For DCSS Players
Love DCSS? What will feel familiar in Dungeon Sookuma, and what's new
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS) goes by the nickname Doljuk in the Korean community. If you love pairing a species with a background, choosing a god and carrying the Orb back up, the backbone of Dungeon Sookuma won't feel strange.
The comparison below is based only on the official DCSS manual and Dungeon Sookuma's Steam store description. Both games may change from version to version.
The short answer
The core backbone is very similar; the detailed rules are different. The demo is free, so playing a run is the quickest way to find out.
Side-by-side comparison
| Topic | DCSS | Dungeon Sookuma |
|---|---|---|
| Character creation | Pick a species and a background. Your background sets your starting skills and equipment. |  |
| Progression | Experience goes into skills. In automatic mode, it goes to the skills you have used recently. |  |
| Gods | You worship gods at altars and use the powers they grant. You can abandon your faith, but most gods dislike being abandoned. |  |
| Item identification | Potions and scrolls look different every game, and you learn what they are by using or identifying them. |  |
| Sound and stealth | Noise spreads, and terrain can block it. High Stealth lets you move without being noticed. | The noise of a fight calls something out of the dark. Sound propagation, limited sight and a Stealth skill. |
| Dungeon structure | Several themed branches hang off the main dungeon, plus portal areas you can enter only once. |  |
| Goal | Find the Orb of Zot in the depths, carry it out through the up staircase on the first floor, and you win. | Steal the Dream Crystal from the deepest floor and the dungeon wakes up. You must make it back alive to the Silver Stair on the first floor, and there are three endings. |
| Convenience | It has auto-explore and auto-travel. | Auto-explore, automatic pickup, targeting previews, contextual logs. |
What DCSS players will recognize
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Skills grow as you use them
Jjooni Just like DCSS, you grow by doing! Magic schools like Fire Magic, Ice Magic and Necromancy each level up on their own.
Basics
- Fighting
- Armour
- Stealth
Weapons
- Blades
- Daggers
- Maces
- Polearms
- Bows
- Throwing
Spells
- Spellcasting
- Summoning
- Fire Magic
- Ice Magic
- Air Magic
- Earth Magic
- Necromancy
- Hexes
- Translocations
- Alchemy
More details
In DCSS, experience goes into skills, and automatic mode spreads it across the skills you used recently. Dungeon Sookuma's 19 skills across Basics, Weapons and Spells also grow as you use them. Each weapon type and each school of magic has to be trained on its own.
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Enemies follow you between floors
Sookuma Even if you run for the stairs, some of them chase you all the way.
More details
In DCSS, too, most monsters right next to you follow you up or down the stairs. Dungeon Sookuma's Steam page also singles out threats that pursue you between floors.
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Choose your god at an altar
Sookuma They tell you what kind of god they are before you serve. Look closely and choose, kum.
More details
In DCSS, an altar first shows you the god's description and asks if you really want to worship. In Dungeon Sookuma, too, you check the covenant before you serve, and an abandoned god does not forget easily.
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Carry it up from the bottom
Jjooni Once you steal the crystal, it's the long climb back up!
More details
In DCSS, you win by carrying the Orb of Zot out through the stairs on the first floor. In Dungeon Sookuma, too, you steal the Dream Crystal from the deepest floor and must make it back alive to the Silver Stair on the first floor.
What may be new to DCSS players
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Pick a card to hear the god speak
Gods speak to you in their own voices
Sookuma Every god has its own personality. Even the covenant comes in that god's own voice.
More details
Nineteen gods wait at their altars, each with its own voice, temperament and powers. Each god speaks its covenant to you in person, and then you choose.
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Three endings
Jjooni How many crystals you get your paws on changes the ending!
More details
Three endings await, shaped by the Dream Crystal and by how completely you conquered the dungeon.
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Every lineage is a dreambear
Sookuma All 14 lineages are bears. There's even Faekum, who floats around on wings!
More details
Every lineage is a bear of the dream. From Faekum, who floats without ever touching the ground, to Clawkum, who has three lives, each lineage has its own body and unique powers.
What this comparison leaves out
Things the Steam description doesn't cover, such as turn-cost rules, difficulty and detailed numbers, are left out of this comparison. Check them for yourself in the demo.
Dungeon Sookuma is a separate game with no connection to the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup team, and you buy and download it on Steam. You can try it first with the free demo.
Jetbi Want the exact numbers? Playing a run yourself is the surest way.
Familiar bones, a new dream
The Dungeon Sookuma demo is free. Play a run and see how far your DCSS instincts carry you.