Chris InglisSkull Horde is an auto battler dungeon crawler developed by 8BitSkull, the team behind Void Scrappers (2022) and Bore Blasters (2024), and launched on April 10, 2026, on PC and Mac. There is something inherently satisfying about being a petty, floating skull. In Skull Horde, you aren’t the hero; you’re the remains of a necromancer who was betrayed by their own body. Naturally, your only course of action is to raise an army of minions to tear that body and everything else to pieces.
After a brief intro, you start by controlling a floating skull, but you don’t do much of the fighting directly initially. Instead, you act as the commander, orbiting your growing horde as they automatically engage enemies. Through gameplay, you can play as several unlockable characters like Garg who have their own skill trees to specialise in. Each run and level up will also net you points to spend on specialising your skill tree where you can empower your own direct attacks or boost your minions and passives.
You start with a handful of basic unit types who will auto attack nearby enemies. Often the room you are in will be empty, but your ranged units start running further into the dungeon as enemy units are nearby but off screen. You can press shift to get your units to return closer to your location which later becomes invaluable as you try to focus their fire onto tougher units.
You can host various unit types, but the real depth lies in Oaths. By spending coins and stacking multiple units of the same class (like Mages or Vanguards), you unlock massive stat multipliers that are essential for late-game survival. Collecting three of the same unit merges them into a powerful elite version.
An innovative twist is the Blood Timer. Every time it turns, the dungeon threat rises, making enemies faster and stronger. It forces a constant trade-off: do you linger for extra loot or rush for the exit before the swarm becomes unmanageable?
While it’s tempting to treat every floor like a full clear, the real variety comes from pushing forward. Defeating the end boss in the initial Catacombs opens entirely new zones like the Sewers, each with its own unique enemy types and environmental challenges. Success often means knowing when to stop farming a floor and dive deeper to unlock the next biome, keeping the visual and tactical experience fresh.
The progression system features a brilliant give-and-take mechanic. Before your next run, you can apply Curses which are difficulty modifiers that make the game harder. In turn, activating Curses is how you gain Rites, which are powerful buffs or starting boons for that run. This creates a satisfying loop where you are constantly pushed to increase the challenge to further empower your future runs.
Visually, the game is a great tribute to the 8-bit era. Despite the chaos of the swarm, the Defold Engine keeps performance flawlessly smooth. The voice acting in the introduction and intermediary cutscenes is expertly delivered, setting a professional, atmospheric tone that punches way above the game’s retro weight class. It would be great to see more of these, but they come at significant milestones so seeing more of the connecting story depends on your success rate.
Overall, Skull Horde is incredibly addictive and balances deep unit army theory with fast-paced auto-battler action. Whether you’re managing your oaths or building the perfect army, the gratification of seeing your tiny bone army decimate a screen-filed with mobs and bosses is super satisfying.
This review utilised a key provided by Two Frogs in a Trenchcoat and Skull Horde is out now on Steam.
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