Rogue-likes & F2P RPGs - A Surprisingly Good Combination

The biggest RPGs on the mobile market like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Marvel Strike Force and AFK Arena are all games that monetize on progression & collection. Power progression is fairly linear with little variance, with perhaps Summoner's War having the most diverse endgame through extensive customization through their Runes system.

It is then surprising that another genre I love, rogue-likes, have found a home in many of these RPGs. 

The essence of a rogue-like is its instance-based gameplay. This is why most advanced conversation around rogue-likes center around individual, independent "runs" with specific builds. One can complete a Watcher character run in Slay The Spire with a Pressure Points build, or an FTL run with a Crystal ship using the Flak Cannon. Rogue-likes often have a clear beginning and an end, and most of the time if you make it to the end you'd have managed to assemble a pretty impressive build.

Apart from the difference in progression structure, where mobile F2P RPGs are persistent and rogue-likes are experienced as individual runs, the pace is also very different. F2P RPGs often start with a decent pace of power progression that slows to a crawl, settling the player into a progression grind or offer the player the chance to monetize to experience a burst of pace. Rogue-likes actually accelerate in their power progression, because new items a player acquires in late-game often combine with existing items in complex ways to generate significant power gains.

The top 2 grossing idle RPGs today, Idle Heroes and AFK Arena, have opted to use rogue-likes to strengthen retention by offering it as a gameplay feature independent of the core game progression. Players engage with their rogue-like offering once every 2 days, and are challenged to progress through nodes and select buffs with each victory. The slightly interesting change is that these nodes are populated by standing PVP comps of other players, so content is continually refreshed through an evolving meta.

As the player's progression in these RPGs slow to a crawl, players can now turn to the rogue-like feature to have an interesting 30-60min instance that allows them to experience the game in a different sort of meta gameplay, cadence and flow. This provides variety to the player, slowing the onset of boredom. 

Lastly, there is one element in rogue-likes that is a huge part of RPGs in general but not F2P RPGs: player agency. F2P RPGs like AFK Arena and Empires & Puzzles often have very little in the way of choices, while RPGs like Skyrim and Witcher 3 have decision making a big part of the player experience. What these rogue-like features in mobile RPGs offer, is a session that allows players to make progression choices that the core game progression doesn't have to live with. Brilliant!

Idle Heroes - Brave Trial
AFK Arena - Labyrinth