Dome Keeper

1. Summary

Nearly 94% of these reviews recommend Dome Keeper, and what they recommend is the loop: dig for iron, water and cobalt under a glass dome, race back before the timer runs out, then fight off a wave of shadowy monsters with whatever you managed to buy. Reviewers call it addictive, describe losing whole evenings to "one more run", and like how it swings between calm mining and panicked defense. The pixel art, the soundtrack and the sound effects get frequent praise, and so does how well the game sits alongside a podcast, on a Steam Deck or with a tired brain after work. The free multiplayer update in April 2026 changed the tone of the newest reviews. Couples, parents and friend groups describe finally playing it together, in split-screen or online, and some say the update lifted the whole game.

Staying power is the main reservation. A third of the negative reviews call the game repetitive, boring or shallow, and some positive reviews say the same thing more gently: very good for a while, then every run starts to feel alike. That feeds advice, in positive and negative reviews alike, to wait for a sale. Smaller groups complain about slow, haul-heavy openings to each run, resource luck that can sink a long run, keyboard-only controls with no mouse aim, thin onboarding, and crashes, including multiplayer crashes since the April 2026 update.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The mine-then-defend loop and its one-more-run pullHigh

Players describe the tension of deciding whether to dig one more block or head back, and of choosing between upgrading the drill to mine faster or the laser to survive the next wave. Words like "addictive", "hooked" and "time flies" run through hundreds of reviews (7% of all reviews use that kind of language). Some mention sitting down for a short session and looking up hours later. By reviewers' estimates a run takes roughly 20 minutes on a small map and two hours or more on a huge one, and players like being able to pick the length. The complaints here are about how long the loop stays fresh, covered under the split section below.

Pixel art, music and sound designHigh

About 9% of all reviews mention the art, music, soundtrack or sound. Reviewers point to the color palette that changes from world to world while staying easy to read, the sparse, moody synth score, and sound effects that make hitting ore satisfying. Some negative reviewers still praise the presentation, and one who couldn't recommend the game says they were happy to have bought it for the soundtrack alone. A few find the look plain, with enemies that are "simply silhouettes with eyes" in one reviewer's words, but complaints about presentation are rare.

Relaxing and tense at onceHigh

8% of all reviews call the game relaxing, chill, cozy or calming, or say they play it alongside podcasts, audiobooks or shows. One player sums it up as "I'd best describe it as cozily stressful", and another simply says it is "great to play while listening to a podcast." The difficulty options help here: some players use the lower difficulties and the no-monster and auto-defense options to wind down, while others play Brutal for the stress. A minority finds the constant wave timer too stressful for what looks like a mining game (see the frustrations below).

Free co-op multiplayerHigh

Reviewers describe the free April 2026 update as adding local split-screen and online co-op, and it is the topic the newest reviews raise most: about 18% of reviews written since that week bring up co-op, multiplayer or playing with a partner, child or friend. They describe one person defending while the other mines, couples making it a regular evening game, and parents playing with kids. One returning player wrote, "The game was average before, but the free multiplayer update made it top notch." The complaints are about balance and stability. Some say difficulty scales too steeply with more players, keeper upgrades are not shared, resources get contested, and the person stuck on the dome has less to do. Multiplayer crashes and desyncs are the other complaint (see the crashes section under frustrations).

Free updates and a developer that keeps improving the gameMedium

Reviews that discuss the updates mostly welcome them. Players list the new domes (artillery, tesla), the reworked Assessor keeper, guild assignments, Steam Workshop mods and then multiplayer as reasons they came back. A few reviewers say they wrote a negative or lukewarm review at launch and changed it after the updates. As one put it: "This game was great when it came out. The continued updates have made it better." A smaller group dislikes particular changes (see the hub menu and mod points under frustrations).

Variety from domes, keepers, gadgets and run modifiersMedium

Players who stick with the game credit the build options for keeping runs fresh: four domes with their own upgrade trees, two very different keepers in the base game (the Engineer drills, the Assessor uses gravity spheres), random gadget picks such as Drillbert, the lift, the teleporter and drones, plus unlockable modifiers, map sizes and modes like Prestige and guild assignments. Reviewers enjoy tuning the run to their mood. This praise runs straight into the most common complaint in the negative reviews, that the variety runs out, and the two often appear in the same review.

Steam Deck and low-end hardwareMedium

Steam Deck players describe it as a natural fit, with short runs, readable text and controller-first controls. Others mention running it well on weak PCs, Mac and Linux. A handful of Deck players hit launch freezes and controller problems (see bugs).

A modern MotherloadMedium

Comparisons with the Flash game Motherload, Dig Dug or Missile Command come up regularly, usually as a fond one-liner telling Motherload fans they will like this. A few negative reviewers who came for Motherload's mining found the wave timer and the slow start kept them from enjoying it, and one calls Dome Keeper "just a worse version of Motherload".

Drillbert and the petsLow

Drillbert, the burrowing pet you can find mid-run, gets a steady stream of affectionate shout-outs, many of them one-liners. A few players find him more trouble than help, for example when he falls asleep and has to be woken by hand.

Where players are split

How long the fun lastsHigh

A third of the negative reviews (33%) call the game repetitive, boring or shallow, and the charge also appears in some positive reviews. The usual story is a stretch of strong enjoyment, then a sense that every run follows the same pattern of digging down, branching sideways and hauling back. "Every run feels pretty much the same, whether you play on a small, medium, or large map," wrote one negative reviewer. Some say the unlocks are sidegrades rather than progress, and that there is little meta-progression between runs. On the other side, players with long playtimes point to Prestige, leaderboards, guild assignments, higher difficulties and mods as what keeps them going. Some positive reviewers treat it as a game to dip into for a run or two over months rather than binge.

Price and buying on saleMedium

About 12% of the negative reviews talk about price, usually saying the game is too thin for its full price and is worth it at a discount. Advice to wait for a sale also turns up in positive reviews (one recommending review ends with a plain "buy it on sale"), while others say the full price is fair for the hours they got. Some negative reviews point to Wall World as a similar game they liked more, citing its progression, its mouse controls and, in one case, a lower price. The paid Lost Keepers DLC added to this for some players (next item).

Lost Keepers DLC and paid keepersMedium

Reviewers describe the April 2026 Lost Keepers DLC as adding the Beastmaster and Infiltrator keepers. Players who mention them are mostly enthusiastic, and one calls the Infiltrator "the best one BY FARRRR". Others object that the base game has only two keepers and that new characters now sit behind a paywall, and a few report bugs with the new keepers or dislike the Infiltrator's default controls.

Difficulty, from too easy to brutalMedium

Players can't agree on whether the game is hard. Some say Brutal, which reviewers describe as the game's intended difficulty, is easy once you learn the systems and that waves barely ramp up; one notes that bringing back the relic wins the final wave automatically. Others find even Normal punishing at first and enjoy the challenge of higher difficulties and Prestige. Guild assignments split veterans: some call them the most fun part of the game, others call several of them extremely hard and dependent on resource luck, and one singles out Iron Contribution as too hard. Players on both sides mention lowering or raising the difficulty to suit themselves.

Balance between keepers, domes and gadgetsMedium

Engaged players argue about which options pull their weight. The Assessor was disliked as slow and clunky early on, improved after its rework, and is now called the stronger keeper by some. The sword and tesla domes are described as either fun or underpowered depending on the reviewer, and gadgets like the lift, drones or teleporter are called must-picks while others are skipped. These are enthusiasts' disputes, raised mostly in reviews that like the game.

What frustrates players

Crashes, bugs and lost progressMedium

11% of the negative reviews mention crashes, freezes, bugs, broken saves or lost progress. The reports include the game crashing on exit or mid-run, black screens or failure to launch, freezes when the dome lands on Steam Deck, wiped high scores after updates and lost unlock progress. Since the April 2026 update, multiplayer desyncs and crashes have become a recurring complaint, with one player writing "Fun but super buggy. Multiplayer crashes constantly." Smaller reports cover HDR resetting, the mouse escaping onto a second monitor, window scaling on ultrawide screens and broken achievements. A few players say they hit no bugs at all.

Slow openings and the hauling back and forthMedium

Some negative reviewers describe the start of each run as slow: weak drill, slow carrying, the same first upgrades every time. The back-and-forth trips with heavy resources are the part some players resent most. "Id say about half the game is slowly flying back to your dome loaded with resouces," one wrote. Some also say waves come too often to explore, and that the timer turns a relaxing digging game into a constant rush. Fans see the same pressure as the point of the game.

Keyboard-only controls and no mouse supportMedium

7% of the negative reviews raise controls, often that the mouse does nothing: aiming, firing and menus are all on keyboard or controller. One player who never liked gamepads asked, "Please add mouse support to this awesome game for people like me." Others mention clumsy rebinding, one key doing different jobs depending on context, and needing a controller to feel comfortable.

Resource luck can sink a long runMedium

Players who lose runs often blame where the resources spawned rather than their own choices: no cobalt or water for long stretches, or a relic buried far from the dome on a huge map. "the RNG in this game can screw you over HARD," one reviewer warned. Several say a lost run unlocks nothing, so a long run or a failed guild assignment feels like wasted time.

Thin onboarding and hidden informationLow

Some players say the game explains too little: tutorial pop-ups vanish before they can be read, controls such as dropping carried items or overcharging the shield are easy to miss, unlock conditions are hidden, and the wave timer, dome health and resource counters have to be bought as upgrades each run. "These game devs are against tutorials," one player wrote. Others enjoy figuring it out.

No story or loreLow

A small group wishes for a campaign, a story or any reason for the mining, saying runs feel disconnected without one. Others like the purely mechanical arcade feel.

Mod breakage and the 2024 hub menuLow

A few long-time players say the April 2026 update broke Workshop mods they relied on, and one says an earlier update did the same. Complaints about the menu are rarer; one player wrote, "The main menu UI is atrocious and makes even starting a game a drag."

3. The player conversation

Most of the conversation is warm: about 94% of the reviews recommend the game, and many are short notes of affection ("addictive", "relaxing", "Drillbert"). The longer reviews do most of the arguing, and they argue mainly about depth. Negative reviewers with little playtime tend to say the loop is boring or shallow, the controls ignore the mouse, or the game is too stressful or too slow. Long-time players raise different issues: guild assignment balance, Prestige and leaderboard scoring, which domes and keepers are viable, and mods. Some positive reviewers state the same limits as the negatives (repetitive after a while, buy on sale) and recommend it anyway.

Over time the tone has followed the updates. Some 2023 reviews call the game thin but promising and ask for co-op and more keepers. Later reviews, after new domes, guild assignments and mods, praise the developers' steady support, and a few revise old negative reviews. The January 2026 free weekend brought a burst of reviews and the only notable dip, with that week's positive share falling to 83%. From April 2026 onward co-op became the main topic, mostly with excitement but with a recurring thread of multiplayer crashes and balance complaints, alongside a smaller debate about the paid Lost Keepers keepers.

4. What the developers could do

1. Add more variety to the middle and late game of a run. A third of negative reviews, and some positive ones, say runs start to feel the same after a while. It is the most common complaint in the negative reviews, so new events, enemies, gadgets or mid-run twists would go straight at it.
2. Stabilize multiplayer and fix the remaining crashes. Crashes and desyncs have been a recurring problem since the April 2026 co-op update, and crash, freeze and lost-progress reports make up 11% of negative reviews.
3. Rebalance co-op scaling and sharing. Some co-op players who like the mode say difficulty ramps too hard with more players, keeper upgrades are not shared, and the player on the dome has too little to do.
4. Add full mouse support and clearer rebinding. Keyboard-only aiming and menus come up again and again in the control complaints, along with awkward key remapping.
5. Speed up run openings and ease the hauling. Negative reviewers describe slow, repetitive starts and tedious carrying trips, so faster early mining or lighter carrying penalties would answer them.
6. Smooth out resource luck, especially in guild assignments. Players who lose long runs to missing water or cobalt, or to badly placed relics, feel the outcome was decided by spawns rather than their choices.
7. Teach the game better and show key information by default. Vanishing tutorial pop-ups, hidden unlock conditions and a wave timer and dome health bar that must be bought each run confuse new players.
8. Keep Workshop mods working after big updates. Some long-time players lost mods they relied on after the multiplayer update.

1. Summary

The Lost Keepers is a character pack: two new keepers (the cat-summoning Beastmaster and the grappling, kunai-throwing Infiltrator), plus new guild assignments, cosmetics and two soundtrack volumes. Most reviewers like it, and nearly all of the praise is about the keepers. Both play very differently from the Engineer and Assessor. The Beastmaster sends cat goblins out of tunnels to haul and mine for you, and players who liked her describe a relaxed, Pikmin-like style. The Infiltrator turns mining into a platformer with wall jumps, a grappling rope and thrown kunai. Several long-time fans said the pack fixed the base game's thin keeper roster and gave them a reason to come back.

Opinion splits over the Infiltrator. More reviews praise him than criticize him, and a few call him the most fun keeper in the game once his movement clicks. His critics find him clunky, underpowered or close to unplayable, especially on a controller, where reviewers say twin-stick aiming was off by default. Much of the frustration is technical: crashes and save bugs around launch (some reported fixed by early patches such as 5.0.1), and frame drops and stutter with the Beastmaster once her tunnels and cat goblins multiply, which reviewers were still reporting weeks after launch. A small number of reviews argue about price, some calling the pack good value and others saying the keepers "should have been a free update".

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Two new keepers that change how a run playsHigh

Reviewers who like the pack mostly talk about the two keepers as new ways to play. 21% of reviews praise the pair together, separate from those that single out one of them. Players put them at opposite ends of the difficulty range: "Beastmaster is great if you want to have no braincells, while infiltrator is great if you want ALL the braincells." Some long-time fans had grown tired of the original two keepers. One wrote that the DLC "takes the weakest part of the game and makes it one of the strongest", and others said the pack doubled a roster that had felt too small. A couple of newer players bought Dome Keeper because of this DLC and started on these keepers. The few dissenters called the keepers boring or felt the pack added too little beyond them.

The Beastmaster and her cat goblinsHigh

You dig a tunnel and cat goblins swarm out of it to carry resources home, which removes most of the back-and-forth hauling. 27% of reviews praise her for it: "If you ever wondered what it would be like putting Pikmin into Dome Keeper this is pretty close." Some build around her minions with gadgets like Drillbert or the iron worms, and a few called her the easier of the two new keepers and a good one for newcomers.

Complaints about her are about power and pace. A smaller group (9% of reviews) found her slow to move and dig, weak in solo play, or unclear to upgrade ("I have no clue how to make use of the upgrades for them."). One player said she is only worth picking in co-op with three or more people. Her lag problems are covered under frustrations below.

Co-op launched alongside, and keepers shared from the hostMedium

15% of reviews mention multiplayer, mostly to thank the developers for the free co-op and split-screen update that came out with the DLC, and a couple of people said they bought the pack mainly to support the developers for it. For the DLC itself, players liked that "if your friend doesnt have it while in your lobby they can still play as your keepers". Sharing only works from the host's side, though. One negative review asks the developers to "please let me use the characters I've paid for in a multiplayer game without hosting", because friends who are still unlocking things want to host. Others reported the new keepers' resource-carrying styles interfering with each other in co-op, plus sync bugs and Beastmaster lag in multiplayer.

The new soundtracksLow

9% of reviews mention the music, mostly to praise it: "The OSTs for the two new characters are incredible too, some of the best music in the game." Two of them single out the Beastmaster's tracks. Two reviewers asked why the new volumes only came as MP3 and didn't show up in their Steam library; later reviews say FLAC and WAV files were added, and one reviewer switched to a recommendation because of it. A couple of players felt the new music didn't match the original soundtrack.

New guild assignments and cosmeticsLow

8% of reviews mention the new assignments, mostly as a pleasant extra ("fun", "pretty interesting"), with one player saying they add variety but aren't revolutionary. A couple also mention new skins and pets.

Where players are split

The Infiltrator: best keeper in the game or a clunky messHigh

More reviews talk about the Infiltrator than about anything else in the pack: 46% mention him one way or the other, and 27% praise him. Fans describe a "high speed metroidvania" style built on double jumps, wall jumps, a reusable grappling rope and exploding kunai, and say he has the highest skill ceiling of any keeper. A few who struggled at first said he became their favourite after practice. Some pushed back on the criticism directly: "Infiltrator is so good, I don't understand all the hate."

19% of reviews criticize him, with specific complaints: he falls instead of flying, so getting back to the dome from deep in the mine is slow; his carrying capacity is small; kunai bounce off surfaces at shallow angles; and the rope's range is hard to judge. "The movement feels extremely clunky." Others simply found him too hard and stuck with the Beastmaster. Players who like him and players who don't both say he is easier to aim with a mouse, which leads into the controller complaints below.

Is it worth the price?Medium

Pricing comes up in a small share of reviews, split both ways. 9% say the pack is good value, often because two keepers double the roster ("$8 is a reasonable price for how much content the DLC adds"). 7% object to the price: some feel new keepers "should have been a free update" in a base game they see as light on content, some said to wait for a sale, and some wanted a new dome or another bigger addition alongside the keepers. A few fans said they bought it mainly to support the developers.

What frustrates players

Crashes, broken saves and other bugsHigh

20% of reviews report bugs. The serious ones: the game crashing when the Beastmaster mines or summons cat goblins, the Infiltrator's kunai not firing, crashes on quitting (one player reported a blue screen), and saves failing to load after quitting while the Infiltrator carried resources ("when u carry something with infiltrator and exit, your save is wasted."). Controller bindings that didn't work for one keeper's abilities made local co-op unplayable for some. Most of these reports came in the first two weeks, and at least one reviewer changed their vote after a fix: "I updated it to positive after patch 5.0.1 fixed most of my complaints." Bug reports kept arriving afterwards, including an Infiltrator crash while mining with kunai in July and an October report that he sometimes won't shoot. Two players also said the update broke their mods, and one said it removed profiles.

Beastmaster lag and stutterMedium

Frame drops, stutter and one-second freezes with the Beastmaster come up in 9% of reviews, and they get worse as the run goes on and more tunnels are working. One player traced it to "the beast tunnels, the more you have and the more being processed, the more laggy it is", and another blamed cat-goblin pathfinding. It shows up on PC and Steam Deck and in co-op. For one player who turns screen shake off, the stutter after the faster movement upgrades was "game breaking". These reports ran from launch week into June.

The Infiltrator on a controllerMedium

16% of reviews raise controller or aiming problems, mostly about the Infiltrator. Reviewers describe a launch setup where aim and movement shared one stick, jump sat on the right trigger, and twin-stick aiming had to be found in the settings: "you MUST enable twin stick controls on a gamepad for the infiltrator in the settings". Several players were happy once they found it, and some reviews are just tips telling others to turn it on. Others still found the grapple hard to aim precisely with a stick or called the control scheme strange. One player who plays the base game keyboard-only disliked that the Infiltrator needs a mouse or controller, and another was angry about a controller-only nerf.

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm and fan-driven. Several reviewers call themselves long-time Dome Keeper players, thank the developers or say they bought the pack to support them, and judge it as an addition to a game they already love. The negative reviews (21%) are mostly about things breaking: about seven in ten of them mention a bug, a crash or Beastmaster lag, and most of the rest complain about the Infiltrator's controls. Only a few negatives object to the price, and almost none dislike the keeper concepts themselves. A couple of negatives say outright that they will change their review once fixes land.

Mouse players and people willing to practise the Infiltrator's movement love him, while controller players and those who tried a run or two found him awkward, and fans of each side argue with each other in their reviews. Co-op groups raise their own set of issues: shared keepers, guest access to owned DLC, and keepers interfering with each other's resources.

72% of reviews (97) came in the first two weeks after launch, when 82% were positive and at least one early negative turned positive after the first patches. The 38 reviews written after that were 71% positive, a smaller sample in which Beastmaster lag, leftover Infiltrator bugs and price come up more often than in launch week.

4. What the developers could do

1. Close out the remaining crashes and save bugs. Crashes when mining with either keeper, crashes on exit and saves lost after quitting while the Infiltrator carried resources make up the core of the bug reports.
2. Fix the Beastmaster's late-run lag. Players report frame drops and stutter that grow with the number of tunnels and cat goblins, on PC, Steam Deck and in co-op, well after launch.
3. Make the Infiltrator's controller setup sensible by default. Twin-stick aiming off by default and jump on the right trigger confused controller players, and reviews keep telling each other to change the setting.
4. Smooth the Infiltrator's weak spots. Critics point to the slow trip back to the dome, the small carry capacity, kunai bouncing at shallow angles and an unpredictable rope range, while fans want his speed kept.
5. Let guests use DLC keepers they own. A negative review asks to play paid keepers in a friend's hosted game, so new players can keep their unlocks.
6. Explain and tune the Beastmaster's upgrade paths. Players found some branches unclear or pointless and called her slow or weak in solo play.
7. Test the new keepers together in co-op. Their different resource-carrying styles interfered with each other and with multiplayer sync, according to co-op players.