personal movie theater. VERY Hi Definition, very crisp almost 4k levels crisp. These AR glasses connect to our iOS devices, mirrors whats on the screen, and allows us to play comfortably while laying down in bed, or even out and about. The thing is.. To fully experience these glasses, you need controller support for the games, you cannot navigate your fingers on your smart phone screen, while your eyes are staring into the holographic tv lots of errors due to not seeing what your fingers are touching, on your screen. Also.. Apples AR glasses are rumored to be revealed June 2023 and more affordable versions will drop every year after. They to will require this same solution of needing controller support to experience your game, youll be ahead of the curve. Please youtube: N-Real Air, and make sure you watch a video that shows an example of the actual holographic tv (not just someone talking about without showing what the experience is like. Once you see, youll know Pawnbarian needs to be a part of it. Ps. If you release more hero classes, Im definitely buying! We hope you do.
Nothing is wrong with this game its perfect its amazing but The idea isnt very creative its kinda just shotgun king so its good but its just shotgun king.
Its a cool game and we can see how we could get into it. Its nice to have a substantial demo before deciding to but, too. We didnt buy though, and we didnt finish the demo. We didnt put enough brain power into beating floor 7. We think its just too difficult out of the box. Maybe there should be some easier levels before it gets sadistic. Good luck.
Good game but the rules were not properly explained in the tutorial, which makes the game very difficult right away. For example some enemies cannot be attacked unless you are in the right position, but its never explained how to actually do this. The game mostly just comes down to trial and error. We wanted to like this game but the learning curve is harsh and starts immediately.
But really cheap. Computer has a way of giving you junk in the last part of dungeons.
Why is this a thing? Rules are not explained well. Not intuitive at all.
This game is incredibly misleading in the sense that youre not getting a game, youre getting a demo. You get one character, 2 dungeons (one is a tutorial), and a handful of mechanics. Then, the developer wants you to pay 7 whole dollars for the rest of the game, which includes about 4 more dungeons and about 7 more characters. Unless this paywall is hiding something amazing, Im clearly missing something as to why anyone would buy it. Opening up a free game and seeing buy full game as one of the options, when there was no immediate indication that this is what the game was, was very disappointing.
We preordered this game a while back and, to be honest, totally forgot about it. But once we saw it on our phone we remembered about it and got pretty excited. After the tutorial we figured out the basic rules, and the touch and hold feature to check out what things do was extremely helpful. The only thing we hadnt quite figured out was how to win. We lost our first try in the goblin caves on room 6, but by the time we reached there again we had developed a better overall understanding and strategy. Overall the game idea is original and entertaining, and the simple layout makes it easy to learn. It might take time to remember all the monster traits, but what game is mastered in an hour. With all this being said, we feel as if the $6.99 price tag for only 2 more dungeons is a difficult price to justify. Even with all the other features in the full version, the fact that you only get 2 new groups of enemies is a deal breaker for us. Regardless, its a wonderful game and we think the devs did a wonderful job.
Free version is great, liked enough to buy full.
Love this game Wish it was more of RPG like game with levelling up system and equipment but overall its great.
Fun game made by an indie developer that adds something new to the roguelike deckbuilder genre. By basing play around chess piece movement and a mini-chess board, the game feels familiar with a new twist. You move your character with your deck of classic chess pieces and can use gold earned by defeating enemies to add new upgraded pieces that have special abilities (adding cross and diagonal attacks, a shield to block damage, or additional movement and draw for more plays). As you build your deck to defeat cool and distinct looking fantasy creatures with abilities and movements of their own, your journey to the end of the dungeon helps you complete chains that unlock harder difficulties. Buy the full-version of the game, and youll also get access to different characters that have their own styles of play after completing your first dungeon, or course. Highly recommend to everyone who likes chess variants and roguelikes.
We love this game. Its $6.99 and worth every penny. Support it.
Great game! We’ve been following this dev for a while on twitter so we were holding out for the mobile version. Good thing we did because this works really well as a mobile game! Lots of replay ability with all the different player classes.
Super fun game, unique and fresh, and thats just the free version.
Pawnbarian is a great, challenging game thats much deeper than it might first appear. The mechanics are easy to pick up, even if you dont know chess wellhold on a card or enemy for useful tips. Figuring out how to get through a floor without too much damage and what upgrades to use on your deck is more challenging. We first played the game in its mobile beta, when it was just one character and dungeon. Im blown away by what the developers added since then. Well worth the $6.99 unlock for the full game, in our opinion, but it costs you nothing to try and see if its up your alley.
We love this game! Despite only having the demo for a few hours, we have played through over and over again. We love the strategy that is involved and the creativity that comes with it. Each time we played through the first dungeon, we could feel and see myself getting better at the game. The game provides a challenge while still offering a flawless reward system. We are definitely going to purchase the full game ASAP!!!
This is actually an incredible idea, the only problem right now is you can only play one campaign without paying. Obviously its a super new game so hopefully they eventually add more free levels. Also to pay for only 2 extra levels seems really dumb.
Thank you for releasing this amazing demo of an extraordinary game. We will definitely buy the full game once we get some money on our account! We highly recommend this delight of a roguelike for anyone who is alive and owns a device. Very smooth and polished feel, great art style, and ZERO ADS (even in this demo!)
Clever, chill, and replayable. This follows a great format, a mix between a puzzle combat game and a roguelike. Upgradable cards with easy to grasp moves and abilities mix well with tricky enemies. Surprisingly, being a turn-based game, it achieves a great feeling of flow when you can pull off a very clever or lucky move, and the game encourages you to get into the fray with some possible healing each round. The characters and levels are surprisingly different and challenging in their own quirks. Such a blast.
We try out a lot of games. Its rare to find one this original, and this great. It was easy to pick up. Difficulty was perfect. We were challenged right from the beginning, but never to the point we lost. Mechanics are intuitive and fun. Gameplay is deep enough to entertain, but simple enough to grab and play for a few minutes. Great balance all around. We hope to see it expanded further.
We love it! Interesting twist on chess. Excited to see more levels, villains, game twists. Plenty of opportunity with a game format like this. Sort of reminds us of pocket chess which we thoroughly enjoy. Keep going!!
We Love this game, The movement feels smooth and you can tell the people behind it really care. At first the price of 6.99 may seem a little steep, but when you realize their are 0 adds in the free version, it starts to make sense. Cant recommend the full game enough, we have already put in 25 hours in the past day.
Sound/music is great. The art is great. We would decrease the price to maybe $5 or less but thats just because (like others have said) the unlocked content isnt as much as you may think. The different map types offer varying challenges which is cool. The best part of the game is the different character options, each one offers a unique experience in terms of upgrades and strategy per dungeon. We do fear that certain dungeons are more challenging by a long shot for certain characters and that the Gauntlet becomes so challenging without additional upgrades that it will be exceptionally challenging to get past level 2 or 3. We give it a 5 for overall gameplay value, definitely going to be our pooping game.
The concept and execution of this game is very good and challenging! We have not conquered the first series yet. We have not lost hope. If we succeed in the victory over the first dungeon, we will then buy and continue the quests. We hope the designer will consider expanding the quests and complexity. Thank you for a refreshing and twisted variation of chess!
This game has bunch of potential.
This game rules, we were worried about spending money on a game and thought this might have been a bad purchase; but as soon as we played the game further we knew this was a hit. Absolutely love the mechanics its smart, fast, and easy. Great game to play for a while, or just pass the time!
Preorder this game because it look cool but it also looked complicated so we were a little nervous but the in game tutorial worked very well. We played for a hour last night and it blew us away it is a better and more complete and complicated chess-ish. So far we have not experienced add which in a free mobile game is unheard of so the experience and story flow better (I dont know for shore if there is a story but as far as we can tell there is a story). All on all amazing game right from release. (I for got to say how amazing the art is we would love to have that as our background)
Good game ig pretty cool we suppose.
This game is fantastic, its very fun and actually pretty challenging! We cant wait for more content in the future!!!
You are reading this review because you like chess and also like games. SO PLAY THIS, its basically chess puzzles but gameified we’ve put countless hours into this on steam and was honestly happy to pay the 6.99 to play the full thing here too. Yes, its does cost money to play the full game but there is so many hours here that its fully worth it from such a good game dev. Even if you refuse to pay just download and play it, theres still enough free content.
Roguelike portrait with one thumb mechanics. Move your warrior around a small grid using cards based on chess pieces to land on enemies to destroy them. Knights let you jump around like Ls, Queens rule the board and pawns can only move forward. Youll have three options every round (play a card and see it replaced) and youll need to either fight or flee. Board shows what each grid will do to you if you land there, while cards can be upgraded with defense, bonus moves or damage. Its a clever game that takes some chess knowledge (not much though) to be successful at. Rounds last only a few minutes and entire runs can be less than 20. Its not a builder though, in the sense you can remove pieces, or build synergies, but more along just upgrading as many cards as you can with bonuses and hope you get a good draw. We think this game it pretty neat, but it could use a little more content.
Although we have not yet bought the full game, we can already say that this game is great! We really love the concept and the simplistic art style. Its a very good time killer and easy to play on the go! With all that being said, there are some very minor things we think should be added. You can dismiss this part of the review as we have not fully bought the game which may affect our judgement. We believe there should be and indicator of the modifiers on the chess pieces on the board (like the X and +) and there should be written somewhere the amount of moves we have. Again very minor stuff that can be easily changed. We are still holding out buying the full game because we believe more things should be added. However we know that in future updates that will be changed. We have very high hopes for this game and everyone should give it a chance!
Hey Devs. You got a great game here. However within the game, some of the rules dont align with the actions. Ex: In spark Golem Dungeon, the enemies attack no matter what action you do, not just when you use a spark cantrip, though its described that theyll attack only when that action is performed. Little things like rules not being consistent trip up an otherwise perfect game.
Great game and we wish was not so expensive.
First of all, this is an amazing game and we really want to see more games like this. That being said, we dont want to have to pay $6.99 for the entirety of the game. Id say this game is worth something for sure, but we dont know how many people would be willing to pay $7 for this game. The game throws you in the deep end and you have to read a few paragraphs before actually playing to understand the rules. We think there should be some sort of longer introduction to ease you into it. Some more visual indicators of abilities would be nice too, such as icons with a symbol to represent the ability instead of an attribute that can be hard to see at times. Also theres no ads or energy that limits your playing experience, which is amazing in our opinion.
We’ve been playing for a while now and cant even get past goblin caves, the gameplay isnt good and much to complex.