Trails of the Ancestors is a roguelike-like top-down shooter / dungeon crawler.
A dark force, called the wailing Abyss, is trying to obliterate the spirit world. You are a shaman and, with the help of your ancestors, you need to find a way to destroy the Abyss. It draws its power from underground dungeons. Can you locate all the dungeons and defeat the evil underlings of the Abyss?

Runs

Trails of the Ancestors features permadeath runs. Every time you die, you’ll start a new run and every run will be different and unique. All the overworlds and dungeons are procedurally generated.

Every run starts in a meditation cave where you are contacted by your ancestors. You embark on a mission to defeat the Abyss, and you are granted a basic weapon to aid you in your quest. You’ll start out in the overworld and have to find the location of the dungeon and unlock it. Then you need to conquer the dungeon boss and navigate to the next overworld. In this way you’ll alternate between overwolds and dungeons.

Overworlds

In an overworld, you need to fight the evil underlings of the Abyss and find the location of the dungeon. You can find various items in chests. The map will enable you to view the world and navigate. The compass will enable you to locate the dungeon in the overworld.

Besides finding out the location of the dungeon, you also need to find a way to unlock it. How this is achieved will vary each run. Sometimes you need to find a single key that unlocks the dungeon. This key might be hidden in a chest, or one of the enemies might be carrying it. Some dungeons will have a sacred statue lock that can only be unlocked by collecting all fragments of the sacred statue.

Dungeons

Once you’ve managed to locate and unlock a dungeon, you’ll need to find and conquer the dungeon boss. Just like in the overworld, you can find the map and the compass in order to navigate the dungeon and find out the location of the boss. You’ll also need to find the boss key in order to unlock the boss room.

Dungeons feature locked rooms, treasure rooms, special item rooms, and might also contain secret rooms that you can only reach by bombing a wall or operating a hidden lever.

Once you’ve defeated the dungeon boss, you can travel to the next overworld through a magical gate.

Merchants

In caves spread throughout the overworld, you can find several merchants. They sell weapons and items that you can purchase using gems that are occasionally dropped by enemies.

Once you’ve obtained bombs, you can bomb rocks and you might uncover hidden caves with secrets inside.