Lost Castle 2 is a 2D roguelite beat-'em-up from developer Hunter Studio.
Leaving early access and hitting its full 1.0 release on 11 June 2026 (after the best part of two years in the oven!), there's never been a better time to jump in.
If you're not familiar with the roguelite elements, here's the short version: you fight your way through a castle, you die, and you start again from the beginning - but you keep your gold and your camp upgrades, so every run leaves you a little stronger than the last. It's tough, but it's fair, and it's an absolute riot in co-op.
This guide walks you through the bits the tutorial glosses over: picking a weapon, what to upgrade first, the items worth building around, and the habits that'll stop you getting farmed by goblins.
The first thing to make peace with is that you're going to die, a lot, especially early on. That's not you being bad at the game, that's just the game. Every run banks gold you spend back at camp on permanent upgrades, so each defeat quietly makes your next attempt that bit easier.
So don't go sprinting past the camp to start your next run. After a death or two, head straight for the upgrade table and spend what you've earned. Skip this and you're playing on hard mode for no reason.
Pick a Weapon That Suits You
There are six weapon categories, and the game genuinely wants you to try all of them before you settle. At the start of a run you'll usually choose from three, and your pick shapes how the whole run plays - your "class" here is really just your weapon plus your amulet, since there's no separate level-up tree.
A few broad strokes to get you going. Dual blades are fast, combo-heavy and dash further than anything else, which makes them brilliant for staying mobile. The big two-handers swing slowly but hit like a falling wall. If you're finding the game a handful, sword and shield is the forgiving, tanky option that lets you block your way out of trouble. And the summoner is a strong shout for solo play, since your phantoms do the dangerous work for you. The bow is great if you prefer a ranger play style.
Get to Know Your Camp
Camp is your hub between runs, and it's worth a proper look round. The Stylist, the chap with the scissors at the bottom of camp, lets you change your hair and appearance whenever you fancy. To answer the question everyone asks: no, you're not locked into playing a girl or a guy, it's purely hairstyles. Serena the Blacksmith lets you set which weapons can drop on a run, so you can deselect the ones you never reach for and see your favourites more often.
You'll also meet Nia, who handles your difficulty and who you'll end up talking to more than anyone, and an NPC who keeps the logs of your past runs if you fancy seeing where it all went wrong. One heads-up: some NPCs won't be there when you start. You meet them out on your adventures first, and then they turn up back at camp.
Upgrade the Camp Before Anything Else
As your gold piles up, the upgrade table is where it should go first. Each upgrade is a permanent boost to your stats and the perks you carry into a run. Resist the black market tucked away in the corner for now - it'll happily take your gold for one-off items, and your gold does far more good making every future run stronger.
If you only chase one upgrade early, make it the Emergency Mechanism. It hands you a free revive on every single run, which turns a careless death into a second chance. After that, lean into survival upgrades: a bigger elixir vial, more max HP, and armour proficiency so your gear pulls double duty. Those first bosses get a lot less frightening when you've an extra heal and a fatter health bar behind you.
The Two Items to Marry
Once you unlock them, two bits of hunter gear become your best friends: the banana and the emergency HP bottle. What makes them special is that they top right back up every time you enter a new map, bananas stacking up to a dozen, whereas your alchemy elixir does not.
That gives you a simple rule of thumb. When you're hurt, eat a banana or crack the HP bottle before you ever touch your elixir, because the elixir is the one you can't easily replace mid-run. Unlock these two and stick with them for good.
Build Your Class With the Amulet
This is where Lost Castle 2 steps away from a traditional level-up screen. As you fight, you'll pick up alchemy pieces - mixtures, runestones and odd magical bits - that you socket into your amulet, each one granting a specific effect. One might pad your max HP, another might buff your damage after a kill.
Upgrade your camp and you can slot more of these in at once, stacking them into little builds. Go for a tanky wall of HP and shields, or a glass cannon that hits hard and folds fast. Play around until something clicks with how you naturally want to fight. The amulet is quietly doing the job stat points used to.
Fight Smart, Loot Greedily
On the combat side, the most useful habit by a mile is to favour dodging over blocking. Blocking drains a stamina bar that runs dry quickly, while a well-timed roll costs you nothing and gets you clear of the big hits. Watch for the obvious wind-ups and telegraphs, roll through them, and don't commit to a full combo when you can see something coming.
Between fights, be greedy. Smash every crate and barrel, poke your nose into side rooms, and trigger the odd events you stumble across. The game rewards thorough players with extra gold, passive treasures, and the occasional NPC you'd otherwise never meet. A tiny trinket can be the difference between clutching a boss at two HP and dying at five percent, so don't speedrun to the exit.
Always Take the Cursed Route
When you're offered a branching path, take the cursed area. The curse sounds like a punishment, and yes, it comes with a catch, but the reward on offer is strong enough to be worth it. Better still, once you beat that area's boss you can cleanse the curse at the healing fountain - so you keep the payoff and lose the penalty.
And if you just want an easier ride while you find your feet, funnel your runes into green ones for max HP and defence. A tank build is comfortably the most beginner-friendly way to play the game.
Know Your Currencies
Lost Castle 2 throws a fair few currencies at you, and it's easy to muddle them. Here's the quick version:
Gold: your main currency, spent on camp upgrades.
Purple shards: earned by dismantling items, spent on items in the shop.
Iron ingots: used to upgrade and enchant your equipment.
Reroll tokens: reroll your choices at the shop or a cursed area.
One last freebie worth knowing: keep an eye out for the shop's free ticket, which nabs you any single item for nothing. Save it for something pricey.
A Note on Co-op
Lost Castle 2 supports up to four players online, and co-op is where it really comes alive. If you want to actually win rather than just cause carnage, treat it like a team: have someone play the tanky frontliner while another deals the damage, and pass the right weapons and potions to whoever can make best use of them.
Learn the revive system while you're at it. When a teammate goes down you can revive their soul, and holding it to the sweet spot brings them back with more health. Just mind the trade-off for the extra company - enemies and bosses get tankier with more players in the room.
Quick Tips
Die without sulking; every run feeds your camp upgrades.
Grab the Emergency Mechanism upgrade for a free revive each run.
Try every weapon before you commit. Class is weapon plus amulet.
Banana and emergency HP bottle refill each map, so use them before your elixir.
Dodge more than you block.
Loot everything before you take the exit.
Always pick the cursed route, then cleanse it at the fountain once the boss is down.
Get those fundamentals down and the climb from goblin-fodder to boss-bully is quicker than you'd think. Good luck out there, and may your loot be legendary!
