THE FLESH BENEATH is a body-horror deck-building roguelike. You play one of thirteen
ruined souls descending into the cathedral under an old village — fighting through
waves of grasping enemies, paying for your strongest cards in pieces of yourself,
and dying so the dark can remember you.
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THE BARGAIN
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Every run begins the same way. Three candidates are drafted from the bloodlines —
Cleaver, Hexweaver, Sister, Bonewright, Penitent, Sin-Eater, Bleeder, Whisper —
each named anew with a thematic epithet: Masha, Sorrow-Bringer. Yelena, of the
Wet Wheel. Boris, the Twice-Buried.
You pick one. Then the altar offers you One Last Gift.
Cut off an arm. Pluck an eye. Replace your heart with quieter machinery. Each
sacrifice costs maximum HP for the entire run — but grants a powerful flesh card
drawn from a pool of possibilities. Fourteen body parts are available. None of
them are decorative.
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THE DESCENT
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The cathedral branches. Every two steps you choose what comes next:
• Combat — multi-wave fights against detailed enemies that walk in from the dark
• Elite — fewer but tougher monsters
• Shrine — sever another piece for another card
• Rest — heal, meditate, or pray for souls
• Omen — a 3-choice encounter (40+ unique events)
• Gemcutter — press a blood-stone into a card socket
• Trader — buy cards and gems with souls
• Boss — every seven floors, something named is waiting
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THE BOSSES
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• THE BUTCHER
• THE MOTHER OF WOUNDS
• THE WARDEN
• THE QUEEN OF SORROWS - bridal veil dragging on stone, knife-tipped fingers, halo of orbiting runes
Defeating each unique boss for the first time unlocks a new hidden bloodline
for future runs.
AND MORE
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THE CARDS
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Cards come from your class, from shrines, from shops, from random events, from
the dark in your own body.
• Around 200 base cards across 13 bloodlines + 20+ body-part flesh cards
• Six gem types
• Socket cap per card scales with cost
• Stunning, weakening, poisoning, draining, summoning, blocking, healing —
every card type has visible animations and per-target slash arcs
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THE CAMP
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Souls you bring back are spent in the Carrion Camp — a five-building hub you
navigate by clicking, scroll-wheel, or arrow keys:
• THE TAVERN — five-path RPG skill tree, fifty tiers total. Path of Flesh
(max HP, regen, revive). Path of Bone (sacrifice mechanics). Path of Iron
(block, damage). Path of Shadow (cards, energy). Path of Souls (economy).
• BLACKSMITH — permanently upgrade individual cards with extra gem sockets
• HOUSE OF LITANY — every death recorded with name, depth, cause, and which
body parts were missing when they fell
• HALL OF DEEDS — fourteen achievements
• GATES OF HELL — start the next descent
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THE WAY IT FEELS
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• Three-step camera Z-line on every melee hit
• Curved slash arcs that sweep across each enemy
• Camera carousel that rotates to face whichever building you select
• Sequential per-enemy combat animations — telegraph, lunge, recoil, slash
• Procedural soundtrack that shifts per scene and per combat depth
• Fourteen rotating monster death roars and human death screams
• Visible armor on enemies that have block
• Crafted icons on every card
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THE PROMISE
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Permadeath. Every death is named in the Litany of Suffering. The camp remembers
your runs forever. The Door of Gems opens after three successful runs through
the Mother — only then can you reach the Queen and end her.
Give what the dark asks. Become less. Reach further.
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE BUYING
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THE FLESH BENEATH depicts body horror as its central mechanic — severed limbs,
self-mutilation at altars, blood-stones pressed into your own skin. The
violence is stylized but unflinching. The game treats it as a cost the player
chooses, not as spectacle. If body horror is a hard line for you, this is
not the game.
No microtransactions. No DRM. No ads. Buy once, play forever, offline if you want.
