About This Game

Nildigo is a spicy-zen puzzle roguelite that blends elements of picross and mine-finding puzzles with roguelite permadeath, Perk deckbuilding, hunting solvability, and a giant toddler in an indigo suit with a Nil stamp orchestrating the world demanding money.

Three lives, three mistakes, no time limit. Nildigo begins calm, with easy-ish boards and low-ish stakes. It gets more difficult as a run progresses... and then easier again when you find the right chain of Perks.

Every board features a board of concealed values. Rows and columns show their sum total value, and the number of Nils to avoid. Cross-reference rows and columns to locate and reveal all the Multipliers, which exponentially multiply your Pot. Optionally, find as many $1 cells as possible to increase the base Pot total, which is then multiplied by that amount once the board is cleared.

If you uncover a Nil, it will multiply the Pot by x0, losing you a life. Avoid or defuse them. They can be flagged or notated where you know Nils exist. There're several notation options, including a number of keyboard shortcuts to eg. notate cells as a Nil or a $1 (ie. not necessary to check to clear the board).

After every board clear, the day advances. On weekend boards, you can go to the Perk Meet and buy one of a bank of over 300 Perks, with a vast array of effects on clearance. On weekdays, spin the Power Grabber for expendable Powers and big money Jackpots. You can also win lives back.

Six core Powers of varying strength and rarity help with early grid solving. They are single-use and gained through the weekly post-clear Power Grabber visits, as well as numerous Power-farming Perks.

• The Sweeper lets you safely reveal any cell. It will defuse a Nil if it finds it.

• The Scanner can be deployed on a $1 you have found, and will tell you how many Nils are orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to it.

• The Buffer adds 1 to the effect of a multiplier tile it reveals. Once a certain permanent Perk is obtained, it also acts as a Sweeper.

• The Filter can be used on a 2x2 area, and will tell you how many Nils, $1s, low-tier Multipliers (x2, x3, x4) and high-tier Multipliers (x5, x6, x7, x8) occupy it. It can be used on a 2x2 area you have already partially revealed to condense its information.

• The Headmaster safely reveals an entire row or column, defusing any Nils it finds along the way. Great for clearing out large swathes of ambiguity.

• The Scavenger is the most useful Power in the game, revealing every $1 on the board all at once. Any row or column that you know can only contain $1s or Nils is immediately disambiguated; flag the Nils and move on.

Some Perks also buff the effects of Powers, such as Loggerhead, which has Headmaster work twice to create a cross-shape of immediate cleared lines, or a number of buffs to Filters to have them automatically reveal/defuse the cells in its area.

333 Perks are where the game's possibilities truly explode. Sorted into a wide range of categories, and affecting the game in every way possible, they allow you to build a deck of game-solving and often game-breaking however you play the game. Buy one after every weekend board at the Perk Meet from four choices.

• Starter Perks are gradually unlocked with highscore milestones, and provide instant guaranteed buffs and nerfs to core game mechanics. Gain free Perks to start runs, make Perks free, start with a wide range of Powers, or guarantee board solvability from the get-go.

• Disposables have an effect once you discard them, so can be triggered whenever. Add to the Pot immediately, remove Nils with Shuriken, skip the board entirely with Dash Boots, swap out the Boards or even the Perk Meet with Rerack, or use Lockpick Kit or Safecracking Kit to thieve from the Perk Meet itself.

• Power Perks relate to Powers. Gain a chance of not spending them when used, increase or improve their effect, or farm free Powers with Perks like the Trampolines or the Trade-In Card.

• On Reveal Perks trigger when certain cells are revealed. $1s can award a lot more than $1 with Bet, Pyramid, Coin Roll or Cut Diamonds. Revealed Multipliers gain efficacy with Bicorne or reveal neighbouring Multipliers with Twin Brain, and add themselves as money too with Miracle Fruit. And if you reveal a Nil, owning a Rabbit's Foot, Shamrock or Distracting Lime might stop you losing a life.

• Board Start Perks affect how a board is generated. It is in here that arguably the strongest perk in the game exists: Musical Tie, which heavily reduces potential board ambiguity, making every board mechanically solvable with a little bit of time and light mathematics.

• Board Analysis Perks help you further. Finder perks can show you the total counts across the whole board of $1s, low-tier and high-tier Multipliers, rewarding patient play with easier board solving. Claw Machine, another strong perk, will auto-reveal rows or columns that contain all but one Nil, defusing everything in it and often trivialising the perpendicular rows and columns that cross them.

• Board Clearing Perks change the parameters for clearing a board and reward you when you do it. Access perks let you ignore x2s, x3s and x4s for clearing a board, and Firefighter's Pole lets you clear any board once unconditionally. And when you do, you can receive an even greater payout if you activate Parachute, Overtime or Galaxy Brain.

• Insurance is strong to have, but is lost when triggered. Prevent a game over with Health or Life insurance, regain Powers on using your last with Power Insurance, or just meta it up and use Droste Insurance to lose Droste Insurance instead of any other Insurance Perk.

• Tickets work on particular days of the week, granting Powers and money... or access to the Perk Meet on a Wednesday when it's most definitely meant to be closed. I hear it has better Perks for the secret clientele.

• Perk Meet and Power Grabber Perks affect those when visited. Make the Perk Meet better and cheaper, or duplicate Disposables purchased there with Echo. Or hack the Power Grabber with a Monkey Paw or Light Wand to guarantee Jackpots.

• Miscellaneous Perks are where a lot of the highest-strength and highest-game-modifying Perks lie. Use Gambit to limit yourself to 1 Life but start every board with a pre-filled Pot. Improve every Perk's chance of working with Boxcars. Become a millionaire with Rainbow Abacus if you can reveal 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in order. Or grab Starlock. Starlock lets you take every Perk from one run into the next to stack even harder.

Those are just the single-run Perks. Around 85 of Nildigo's Perks are Permanent, which you buy once and keep forever.

• Zodiac give you free money, Powers and extra lives when you begin every run from then on.

• Charms deploy free Perks or otherwise buff every single board.

• Suits activate giant bonuses for losing a life. Even if you do it to yourself on purpose.

• Talismans are just Charms but better and more teal.

• Constellations are Nildigo endgame, with 26 Perks of obscene power.

• Pieces of Nildigod are unpurchasable Permanent perks earnt by paying Nildigod's tithes.

Nildigod, the unholy lovechild of Mr. Blobby and William Shakespeare, is a wholly unthreatening specimen of a creature, who recites poetry and gives Nildigo sometimes-brutal progression roadblocks if your on-hand Perks aren't quite overpowered enough.

Every 10 levels, the first time you make it to that stage, Nildigod demands a tithe, which you must earn fresh by clearing boards with the equipment you got there with. No more Power Grabbers, no more Perk Meets. Pay the tithe or die trying. If you make it, you peel off part of Nildigod's suit and keep it forever, enjoying strong buffs from then on, and clear that encounter for every run moving forwards.

It's sometimes worth devoting a run purely to clearing Nildigod at a particular stage, in order to free the Power drain for future runs.

Either way: Nildigod is a vacant indigo toddler inspired by several costumed psychopaths from British TV, and Charmander. And my cat, Meggy, who would frequently forget her surroundings and stand, mouth open, staring at the world like it was her first time seeing it. Loved that cat.

Nildigo starts calm, but quickly becomes tense, exciting, and endlessly addictive.

The game takes around 10-20 hours to see eveything, depending on your speed, adeptness at deckbuilding-y stuff, adeptness at Picross/Minesweeper-y stuff, and luck. Not too much luck, though - Nildigo has been made to try and slightly reduce RNG elements to ensure that eventually, with a little bit of patience and persistence - you can smash it into smithereens.

I'm sorry to the friends that I managed to blackhole into 30+ hour playtimes.

Yeah. This is the best game I've ever made. And if you decide to grab it, I can only hope you concur.

A game by Allison J. James / Chequered Ink