Dark Bestiary on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Dark Bestiary is a turn-based tactic game with RPG elements. The very core of the game consists of continuous and exciting battles with monsters rather than a deep story. So, you will have to explore a rich combat system and discover your character’s possibilities.
Dark Bestiary is a turn-based combat, dark fantasy and rpg game
developed and published by Qd.
Released on July 12th 2020 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux
in 4 languages: English, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 514 reviews of which 459 were positive and 55 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 8.79€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Dark Bestiary into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: 2.0 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Open GL 3.2+ Compliant
- Storage: 1 GB available space
MacOS
- OS: OSX 10.9+
- Processor: 2.0 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Open GL 3.2+ Compliant
- Storage: 1 GB available space
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04
- Processor: 2.0 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Open GL 3.2+ Compliant
- Storage: 1 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Super grindy fun. The early game and non-meta parts of the new dream mode are fast paced and fun progression. Tactical one-screen combats with a variety of skills, most of which are at least semi-viable for certain builds. Lots of different enemies that require differing tactics and just a bunch of good mechanics that make the game interesting and fun to play. The relatively simple formula is very well executed and is honestly a blast to play. But once you get into patrols in the main game (and especially the tower) there isn't much to do but grind levels; once you're on all legendary/set gear, there's just not that much in the way of upgrades other than weapon experience and levels, and those levels start coming very, very, very slowly sometime in the 40s. I got the level 50 achievement, but not 60 because I had long since stopped getting any interesting upgrades or changes to my character. Dream mode's meta progression is the most painful thing I've ever seen. I got like 1/7 of the first level for a win. And for a loss? nothing at all. And winning is not easy by any stretch. You can easily spend an hour or two and get zero meta-progression when you choke on the third and final dream boss. It feels pretty brutal. At least the core gameplay is still fun.. but.. yikes. Anyway, it definitely tries to cater to the ultra-hardcore grinders out there, but there's more than enough pre-grind gameplay that if the concept of the game sounds interesting, it's worth at least getting it for 10 hours of joyful, rapid progress content. And if you're a masochist, then I guess you can get yourself another 100+ hours of gaming right here!
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[see below for a list of pro tips to improve your experience!] An awesome little tactical RPG! I've enjoyed playing quite a bit and am excited to keep delving into it even further. IMPORTANT: PLEASE DON'T JUDGE THE GAME BY JUST THE EARLY-GAME "CAMPAIGN" MISSIONS! The game picks up ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** in pace (especially loot) after finishing the "campaign" missions and starting on the mid-game "Patrol" missions (discussed below in more detail). I said "little tactical RPG" above because the overall gameplay loop is pretty small: go on mission, kill some monsters, get some loot, level up and/or upgrade loot, repeat. It sounds like other loot-based RPGs, which it is, but Dark Bestiary skips the narrative aspects and focuses solely on gameplay. One of the most interesting things about the game is the ability to freely re-spec everything about your character. The only things you can't truly change on a whim are your equipment (have to loot or buy it first) or your skills (you can switch them in and out freely, but you have to acquire them first; since there's no limit to the number of skills you can know, you just have to get enough gold to buy all of them, which definitely is feasible once you're into the mid-game). Thus, once you get to a high enough level to have amassed a good pile of equipment and have learned all of the skills, you can literally switch to any other build you want to without any associated costs. So, for example, you could be playing a summoner one mission, switch to a melee tank for the next mission, try an archer for one, and then switch back to the summoner. There's a series of about 20 "campaign" missions, but they're really just an introduction to the gameplay loop and the game's variety of monsters. ***THE GAME PICKS UP SIGNIFICANTLY ONCE YOU FINISH THE CAMPAIGN MISSIONS AND START ON PATROLS!*** I felt underwhelmed while playing the campaign missions because the progression seemed fairly slow: not enough loot from missions, and not enough gold to buy new skills. Once you can start doing the Patrol missions, though, assuming you've got a decent build, you can move through them fairly quickly and gain loot and experience at a MUCH faster pace. I haven't started playing the Nightmare missions yet, but I suppose they'll be a fun challenge [update: can definitely confirm!!!] once I've played the Patrol missions enough to be tired of the showers of loot they provide. Campaign missions are the early game, Patrol missions are the mid-game, and Nightmare missions the late game -- the developer is continuing to work on the game, though, and I believe another new mode or mission type is forthcoming. PRO TIPS (credit to other reviewers -- some of these I read in other reviewers, found useful, and am echoing here): [*]While you can know any number of skills, you can only have 8 skills equipped for use at a time. The first two skill slots are tied to your weapon/shield/etc., and cannot be removed to make room for more non-equipment skills. [*]When you hover over a skill, it will show you the skill's associated archetype(s) and linked bonuses. To achieve the linked bonuses, you have to equip a number of skills with that associated archetype equal to the number shown by the linked bonus. For example, if you equip two skills of the Warlock archetype, you'll get 2% life leech ("vampirism"); if you equip two more Warlock skills, you'll go up to 4% life leech. Having only one Warlock skill gives you no benefits. Skills can have multiple associated archetypes, so careful skill selection can lead to gaining many archetype's passive bonuses. [*]Stash is shared between all of your campaigns/characters. If you're in the early game and desperate for cash, start a new character, play the intro mission, unequip and put your starter gear and loot into the stash, change back to your original character, and sell all of the stuff from the stash. [*]When you hit a level-up which gives you a number of skills to choose from (to get for free), the "Reset" option rerolls the skills shown to you. If you don't use all of your "Resets", they'll carry over to later skill choices (i.e., if you don't use any of the 3 resets on your first skill choice, you'll have 6 available for your second skill choice). Ultimate-type skills (the ones with orange borders that use Rage) do show up as options during skill choices and, since they cost significantly more than other skills when purchasing from the Arcanist, are a good option to pick to save some gold. [*]Once you get to Patrol missions and have good gold income, don't forget to use the Eatery items! They aren't cost-effective at all during the early "campaign" missions, but they're definitely worthwhile once into Patrol missions. Especially valuable are the ones that increase experience gain -- my strategy has been to check the Eatery for exp. gain items: if I can't get at least +50% exp. gain, I'll buy what I can and play a single-stage Patrol mission (i.e., any but the last one, "Clean-up", which is about 7 stages long); after finishing that single-stage mission, I'll check the Eatery again, repeating the process until I get +50% exp. gain and then do "Clean-up". [*]Once you've gotten to Patrol missions and have loot flowing in, it's generally much more useful to use the "Dismantle" option on unwanted equipment instead of just selling it for gold. Having the crafting ingredients is better once you start acquiring new recipes, and, if you're in a pinch for gold, the crafting ingredients are generally worth a fair bit anyway (use left shift-click to split stacks to sell just what you need). [*]WHEN DISMANTLING, it seems to produce much better returns to turn in all equipment of each rarity at a time, rather than turning in all equipment at once. That is, to ensure you get the most of the higher-rarity dismantling results (i.e., Spheres of Augmentation and Spheres of Transmutation), turn in all Magic items (green) in one go, then all Rare items (blue), then all Unique items (purple), then all super-Unique (orange) items -- the buttons at the bottom of the inventory panel in the dismantling screen are a great QoL feature the developer added to help with this. [*]If you do want to sell some equipment for gold, I find that dismantling rings, necklaces, and accessories gives you a lower return than other equipment (assuming same level of rarity), and, since those three types are worth more gold than anything else, rings, necklaces, and accessories make good candidates for selling for gold. [*]Talents: you can only use one point per row in a tree (i.e., you can't select two row 5 talents under the Magic tree once you get your sixth talent point). Since it seems you get 10 talent points in total, you can get to the fifth row in two trees at once.
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This is probably the best, and most practical use of $10 on any videogame on Steam. Such a fantastic polished game already, and I am loving where it's going. I have absolutely no issues with it so far, and I already have 26 hours in it. Keep it up, dude!
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Summary Progression / Customization: 10/10 Combat: 8/10 Economy: 8/10 Difficulty: 7/10 Graphics, Story: N/A (Game isn't about graphics and story) New player tips ------ Progression / Customization: 10/10 ------ Freedom to choose Dark Bestiary's best feature is that you are free to choose any combination of skills, talents, attributes, items, enchantments, gems, etc. to create any build you want. The selection at character creation only gives you a few initial abilities to work with and doesn't matter long term. Respec freely Being able to respec all skills, talents, attributes, as well as swap out gems allows you to continuously experiment and fine tune your builds. To me this is the best part of the game. I have spent over 100 hours creating numerous fun builds. Itemization There are a lot of gear choices, including sets and legendaries with unique abilities. I like that sets are optional since in some games it feels like you get a set and then never change it. Oftentimes you find a new legendary with a neat ability and that triggers a new build idea which I think is a ton of fun. Additionally you can customize each piece heavily with gems, especially they wide variety of advanced gems you get from the tower of ascension. ------ Combat: 8/10 ------ Turn based Combat is turn based and revolves around actions points. You can manipulate action points with different items and abilities which makes combat quite interesting later on. Monsters There is a decent variety of monsters with different strengths and weaknesses. Additionally they can have modifiers such as double dmg but half defense, buff monsters around them, etc. I would actually like to see some more variety in the number of monsters. Most areas have 4-8 monsters. Ranged vs Melee I feel ranged is better than melee even though you can do some solid damage using melee. Monsters will keep their distance if they are ranged and you have to devote a lot of your skills to ones which allow you to chase them down. You can however use both types somewhat since you can equip two weapon sets which you can freely switch between in combat. ------ Economy: 8/10 ------ Gold and items always matter There are a ton of items, skills, and recipes to buy. Additionally upgrades to utilize in the transmutation option. This means you will be continuously spending the resources you gain. The one thing I have a lot of which I don't use is the basic attribute gems. Now that the advanced gems are available through the tower of ascension I don't have a use for them. Perhaps something could be done to make them useful again. ------ Difficulty: 7/10 ------ Difficulty at the start It's been a while, but I know before I created some good builds the game was fairly difficult at the start. Honestly I think this is good, but remember to experiment with different builds and you may need to do a lot of runs to get specific resources. Difficulty at the end I may be in a unique position here since I have played for over 100 hours, I am level 100, have tons of upgraded gear, and fine tuned my builds to be super effective, but the hardest content is very easy for me right now. Hopefully future updates will create even harder content to face. It took a long time to get to where it was easy so I wouldn't worry about it too much if you're starting now. ------ Graphics, Story: N/A ------ Graphics They do the job, they are ok, they don't really matter for a game like this I think. Story There is some text around the story in your town buildings. Also you can find text you can pick up in some of the dungeon areas, but honestly it isn't at all the focus of the game. People playing Diablo for 100+ hours aren't playing it for the story either. ------ New player tips ------ 1. Character Creation - Class selection just gives you some initial abilities, you can freely choose any abilities you want later on so don't worry about it. 2. Buying Skills - Each skill that you buy raises the cost of all other skills. You will eventually be able to afford all of them however. 3. Group skill passives - Each skill has one or two types. When you have the same types on your skill bar you gain passive bonuses. You can view these passive bonuses and what ones you have by hovering over your skills in the skill menu. 4. Transmutation - In the arcanist building click the 3 horizontal line button to see the transmutation recipes you can use. They allow you to customize your gear and multiple useful ways. 5. Dismantle items - Dismantle all items rather than selling them. Oftentimes the dismantled resources can sell for more than the item, that is if you don't want to use them to craft and transmute things which is what you will be doing a lot too. 6. Eatery for xp buffs - Check out the eatery for XP buffs. These will help you level much faster. After each area the eatery will refresh with new food. Reliquary items also increase faster with XP so those make it even more important to get XP buffs. 7. Black Market - You have to pay gold to refresh the black market. It will usually have blue and purple recipes / gear. It does not contain legendaries. 8. Forging - You can upgrade gear 5 times using forging in the craftsman building. I would wait for purple / legendary gear to use this on. Note you can switch stats and improve the quality of items after they are forged so if you have a purple or legendary you like you can feel safe to forge it early on. 9. Patrols to get specific ingredients - Different patrols provide higher chances to get different crafting ingredients. For example the mine patrol often gives ore which is used in heavy armor.
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Played for a couple of hours. Really enjoyable combat. Character build is very diverse with the ability to add skills from 17 different character types. No tutorial but if you have played this style of game before you will soon understand the mechanics. More of a casual tactical rpg, though death is certainly possible with a rush and bash sort of approach. Hardcore option is a welcome addition for me. I'll try to do a much more informative review after more game time but so far this is an excellent game.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Dark Bestiary is currently priced at 8.79€ on Steam.
Dark Bestiary is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 8.79€ on Steam.
Dark Bestiary received 459 positive votes out of a total of 514 achieving a rating of 8.33.
😎
Dark Bestiary was developed and published by Qd.
Dark Bestiary is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Dark Bestiary is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
Dark Bestiary is playable and fully supported on Linux.
Dark Bestiary is a single-player game.
Dark Bestiary does not currently offer any DLC.
Dark Bestiary does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Dark Bestiary does not support Steam Remote Play.
Dark Bestiary is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Dark Bestiary.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 24 April 2026 11:10 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 22 April 2026 20:38 |
| Steam price | 29 April 2026 04:28 |
| Steam reviews | 27 April 2026 23:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Dark Bestiary, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Dark Bestiary
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Dark Bestiary concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Dark Bestiary compatibility
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Online players
0
Developer
Qd
Publisher
Qd
Release
12 Jul 2020
Platforms