Do Roguelikes Require More Skill or More Luck? (8 Games Analyzed)

Roguelikes represent a very niche part of gaming. There's a reason I find them so different and appealing to play. Today, after months of procrastination, I'm going to show off some of the ones I found to be very enjoyable. Of course, this is a very opinionated video, so feel free to tell me what everyone thinks too.

Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro & Rating Requirements
2:23 – Binding of Isaac
4:46 – Slay the Spire
7:08 – Enter the Gungeon
8:30 – Risk of Rain 2
9:49 – Hades
11:42 – Nuclear Throne
13:14 – One Step From Eden
14:35 – Dead Cells
15:46 – Full Ratings

Music used:

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v1.0

[randomytuser]

I feel like a part of the learning curve in the binding of isaac is finding out methods to gain items

[alecalex]

the "skill" rating has too high a focus on executive skills and not enough on planning/strategic skills imo. There's more to skill than execution.

[soapsoapsoapsoap]

Skill in ROR2 is tied to the luck. By manipulating the odds using probability or the order in which you get items you are significantly more likely to get strong runs. E8 & not using lunars is one of the harder challenges out of all the games I’ve played.

[chipskylark]

100% of viewers are subbed lmao first time I've seen that keep it up brother hope schools going well

[rafaelbordoni]

I think luck and variety are two different things that are equally important to acknowledge. Both are made by RNG but a game can feel like a different game each time yet it can still feel like it's all skill if everything is properly balanced, and a game can have very little change between runs besides the overpowered/underpowered loot you get, which makes it feel like a complete luckfest. I also think difficulty and skill are two different things as well, although difficulty usually means the game also has a high skill ceiling, it might not be the case if luck is involved (luck, not variety), and a game can be easy and have high skill ceiling, like 3D Mario games. I think the video is good, but calling variety luck and difficulty skill doesn't do it any favors, although you explain the definitions, people still are confused because they already have their internal idea of what luck and skill is.

[ponternal]

Beating Enter the Gungeon for the first time was a crazy feeling. Got me into roguelikes and now I'm trying to play a bunch of others.

[gorumordes]

I think alot of the difficulty in The Binding of Isaac comes from understanding what item to pick up and how they combine with each other

[pradoxical]

Honestly in my opinion Hades is definitely one of the easiest games of the genre I’ve ever played because it only took me twelve runs to get to the final boss whereas in dead cells I find myself regularly struggling to get to the final boss even though I’ve beat it once before. But like you said, Hades really just has something special in the story department and as a fan of Greek mythology myself, it really is something special.

[小苹狗]

slay the spire is atually quite skill based. First thing to point out is that, no matter the ascension level, you almost always benefit more from a small deck. On ascension 20, or high ascension in gerneral, you will plan which route to go through the map. Choose whether no not to fight elite. Choose weak common card to get through the first map till you find one of the vital card or relic. Some streamer, brkstar at bilibili is able to have a 100 streak on ascension 20 on both defect and the watcher. The skill matters a lot in slay the spire.

[DeaconBlu]

11:20 “there’s no reason to go past 20 heat”

**Laughs in skelly statues**

[lred]

Would be cool if you also included Noita here, I'd say that one has a high score in both: with skill you can make anything playable enough to get through the game, but put good RNG on top of that and you can achieve truly insane power levels and go on those 10+ hour, secret hunting runs

[chrystlgames]

As a lot of people said already i think a lot of the skill from isaac comes from knowing what you want to do with a run and whats the best way to move forward with the items/pickups you have

[colledeicorvi]

You got it wrong with risk of rain lol, common items are probably the most useful, lunar items are really gimmicky and dangerous, and red (rarest items) are easy to acquire since you can have 1 100% of the time on stage 4, and a lot of them are pretty bad/not useful for most survivors.

[augisterman]

The main thing about risk of rain 2 is that it is really easy to turn around a bad run by making the right choices, like getting the correct lunar items, scrapping and printing and also using multi shop terminals. And it is really easy to get ahead of yourself and go too long in a stage, the luck can stay the same but risk of rain 2 needs to be bumped up in skill.

[newtonthenewt]

Slay The Spire is definitely a game that requires a lot of skill. Mechanical skill, of course not, but tons of tactical and strategical skill. You need to know what cards your deck needs to fight certain enemies should they show up (for instance, not picking up many block cards but trying to find higher-damage attacks in the beginning of a run in case you get Gremlin Nob), and to try to find those cards. Then it's a lot of risk-reward calculations, like "do I take 15 damage on this turn and guarantee to finish the fight next turn, or do I take 5 damage this turn with a chance to not kill next turn, and possibly take even more damage on the next turn?"
Yes, there is a TON of luck involved, since you may get certain card/relic combinations early in the run that practically win the run on the spot (like hitting an infinite on Watcher with Rushdown and multiple ways to get into calm and wrath, namely cards like Inner Peace, Fear no Evil, and Tantrum), but the skill lies in proper decision-making for what cards and relics to add, how to spend money at shops, which paths to take, which options to choose for events, which potions to use and when, and which cards to play and in what order.
Hades, to me, seems less luck-dependent in comparison. Out of what I've seen so far, the upgrades you get during a run are basically just stat upgrades, and most of the success of the run is just dependent on your skill and in-game knowledge. But of course, I don't have that many hours in Hades so I don't fully know. On the flipside, I do have over 100 hours in StS and have seen probably even more hours of StS content from high-level players, especially Jorbs.

[maggiefix]

I have ~250hrs in Slay the Spire and I can say that the game is getting really hard on higher ascension levels. There is much to understand in this game and making the best decision can be quite hard.
Personally I mostly play Defect and I am stuck on A17. Beating A20 is a skill accomplishment because you won't get it if you simply hope for luck and go in without much thought.

[samcolvin]

The binding of Isaac is probably one of my favourite games just ahead of Gungeon, and I personally think that the main skill elements doesn’t come from dodging but more from tech and game knowledge. Like, sure, a bad player with op items will be able to do better than a good player with Isaac’s heart, but I think what mainly separates good and a bad players is the ability to make the most of bad situations, things like using mystery gift in the secret room, or using the lover’s card in that one black heart secret room.

[UnknownRex]

Isaac is lots of skills. You can for sure get carried by items, but to consistently win even with sub par items needs skill.

[ladyshapeshifter]

Spire is incredibly skill reliant at a high level. The best players in the world will absolutely achieve 60+% winrate across the board at ascension 20 with act 4 included each run (with watcher being an outlier at like 95+%). It's pretty criminal to chalk successful runs to luck.

[progress_games]

Nice seeing NT, I totally agree. Everything feels like it's going good and then suddenly you lose 6HP to two bullets and die to an explosion. Plus, Melting is so difficult, basically requiring you to be flawless