Pixel Dungeon

In the Shattered Pixel Dungeon blog for 2026, Evan is talking about an Endless Mode.

I like this idea, but I also think it might be tricky to get it balanced. May I suggest something similar that can (possibly) scratch the same itch for players who wants to challenge themselves:

• A large challenge room, maybe reachable through Imp, sometime during the endgame before Yog. You'll face easy waves of enemies, and every X turns, progressively harder enemies spawn. The more waves you clear, the better reward you can claim at the end.
  • This is an opportunity to see how strong you are, how well you can use the terrain and how quickly you can dispatch new waves without getting overwhelmed when next wave spawns in X turns.
  • Maybe some good visuals that also shows your progress, such as a really large sacrificial room, with sacrificial fires growing brigther. You can claim your reward after just a few waves, but expect poor quality loot if you pick an early reward.
• Assuming you're strong enough to beat a lot of the waves, you probably have good gear already, so if the reward tier is already reaching tier 5 weapons, maybe start to slightly increase the quantity.
• Considering this kind of challenge could carry on for a long time, maybe give a bit of satiety with each kill. It's a sacrificial game after all.
• There are a lot of possibilities that can add more challenges, like getting a random item cursed once you reach a certain threshold, only for the very best players. Perhaps even start to enable some random challenges . A Zero-challenge player could theoretically end up playing this challenge at a full nine-challenge mode. Leaving the challenge room would reset everything back to your original challenge level.