If you’re like me, you’ve wasted hours pondering life’s great hypotheticals: would I rather battle 75 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? How many dudes would it take to beat a gorilla? How Many Dudes? is here to answer those questions with a chaotic autobattler roguelike that pits your growing army against increasingly absurd foes. It might only be a demo, but it is ridiculous, strategic, and stupidly addictive.
Escalating The Absurdity
You start your run in the demo with one lonely dude facing ten babies — child’s play (literally). You recruit more as you progress: Viking dudes, ninja dudes, wizards, and more, each with unique strengths, abilities, and synergies. Medics, for instance, heal their three most injured allies after dealing damage.
Each round pits you against increasingly absurd, randomly generated collections of foes. 122 babies? Yep. seven goats and four dog-sized rats? Naturally. A gorilla? Of course! Before each battle, pick your matchup from two options, with bigger rewards for tougher combos.
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Battles in How Many Dudes? are automated — you just have to sit back and watch the chaos unfold. That’s unless things go south — that’s when it is time to interject and take control. You do this with “consumables” like dude juice (revives knocked-out dudes), health potions, or even a meteor strike. These are bought from the merchant dude who arrives every few rounds. He also sells pricey “relics” for permanent buffs to your dude army.
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Synergies And Strategy
Despite the absurdity, How Many Dudes? has the strategic depth you’d expect from any roguelike worth its salt. Success partcularly hinges on your dudes selections and how they then synergise with the relics and consumables you opt for on the way. It is enough to have you thinking, but in no way is it overcomplicated. This is very much an accessible roguelike, both in style and substance.
But don’t think there’s any shortage of content. Even in this demo, there’s more than 100 levels to work through, with boss fights every 20 (hello, gorilla). However, the pacing drags a little. Early rounds stay too easy before the challenge kicks in around 30-40. I’d love fewer waves with quicker escalation to the meatier battles. Custom matchups in full release would be chef’s kiss as well — three gorillas, let’s go!
Final Thoughts
How Many Dudes? turns shower-thought hypotheticals into absurd, strategic roguelike mayhem. It is great fun, a proper laugh, and has me looking forward to the full release.
A demo for How Many Dudes? is available now on PC via Steam, with the full release to come later in 2026.
