Deck of Haunts is a roguelike deckbuilder that casts players in the unusual role of a sentient haunted house. In this strategy and simulation title available on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles, the objective centers on expanding a malevolent domain by luring humans inside, manipulating their fears through card plays, and harvesting their essence once their sanity collapses. The experience blends mansion construction during daylight hours with tense nighttime hauntings, all while defending a central Heart room that serves as the source of power.
Gameplay
The core loop splits each night into distinct phases. During the day, players arrange rooms and corridors into a twisting layout designed to protect the Heart room and channel intruders toward traps and scares. Room placement influences navigation paths, with size and special traits adding layers of strategy to how visitors move through the space.
At night, a deck of haunt cards comes into play. These allow actions such as summoning spirits, shifting hallways, generating fear, or inflicting direct damage to drive explorers toward madness or death. Tension builds gradually as cards are played on individuals or rooms, and successful outcomes yield essence that fuels further growth. Dangerous visitors like investigators or priests can resist or counter threats, requiring careful deck management and adaptation to their behaviors.
Progression involves unlocking new cards and rooms through repeated runs. Essence harvested from victims supports expansion, while the mansion attracts increasingly formidable targets over time. The Stone Masons represent a late-game threat that tests prepared defenses.
Game Modes
Standard runs challenge players to survive a sequence of 28 nights against escalating groups of humans. Success depends on balancing deck composition with mansion architecture to prevent any intruder from reaching the Heart room.
Nightmare Mode introduces 13 escalating challenges, each spanning 13 nights and featuring accumulating modifiers along with additional threats. This variant heightens difficulty and rewards careful planning across longer sequences.
Endless Mode becomes available after meeting specific conditions and allows indefinite play to test sustained haunting strategies without the structure of a fixed night count.
Key Mechanics and Progression
Deck building forms the strategic backbone. Players collect cards focused on fear generation, damage, or manipulation, then refine combinations that exploit room effects or intruder weaknesses. Post-launch updates expanded options with additional cards, rooms, and creatures that assist in terrorizing visitors.
Meta-progression through missions and story elements unlocks further cards, rooms, upgrades, and modifiers. These systems encourage experimentation with different starter decks that emphasize damage, sanity drain, or more chaotic approaches drawn from the growing collection.
Human navigation and room interactions add depth, as architectural choices directly affect how effectively cards and traps can be applied. Essence extraction not only powers growth but also draws stronger adversaries that demand refined tactics.
Is It Worth Playing?
Deck of Haunts delivers a distinctive single-player experience for fans of roguelike deckbuilders and horror-themed strategy games. The reversal of perspective, where the player embodies the house itself, creates engaging moments of emergent strategy during both building and haunting phases. Console versions launching October 8, 2026, incorporate over a year of updates that add creatures, new cards, rooms, and modes, resulting in a substantially expanded package compared to the initial PC release.
Critics have noted the satisfying core loop and replayability through deck experimentation, though some mention reliance on randomization and occasional repetition in longer sessions. The game suits players who enjoy methodical planning, resource management, and adapting to unpredictable intruder behaviors rather than fast-paced action. Those drawn to indie simulations with strong thematic cohesion will find the mechanics rewarding, particularly with the console edition's included content improvements.
