Open-Source Roguelikes: Shattered Pixel Dungeon, DCSS and Brogue Compared (2026)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and Brogue CE compared on controls, depth, online features and who makes each Android version. All free, no ads.

By 2113 · Updated Oct 4, 2026

All three are traditional roguelikes: you explore a randomly generated dungeon one turn at a time, and when your character dies, the run is over. They are free and open source, play offline, and our scan of each file found no trackers, no ad libraries and no Google Play billing code. Where they differ is in how much they ask of you, and in who makes the Android version.

Quick picks

  • New to roguelikes, or playing mainly by touch: Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It was built for phones by its own developer and adapts its layout to the screen.
  • The deepest game, and no internet access at all: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Many species, backgrounds and gods; the app doesn’t even request network access.
  • A compact classic: Brogue CE, with the goal of retrieving the Amulet of Yendor from the 26th level. Bear in mind this Android version is an unsupported personal port.

They install side by side, so you can try more than one.

At a glance

Shattered Pixel Dungeon Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Brogue CE
Android version made by The game’s developer The DCSS team’s repository An unofficial port
Signed by The developer F-Droid The port’s developer
Touch controls Built for touch On-screen keyboard and d-pad Swipe or d-pad
Game controller Yes Not documented No
Goes online Optional update checks and news Never Only if you enable it
Brazilian Portuguese Complete (one Portuguese translation) Partial No
Minimum Android 5.0 5.0 7.0
Size 30.3 MB 60.0 MB 13.2 MB
Permissions 4 2 2
Tracker SDKs in our scan None None None

Online, or not

  • Shattered Pixel Dungeon has no online play. It can show the developer’s news feed and, unless F-Droid, Droid-ify or Uptodown installed it, check GitHub for updates. Both run only on Wi-Fi by default and can be turned off in the settings; news starts off when F-Droid or Droid-ify installed the game.
  • Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup for Android makes no connections. The online version of DCSS is played on public servers in a browser or over SSH, not in this app.
  • Brogue CE has a server feature for its port, off by default. If you enable it, it sends an install ID, the seed and the outcome of each game to the port developer’s server.

Who makes them

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is made by one developer, Evan Debenham, and the file here is his own build, published through F-Droid after F-Droid confirmed it matches the source. Updates from his GitHub releases install over it. The DCSS Android version is built from the main DCSS repository; this copy is F-Droid’s build, while the Google Play version is published by Medrano83. Brogue CE’s Android version comes from a developer called tyrannotorus, whose README says it is “unsupported”; Brogue CE’s own README links to a different, older port.

Download the 3 apps

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