🔗 Share this article

Having experienced more than 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, accepting that a host of stellar titles probably slipped through the cracks. Currently, my only job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, found another brilliant title. There go my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

With my off-hours play, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. View this a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride discovering a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. When you play, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer who has parameters and powers, fight through each level of enemies, collect some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The method by which you effectively complete a area, though. Each instance you start another stage, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you land in is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of hitting a particular space in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you click on a alternative option first and try to make less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I focused my stat upgrades toward brute force and selected all the teeth I could that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I built my character around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I claimed a reward.

The build options are not endless, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

An Ever-Present Risk

Of course, it remains a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have an 80% chance to hit the preferred space but wind up hitting a monster that would deplete your final hit point. All selections is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. A particular character's signature move, powered up by clearing four squares, enables you to click on a vertical line instead of a horizontal row during that action. Should you use your cards right, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has a final update scheduled before the complete edition is launched. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The official version may not be far behind, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, featuring new characters and items I can buy while playing. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the long haul.