Shattered Pixel Dungeon /

Last updated : 10/3/2025 (finally a conclusion) (still considered incomplete)

Introduction

Yes, the "Shattered" in SPD refers to the intial start of rebalancing the original Pixel Dungeon & breaking it, but I'd also like to canonically take the Shattered Pixel part & apply it to an already broken Pixel device. As in a Pixel phone user has ragequit from the frustration of losing in SPD & shattered pers' device.

But seriously, back to SPD the game. I've encountered this game since 0.9.x & had played it intermittently since then (at least nowadays, back then I played SPD quite often). I got frustrated somewhere from a combination of roguelike pains & MSI syndrome (which made my disdain even worse).

And this is the first review that I arbitrarily scored, just so my feelings look slightly clearer.

Assets

Current average : 6/10.

Audio

For the BGMs, I'll just list my opinions.

• Simple & glorious main menu theme (which is also remixed as the song for the victory floors).
• Sewers BGM is... not bad? Unfortunately I don't really feel anything out of this one. Fortunately the Goo boss theme is a decent 1st boss theme.
• Prison BGM starts off quite boring, but picks up decently in the chorus. Playfully decent "tense mode" though. Tengu theme felt like generic pixel dungeon music remixed with some ninja boss fight music ( nice, but a bit short that it could use an extended version).
• Mines BGM is boring. But the "tense mode" (or the theme for Troll Blacksmith's special floor) felt more fun. DM300 theme's awesome.
• Ruins BGM is basically the opposite of the Mines BGM. Nice base, but weaker "tense mode". But Dwarf King theme is also nice "with some tragic backdrops).
• Halls BGM felt like the Prison BGM, but with a more serious "tense mode". Yog theme felt the same as Tengu, but switch ninja to some eldritch stuff & put more emphasis on PD music.

Though, in A11 running 2022 security patches, BGM behavior is inconsistent. For example, I got ArrowOS not playing most of the BGM while Jaguar & Lineage gets to play them. Not much of an issue since Kristjan has put the music up in his YouTube playlists (regular / deluxe) & you can play your own music files (or the linked BGMs, preferably downloaded) if you prefer it to his BGM, but a bit of a shame.

Nothing much to say about the sound effects - they serve their purpose well, and nothing else. As for dubbing, just dub the speeches yourself since there's none.

Final verdict : 7/10 - I somewhat liked the new BGM (particularly the Dwarven Metropolis ones), though I can't consistently hear it in A11. The sound effects, on the other hand, are serviceable.

Graphics

For graphics, SPD is serviceable. Not the ultra-"realistic" bullcrap the big gaming corpos would shill, just some mostly 3d-ified pixel things. Whatever's there does convey most of their stuff well, for the most part. A certain eye left me wanting for an update, though only after 00-Evan shared some 10-year flashback which featured some interesting changes (more horrifying Yog-Dzewa, scarier mimics, more banged up DM300, Rogue consistently wearing a face mask).

Final verdict : 6/10 - For pixelified things, they are what they are, though some improvements could be easily made. With 00-Evan's new changes, it could spike to 8/10, excluding Goo with teeth.

Lore

In SPD, the lore feels somewhat bolted on. Not that it's bad, mind you (I occasionally made up some random story in my mind, sometimes even in games that dedicate themselves to their lore), but not much to do with, or build upon.

Though, based on what's currently available in-game, here's what I summarized (SPOILER ALERT - skip if you don't want to know the inbuilt lore) :

• A dwarf warlock toyed with powers beyond him using a certain amulet, gaining immortality, the kingdom, and its subject's free will' at the cost of a cosmic entity trying to take away said dwarf's power. All because this dwarf got butthurt over his rejected theories.
• Survivors of the Dwarven Metropolis after the new Dwarf King's rise to power gathered to usurp him, only to have most of the insurgents' free will uninstalled. Some fled, and one stayed to document everything before eventually surrendering to the Dwarf King. Dwarf King's dominance remained unchallenged until the "today" where some adventurer tries their luck on his amulet.
• 44 years after the Dwarven Metropolis' fall, a wizard began an expedition into the caves above the Metropolis for natural resources & potential prison construction project. He concluded by recommending the upper caves for the prison area & avoiding the lower caves (≥11F) after his exploration group got attacked by a malfunctioning dwarven machine.
• Afterwards, a prison was eventually built in 6F-10F. 54 years after the wizard's report, the latest prison warden managing it at that time had issues with inmates & some guards acting out; prompting her to write a journal spanning 2 years. On one timeline, the warden received some Rotberry shrub from a wandmaker who wanted its seed for making wands, but it was abandoned until the "today" where some adventurer takes an attempt at its seed. The warden eventually lost control of the prison (and her fate left unclear), though not before leaving her most trusted comrade with one last order to secure a certain prisoner & abandon the prison, which eventually got sealed.
• 11 years after the prison's sealing, a city guard got "promoted" to join a specialist team that clears "vermin & outlaws" from the city sewers. It was more than what she was supposed to do, but under the leadership of a certain former prison worker, she pulled through. The team would also encounter & trade stuff with some thieves' guild members, though the team captain made sure it all were kept secret from the kingdom. Eventually, the city guard & team captain were separated from the rest of the team, and the latter died from Goo's charged attack, just like one of Sad Ghost's friends. The city guard deserted & took her family away from the city above the dungeon where everything previously told happened. And that's that for inbuilt lores, at least for now.
• After untold years, we reach the "today" where some adventurer would attempt to conquer the dungeon & get the Dwarf King's amulet. Since that adventurer is a stand in for you as the player, you may think up of whatever story for whichever character you play as. Either that's a northlander trying to restore his home's glory, a mage settling some wizard debate that got him into trouble, a thief sentenced to dungeon conquest, a huntress trying to keep her home safe, a female gladiator trying to escape her colosseum days, or a crusader on a holy quest (or the more generic "treasure hunter" applied to everyone). Get your imagination going, because this point is just some bullshit I made up & aren't canon at all.

Final verdict : 5/10 ‐ neutral. What's there was a prologue, what will be here would be what you play.

Development stuff

First off, unlike basically the majority of games nowadays, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is open source under the GPLv3 license. All commits are dumped in one go whenever SPD gets updated, which sounds like how I update my site. Anyway, while this is overall neat, this generally won't matter to most end-users who would only like to play the game.

As for bugs & any signs of lack of polish, I haven't really encountered them for now. Then again, I didn't bother doing much with SPD other than disabling its internet connections & normally playing the game, sometimes with personal music (not just because some 2022 Android security patch cockblocked me from the BGMs).

With all these, it comes as no surprise that SPD gets 10/10 on this front as well, even with GitHub being ripe to nitpick.

Installers

Straight from GitHub Releases, where SPD tends to be officially released gratis :

• Android has 2 APKs, 1 for Play Store useds (-GPlay.apk) & 1 for the NoGApps peeps (‐Android.apk).
• iPhone useds can only get from the App Store thanks to Apple's Developer Agreements. But since my site doesn't cater to those iSlaves, I won't count this one in.
• The big 3 computer systems (Linux, Mac, Windows) gets their own zipfiles.
• There's also a multi-platform Java.jar build which requires a separate installation of Java 8+.

And for the alternate places in addition to GitHub - not that I recommend them (aside from Arch/Artix), but if you wanted to...

• As previously mentioned, iPhone useds may only get SPD from the App Store. Blame Apple.
• In addition to the previously mentioned Play Store's ‐Gplay.apk, F‐Droid also offers an ‐Android.apk build, though not as up to date.
• If you feel SPD for computers should be paid/only you can get them from GOG or Steam. itch.io offers them as pay/as/you/wish if you want to name your own price.
• Arch Linux provides a package in the extra repository.

All of the assets are included in the apps / installers.

SPD predictably gets a perfect 10/10 for this one. Sure, I could nitpick GitHub to hell, but as a whole you don't need any online accounts to download any of SPD's installers (other than iPhone); making SPD automatically better than most games nowadays on this front.

Online requirements

For those reading this part for the first time, this section is for the online connections the application makes outside of the "necessary" connection required to download the installer.

10/10 for offline-only, though I'd rate its online stuff 9/10.

Online-only functions

SPD has news & updates checking enabled by default, with beta updates disabled by default (unless you installed beta builds, in which case it's immutably enabled). Also enabled by default is "Only check on WiFi" which prevents mobile data users (and mobile hotspot too) from unneccesary checkings unless toggled off. While the defaults are not ideal, they don;t affect gameplay at all. However, the "news" retrieved by the app are only stubs, in which you will have to open SPD's page to view the full news. Therefore, I shall rate SPD's online-only functions 9/10.

Haven't tested out the -Gplay build &40;and I don't think I would) so no comment on that for now.

Where it connects to

For updates & news checking, the app connects to shatteredpixel.com & api.github.com. Tested version is 2.5.4-Android.apk, the latest at the moment of writing (3/10/2024).

shatteredpixel.com is cuckflared (as seen in the email link when JS is disabled for shatteredpixel.com, redirecting to the cdn-cgi email protection page).

Final verdict : 3/10. Connects to big corpo servers (CloudFlare & GitHub/Microsoft). Sure, these connections are optional & do not affect gameplay, but on their own they suck.

Privacy policy (Page / App)

Linked privacy policy for the app seems to only cover the mobile app store builds.

As for the non-app-store-build (such as the -Android.apk), there doesn't seem to be any data collections whatsoever. For this one, SPD gets 10/10.

Gameplay

Briefly speaking, here's how SPD is usually played :

1. Pick a class (if it's your first time after installing the game you can only pick Warrior)
2. Progress through dungeon while killing enemies... while not being defeated by said enemies. The first 2 floors (for first play only) will also be your tutorial mode.
3. Shop for stuff at 6F, 11F, 16F, & 20F (but only if you cleared the shopkeeper's quest as per appeared around 17F-19F).
4. Rush the hall unlocked after the final boss for the game‐ending item.
5. Decide whether to end game (and/or leave game‐ender at ≥25F and freeroam the dungeons in preparation?) or ascend back to 1F with increased difficulty (while being stuck with the game‐ending item). That is, if you didn't get defeated before this point.
6. End game. If you get defeated anywhere before this point skip everything up to this point.
7. Repeat. Optionally with added challenges, which you unlock by winning the game for the 1st time.

In my opinion, SPD is at its most challenging & fun between the 2nd half of Sewers (≥3F) & Dwarven Metropolis. Past the Dwarf King, it's all just a chore of getting the last stages (and the ascension mode, if I felt like it) done as soon as I can, mostly because everything I could've set up has already been set up.

Playable characters

In a nutshell, every class in SPD seems to be Warrior with various gimmicks (at least how I play it), which gets further extended by armor ability & subclass.

• First off, the class I like to dislike, Mage but only because he's the only one whose fundamental playstyle differs from everyone else. His subclasses are either the staff-dependent Battlemage or the less-welded-to-staff Warlock who heals from physically damaging soul-marked enemies. And since I have major skill issues using Mage I cannot comment on his armor abilities. 1/10 for defying the meta, though please take with a salt factory's prosperous year of produce because the reviewer simply had too much skill issue to consistently reach Dwarf King using the Mage... let alone winning.
• Next up, the more boring Warrior - Rogue. Also known as the class that is most likely to grab the high score for Exploration. His subclasses are either the Assassin or Freerunner, with the former focused on oneshotting a single opponent & the latter at running into and/or away from stuff. While his armor abilities fit Rogue as he is, it isn't that good if you're playing the way Warrior is played, which is basically the default. In fact, Rogue is the only class I can bother delaying my play to get Rat King's Ratmogrify. Rogue also has increased search radius by default (5x5, can be expanded to 7x7 with talent) which makes searching for hidden rooms (and/or traps) without a scroll of magic mapping even easier. 4.5/10 ‐ while offering more non‐meta stuff he starts from an offensively stronger base than the Warrior, which kind of makes them less meaningful.
• Then we come to the root of all classes, which gets unlocked simply by installing the game : Warrior. His subclasses are either the physically tanky (and boringly easy to use) Berserker or the somewhat technical Gladiator. Armor abilities are basic as well, though I find Shockwave useful against the rangers that would otherwise cheese the Warrior. He also comes with a broken seal attached to his armor, which acts like a +1 armor upgrade (allowing you to immediately attempt to identify the scroll of upgrade with few regrets). 5/10, which is kinda odd for the SPD meta man. But then again most of my "first" wins come from playing Warrior/Berserker so...
• Now we come to one of my 2 liked classes, starting with Huntress, who starts out with the shittiest melee weapon possible but gets a spirit bow with infinite ammo. Her subclasses are either the dependent-on-projectiles Sniper or the Warden, which I mostly describe as Warrior but with better plant effects. Her Spectral Blade (armor ability 1) is basically your melee weapon acting like a projectile (which should be the strongest of all armor abilities considering Warrior-esque playstyle); Spirit Hawk can be useful to scout things, and Nature's Power is only useful for Sniper. 6/10, liked Warden & Spectral Blade (but the other armor abilities are mostly meh), but tough start unless lucked out with a T2 (or +3 T3) weapon from ≥2F.
• And the fifth class ‐ Duelist. Her gimmick is weapon abilities. Her subclasses are either the semi-dual-wielding Champion or the weapon-agnostic Monk. Her armor abilities, on the other hand, are a bit of a mixed bag. Elemental Strike only counts your weapon enchantment, Feint is only practical for 1v1, and Challenge is good for when you need to force a 1v1 against a horde of enemies. Easy 8/10 as your weapon of choice matters more, though her armor abilities (and Monk abilities too) felt more about supporting the Duelist herself.
• And... this IS the last & latest class for now ‐ Cleric. Their gimmick is their inbuilt Holy Tome artifact, which allows access to various spells. Their subclasses are either the versatile Priest or the allegedly melee‐oriented Paladin. For armor abilities, Ascended Form is boringly straightforward; Trinity allows you to draw from the list of equipment & effects encountered in the run (which can be quite powerful, depending on your equipment) and I haven't tried out Power of Many yet, as I am too burnt out to do so. Overall, despite my luck issues (which somehow led me to keep losing before I fully ascended, but that is probably MSI as well), I'd rate Cleric a 7/10 ‐ Ascended Form is a bore, Paladin is in limbo between melee & support, but Priest (and/or Trinity) makes up for it, and base Cleric can be quite fun (especially if you tried rolling transmutations of various equipments).
I would also like to touch on Cleric's they/them pronoun (which I have very little opinion otherwise). On one hand, it's rather weird considering the previous 5 heroes had clearly defined genders, but Cleric's design can probably pass for a gender-neutral character (which might allow us to imagine it in one way or the other). Especially considering the Cleric seems to be implied (at least by certain NPCs) as a royal family member who became a crusader, perhaps without the consent of their family. But hey, gender neutral character yaaaay amirite?

Wait a moment... Why does it sound like you liked the female classes more than the male classes?

Funny how that works, but it's too easy to explain. The females are more fun to play as than the males, for the most part. However, with the addition of the gender‐neutral Cleric, this is not as true, for now. At the moment, I will average the playables as 5.25/10, as far as my experience with them goes.

Controls

Quite simple actually ‐ with taps. Tap on empty tile to move to it, tap on tile with npc to interact with it, manually tap tile with stuff on it (may require another tap depending on conditions) to interact with it. Easy. Though I don't particularly like the action button that pops up on the bottom-left area of the display (and is always present for Champion to give her something to quickly swap primary weapons), which can never be disabled let alone moved somewhere less intrusive. Another issue I saw with these controls would be how it scales with different hardwares. On average, it should've got 4.66/10, but since that sounded too awkward so I'll just round them to 4/10, all because of those action buttons.

On phones on portrait mode (the default way Pixel Dungeon games tend to be played) the controls are fine enough as it is. Perhaps the only issue that could stem from this scale would be you not paying full attention to what's going on, leading to some questionable inputs (such as falling off a cliff or triggering a visible trap when you should've & could've avoided it). Though that issue can always be mitigated paying maximum attention. I'd rate this one 6/10.

On phones running in landscape mode... I have nothing to say for this one yet. I haven't seriously played in this mode yet. Though I can say this mode is immediately more cumbersome than the portrait mode, not helped by just how wide my X3P's screen is in landscape. 4/10 for now.

On computers where you get a mouse (and/or a trackpad if laptop) & keyboard, the game pretty much slows to a grind. Sure, it can be nice to be really precise so you pay maximum attention at all times, but I'm not sure I like my own controls slowing my gameplay down to a halt. 3/10.

Conclusion

Shattered Pixel Dungeon informs me just how much I do NOT like roguelikes. Before even knowing this game, I previously had zero knowledge (let alone any opinion) on roguelikes. And after ≥3 years of fun & frustration... I'd say roguelikes aren't my cup of fun. However, aside from my issues with SPD's gameplay (and roguelikes as a whole), SPD is a very good game, in terms of technicalities. Therefore, I recommend SPD if you like roguelikes (and are looking for some decent open source games, which I would add is not enough, but every bit counts).

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