The Flesh Beneath

Game premise and mechanics

The Flesh Beneath is a body-horror deck-building roguelike for PC. In the game, you control one of thirteen characters known as "ruined souls" as they descend into a cathedral beneath an old village. The objective is to fight through waves of enemies, collecting and sacrificing parts of your body to enhance your abilities through powerful cards. Each run begins with drafting a character and making significant sacrifices to gain strengths, impacting your maximum HP for that session.

Combat and exploration

As you progress through the cathedral, you choose from various paths every two steps: these include combat encounters with multiple waves of enemies, elite fights against tougher monsters, shrines to sever additional body parts for more cards, and trader encounters to buy cards using collected souls. There are four types of major encounters: Combat, Shrine, Rest, and Omen, with over 40 unique events that can influence your run.