Dicevaders Playtest Guide: Mechanics, Access, and Tips

The Dicevaders playtest gives roguelike deckbuilding fans an early hands-on look at Pengonauts and Playstack's dice-based grid battler. Set in the same universe as StarVaders, the game flips the original premise on its head: instead of defending humanity from alien invaders, you take charge of the alien armada to conquer Earth.

Early playtesters quickly drew comparisons to hit scoring roguelikes like Balatro, Luck be a Landlord, and Nubby's Number Factory. However, Dicevaders leans heavily into board positioning, dice manipulation, and archetype pivoting. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of how the playtest functions, how to join ongoing testing, core mechanics, and key strategies discovered by early testers.

What Is the Dicevaders Playtest?

The Dicevaders playtest is an open beta program hosted by developer Pengonauts via Steam. According to official developer announcements, the playtest logged over 25,000 player hours during its initial test phases.

During the primary testing phase, access was granted directly through the "Join the Dicevaders Playtest" button on the game's official Steam store page. Following the rollout of the Steam Next Fest demo, the standalone playtest app transitioned into a dedicated private beta branch linked to the demo app. Players wishing to test ongoing beta versions are directed to join the developers' Discord server, where the team distributes secret access codes for updated beta branches.

Feedback during the playtest is submitted primarily through an in-game form accessed by pressing F2, which packages and sends the active save file directly to the developer to help replicate bugs.

Playtest Content vs. Full Release

The playtest provides a substantial vertical slice of the game, letting players test multiple chapters, difficulty modifiers, and commanders. Official development logs outlined what is playable during the beta versus what was saved for the full release.

Core Gameplay Loop and Scoring Mechanics

The primary objective in Dicevaders is to conquer Earth by surpassing target defense values set by Earth's defenses and defending pilots.

1. The Target Quota and Turn Limit

In each encounter, you have four turns to exceed the target defense score. Scoring is strict: as noted in player bug reports and tutorial text, your attack score must strictly surpass the target defense—hitting the exact defense value (such as 500 attack against 500 defense) counts as a failure. Failing to beat the quota within four turns costs you one Heart and grants a single extra turn. If you run out of hearts, the run ends.

2. Grid Positioning and Dice Power

Combat plays out on a column-based grid:

• At the beginning of a turn, you roll three base dice.
• Each die's number corresponds to a specific column on your grid.
• Every die assigned to a column adds +1 Dice Power to that column.
• When you launch the turn, each invader unit stationed in a column with dice generates an attack score equal to: Unit Strength × Column Dice Power.
• The resulting total is modified by your Global Multiplier (Mult). While unit strength gains often carry over between combat rounds, the multiplier resets between encounters.

3. Economy and Rerolls

At the end of each turn, you visit the shop with three base currency units. Unspent money does not carry over to the next turn by default unless modified by specific artifacts (such as Moon Beam).

You can use resources to shape both your grid and your dice rolls:

• Budge Tokens: Allow you to nudge a die’s value up or down by 1 (+1/-1), or serve as currency to trigger specialized unit and artifact effects.
• Chrono Tokens: Allow you to reroll your base dice pool or restock the shop inventory and perks.
• Mini Dice: A currency that is automatically used when your base dice run out and are tossed on random columns in groups of three to trigger additional column activations.

Pilots and Boss Mechanics

Every few rounds, a defending StarVaders pilot appears with specific encounter modifiers designed to counter standard setups:

• Roxy: Cracks starting dice, disrupting reliable roll values early on.
• Noel: Enforces a Hyperfreeze status where rolled dice are frozen and cannot be rerolled or unfrozen, forcing players to rely on Budge tokens or passive board scaling.
• Min: Punishes turns where dice are rolled without scoring pairs by inflating target defense by 30%.
• Zeke: A high-tier pilot requiring millions in attack score, testing whether your engine can scale exponential multipliers.

Defeating a pilot rewards you with special loot, extra tokens, heart refills, and the ability to level up your commander's starter ability.

Playtest Commanders and Builds

Playtesters discovered several distinct archetypes across the available commanders:

• The Captain: Focuses on pair synergies. With the starting artifact Mothership, scoring pairs grants XP to that column's artifact while awarding regular Budge tokens.
• Blob Girl: A high-frequency mini-dice commander. Her ability spawns bonus mini dice every turn, funneling XP into column artifacts whenever mini dice score.
• Hex Prince: Centered on column honey mechanics. Rolling dice into designated columns collects honey, triggering automatic level-ups and chain reactions for Hive Mind and worker bee units.
• Blood Beast: An aggressive, sacrifice-based commander. Destroying non-token units builds a Rage meter. Matching rage to remaining hearts triggers "Beast Mode," granting extra dice power, automatic rolls, and free access to cursed shop items without heart penalties.
• The Overseer (Full Game Teaser): Uses the starter perk Convergence to combine the abilities and unique artifact pools of two randomly selected commanders, at the cost of significantly faster enemy defense scaling.

Key Strategies from Playtest Runs

Through tens of thousands of hours of testing, the community identified critical habits that separate winning runs from quick defeats:

Prioritize Early Pivoting Over Monolithic Builds

Unlike roguelikes where players pick an archetype on floor one and stick to it, Dicevaders rewards frequent pivoting. Skipping remaining turns after reaching the quota early awards bonus Shop Rarity. Higher shop rarity increases your chances to get rarer artifacts. Replacing low-tier commons with high-tier artifacts often changes your entire scoring engine mid-run.

Manage Budge and Chrono as Currencies

Budge and Chrono are not merely panic buttons for bad rolls. Many of the strongest artifacts and unit abilities require spending a Budge or Chrono to activate board-wide buffs, spawn autobombs, or grant massive multiplier boosts. Maintaining a reserve of tokens ensures you can consistently activate artifact triggers.

Board Geometry Dictates Scaling

Units that affect adjacent allies, trigger death effects, or repeat activations based on row position (such as units with bottom-row repeat bonuses) require careful grid expansion. Building empty tiles in strategic columns ensures that incoming token spawns (like Slimes, Asteroids, or Webs) land where they can feed your primary damage dealers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does progress from the Dicevaders playtest carry over to the full game?

According to developer responses on the Steam forums, player progress is intended to carry over to the demo and full release via save profiles, though compatibility between major balance reworks cannot always be guaranteed.

How do you report bugs during the playtest?

Press the F2 key at any time while playing. This opens an integrated bug report menu that automatically attaches your active save file, allowing the developers to analyze the exact board state and bug conditions.

Does the Dicevaders playtest support controllers or the Steam Deck?

During the initial playtest, controller support, Steam Deck support, and keybinding were listed as upcoming features, though the game's official Steam store page lists full controller support, DualShock Controller Support, and DualSense Controller Support.