Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 04:04 am
POWDER – Roleplaying Game Review
POWDER is a Roleplaying/Adventure game from Jeff Lait, first launched in 20th April 2010.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 121+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes POWDER Stand Out
POWDER is a fast-playing turn-based dungeon crawl in the roguelike-tradition.
Years of polish have refined this hack-and-slash adventure into one of the most approachable examples of the roguelike genre.
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, POWDER is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 10th August 2018
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Fixes over-broad rating classification.
No actual changes to the functionality.
Download & Availability
POWDER 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:
This game is pretty similar to Caves of Qud, but its much simpler. Still just as fun to play.
This game truly deserves to go viral in its current state. So fun. So different. Im happy we can actually play it at our desk at work offline. Love its feel so much.
We were obsessed with this game when we were a kid! Now it doesnt want to restore our purchase from many years ago. Maybe because it isnt compatible with iOS 13? Anyway, we hope our boy Jeff makes this not an issue. Also, we recently figured out how to become a lich, finally, so that was hype.
This is our favorite roguelike, period. Highly suggest this to anyone!!! One big problem though: when pressing A to cast spells, zap wands, or throw, the game does not recognize that we need to lift our finger and press A again. If you do not release the A button super fast, your first button press will register and you'll shoot yourself with whatever you were going to use! Please please fix. We'd buy the game twice if this is patched EDIT: THANK YOU!! Ladies and gentlemen, he fixed it. We love you… Switched our rating from one star to the five star Ive always wanted to do. Adding the delay was smart man.
Powder is one of the few games where the tutorial is actually helpful. Once you learn how the game works, it contains endless replay value. Outstanding.
Amazing game that really deserves an update in terms of how it renders on iOS. Most fonts and tiles are unusably bad in terms of how they are rendered. Even the default tiles look quite poor here. Its sad because the gameplay is the best of any roguelike on iOS.
Great game, but some QoL improvements like higher resolution rendering and full screen display would be nice considering the $10 asking price thats unique to this version. The scaling tends to look a little wonky, regardless of tile set or whether Im playing in portrait or landscape. That being said, most people will likely never even get to the point the free version locks out, so we cant bash it too much.
The game is wonderful, but as a game designed for keyboard/button use, the touchscreen controls can be sub optimal. Not infrequently have we accidentally double tapped A, and cast magic missile or some other spell inadvertently at ourselves. It is to the gameplays credit that despite this, we keep coming back for more.
We love this game, but the Zap function needs to be fixed! A button mechanics need to be reviewed. Thanks.
Fantastic game, loads of fun trying out different builds with the random starting items every playthrough. Unlocked the game, updates went by, changed phones, and was able to restore our purchase, fantastic.
Fantastic game, we've been playing for awhile and can tell you the 10$ is well deserved to Jeff, and a big THANK YOU. Edit: Jan/2014- really hoping for an update, but the future is looking grim ;-; EDIT: March/2018- FINALLY AN UPDATE. Have been waiting for this day for 4 years, god bless murica.
This game is great its the ROGE like dungeon crawler Ive been looking for but there is an issue that the new update just released were it causes you to sometimes double click the a button his is very bad because it causes you to shoot hurdled with magic sometimes.
Author: the repeat delay and repeat rate are way too fast! Please reduce it or allow customization. We press the virtual A button to select an item and the repeat happens before we can lift our finger away. So we often select zap and end up zapping ourselves by accident instead of selecting another square (and many other similar accidents such as running into enemies we dont mean to attack). We cant make it out of the tutorial because of this.
Love this but we cant play it because it says its not compatible with ios 11!!! Please update the app.
If you dont play powder you need to. Simple to learn, simple to play, impossible to beat and twice as impossible to find all the cool little waster eggs the developer put in. PLEASE RELEASE POWDER FOR iOS 11 SO we CAN CONTINUE TO PLAY IT.
Version for android ever coming.
11 years Jeff, 11 years you've been here, but all of the sudden you skip out on POWDER's 12th birthday!?!? How DARE you.
Absolutely sets the bar for what a roguelike should aim for. Developers take note as everything about this game should be analyzed in detail and emulated in different entities. We would love to see similar structured games with it populated with different situations and elements but maintain the overall mechanics and gameplay.
Plenty of depth but not overwhelming for the average player. Great variety in play styles but is not bogged down with traditional class system. Also nicely challenging.
The beginning tutorial smoothly segued into a fun and pleasant game. Warning, it can be addictive.
It is a really nice roguelike, at the same time it gives you a huge amount of options and a feel of being able to do anything, the game also take your hopes slowly, since you could die on every step of this dark maze and every monster you come across.
Love this game on our phone. Lots of hipsters fussing about the quality of this port. It's always "such & such version was better" isn't it? Game plays great. Price was worth it for us. Played this way more than the countless $0.99 trash we've bought.
The game is a perfect rouge-like. We don't know how to report bugs, so we'll write it here. As well as the others there is the buttons moving around glitch. We've also seen that when you equip a two handed weapon it will not allow you to equip a shield. Certain weapons by-pass this if you already have the shield equipped.
It takes a bit to get the hang of Powder but it's worth it – addicting and nuanced gameplay. Well done.
Great game love playing and replaying it. The upgrade to iOS 7 reset our iPhone 4 and we lost the subscription. Game wants us to pay again to get past level 15.
We just wish the full version was like a dollar or two.
Fills those quick game opportunities with great rogue like depth.
This is by far the best roguelike we've found on the app store so far. The controls/interface are great for the small iPhone screen, and the gameplay is unbelievably addicting and fun! Must have.
Why is it called powder? Cocaine? Sugar? Flour.
Easily the best rogue like for ios.
Very assume game, best iOS game we've ever played. Get this! We think the only thing that could make this game better is a 20 player multiplayer so you can team up with friends.
Powder is a really fun dungeoncrawler This is one of our favorite games and we think it is one of the best games we have ever played.
The title says it all. It is awsome.
Insanely good. Has infinite replayability, tons of customizability, and great interface. This is seriously our favorite game on the iPhone. Second is Infinity Blade.
No two games are the same, except for probaly how each game ends (you die). That just goes to show how hard it is to go murder beezzy. But 2 suggestions!!!! Could you put a "create your own dungeon" tool in the app? It would be wicked sick if you did. And could you ever possibly make a "powder" game, except for make it modernized (ie guns, tasers, riot shields). It would be very interesting.
(please reposition the buttons to suit your style of gameplay. – fully customizable control buttons) This nethack redux is very enjoyable on the iphone/ipad. Really deep and super replayable. Makes some minor changes to nethack rules and playability that make it more fun to play than nethack. Randomization is through the roof. We have been playing for 9 months and have gotten to level 14 three times. 1000s of deaths.
But we wish that the wish command had a "heal to ful hp command. And maybe. Stat editor do you can set your health very high.
This is an amazing, old school dungeon crawler game. We have recently been looking for a newer 2d roguelike dungeon crawler, but this game, in tradition of older rogue-likes, has totally filled our need. While the graphics are not amazing, and the controls take a little while to get a hang of, it is a great game, and it's FREE.
The man is a genius. The fact that you don't choose your class, you are freely able to (sometimes) choose whatever area to progress in and continue down it or choose another thing . It only needs 2 more things, to be able to choose EVERY god to worship when you level up, not just a select few.And maybe some armor for wizards EX. Mage robes that give you 15% more max mana.
This is a sweet game. We suggest Adding axes. It make it more epic.
The only reason you would not like is if you get it expecting an action game.
If you like rougelike games then you will definitely like Powder. The other people on here that are posting bad reviews shouldn't even be here if they're not looking for this kinda game! Our two cents.
This is truly the best iOS roguelike on the market and it's free. Great update, just keeps getting better.
We finish the free part of the game um can you put health potions we need health really bad.
We played this game a lot but cant now. We love it any way you could update it.
Clunky controls on iOS but great on PC.
We've been playing iOS games for about 6 years now, and this game is easily the best we've ever played. It's got a steep learning curve, controls that can be moved and customized, and endless replayability. It's a true roguelike, which means you should expect top down dungeon crawling with lots of random elements, permadeath, and many interesting decisions to make! We highly recommend it to everyone who isn't afraid to get used to its initially daunting control system, and of course everyone who knows that good graphics aren't a necessity to a good game. Our only issue with it is the near abandonment of it by the developer. This game is in desperate need of a little polish (and wide screen support!). We're sure every fan if the game would agree that some new weapon, spell, and monster types would be a welcome addition, as would a new sprite set from a professional pixel art designer. Maybe these are just foolish dreams, but we can't help wanting our favorite mobile to get the treatment it deserves.
It's a great game and we used to play it on the computer until we found the app. Is there an option to make the arrow pad any bigger? Also sometimes we get spawned in a dungeon with noway out.
This game is super addictive and has a lot of detail and replay ability. One sole issue we're having with it which needs to be fixed is with the buttons. Occasionally, when we reopen the game, the buttons will be switched to the completely opposite place they were on the screen, resulting in us having to manually move them back! Please fix this, for a flawless game.
The game seems like it would be fun, but we cant tell what the health of an enemy is.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 118.1
- Size: 10.35 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
- Developer: Jeff Lait
Last updated: 10th August 2018 | Genre: Roleplaying, Adventure | Developer: Jeff Lait