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Following my time with more than 200 new releases this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is live, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing plenty of excellent games probably slipped by the wayside. At this point, it's plan is to other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— oh no, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!

A Surprising Favorite Surfaces

With my off-hours play, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a classic dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes risk and reward. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I've ever played. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. When you play, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero with their own stats and abilities, fight through each level of enemies, collect some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Core Mechanic

How you actually clear a area, is unique. Each instance you begin a fresh level, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you end up on is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you go for it, or do you click on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I invested my stat upgrades toward brute force and chose every teeth possible that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I claimed a reward.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Of course, it remains a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have a high probability to hit the desired tile but end up landing a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you work through a stage and choose whether to keep clicking or to advance to the subsequent stage instead of testing fate.

Items like destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's signature move, charged after making four moves, allows players to click on a vertical line in place of a horizontal row during that action. Should you use your cards right, you can save that move for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has at least one more update planned before the full version is launched. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The official version likely won't be long after, but the creators haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Parting Endorsement

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of little secrets and banking my earned gold every session to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition during a run. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll still be working on that task when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.