How Many Dudes Key Art
Image: Butterscotch Shenanigans

Could you take a goose in a fight? Ten geese? A hundred? How many dudes would it take to beat three hundred geese and five wolves? These are the kinds of questions that have plagued bored dude brains since the invention of boredom. And today, with the release of How Many Dudes? we can simulate some real answers. To a certain, surreal interpretation of 'real'.

The latest game from Butterscotch Shenanigans, developers of the popular Crashlands survival sandbox series, How Many Dudes? is a pretty big departure from their usual fare. It's a number-crunching autobattler roguelike. You're told what your dudes are going to have to fight in the arena, and you've got to hire the right dudes to survive this and all future battles, building up synergies, collecting questionable upgrades, and aiming to create an unbeatable wall of manliness.

On top of being a great excuse to stack up a bunch of little computer dudes to throw down with the entire animal kingdom (plus several hundred toddlers), there's some satisfying strategic depth here. The kind that all the good roguelikes have, as you learn the possible synergies and figure out how to stack the odds in favor of creating a winning build.

As a quick example, a force of Necrodudes (from the Fantasy Dudes 'family' - they raise skeledudes to fight for them) is a liability in direct combat, but with some Paladin Dudes to tank threats and buff each other, they're a lot more useful. Plus, you get to pick which of two possible fights to tackle next, with bigger risks often paying out more.

The game's demo (which is still available) was a big hit with streamers and the YouTube crowd, and showed that there's just enough depth to the easygoing decision-making (never giving you enough options to overwhelm, but just enough to feel significant) to make your brain buzz pleasantly. Not the deepest, most involved, or challenging of roguelike experiences, but an enjoyable one.

How Many Dudes? is out now for £13.75/$15 with a juicy 35% launch discount until August 13th, and even more savings if you own other oddball roguelikes such as Balatro, Raccoin or Everything Is Crab.