I'm learning to love autobattlers and it's because this Steam demo let me build a gnarly squad of combat freaks out of weird meat and goblin blood

Having been playing games almost as long as I've been alive, I've fought and killed more goblins than I could ever hope to count. While MMOs, RPGs, RTSes, and all kinds of other acronyms have happily enabled my lifelong war with goblinkind, Flask—an autobattler that just released a demo on Steam—is the rare sort of game that's prompted me to ask instead what's in a goblin's heart.

The answer, of course, is valuable goblin blood. That's why I—and other debt-ridden alchemists—are dispatching squads of mutant homunculi adventurers into the wastes beyond the Goblin Gate to carve a bloody (and therefore lucrative) path towards personal solvency. And I'm having an excellent time.

I don't have much history with autobattlers, but I was drawn to Flask by its art style, crafted by artist John Kenn Mortensen. It's scratchy; it's grotesque; it's somewhere between a metal album cover, a Hieronymus Bosch triptych, and an Edward Gorey book. Every one of its roguelike runs is a charming gallery of ghoulish freaks, twisted meat, and—if you're lucky—an outpouring of emerald gore.

But I was pleased to discover that there's something to this autobattler business, and Flask makes that appeal easy to find. While you're piloting your mobile alchemist's tower beyond the Goblin Gate, you're not personally fighting against the denizens of the lands beyond. Instead, you're dispatching a squad of homunculi that you're gradually mutating with ability-providing alchemical flasks, snacks that bestow passive perks, and playstyle-shifting organ grafts.

By the time all those factors are in play, Flask has accumulated a delicious complexity of potential playstyle synergies, with each class of homunculi having multiple ability themes to mix and minmax according to your ideal combat brew. But each component of the formula is introduced at a comfortable rate across a run, with each successful battle earning more goblin blood to turn your initial starter homunculi into a squad of hardened freaks that each feel like they're acting out their own game of Slay the Spire in real time.

My most successful run so far carried me all the way to the castle at the heart of the ruined goblin metropolis. My Warrior homunculus, I'd built around a mechanic called focus—a buff that would be cleared if it took any damage, but which I paired with an ability flask that allowed the buff to be cashed in for a flurry of extra attacks.

Meanwhile, I'd built my Rogue for sustained—but accelerating—damage. Each round, it would spread increasing stacks of poison on enemies before shifting into stealth, pairing that damage over time with an attack that got progressively harder-hitting every time it was used. By the end of a battle, it was able to one-shot enemies through the armor they'd piled on throughout the fight.

My real hero, however, was my Ranger. Ranger flasks typically involve loading the homonculus' rifle with bullets that are then fired by other abilities, but I lucked into a brutal combo to lay on top. Some flasks have a gamble mechanic, like one that gave my Ranger a chance to fire another bullet for free with some extra damage on top. But I could prime that with another flask that guaranteed successes on my next gambles, letting my Ranger start a round by loading their gun with bullets that they'd pack with damage buffs before emptying their magazine in a barrage that mulched almost anything it was pointed at.

I was rolling in sweet, sweet goblin blood. But goblins aren't the only thing your homunculi face in Flask: Throughout your run, you'll regularly be confronted with the homunculi squads of other player alchemists to test your autobattle buildmaking. My steamrolling was brought to an abrupt end by somebody's setup that managed to turn their Warrior into a juggernaut that stacked more armor every time I blinked, and dealt more damage any time I touched it.

I don't really know what was happening there, but even though all my beautiful mutant children were soon a spattering of secondhand goblin gore, I applaud the brilliance of their destroyers' creator. It's fine. I can always build another.

Flask doesn't have a release date yet, but you can play the demo now on Steam.