Video Game / Dicey Dungeons

It's about dice and stuff!

Dicey Dungeons is a Roguelike dungeon-crawler game by Terry Cavanagh, with art by Marlowe Dobbe and music by Niamh "chipzel" Houston.

Six lucky (or unlucky) contestants have been selected to take part in Dicey Dungeons, the mysterious game show hosted by the one and only Lady Luck herself. Transformed into living dice, they must explore random maps full of monsters and fight their way to the bottom, armed only with a handful of dice to roll each turn, and a selection of equipment activated by placing said dice in each. Defeat the boss and win, and they will be rewarded with fantastic magical prizes. Fail, and their souls will forever be trapped in the dungeons as the very monsters that roam its halls.

The game was first released in alpha on July 6, 2018. The first nine builds were free to play, with the final free version being available here. The full game was released on August 13, 2019, and can be purchased on Terry's itch.io page as well as on Steam. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released on December 15, 2020. A free DLC update titled Reunion was released on July 7, 2022, along with the game being released for iOS and Android as well.

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Dicey Dungeons contains examples of the following tropes:

A-H

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: The six contestants, who were turned into dice by Lady Luck, are forced to compete in her gameshow where they must fight enemies in the dungeons in order to escape. Should they lose Lady Luck's game, their soul belongs to her.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • Some enemies are vulnerable to elemental damage, usually in a Logical Weakness way: plant-based enemies like Rose and Wicker Man are flammable, as are ice enemies like Snowman, while enemies who are purely fire-based are susceptible to ice, and Stereohead's systems tend to do badly with electrical damage.
  • Enemies who only roll a few dice are vulnerable to all sorts of status effects: Shock can shut down their offence, Freeze can limit the amount of damage they can do, and so on. Fireman is particularly weak to Freeze, for example, over and above his taking double damage from ice; all his attacks require even numbers, so every die turned into a 1 by Freeze is a die he doesn't have much use for. Enough Freeze can even wreck the day of high-level enemies like the Rat King, whose endlessly recycling dice become a lot less deadly when it takes all his dice to even start the chain, leaving him one bad roll away from failing, or the Kraken, who has only one attack that doesn't require an even result.
  • The Thief is very vulnerable to high rolls in the early game, particularly if he has a Dagger and Lockpick as his starting gear: a double-6 that ends up with one split into a 1 and a 5 is going to hurt.
  • Crowbar/Wrecking Ball builds can do a lot of damage very quickly by counting down timers very efficiently, but they're very susceptible to Curse, which can shut down the Crowbar or Wrecking Ball while costing you a die — absolutely destroying that efficiency for a turn and leaving you with some quite large numbers you can no longer swiftly count down.
  • The Jester needs matched cards for their discard and Snap power. If they can't get a match, they can't dig further into the deck for the cards they really need and has to use them one at a time.
• Action Initiative: Sticky Hands always goes first in battle. He even has a Bonus Round rule that gives all the other enemies the chance to strike first.
• Ascended Meme: The memetic "VICTIORE" spelling mistake from the French translation can be put back with an official mod after the error was corrected.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The heroes are living dice.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Relaxed Mode reduces all enemies' HP by 25% without affecting your progress or achievements, and it can be toggled anytime.
• Arc Number: Six. There's six main characters, transformed into six-sided dice, with six challenges each, involving six floors of Lady Luck's dungeons, and they can equip up to six pieces of gear at once...
• Art Evolution: The early alpha versions used simple, pixelated sprites. Later versions switched to more detailed, high-resolution artwork.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • The AI's pattern for enemies with multiple instances of the same countdown equipment (Sneezy, Rat King, and Buster, among others) always boils down to "fill in the leftmost equipment first". This can lead to these enemies making suboptimal plays if they partially completed the rightmost equipment on a previous turn — they won't finish it until they end up with a turn where they can complete all of the previous equipment or are blocked from doing so.
  • Sticky Hands will still use Pickpocket on you to steal your money even if you don't have any, and since he only has one dice, he'd be wasting his turn when he could've used it to charge Run Away instead.
  • The Haunted Jar will still use Blight on you even if you're not poisoned, usually when it can't use its Poison Cloud.
  • The Handyman uses the Spanner to get dice values greater than 6 so he can maximize his Hammer attack. However, if the Spanner's upgraded, he'll use it two more times with the resulting dice even if they'll give out the same value. When under the Hothead rule, which ignites dice with 6s on them, he'll even keep picking up the 6 he creates and throwing it in the spanner.
  • The Wolf Puppy won't bother to charge another Fury stack if he can't use Wolf Puppy Bite after activating Woof Woof Woof in the previous turn.
  • The A.I. doesn't know how to effectively use status effects in the Parallel Universe due to their different mechanics. The Cactus, for example, will still build up Thorns if he has only odds, even if the PU version of Thorns only works within the turn it was applied because it absorbs extra HP instead.
  • If an enemy's HP is 2 or less, they won't pick up a burning dice, knowing it would kill them. However, if the Rose Rule is active, they'll still pick it up at 3HP, thinking it'll still deal 2 fire damage to themself, but the extra 1 fire damage will do them in.
  • In Reunion, Buster can't do damage if he rolls all evens since he needs odds to use Incinerate. Despite this, he'll still use his evens to use Scorch, which increases the HP cost of each burning dice, even if he didn't burn any.
• Autosave: The game automatically saves your progress, but it can't save during a battle, so you have to start it over if you quit during it.
• Battle Boomerang: The Boomerang weapon, which has Boomerang Comeback by hurting the user for half the damage (exactly 3 when upgraded) dealt to the enemy. Its counterpart in the Halloween Special, the Boomewrong, swaps around the damage values, so you take double damage instead.
• Bland-Name Product: At the end of Reunion, Lady Luck tells the dice to follow her on Pentagram (Instagram), and Witch adds that she makes curse reviews there every week.
• Blinking Lights of Victory: Fitting the game show aesthetic, the "combat victory" screen involves a sign surrounded with blinking lights, with more lights in the lettering.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: The shield status basically acts as a second life bar, the difference being that there is no maximum shield amount and losing shield does not increase the limit break bar, unlike with the actual HP bar. Also, the poison status ignores shield and directly affects HPs.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Unlike the other classes where the starting equipment is there to be replaced, the Thief's Dagger is a reliable enough damage tool to be used the entire run, thanks to being reusable. Upgrading the Dagger might mean missing out on complex poison or weaken strategies, but the increased damage is usually more reliable.
  • In contrast to the Ultima Weapon, which falls under Difficult, but Awesome, the Robot's Buster Sword simply deals one dice of damage with no extra benefit (upgrading it adds +2 damage). However, it remains accessible even if you go bust, so it's a consistent and reliable source of damage that makes it safer to take risks with the dice.
• Breakable Weapons: One of the Inventor episodes gives all the equipment limited usage, in exchange for more chests and changing the gadget system (now broken weapons become gadgets, making it more controllable). This system returns in Reunion, but she immediately exchanges the broken equipment with a random one instead of turning it into a gadget.
• Card Cycling:
  • The Jester's "Magic Trick" Limit Break lets them discard their hand and draw new cards.
  • In the Inventor's Reunion episode, Tabula Rasa scraps all her other cards in exchange for new ones since they're replaced with random ones every time she breaks them.
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • A class's Limit Break is charged by taking non-Shield or Armor damage, which activates their special move when used. This can also be done by intentionally clicking on any burning dice to charge the meter at the cost of 2HP per dice. This is invoked with the Rhino Beetle Rule in the Bonus Round, where you'll receive 2 damage each turn your Limit Break's not charged.
  • The Shadow Dice duplicates any dice at the cost of losing health depending on its value while the Candle reduces the dice value by 1 at the cost of 1HP, though it's reusable unlike Nudge.
  • The Nail Bat adds 3 extra damage to its total but saps 2HP from you every turn.
  • In Reunion, Front Line exchanges 3HP for 3 Shield stacks and also returns your dice.
• Cherry Tapping: Invoked with Dramatic Exit. It requires doubles to activate (or an even number if upgraded) and it only deals 1 damage, but if you defeat an enemy with this, you'll gain 2HP to your maximum health.
• Chest Monster:
  • Alongside the standard Mimics that masquerade as chests, there are also animate Rotten Apples. Both are visually identical to their helpful counterparts on the map screen, but the tooltip text will give them away if you hover the mouse over them. You might still find yourself accidentally walking into them, regardless.
  • Exaggerated with the Mimic Rule in the Bonus Round, where it makes everything on the map look like a treasure chest, items, shops, and enemies alike.
• Choose a Handicap: In Episode 6, each time your character goes down a floor, the game randomly selects a new rule from a hidden list, and the player may either take the rule shown, or a second random selection. Some of the rules handicap both the player and the enemy, and some appear balanced but are harsher than they look when you stop to think about their implications; but some are straightforward handicaps for the player or buffs for the enemy. And if you don't like the proposed rule and choose a random selection, you always risk running into one of the really nasty ones...
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Usually averted, but exaggerated greatly with Lady Luck herself, who rolls a six each and every time. Naturally, this is complemented by her loadout, consisting of items that are only at their best, or work at all, when used with the sixes that she always rolls.
• Creative Closing Credits: While the credits can be viewed anytime, beating the main game will show a picture montage of the dice hanging out with the minions after being released from the dungeons, having befriended them after the final showdown.
• Deckbuilding Game: The Jester plays like this, with each piece of equipment being a drawable card. You're encouraged to keep the deck lean in order to get cards you want, especially ones that let you reuse dice or give extra, given that you don't get more dice at level up.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Applies to the Jester if you beat them in battle six times, turning them into a playable character. In the final chapter, Back Stage, the news of your rebellion against Lady Luck means all the enemies will join your rapidly expanding party once you beat them, including either Audrey or Buster when you fight them as a Final Boss before Lady Luck appears as the True Final Boss.
  • Lady Luck becomes a lot more friendly and respectful after you defeat her.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Just about every card has an associated gadget the Inventor can make by scrapping it - including enemy cards that can only be attained and scrapped with the Reversal gadget. The few cards that don't have gadgets are never given to enemies and don't appear in the Inventor's item pool.
  • The Alchemist's Bear Potion can also work on you, if you steal it or inflict Curse? on Alchemist to reverse the card's target. Even more impressive, the Bear class has its own unique sprite, equipment, and Limit Break, and other characters will comment on the fact that you've now transformed into a bear.
  • In Bonus Round, the Marshmallow rule swaps all fire-related equipment with ice-related equipment. This contains some obvious swaps, like Fireball to Snowball, and Whip (burn on 6) to Lament (freeze on 6), but also introduces 19 exclusive cards for fire/ice cards that don't already have matching counterparts.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • The Witch's spells can have powerful effects, but using them can be tricky: first, you need to use a specific die (or multiple dice for her more powerful spells) to invoke the spell. Then, you have to use another die to actually cast it. Her P.U and Bonus Round runs also throw in a Mana point system that has some cards generate mana points, with others either spending it to boost their effects or boosting their effects if it's at a certain threshold. While this gives her a lot more to manage, when used right, this lets her do huge amounts of damage and keep up her dice making shenanigans.
  • One of the Robot's weapons, the Ultima Weapon, is just a basic attack unless you Jackpot. If you do, your damage is doubled, and can get up to 12 damage just from the die.
  • For Jester, duplicating Dice Cannon (or other reusable Finishers) with Inventor's ability and using Snap! gives you the ability to deal infinite damage. It's heavily reliant on good luck to be able to set this up, however.
• Disability Superpower: In the Jester's Parallel Universe and Bonus Round episodes, one of the possible booster packs contains Infestation and Manic Laugh. Infestation inflicts Curse on both you and your enemy, but Manic Laugh's power will be quadrupled if you're Cursed. There's still the risk that the attack will miss, or in the Parallel Universe, you'll inflict the quad damage on yourself.
• Downloadable Content: On July 7, 2022, Dicey Dungeons Reunion was released as free DLC. It adds six new episodes for each contestant along with new music, art, equipment, and gameplay.
• Dungeon Shop: There's a chance that one of the spaces on any level of a dungeon is a travelling merchant, where coins earned in battle can be spent on new gear, upgrades, or a healing apple.
• Dynamic Entry: There's a passive card called Dramatic Entrance, which gives you Fury at the start of the match.
• Early Game Hell: While bad rolls can mean disaster at any point of a run, they are particularly punishing during the first couple of floors before you have time to build up dice manipulation and defensive options that let you recover from an unlucky roll. It's not unheard of to get defeated on the first floor simply because the enemy dealt too much damage too quickly.
• Electric Joybuzzer: The card that purely inflicts Shock is named "Buzzer".
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Some enemies (such as the Snowman) take extra damage from certain elemental attacks. The tooltip confusingly refers to the status effects, so enemies can be strong or weak against Poison, Burn, Freeze, or Shock.
• Elite Mooks: Occasionally you'll encounter glowing "super enemies" that have more health and better equipment than normal.
• Enigmatic Minion: The Jester starts out as a lackey to Lady Luck, spinning the prize wheel at the end of a run and occasionally (and not willingly) fighting the dice.
• Evil Counterpart: The Witch, who's competing in order to earn a ton of social media followers, has the counterpart of the Sorceress, who's always seen with her mobile phone.
• Evil Laugh: One of your possible attacks as the Jester in the Parallel Universe and Bonus Round is this, which does double damage if the enemy is Cursed.
• Evolving Title Screen: As you unlock the various characters, they replace the plain dice Lady Luck is throwing out in front of her.
• Failure Is the Only Option: After a run, Lady Luck allows a spin on the prize wheel, which has over a dozen winning spots and a single losing spot. The losing spot is landed on every single time, leading to another run through the dungeons.
• Fight Like a Card Player: The playable Jester's gimmick is that they use a deck of cards they swap out every turn instead of a regular inventory.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: The spell Catastrophe, which inflicts shock, burn, and freeze.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Some attacks do a set amount of damage such as Infliction, Magic Missile, Boop, and Bop. Others like the Robot's Forcefield and Mechanical Arm increase their set damage value with each roll.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The Inventor can turn her equipment into gadgets which can be used for free each turn. The downside? She has to make a new gadget after each fight, which means you're constantly throwing away your items.
• Gathering Steam: The "Hall of Mirrors" spell, notably used by the Wizard and the Witch, gives +1 dice for the rest of the fight. Having an extra dice means more chances to use attacks — including using Hall of Mirrors again. The Wizard, who starts with just a single dice, can quickly go from an annoyance to a terror once he rolls that first 6, while the Witch can, with some work, get enough bonus dice to fill the entire screen and defeat the enemy by just throwing the things at them.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The contestants are composed of two boys (Warrior and Thief), two girls (Inventor and Witch), and two nonbinary dice (Robot and Jester).
• Girl Scouts Are Evil: One of the possible bosses is a girl scout, Madison, who fights using a pocket knife and some form of weaponized campfire.
• Group Picture Ending: After the final battle, the Final Boss calls the dice over for a group picture together before releasing them from the dungeons.
• Guide Dang It!: The Wisp Rule in the Bonus Round inflicts permanent Vanish on you, causing any duplicate dice to disappear, but it doesn't tell you that it affects the enemy as well.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: "Prepare to Dice" is an ominous track with a heartbeat in the foreground and an unsettling hum in the background, which plays whenever your health is low or you're approaching a boss fight.
• Holiday Mode: The game ran a Halloween special during October 2019, featuring mooks in Halloween costumes and new enemies, plus a new episode for the Warrior, the Inventor and the Witch. It can still be accessed via the Bonus Episodes section.
• HP to One: The very rare item called the Divine Rod reduces the enemy's health to 1, ignoring all shields and armor. It requires four 6s to use, however.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Apples are the most effective way to heal a character, but there are a limited amount, only being found on dungeon maps or in shops.

I-P

• Immoral Reality Show: The game's Excuse Plot is that the characters are competing in a game show run by Lady Luck herself. They must run through dungeons for a shot at spinning the wheel, which gives them a chance to either get a wish granted or be forced to run through another dungeon. If they fail, their soul is trapped in the labyrinth forever.
• Immortality Seeker: When the Robot wants to be The Sleepless for efficiency, Lady Luck muses:
  Why not just play for immortality?
  Then you'd have all the time in the world.
  Robot: All the research shows that personal change is more sustainable if you start small.
  I'm going to try for immortality next time!
  Lady Luck: Oh my dear!
  There won't be a next time.
  Just to make the most of this one. In you go!
• Informed Equipment: The character art implies that the Warrior always has a sword, the Thief always is Dual Wielding daggers (even though he only starts with one Dagger card), the Inventor always has a hammer, and the other characters are unarmed (though Witch is shown casting a small flame, which isn't always possible in some Witch runs). Even more odd in Parallel Universe episodes, where the starting equipment for Thief and Inventor are completely different, and Bonus Round episodes where the Warrior can start with irregular equipment as well.
• Instakill Mook: Cornelius's attack "Nightmare" does 999 damage — far more than you could ever realistically survive. Nightmare is also a countdown card requiring 99 pips to activate, so the challenge is to beat Cornelius before he gets enough dice to set it off.
• Interface Spoiler: The last challenge listed in both the Steam Achievements and the Challenges section in-game requires you to defeat Lady Luck herself, spoiling the final episode.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: The contestants, except for the Witch and Jester, each have a backpack with a 4x5 grid and a combat inventory with a 3x2 grid. Most equipment take up a 1x1 space, but some of the stronger weapons take up a 1x2 space instead. It takes some rearrangement to optimize your hand in combat if you're carrying 1x2 equipment on you, but a few of them such as Counterfeit, Hammer, Electromagnet, Crystal Sword, Rusty Sword, Screwdriver, Befuddle, Hi-Vis Jacket, and Gemstone Staff can be upgraded to take up half the space. If you're carrying too much equipment, you'll be forced to throw away one of three randomly picked ones from your inventory or hand.
• Joke Item:
  • The Precious Egg's counterpart in the Parallel Universe and Bonus Round is called the Rotten Egg, which gives you a random scrap item after opening it. Its contents are even worse if you "upgrade" it before opening it.
  • Exaggerated in the Inventor's Halloween Episode, where all of her equipment are terrible. However, she can turn them into gadgets that are actually useful, if not powerful enough in battle.
  • The Rubber Duck in the Halloween Special does absolutely nothing, and turning it into a gadget will leave you with a Broken Gadget, which doesn't do anything either. Not even upgrading it makes it better, as it just makes it take up twice the space.
• Lady Luck: The host of the Immoral Reality Show the game takes place in.
• Laugh Track: For the Jester, one of the possible finale cards in the Bonus Round is this, which Curses your enemy.
• Lethal Joke Item: The Inventor's "No, You" gadget and Polarity Flip item in the Halloween Special can swap the target of the next item, which is effective in using what are otherwise Joke Items:
  • The Backfire attack only deals 5 damage to herself, but she can make it hit the enemy instead, provided that she can roll a 1 for it.
  • The Hall of Mirrors' counterpart Wall of Mirrors gives the enemy an extra dice during the battle, but the Inventor can give it to herself instead.
• Level-Up Fill-Up: Levelling up refills your health.
• Light 'em Up: Cards such as Lantern, Northern Lights, and Hall of Mirrors give you extra dice in battle.
• Lightning Lash: The Electric Whip in the Halloween Special deals damage to the enemy but inflicts Shock on the user.
• Limit Break: Each class has one (although some episodes change what it is), which is charged by taking damage:
  • The Warrior has "Fury", which doubles the effect of his next action. This is changed in Parallel Universe, where it's the same as regular Fury but locks him out from using the same weapon in his next turn.
    • In the Halloween special, he gets a 6-point heal with "Recovery" instead.
    • In Reunion, he gets "Barricade", which instantly adds 3 Shield. There are also various Workout Tapes that change his Limit Break, including four tapes that give Victory Points, which teach him Omnislash.
  • The Thief has "Unlucky Roll", which instantly rolls four "1" dice.
    • In "Finders, Keepers", this is changed to "Hook", which gives him the Re-Equip Next status, allowing him to reuse a weapon.
    • In his "Uptick" challenge, where all of your dice are a rolled at a specific value each turn, he instead gets "Trips", which rolls three dice at the current value.
    • In Reunion, he gets "Berserk", which makes him deal double damage for the rest of the turn.
  • The Inventor has "Focus", which turns all her unused dice into 6s.
  • The Robot has "Autoroll", which guarantees a Jackpot.
    • In their "You Choose, You Lose" challenge where you pick your dice, you instead get "Two More Dice", which gives you two random extra dice that don't have a risk of knocking out equipment.
    • In Reunion, they get "Fury" instead.
  • The Witch has "Crystal Ball", which rolls 3 extra dice.
    • In her Halloween episode, she instead gets "Jetpack" to instantly let her flee a battle, useful if the player messed up a puzzle.
    • In Reunion, she gets "Skip", which gives her a new puzzle.
  • The Jester has "Snap!", which allows them to instantly use any duplicates in their hand at maximum value, no dice required.
    • Their "Not Just A Jester" challenge has them copy The Warrior's "Fury" limit break.
    • Their "Losers, Weepers" challenge gives them "Magic Trick", which discards their entire hand and draws three new cards.
    • In Reunion, they get "Draw 3", which lets them draw three cards.
  • The Bear has Bear Smash, which instantly deals 10 damage, no catch.
  • In the Back Stage area, your team has Against All Odds, which gives 4 random dice with even values.
• Loophole Abuse: Dodge completely negates the next attack. However, the Witch can still throw her dice at an enemy with this status because she's technically not using any of her spells to attack them. Also, the Sour Candy card can still hit the enemy if the user's HP is full because the card still acts like it's being used on them instead of on the enemy, even if it'll damage the latter instead of healing the user.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Certain pieces of equipment allow the player to alter the rolls of their dice, copy them, or reuse them. Making effective use of these items is a critical component of any run.
• Make Some Noise: Weaken-based equipment and skills are primarily associated with noise. For example, Whisper, Sonic Wave, Echo Blast, Battle Cry, and the gadgets Scream and Dial Up Sounds all inflict Weaken.
• Mana Meter: In the Witch's Parallel Universe and Bonus Round episodes, some of her spells have additional powers that need Mana points to activate. Mana can be charged by using certain spells that do so, but they only last for the duration of the battle.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: The playable dice cast has two boys (Warrior and Thief), two girls (Inventor and Witch), and one nonbinary dice (Robot). When the nonbinary Jester is turned into a dice and joins the team, it becomes a Gender-Equal Ensemble.
• Matchstick Weapon: Matchsticks are one of the weapons the player character can find. They can be used to burn the enemy's dice.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Every class has their gimmick, but some of them stand out as particularly unique:
  • The Witch can "equip" up to six spells in her spellbook, which have to be invoked into her four spell slots by using the appropriate dice before being used.
  • The Jester Fights Like A Card Player: instead of equipping items directly, they store them in a deck of cards. You can only play the three cards you're holding in your hand, and draw a new card for each one you use, but you can also freely discard doubles to get at more valuable cards. In Reunion, they can only draw two cards at a time but can reroll their dice each time they use them.
  • The Robot can roll as many dice as they want, but only as long as their combined values are under a given blackjack limit. Hit that limit exactly, and you are rewarded with an extra jackpot ability; go over the limit, and all your moves are disabled (except ones specifically noted to be immune). In Reunion, this is changed to coins, but the blackjack system is the same.
  • One of the Robot's quests replaces the blackjack minigame with the ability to choose whichever dice you want. However, each time you select a dice, there's a 50% chance for the request to fail and it locks you out of that dice and make a random equipment disappear for the turn, though it is capable of hitting equipment that is immune to this and therefore ending up doing nothing as a result.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • The Jester eventually sides with the dice because of their perseverance, as well as the fact that Lady Luck doesn't even consider them a sidekick after all the work they've done under her.
  • In the final level, nearly every enemy can do this, rebelling against Lady Luck for their own various reasons. It's also implied that the enemies you didn't fight aside (those banned from the final level) are on board as well.
• Monster Compendium: By completing secret in-game tasks, you unlock profiles for the various enemies, listing their hobbies and motivation for participating in Lady Luck's game.
• Mook Promotion:
  • After the Jester switches sides, the Baby Squid briefly takes their place as the one in charge of spinning the prize wheel. The Mummy also takes over during the Halloween special.
  • The Frog rule in the Bonus Round chooses an enemy at random, gives it lots of extra health, and places it at the end of the act to replace the boss character you would otherwise fight.
• Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: Some attacks only inflict Status Effects such as Matchstick for Burn, Buzzer for Shock, and Slime Ball for Poison.
• Objectshifting: The heroes of this game are all humans who have been transformed into dice by Lady Luck.
• Obvious Rule Patch: In "Finale", you can convince enemies to turn on Lady Luck and use their unique abilities on your side. However, the rules patch comes in on replays where Lady Luck has added "banned" party members to the list, but only after the first time since the first time you rebel against her is a total surprise to her, but every replay of Finale afterwards is part of the script she can plan for.
• One Curse Limit: You cannot burn and freeze the same dice: if it gets burned and is the highest number on your hand, the second highest-numbered dice will be frozen instead. Additionally, locking a dice will prevent it from being burned or frozen as it can't be used, anyway. However, combining the Hothead^note which makes all 6s on both your side and the enemy's catch fire and Snowman^note which freezes one of your dice each turn Rules will still freeze the burning 6, effectively extinguishing the fire and turning it into a 1.
• One-Hit Kill: Some attacks do 999 damage, the maximum amount, defeating the opponent in one hit:
  • Cornelius' Nightmare instantly kills you but requires 99 pips to charge. In fact, he starts with one dice and gets another each turn to charge it faster, so you have to defeat him before he could use it.
  • In the Halloween Special, the Stubbed Toe and Jealous Sword can be made into the Night Terrors gadget, which deals 999 damage... to yourself.
  • In Reunion, there are four Workout Cards that give the Warrior victory points: 100 Pushups, 100 Situps, 100 Squats, and 10km Run. When all the victory points are collected, he gets the Omnislash Workout Card, which unlocks a special Limit Break that makes him instantly defeat his enemy with 9999 damage.
• Only Shop in Town: The Dungeon Shop keeper occasionally remarks that they should have a slogan about how they are literally your only option when it comes to spending coins.
• Party in My Pocket: In the Backstage round, your dice class is always the one moving around on the map as you recruit more enemies to defeat Lady Luck.
• Permadeath: It's a roguelike, so this is to be expected. If you die, you have to start the run all over.
• Poison Mushroom:
  • The Scrap Kettle in the Parallel Universe and Bonus Rounds inflicts 1 Burn on you every turn it's in your hand. Upgrading it will make you roll one extra burning dice each turn instead... which isn't much unless you're willing to risk 2HP to use it. Its Marshmallow Rule counterpart, the Iced Latte, inflicts 1 Freeze every turn instead, and upgrading it will make you roll an extra 1, which still isn't much but it at least gives you an extra dice.
  • The Blood Let attack in the Parallel Universe makes you lose 2HP, but then regain 1, which is a net loss of 1.
• Power Copying: The Thief's special ability allows it to copy one of the enemy's items each turn. The Inventor can also do this with a Steal gadget gained from standard Thief items like Lockpick.
• Punch-Clock Villain: All the minions in the dungeon, despite their whole "trapped in the dungeon for all eternity" status, are formally employed by Lady Luck and have lives outside of the game show. But they don't get paid holidays.
• Puzzle Boss:
  • One part of Lady Luck's boss fight has her issuing commands to your party such as not using certain attacks or dice. Since you can only switch out your party members once per turn, you have to strategically switch out to follow the rules, or else she'll give you a penalty of damage, negative Status Effects, Fury for herself, or being instantly KO'd.
  • Exaggerated in the Witch's Halloween episode. Every enemy requires the player to set and cast spells in a specific order to kill them in one turn, otherwise they will fully heal and reset the Witch's spells. In Reunion, she's instantly pitted against the boss with only 3HP, and she must solve the puzzle to inflict Stun on them before they deal three hits worth of Scratch Damage on her.

R-Z

• Random Effect Spell: The Deck of Wonder in Reunion transforms into a random Witch spell after four pips for the rest of the run.
• Random Number God: Given how the game is all about dice, luck obviously plays a big role. However, the effect of bad luck can be mitigated by clever planning and picking your equipment wisely.
• Randomized Transformation: The Polyjuice Potion and Mutate gadget in the Halloween Special turn the enemy into another random enemy of the same level. Using the former twice will transform the enemy back, while using it on yourself will turn you into a random contestant instead for the rest of the run. Like with the Bear, clearing it will still count as clearing it as the contestant you started with.
• Redemption Demotion: All the enemies you recruit in the Backstage Round have significantly less HP than when you first fought them.
• Reunion Show: The Reunion DLC is a Playable Epilogue where the six contestants return to Lady Luck's dungeon since they've escaped the dungeon 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, Thief has a lucrative career as Warrior's talent agent, Warrior is promoting his new workout manual^note he is barely literate, Witch got the millions of social media followers she wanted, Inventor is making a miniature model of the dungeon, Robot has recently learned German and is using that to learn Korean, and Jester refuses to speak to Lady Luck as per the terms laid on the contract.
• Secret Character:
  • The Jester isn't available as a selectable character until you clear seven different runs, with a fight against them always being the boss of the seventh.
  • The Bear can be played as by stealing and using the Alchemist's Bear Potion, or by inflicting Curse? on the Alchemist to cause the Bear Potion to take effect on you instead of them. However, it only lasts for one run and is not selectable on the menu.
• Secret Test of Character: The entire game show was an (admittedly cruel) way for Lady Luck to give its contestants a lesson in giving up their selfish desires, and the real prize was learning a valuable lesson. She doesn't turn them back from dice, either.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Robot's exclusive dice-gimmick-dependent items, Buster Sword, Ultima Weapon, and Ruby Weapon.
  • The Polyjuice Potion in the Halloween Special transforms the enemy into another random enemy of the same level, or if combined with a target-reversing item such as Polarity Flip or the "No, You" gadget, it can permanently transform the user into a random contestant.
  • In Reunion, the Warrior has a unique gimmick revolving around workouts. He has a variety of one-use workout plans that cause powerful effects. Among these are the Shoryuken, which deals damage and burns the enemy. As the Warrior levels up, he gradually learns four workouts that each grant one of four "Victory Points" when used. They are, in order, 100 Push-Ups, 100 Sit-Ups, 100 Squats, and 10Km Run. If the Warrior performs all four, the Victory Points will unlock the Omnislash work-out Limit Break, which deals 9999 damage; enough to kill the boss in one hit.
• Skeleton Key: One of the items you can find is this, which requires doubles but sets all your dice to the value you input.
• Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: There are different sound effects for attacks depending on what elemental type they are and how much damage they do.
• Soundtrack Cover Character Jam: The official album cover of the soundtrack features the Thief on the drums, the Inventor with the electric guitar, and the Warrior on the keyboard, all playing in a band.
• Spoiler Cover: The cover for the physical Switch copy of the game shows the Jester as a dice.
• Status Buff:
  • Shield protects against incoming damage, similar to how a second health bar would work. In the Parallel Universe, it heals you on the next turn by its value.
  • Armor reduces all incoming damage. Particularly useful against enemies such as Sneezy, who attack multiple times per turn. In the Parallel Universe, it blocks the next status effect by its value.
  • Dodge negates the next attack, but in the Parallel Universe, it has a 50% chance of working, and it lasts until it's triggered.
  • Re-Equip Next re-equips the next item you use, even those that only work once per battle, or your next dice in the Parallel Universe.
  • Fury repeats the next equipment that you use, but in the Parallel Universe, it locks you out from using the same weapon on the next turn. For the Jester, it also prevents that card from being discarded, even if it has a match. In the Halloween Special, the Spooky version only works 50% of the time and lasts until it's triggered.
  • Survive lets you survive the next fatal blow with 1 health remaining. It makes you invincible for a set number of turns in the Parallel Universe, but after the counter expires, you die.
  • Illuminate gives you some extra dice of a certain value next turn.
  • Thorns deals damage back to your enemy whenever they hit you. It also used to pierce through shields like Poison until the v1.4 update Nerfed it. In the Parallel Universe, it steals additional HP from your enemies by its stacks.
  • Jinx either does damage to the enemy, heals you, or inflicts you or the enemy with a status condition depending on the item affected by it, but it only activates after a certain number of turns.
  • Reunion adds new status buffs, most of them variants of existing ones:
    • Berserk doubles all damage for the rest of the turn.
    • Some of Jester's cards equip them with permanent status buffs: Golden Dice makes them always roll evens, Turbo Charge makes them draw a card when they inflict Shock, Gauntlets copies the first card they play each turn, Diamond Dust doubles the damage done on frozen enemies, Jasra's Pendant gives 2 mana each turn, while the Sunlight Shield gives 2 Shield each turn.
• Status Effects:
  • Poison inflicts damage equal to the number of Poison stacks on you at the start of your turn. The number of stacks drops by 1 each turn. In the Parallel Universe, it poisons one of your weapons instead, and it'll poison you by the number on the counter each turn unless you completely fill it with dice pips. Additionally, the Haunted Jar Rule in the Bonus Round removes the countdown, effectively poisoning you permanently.
  • Burn lights one of your dice on fire starting from your left, causing you to take damage if you pick it up. In the Parallel Universe and the Wicker Man Rule in the Bonus Round, they don't damage you, but instead disable a weapon for the rest of the current turn and the next.
  • Freeze causes your highest numbered dice to turn into a one. In the Parallel Universe, it reduces all the dice values by its Freeze stacks.
  • Shock disables one of your items for one turn unless you use a die to reactivate it. In the Parallel Universe, it costs you 3HP to remove the shock instead.
  • Weaken causes one of your items to be downgraded. In the Parallel Universe, it increases the damage you receive by its Weaken stacks.
  • Curse adds a 50% chance that an item you use will fail, but there are some items that are secretly immune to it such as Mood Change and Yoink. In the Parallel Universe and the Banshee Rule on the Bonus Round, it has a 50% chance that the item will hit the opposite target instead.
  • Silence prevents the use of your class's special ability for one turn unless you spend two dice to unlock it. It also locks your Limit Break. In the Parallel Universe, it downgrades your Limit Break instead.
  • Lock completely disables one of your dice starting from your left. Related to Lock is Counter, which inflicts Lock on any dice that roll a selected value. In the Parallel Universe, it forces you to use your dice in order for a set number of moves before unlocking the rest.
  • Blind hides the value of a die. For the Robot it also hides their blackjack meter for the turn. In the Parallel Universe, it hides your HP instead for a certain number of turns.
  • Confuse mixes up and blanks out your equipment - but the dice requirements are still shown, so you can guess what each is. It has the same function as Blind in the Parallel Universe. In Reunion, it also used to affect the Warrior's Workout Cards on their selection screen until the v2.1 update made them immune to it there.
  • Vanish makes all duplicate dice except one in your tray disappear.
  • Reunion adds new status effects, most of them variants of existing ones:
    • Haunted, which was also introduced in the Halloween Special, causes a random dice to be rerolled after using equipment.
    • Toxic causes you to inflict Poison on yourself each time you use an item. CAW and Sting work similarly, but with Weaken and Shock instead, respectively.
    • Password disables your equipment unless you have two dice that equal the required sum.
    • Stun disables a random damage-dealing card.
    • Shackle restricts the number of moves you can make on the next turn.
    • Scorch increases the HP cost of burning dice.
    • Love halves the damage of the next few attacks, rounded down, for a certain number of times they're used.
    • Headache changes the dice requirements on a set number of items.
    • Delay increases the pips needed for countdowns.
    • Terrified makes you run away after several turns.
• Status Infliction Attack: Many attacks do damage and inflict Status Effects at a certain value (usually 6) such as Whip for Burn, Hammer for Shock, Toxic Ooze for Poison, Shovel for Weaken, etc.
• Thunder Hammer:
  • The card Hammer, which does raw damage^note damage equal to the dice inserted and shocks one of the enemy's cards if you put in a 6 (or any even number if upgraded). If Inventor's art is anything to go by, this is a completely regular claw hammer.
  • The card Sledgehammer, only available in Parallel Universe and Bonus Round episodes, has a countdown of 10, and does 8 damage as well as shocking the enemy.
• Time Skip: Reunion takes place two and a half years after the events of Dicey Dungeons.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The Jester as a dice can be seen at the very end of the launch trailer.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Robot's episode in Reunion replaces all the dice with coins.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels: After completing a run with any character, they become able to take on more difficult challenge runs, such as the Warrior starting with two upgraded weapons and a permanent Curse.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Items such as Nightstick and Spark fall under this category. Being able to inflict as much Shock as you like sounds useful, until you realize that funneling your dice into your Dagger would do even more damage up front.
  • Inverted with the Jester. Their first level-up reward grants them two of these items, along with an item which is powered up if the enemy has a certain status effect. For example, Ice Shatter deals the same damage as a Sword, but deals 3 more if the enemy is Frozen.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: In the Backstage round, if your dice class dies, it's game over, no matter how many enemies you've recruited are still alive.
• Win to Exit: The contestants are put on an Immoral Reality Show hosted by Lady Luck herself, and must fight through a dungeon full of monsters and get to the end, where they must spin the wheel to win whatever their heart's greatest desire is. They just have to not land on the single whammy spot on it, but this being a game ran by Lady Luck means the wheel lands on the whammy every time. The intended way to win the game is for the contestants to reject the game and its prizes and rebel against Lady Luck using The Power of Friendship.
• Wooden Stake: There is one in the boss room if you're about to fight Drake. It's vital for beating him, as his HP won't go below 1 without using this weapon.

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