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The Flesh Beneath
A dark-fantasy card-roguelike about giving the cathedral below what it asks for — one piece of yourself at a time. Sever your own flesh for power. Press blood-stones into your cards. Permadeath. Every name is remembered.

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Features
Single-player
Steam Achievements
Steam Cloud
Family Sharing
Steam is learning about this game 
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔ ✔ ✔
Simplified Chinese ✔ ✔ ✔
Russian ✔ ✔ ✔

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“The Flesh Beneath was built one descent at a time. We could ship it sealed and silent — but we would rather open the chapel doors now and let the first descenders walk in while the cathedral is still being built. Every card you play, every enemy you bleed against, every Tavern tier you press your souls into — those choices will shape what the full version becomes.

We plan to use Early Access to refine combat balance, expand the card and enemy pools, and let the community help us decide which doors stay open and which stay locked. We would rather hear from a thousand descenders now than a hundred thousand at a quiet release.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan to spend roughly 6 to 12 months in Early Access. The cathedral is patient, and so are we.

Our intention is to leave Early Access when the five Tavern paths feel complete, the deeper floors hold up under heavy testing, and the Litany has a place for every kind of player who walks in. We will not rush a release we are not ready to sign.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“We plan to grow the game across roughly these directions — in no fixed order, and with no guarantee every direction will ship:

More descenders. Additional classes beyond the current roster, each with their own card pool and body-part trees.

Deeper descents. New floor types, more chamber events, additional shrine and shop variants.

An expanded bestiary. More common, elite and boss enemies, with new attack telegraphs and counter-patterns.

A wider economy. Further Tavern path tiers, Blacksmith upgrades, and additional gem types.

More lore. Additional entries in the Litany of Suffering, more Codex story fragments, more in-world history of the parish above and the cathedral below.

Polish. Continued accessibility, localization, and controller-support refinements.
These will arrive in iterative patches so the build never feels frozen. We plan to be transparent about what is being worked on next. The cathedral decides what gets in.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access build is a complete, replayable loop. Right now you can:

- Pick from multiple body-horror descender classes, each with their own starting deck and sacrifice options.
- Descend through procedurally-built maps with combat encounters, shrines, rest sites, shops, gem-cutters, events, elites and bosses.
- Build decks of over a hundred cards, slot gems into card sockets, and sacrifice body parts at shrines to learn new abilities.
- Spend earned souls in the Carrion Camp across five Tavern paths and a Blacksmith upgrade tree.
- Unlock entries in a 250-fragment Codex of in-world lore as you survive — or fail.
- Earn Steam achievements; saves are backed up through Steam Cloud.

We plan to add more - additional classes, deeper floors, more enemies, more story - but the game you launch tonight is already a full run, end to end. We have tested it. The Litany already has names in it.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We plan to release the game at a modest Early Access price and gradually raise it as new classes, enemies, floors and content are added during development. Players who join us during Early Access will pay the lowest price the game will ever carry. We do not plan to lower the price after the full release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We read every report. We take the Litany seriously.

An official Discord where you can speak directly with the developers, share runs, suggest cards and lore.

Every Early Access player is, in some real sense, a descender. We are listening from the well.”
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This game is not yet available on Steam

Planned Release Date: Oct 28, 2026

This game plans to unlock in approximately 4 months

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About This Game

THE FLESH BENEATH is a body-horror deck-building roguelike. You play one of thirteen

ruined souls descending into the cathedral under an old village — fighting through

waves of grasping enemies, paying for your strongest cards in pieces of yourself,

and dying so the dark can remember you.

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THE BARGAIN

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Every run begins the same way. Three candidates are drafted from the bloodlines —

Cleaver, Hexweaver, Sister, Bonewright, Penitent, Sin-Eater, Bleeder, Whisper —

each named anew with a thematic epithet: Masha, Sorrow-Bringer. Yelena, of the

Wet Wheel. Boris, the Twice-Buried.

You pick one. Then the altar offers you One Last Gift.

Cut off an arm. Pluck an eye. Replace your heart with quieter machinery. Each

sacrifice costs maximum HP for the entire run — but grants a powerful flesh card

drawn from a pool of possibilities. Fourteen body parts are available. None of

them are decorative.

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THE DESCENT

═══════════════════════════════

The cathedral branches. Every two steps you choose what comes next:

• Combat — multi-wave fights against detailed enemies that walk in from the dark

• Elite — fewer but tougher monsters

• Shrine — sever another piece for another card

• Rest — heal, meditate, or pray for souls

• Omen — a 3-choice encounter (40+ unique events)

• Gemcutter — press a blood-stone into a card socket

• Trader — buy cards and gems with souls

• Boss — every seven floors, something named is waiting

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THE BOSSES

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• THE BUTCHER

• THE MOTHER OF WOUNDS

• THE WARDEN

• THE QUEEN OF SORROWS - bridal veil dragging on stone, knife-tipped fingers, halo of orbiting runes

Defeating each unique boss for the first time unlocks a new hidden bloodline

for future runs.
AND MORE

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THE CARDS

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Cards come from your class, from shrines, from shops, from random events, from

the dark in your own body.

• Around 200 base cards across 13 bloodlines + 20+ body-part flesh cards

• Six gem types

• Socket cap per card scales with cost

• Stunning, weakening, poisoning, draining, summoning, blocking, healing —

every card type has visible animations and per-target slash arcs

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THE CAMP

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Souls you bring back are spent in the Carrion Camp — a five-building hub you

navigate by clicking, scroll-wheel, or arrow keys:

• THE TAVERN — five-path RPG skill tree, fifty tiers total. Path of Flesh

(max HP, regen, revive). Path of Bone (sacrifice mechanics). Path of Iron

(block, damage). Path of Shadow (cards, energy). Path of Souls (economy).

• BLACKSMITH — permanently upgrade individual cards with extra gem sockets

• HOUSE OF LITANY — every death recorded with name, depth, cause, and which

body parts were missing when they fell

• HALL OF DEEDS — fourteen achievements

• GATES OF HELL — start the next descent

═══════════════════════════════

THE WAY IT FEELS

═══════════════════════════════

• Three-step camera Z-line on every melee hit

• Curved slash arcs that sweep across each enemy

• Camera carousel that rotates to face whichever building you select

• Sequential per-enemy combat animations — telegraph, lunge, recoil, slash

• Procedural soundtrack that shifts per scene and per combat depth

• Fourteen rotating monster death roars and human death screams

• Visible armor on enemies that have block

• Crafted icons on every card

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THE PROMISE

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Permadeath. Every death is named in the Litany of Suffering. The camp remembers

your runs forever. The Door of Gems opens after three successful runs through

the Mother — only then can you reach the Queen and end her.

Give what the dark asks. Become less. Reach further.

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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE BUYING

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THE FLESH BENEATH depicts body horror as its central mechanic — severed limbs,

self-mutilation at altars, blood-stones pressed into your own skin. The

violence is stylized but unflinching. The game treats it as a cost the player

chooses, not as spectacle. If body horror is a hard line for you, this is

not the game.

No microtransactions. No DRM. No ads. Buy once, play forever, offline if you want.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
    • Processor: Any 64-bit CPU from 2010 or later (e.g. Intel Core i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen 3 2200G)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated GPU with WebGL 2 support (Intel HD 620 or equivalent)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 5 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
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