Bottom Dollar

If you like Balatro, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Bottom Dollar is this treasure diving roguelike where you’re basically drowning in debt. You start with a charter payment, a cheap metal detector, and like 40 seconds of air. The captain demands a cut for every dive, and the fee just keeps going up. That’s pretty much the whole game.

​You jump off the boat and just follow the beeping. It gets super stressful because digging uses up your air, going too deep drains your timer, and sharks will literally steal your loot bag and swim away. Plus, there’s a massive fishing boat that drags a net through the water and will just run you over without even noticing. If you hit your money goal, you cash out, but then the captiain gives you an even higher target next dive. Miss it, and your run is over. Either way, you always have to leave good stuff behind at the bottom, which is kind of the point.

​Between dives you hit the shop, which is honestly where you make or break your run. The catch is that every good item ruins something else. You can get twin tanks or a rebreather, but not both. You can buy a water scooter to move faster, but it makes you crazy heavy. There’s a jeweler’s loupe that makes your loot worth more, but it totally messes up your detector. You end up having to create a specific build instead of just buying straight upgrades.

plus i made A tutorial that doesn’t suck and actually teaches you how to play.