# POWDER

> Turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler with hack-and-slash combat. (iPhone/iPad app by Jeff Lait.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/powder/id347454871 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Jeff Lait](https://appshunter.io/developer/347454874)
- Category: Games, Role Playing, Adventure
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.20/5 from 120 App Store ratings · 124 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 12+
- Requires: iOS 8.0 · 10 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2010-04-20
- Data updated: 2026-07-16
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/powder/id347454871/reviews.md

## What is POWDER?

POWDER is a fast-playing turn-based dungeon crawl in the roguelike-tradition.

Years of polish have refined this hack-and-slash adventure into one of the most approachable examples of the roguelike genre.

## Key features

- Turn-based combat
- Dungeon crawl gameplay
- Hack-and-slash adventure
- Roguelike tradition
- Polished gameplay

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POWDER Full Version | $9.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of POWDER?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Great roguelike gameplay
- 🕹️ Customizable controls
- ⏱️ Quick gaming sessions
- 🔁 High replayability

**Cons**

- 🐛 Occasional UI issues (button placement, screen rotation)
- 💰 Expensive full version
- 🔍 Lack of visual polish

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
- Occasional save data loss
- Unresponsive controls

**Most requested features**

- Multiplayer mode
- More enemy/item variety
- Save/load functionality
- Difficulty settings

## Recent user reviews (10 of 124)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/powder/id347454871/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Landscape doesn’t work

*2025-07-18, version 118.1*

on an iPhone SE, landscape mode doesn’t activate correctly.

### 5/5 — One of the best mobile rogue-likes

*2024-12-09, version 118.1*

This game is pretty similar to Caves of Qud, but it’s much simpler. Still just as fun to play.

### 1/5 — Portrait mode broken

*2023-05-11, version 118.1*

Please please, if you see this please fix this. Powder is my favorite roguelike and is quite difficult to play in landscape mode

### 1/5 — Jeff, please fix the screen rotation issue

*2022-12-22, version 118.1*

Playing the game in portrait mode on modern iOS versions results in a heavily warped screen.

I’ve been playing Powder since 2007 on various platforms, and it’s really disappointing seeing the game fall into disrepair like this. Especially when this port has half the game behind a paywall.

### 5/5 — So small

*2021-04-28, version 118.1*

Fast download - very nice.

### 5/5 — Deserves to go viral

*2021-01-28, version 118.1*

This game truly deserves to go viral in its current state. So fun. So different. I’m happy I can actually play it at my desk at work offline. Love it’s feel so much.

### 5/5 — Still worth it

*2020-09-12, version 118.1*

Been playing this game for almost a decade and still pulls me back!!

### 4/5 — Game is amazing. Graphics rendering is poor.

*2020-04-15, version 118.1*

Amazing game that really deserves an update in terms of how it renders on iOS. Most fonts and tiles are unusably bad in terms of how they are rendered. Even the default tiles look quite poor here. It’s sad because the gameplay is the best of any roguelike on iOS.

### 4/5 — Solid multi-platform dungeon crawler

*2020-02-15, version 118.1*

Great game, but some QoL improvements like higher resolution rendering and full screen display would be nice considering the $10 asking price that’s unique to this version. The scaling tends to look a little wonky, regardless of tile set or whether I’m playing in portrait or landscape.
That being said, most people will likely never even get to the point the free version locks out, so I can’t bash it too much.

### 5/5 — Best Rouge like RPG out there

*2020-01-05, version 118.1*

Used to play this on the school computers as a kid 10/10

## Frequently asked questions about POWDER

### What kind of game is POWDER?

POWDER is a fast-playing, turn-based dungeon crawl game that follows the traditions of the roguelike genre. It offers a hack-and-slash adventure experience.

### What are the key features of POWDER?

Key features include turn-based combat, dungeon crawl exploration, and hack-and-slash adventure gameplay. The game has been polished over years to provide an approachable roguelike experience.

### Is POWDER free to play?

The application is free to download and play, but it does offer in-app purchases. This allows players to enhance their experience or acquire additional content.

### Who is POWDER designed for?

This game is designed for players who appreciate the strategic depth and challenge of roguelike games. It's particularly suited for those who enjoy turn-based combat and hack-and-slash adventures.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 118.1 — 2018-08-10

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

Fixes over-broad rating classification. 
No actual changes to the functionality.

### 118 — 2018-02-26

Note: While the high scores are kept between versions, the saved games are not.  So finish your game before upgrading.

- Support for ios11
- Fix many typos

### 117 — 2012-01-29

Note: While the high scores are kept between versions, the saved games are not.  So finish your game before upgrading.

-  True aim is now in the book of blades, so you can learn it without an extra skill book.
- Forgetting a spell while wielding a staff that imbues it will now properly fail.
- Failing to forget no longer uses a turn.
- Unenchanted weapons and armor which you have found the enchantment of now report +0.
- Objects collapsing into meatballs now properly state if the result is multiple meatballs.
- Tutorial for signpost for kiwis now mentions the hostile tag on the look description.
- Signpost added to surface world.
- Someone to greet you on the surface world.
- Unequippable item slots say No Item slot rather than Empty slot. Empty body slots report the appendage name (left hand, radula, etc)
- + and * by the god reports when praying lets you know how much they like your fashion sense.
- Frogs have a bonus to attack vs insects.
- Silver and gold weapons will occasionally dull if used against non-vulnerable targets.
- Finally added the cute and cuddly triceratops!
- If you id the enchantment of an item by throwing it, now the stack you threw it from wil also be ided.
- Sleeping creatures have a visual indication.
- Swapping worn armour with wielded sword no longer causes you to wear the sword.
- Rolling boulder works on some monsters.
- Fix minor spelling errors
- Full AI state was being cleared when nothing was edible rather than just the single edible bit.
- Dipping nothing into a potion no longer crashes, provided you figured a way to do that in the first place.
- Two or more equipped items with extra attacks now properly stack the chance of invoking the attacks, rather than jumping straight to a 99% chance.
- One new room type.
- Mountain and Hills in Ibson The Grey's tileset are now in their correct positions.

### 116 — 2011-09-30

While it has been long since the last release, it is of the usual incremental nature, consisting of minor fixes and one new spell.  I'm particularly happy with finally finding a compromise for god-induced flamestrikes - you get a warning now so they are less just an insta-death out of the blue.

If you like POWDER, but are frustrated at the slow rate of development, I strongly recommend checking the rest of the roguelike scene!

- Tower shields are large
- "You cannot hide from I!" is now "You cannot hide from Me!"
- Looking at a square will also describe any smoke there.
- The dig spell now has the side effect of spraying the excavated rock shards, damaging those around you.
- Create Pit spell is now 10 MP rather than 15.
- Blizzards fill the air with sleet and snow, not sleet and slow.  Though the latter does describe their special effect nicely.
- New spell: Sandstorm
- If a god decides to flamestrike you, you now should get a few turns warning to prepare yourself.
- Monsters properly check safety of squares before stepping on them.
- If trapped inside a wall without Phase or Breathess, you will
suffocate.
- Helmets should be sorted together now.
- Empty bottles will be filled by down pour now.
- Entomb has a better message when blocked.
- Rocks are created when rocks fall on your head.
- Spells you can't cast have (!) after them in the zap list
- Tossing an item hand to hand no longer takes a turn.  
- Spears, knives, and daggers no longer let you equip stacks. 
- You are only prompted to throw one spear of a stack.  
-The animate forest spell now has its own icon.

### 115 — 2011-01-06

Major Changes:

The 12x12 Akoi Meexx tiles have been hand smoothed for a better landscape experience.
 
You can now email your character's records! This provides a way to get a record of your win without resorting to pen and pencil. 

The status bar acting wonky when the iPhone is held flat should be fixed.  This might have caused the keyboard not to show up when in this orientation. 

Minor Changes:

* Typos in the animate forest description fixed. 
* You can no longer petrify or stone to flesh quest items. 
* Items that fall in a hole will not be revealed up on the next 
level's map.
* Zapping a wand of invisibility at yourself when you are already invisible from a permament source no longer reports "You are invisible."
* No longer falsely get system shock if a creature you possessed, but released when it was polymorphed, is finally slain.  
* The Regenerate spell now works for creatures with No Regeneration, as was intended. 
* Flesh golems can once more regenerate. (They lost this in the no-regen sweep) 
* Giant Spiders have defences better fitting their explevel. 
* The earth hammer is now made from stone as you'd expect.
* The spell Summon Daemon now spells Daemon like the rest of POWDER. 
* Typo fixed in Golden Tridude description.
* Clarify cave troll description. 
* s/byte/sting/ for scorpion description. 
* Clarify butcher skill description. 
* Water elementals no longer leave corpse. 
* Eaten intrinsicly poisonous corpses now has a significantly shorter timeout. 
* Attacks which deal multiple types of damage in the same hit will have damage reduction applied to each of the types, rather than only to the first type. 
* Vampire bats will no longer chase players which they aren't 
interested in.
* Searching due to intrinsics will put Searching on the status line, and multiple manual searches will report Seached x10. 
* The torches in the Lomaka tiles have been fixed to show up in the correct hand. 
* The Wish command now includes the ability to take on a monster's form and stats, so you can play as a monster if you wish. (Wish only works in the unlocked version)
* On level up, the number of Piety points you have in each class is displayed beside the class name so you can better judge which class to pick.

## Apps similar to POWDER

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead 0.F](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cataclysm-dark-days-ahead-0f/id1577366679) | 4.4 (53) | $9.99 | Games |
| [Clash of Legendary Titans](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/clash-of-legendary-titans/id800927520) | 3.5 (22) | Free | Games |
| [勇者いただきデリーシャス](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id1012881840) | — | Free | Games |
| [Hardboiled](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hardboiled/id977874600) | 4.1 (46) | $1.99 | Games |
| [Pathos: Nethack Codex](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pathos-nethack-codex/id1045848120) | 4.7 (353) | Free | Games |
| [Bomb Friends - Free Games for Family Baby Boys And Girls](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bomb-friends-free-games-for-family-baby-boys-and-girls/id1000473480) | 3.0 (2) | Free | Games |

## Related topics

[powder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/powder) · [poqed](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/poqed)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-16.*