History VideoGame / DungeonOfTheEndless

During the 2020 Videogame Awards, a sort of spiritual successor was announced titled ''Endless Dungeon'', bring it closer to the mainline titles of the Endless Universe.

* FakeDifficulty: Though it's rare, certain hero combinations can result in the game deliberately making things more difficult. For example, having both [[spoiler:Sara Numas]] and [[spoiler:Gork "Butcher" Koroser]] in your party will mean they exchange threats due to their shared story. Escape enough floors and the arguments keep escalating, culminating with a clash where one kills the other. ''[[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous And no, the game doesn't give you any warning or replace the dead guy.]]''

* DifficultySpike: As you progress through the dungeon, enemies get replaced with EliteMook variants which have more health and deal more damage. On the 12th floor, dust becomes very scarce, major module slots become much harder to come across, and some rooms have ''no major or minor module slots in them''.

* ActionBomb: Both Chimera Kamikazes and the Necrophage Kamikazes will attempt to find the most populated room and explode, dealing heavy damage to all heroes and modules within, and slight damage to other monsters within.

* AllForNothing: Once you actually reach the end of the dungeon, [[spoiler: the team, confronted with the dangerous environment of Auriga, realizes that their best chance of survival is to ''turn around and go right back in''. Granted, they've cleared the Vault of dangerous denizens and made it much safer, but it's a bit of a kick to realize that they've climbed all that way and fought so hard only to realize that they're trapped and can't leave anyway.]]

** Opening a door to a room with Merchants, [=NPCs=], EMP surges or Exits will not cause any mook waves to spawn.

* CombatAndSupport: Characters tend to fall into two groups- either combat (high offense, average to low wit) or operator (lower offenses, high wit).

* DifficultySpike: Once you reach the later floors, enemies get replaced with EliteMook variants which have more health and deal more damage. On the 12th floor, dust becomes very scarce, major module slots become much harder to come across, and some rooms have ''no major or minor module slots in them''.

** On later floors, Hurna Riders can smash down closed doors. Since opening a door (even one that links two already-explored rooms) runs resource generation ''and'' generally spawns enemies in unlit rooms, this can be extremely bad. Nevermind the potential of an enemy breaking open a door to an unexplored room in a weaker area.
** Players can sometimes find the exit extraordinarily early due to the map being randomly generated, after which they then have the choice of leaving early or keep exploring for more loot.

* EndlessGame: The Drill Pod, though the lack of victory is negligible -- crew members can still be unlocked the same and the next ship simply unlocks after 24 floors, making the only real difference that you don't see the victory screen.
* EscortMission: Carrying the Crystal to the exit. The hero who does it can't attack or use abilities and moves a lot slower, so he or she needs protection from the others or modules along the way. With a good setup, you can simply defend a bottleneck until the crystal is close to the exit.
* FakeDifficulty: Though it's rare, certain hero combinations can result in the game deliberately making things more difficult. For example, having both [[spoiler:Sara Numas]] and [[spoiler:Gork "Butcher" Koroser]] in your party will mean they exchange threats due to their shared story. Escape enough floors and the arguments keep escalating, culminating with a draw where one kills the other. ''[[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous And no, the game doesn't give you any warning or replace the dead guy.]]''

* TheGoomba: Silic Crystals and Necrophage Larvae. The former ''don't even attack heroes'', move slowly, and are easy to shatter. The latter are weak and die easily, even thought they tend to ZergRush.
* HarderThanHard: The Sanitary Pod. Considering that "Easy mode" is anything but, being labelled the "Hard Mode" ship should be a warning, as all of the following is heaped on: no in-game pausing, removing any turn-based advantages; stronger monsters; negative events, such as slowing gas and module disabling [=EMPs=], are much more likely; module slots, heroes, and items spawn much less often; healing is more expensive; and, to top it all off, enemies can now spawn when you research too.

* KaizoTrap: Defied. If the player clicks the exit button the crystal carrier will still need to walk over to the exit portal in order to win. However, if there are any monsters in the exit area, they will not deal any damage once it is clicked, ensuring your success at level completion.

** The [=KIP=][[labelnote:*]]Knowledge Is Power[[/labelnote]] Cannon is powered by stockpiled Science points - the more unspent Science you have, the more powerful it becomes. The basic version gains .8 attack power per unspent Science point up to a maximum of ''100'' (to contrast, the basic defensive 'Prisoner Prod' module has an attack power of around 10 to begin with), and the later versions only get stronger.
** Later in the game, there are Chimera Keepers which don't attack but occupy dark rooms, getting stronger over time until dealt with.

* {{Permadeath}}: Like most {{Roguelike}}s, characters that are killed are KilledOffForReal with no way to bring them back. The two exceptions are the Refreezerator Pod, where you only have a single hero for the playthrough that respawns at the cost of food, and buying the Time of Sands item from the incredibly rare Death Dealer, which takes up an accessory slot but will revive the hero it's equipped on when they die, but with only a portion of their HP (they get more HP back the longer they held the item).
* PracticalCurrency: Shops swap resources for materials, but it's chosen randomly between appearances; each merchant will exclusively use Industry, Food, Science, or Dust.
* RagtagBandOfMisfits: Your team will probably end up as this. The first four available characters alone consist of a [[NoIndoorVoice loud-mouthed]] doctor, a blade-wielding bounty hunter, a [[HulkSpeak Hulk speaking]] mercenary, and a cowardly thief. They only get weirder from there.

* RealTimeWithPause: One can use the pause function during and out of combat to give orders to heroes. However, there is an unlockable ship and an achievement that requires the player to ''not'' use this function at all in a winning game.
* RecurringTraveller: Whilst exploring, you'll occasionally find mysterious Merchants. Whatever could they be doing in such an inhospitable place? (They are probably members of Endless Legend's Roving Clans...still, odd place to set up shop, even if it has a lot of Dust.)
* ResourcesManagementGameplay: There are four different types of resources- Industry (for building), Science (for getting upgrades and restoring skill cooldowns), Food (for leveling up and healing), and Dust (for powering up rooms). Careful management of these is needed in order to survive, as the first three are carried over to the next floor.

* ShootTheMageFirst: Certain attacking modules will actually target enemies of different priority. For example, Tesla modules attack anti-module units such as Silic Bulldozers and Silic Zoners, while Smoking Guns tend to attack Hurna Shamans (debuffs attack of heroes in a room) first.

* SpinOff: Of ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'', sort of. It ties in much more closely with ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend''. For both of them, it unlocks a faction: Vaulters for Endless Space and Mezari for Endless Legend, though Mezari are really just re-skinned Vaulters (it's who they were before they crashlanded and got the new name).

* UnstableEquilibrium: Since your characters, items and resources carry over to the next floor, the game will only get harder if you get off on a bad start. Likewise, the more the enemies manage to attack your crystal, the less Dust you will have, which means less floors can be lit up, causing more waves of mooks to spawn, and thus ensuring a higher chance of mooks getting to attack the crystal.

* StandardStatusEffects: ''Pepper Spray'' causes the affected enemy to attack others, ''Neurostun'' modules slow down all enemies, and the ''Toxic Cloud'' room hazard slows down all players. ''Tear Gas'' [[DamageIncreasingDebuff weakens enemies' defence]]. Some hero abilities also have comparable effects.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Chimera Keepers don't spawn at all if the Refreezerator Pod (where you can only use a single hero) or the Library Pod (all heroes have their damage nerfed and cannot equip weapons) is selected, due to the fact that it would probably kill you if you tried to fight it at its strongest.

* DungeonBypass: On later floors, Hurna Riders can smash down closed doors. Since opening a door (even one that links two already-explored rooms) runs resource generation ''and'' generally spawns enemies in unlit rooms, this can be extremely bad. Nevermind the potential of an enemy breaking open a door to an unexplored room in a weaker area.
** As the levels are randomly generated, players can sometimes find the exit while there are half the doors left unopened. They will then have the choice of leaving early or keep exploring for more loot.

* LampshadeHanging: The game hangs a little one on the frequency of hostile encounters;

** The random elevator conversations often involve these as well.

* MagikarpPower: The [=KIP=][[labelnote:*]]Knowledge Is Power[[/labelnote]] Cannon is powered by stockpiled Science points - the more unspent Science you have, the more powerful it becomes. The basic version gains .8 attack power per unspent Science point up to a maximum of ''100'' (to contrast, the basic defensive 'Prisoner Prod' module has an attack power of around 10 to begin with), and the later versions only get stronger.

* UnstableEquilibrium: Since your characters, items and resources carry over to the next floor, the game will only get harder if you get off on a bad start.
** The more the enemies manage to attack your crystal, the less Dust you will have, which means less floors lighted up, causing more waves of mooks to spawn, ensuring a higher chance of mooks getting to attack the crystal.
* ZergRush: Once a hero picks up the crystal, mooks will continuously spawn from all dark rooms on the map.
** Necrophage Larvae. They're very weak but they always appear in numbers.

** When your crystal is under attack, a warning alarm plays, and a text message saying "now is a good time to panic". They ''mean it''.

* {{Permadeath}}: Like most {{Roguelike}}s, characters that are killed are KilledOffForReal with no way to bring them back. The only exception is the Refreezerator Pod, where you only have a single hero for the playthrough that respawns at the cost of food.

Similar to Endless Space and Endless Legend, the game also uses the same '[=FIDS=]' (Food, Industry, Dust, Science) resource set, but the usage is bit different. Especially Dust, which is no longer a currency, but acts as energy to power rooms and doesn't carry over to the next floor.

* ActionGirl: Pretty much every female character in the game is capable of combat.