Powder

POWDER is a roguelike in which the player descends through 25 semi-randomly generated levels to reach and destroy the demon Baezl'bub, then return to the surface in one piece.

The experience, abilities, rare items, and favor from the gods that the player earns during their descent prepare the player for the appearance of increasingly challenging enemies as game time progresses.

As a grid-based, turn-based adventure game, there is significant strategy that goes into a successful iteration. One must, of course, first learn the basics through trial and error - when it's safe to quaff a mysterious potion, for example, or which enemies to avoid until one's strong enough to confront them. There is also a significant amount of luck involved - the effectiveness of weapons is highly dependent on chance, as are the qualities of items encountered during one's exploration. However, given some learning rounds and a bit of said luck on the first ten levels, one can become powerful and sly enough to deal with pretty much anything the dungeon churns out.

Sam's Protip: It's important to track what one's weaknesses are and know how to avoid them - all the health and damage in the world won't stop a sudden "ignoble death" due to petrification or strangulation.