Roguelike-inspired co-op shooters, Mycopunk arrives as a breath of spore-filled fresh air — or perhaps a cloud of mushroom-induced madness. Announced by publisher Devolver Digital and developed by up-and-coming team Pigeons at Play , Mycopunk promises high-octane, limb-slicing action set in a bizarre sci-fi future where fungal catastrophe has overrun a distant moon and only a ragtag crew of extermination robots can clean it up.
Scheduled to launch on Steam later this year , Mycopunk channels the fast-paced, build-driven insanity of titles like Risk of Rain and Enter the Gungeon , while carving out its own quirky identity through movement-based gameplay, weird weaponry, and one of the most delightfully absurd upgrade systems seen in years.
A Fungal Future
Set in a far-flung future where interstellar travel is just another office job, Mycopunk follows a group of mechanical exterminators employed by the sketchy space corporation Saxon Industries . When communication with a remote moon suddenly drops off, players are dispatched to investigate — and of course, they find it overrun by a massive fungal infestation that’s mutated everything in sight.
What follows is not so much a deep narrative journey as it is an excuse to let loose in a world teeming with grotesque, squirming enemies that you can tear apart piece by piece. The game leans fully into its absurdity, delivering something that feels more like a weekend-long LAN party than a serious survival mission.
At the heart of the experience are four unique robot exterminators — agile, powerful, and built for mayhem. Each character brings their own distinct abilities and playstyles to the table:
- The Wrangler is your speed demon, equipped with an air dash and a rocket-powered lasso that lets them zip around the map, snag items (or teammates), and yank themselves toward airborne enemies.
- The Bruiser is all about close-range carnage, wielding a shotgun and a forcefield projector that can deflect bullets, push back foes, and even slam into the ground to send everyone flying.
- The Scrapper acts as the team’s utility player, able to deploy grapple poles across long distances, letting the entire squad swing through the chaos together.
- The Glider takes to the skies with a wing suit, raining down explosive rockets from above — either to devastate enemies or heal allies mid-combat.
These characters aren’t just fun to control solo; they’re designed with co-op synergy in mind. Whether you’re playing with three friends or going full outlaw and choosing the same character repeatedly, there’s no shortage of ways to mix and match abilities to devastating effect.
A Hub of Madness
Before each mission, players return to the creaky, ramshackle ship orbiting the moon — the game’s central hub. This colorful hideout is more than just a loading screen; it’s a playground filled with distractions, upgrades, and interactive elements. Here, you can visit your boss — a giant talking cockroach who occasionally joins missions — grind rails in the Recreation Sphere, test builds in the hangar, or summon vehicles ranging from single-rider racers to wild four-person death machines.
Pigeons at Play is even considering adding functional arcade cabinets to the ship, though that feature may not make it into the launch version. Still, the attention to detail in making this space feel alive and entertaining between missions is impressive — especially for a game that could easily have skipped such flourishes in favor of pure combat focus.
Missions That Keep Growing
Once you’ve had your fill of shenanigans aboard the ship, it’s time to drop down to the moon’s surface. Missions vary wildly in structure — from planetary defense tasks requiring you to power up and fire a massive cannon against rival company ships, to randomized objectives that throw new challenges your way each run.
Each biome — think toxic fungal forests, bubbling acid lakes, and swamps of writhing flesh — offers wide-open terrain for players to leap, glide, and blast their way through hordes of grotesque enemies. These creatures are made up of modular parts, meaning you’ll often spend as much time slicing limbs off enemies as you will dodging the appendages thrown back at you by other foes.
Yes, in Mycopunk , dismembered limbs aren’t just satisfying visual effects — they’re hazards. Enemies can pick up and wield severed arms, legs, and tentacles, turning the battlefield into an even more unpredictable battleground. Add in rare weather events like sulfuric rain that melts the ground beneath your feet into sludge, and every mission becomes a recipe for controlled chaos.
Upgrade Yourself Into Oblivion
Where Mycopunk truly shines is its deep, Tetris-style upgrade system , which allows for nearly endless customization. After surviving a mission, players return to their ship to install upgrades that enhance weapons, grenades, and special abilities. But unlike traditional perk trees, these upgrades must be slotted into a limited grid — forcing players to make strategic choices about how they want to evolve their loadouts.
Upgrades come in four tiers — standard, rare, epic, and exotic — and offer everything from faster grenade recharge times to cluster grenades, infinite ammo modes (with the caveat that holding fire too long sets you on fire), double-bullet volleys, and charge-up attacks that unleash a devastating burst of firepower.
With 40 possible upgrades per weapon , the possibilities for creative builds are staggering. Want to turn your shotgun into a bouncing death machine fueled by explosive recoil? Go ahead. Prefer to glide over the battlefield while launching homing rockets that also heal your allies? You can do that too. The developers designed the system specifically to encourage players to “break” the game — but in a good way.
What Comes Next?
Even before launch, Mycopunk already shows signs of becoming a long-term multiplayer favorite. Pigeons at Play has big plans post-release, including new narrative content, weapons, enemy types, and additional upgrades based on community feedback. While exact release timing remains vague — currently slated for sometime in 2025 — fans eager to jump in can try a free demo available now on Steam , offering a taste of the madness to come.
With its blend of frenetic co-op action, ridiculous upgrades, and a world that embraces its own absurdity, Mycopunk looks poised to become one of the standout indie releases of the year. For anyone craving a break from serious sci-fi epics or grim-dark cyberpunk dystopias, this fungal-fueled romp might be exactly what the doctor ordered — if the doctor was a six-foot-tall robotic cockroach, anyway.
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