Daniel (@dungeondive) covered He is Coming, an early access Steam game that combines micro open-world exploration, roguelike item building, and auto-battler mechanics into a perfect casual game for the Steam Deck. The core loop is sharp: you have three days to build a strong enough hero to defeat a randomized boss before a third night falls.
Time progresses through day/night cycles, with progression tracked at the top of the screen. During the day, enemies are stationary, letting you safely explore and collect loot from chests scattered across the small map. You build your hero by equipping items that trigger automatically during combat—weapons for damage, armor for defense, jewelry for special effects. Higher rarity items offer more powerful abilities: vampiric effects that heal you when health dips below 50%, freeze stacks that halve enemy attacks, thorns that reflect damage back to attackers, critical strike bonuses.
The auto-battler aspect is pure mechanics—you select your target, hit play, and watch items trigger in sequence. No manual micromanagement, just strategy in building synergistic loadouts. Speed stat matters enormously: if you have more speed than the enemy, you attack first, and speed-scaling items can create absurd momentum builds.
At night, enemies begin moving toward you roguelike-style, and exploration becomes riskier. Certain areas—crypts and hidden locations—only appear at night and contain special treasure. You can rest at campfires to reset to day if needed. Boss difficulty scales based on which day you’re on, and the randomized bosses vary significantly in mechanics and scaling patterns.
The meta-progression is solid: defeating bosses permanently unlocks more item slots, so your hero builds become increasingly complex and powerful. There’s a bestiary of encountered enemies and a collection system tracking which items you’ve found.
Daniel’s feedback: while the game is genuinely fun and perfect for playing casually on the couch, it starts to feel repetitive by day three. He’d love to see mini-games, town interactions, or small dungeon diversions break up the combat loop. The core 10-minute roguelike run structure works great, but longer play sessions need variety. Being early access, there’s hope more will arrive.
For the current price (he got it on sale for $7), it’s an easy recommendation, especially if you enjoy auto-battlers, item synergy crafting, or want a chill handheld game.