Grind Survivors aims to mash Vampire Survivors chaos with Diablo‑style loot

Survivors fatigue is real-this one caught my eye anyway

The survivors genre is overflowing with quick-hit time killers-Vampire Survivors lit the fuse, and we’ve since seen standouts like Brotato, Halls of Torment, and Soulstone Survivors carve out niches. So when Assemble Entertainment announced Grind Survivors from Pushka Studios at Gamescom’s Awesome Indies, I expected more of the same horde-herding autopilot. Instead, two things popped: Diablo-esque randomized loot with affixes, and a mid-run crafting system called The Forge that lets you merge, reroll, or straight-up obliterate gear for power. That combo, if it works, could add just enough brain burn to make the chaos feel fresh.

Key Takeaways

• Looter-shooter DNA: Procedural weapons with stats and affixes sound closer to Diablo or Path of Exile than a typical survivors build draft.
• Risky crafting mid-run: The Forge promises high-risk, high-reward decisions. Great if tuned right; miserable if RNG bricking is common.
• 2026 is a long runway: A Steam playtest is live now, but the full release is distant-expect big changes, and don’t assume today’s balance will stick.
• Readability vs. spectacle: “Brutal” visuals and endless hordes look cool, but bullet-hell games live or die by clarity and performance.

Breaking down the announcement

Grind Survivors is an action roguelike where you stomp demon hordes across multiple biomes (scorched cities, burning forests, hellish arenas), juggling bullet-hell survival with buildcraft. Every run feeds you randomized loot—shotguns, relics, and more—with stat rolls and affixes that should enable synergies beyond the usual “pick the purple upgrade.” Between fights you hit The Forge, a risky tinkering hub to merge dupes, reroll mediocre rolls, or sacrifice gear for power spikes. There’s an Endless Mode for the min-max crowd, and the team is leaning into “intense gore and destruction” with a heavy metal aesthetic.

It’s coming to PC and consoles in 2026, with a playtest live on Steam now. The studio—Pushka from Ukraine—has years of co-dev and porting work behind them and calls this their first original title. Publisher Assemble has a decent indie track record (Roadwarden, Lacuna, Sticky Business, and the Endzone franchise via in-house Gentlymad), which suggests they know how to shepherd quirky ideas to market rather than sand them down.

Why this could actually stand out

Survivors-likes usually keep you on a deterministic upgrade treadmill: pick a handful of passives, watch numbers go brrr, and pray the bosses don’t corner you. The second a game adds itemization depth, the whole loop changes. Randomized weapon origins and affixes can create build arcs that force reactive play—pivoting into burn/bleed stacking if you find the right perks, or gambling at The Forge to chase a tier bump before a wave spike. Done right, that’s the good kind of tension: choices with teeth.

The Forge is the swing factor. In similar systems (think Risk of Rain 2 printers or PoE crafting), the line between “thrilling risk” and “I just bricked my run” is razor thin. If Grind Survivors lets you mitigate risk—burn common mats to protect a legendary, or lock an affix before rerolling—the crafting becomes a playground instead of a punishment. If it’s pure RNG with catastrophic failure states, most players will ignore it or save-scum. Balance will be everything.

What gamers need to know (and what’s still missing)

• Meta progression: The press beats hype mid-run crafting, but long-term unlocks make or break retention. Are we grinding permanent talent trees, character classes, or account-wide relics? We need clarity.
• Controller-first feel: Survivors games live on couch play. “PC and consoles” implies good gamepad support and aim assist—essential if weapons aren’t fully auto-targeting.
• Run length and wave cadence: Is this a 10-20 minute session game or a 45-minute endurance grind? Endless Mode is cool, but the baseline loop needs punchy pacing.
• Readability settings: With “brutal” visuals and gore, give us toggles for damage numbers, outlines, and effects intensity. If I can’t see telegraphs, I’ll bounce.
• Monetization: No mention of microtransactions, which is a relief. Please keep this a clean premium purchase—no gacha for affixes, no booster FOMO.
• Co-op or solo only: The announcement doesn’t say. Co-op transformed Deep Rock Survivors and Risk of Rain 2 into social staples. If it’s solo, cool—just say so early.

Also worth watching: how wildly the loot system rolls. Affix bloat can turn builds into spreadsheet homework, while too few meaningful mods leaves everything feeling samey by hour three. The sweet spot is “learnable randomness”: enough variance to surprise you, enough structure that experience pays off.

Looking ahead to 2026

The two-year runway is both good and risky. Good because Pushka can iterate based on today’s playtest feedback. Risky because the survivors space moves fast; by 2026, players will have seen five more twists on the formula. If Grind Survivors nails its identity around The Forge and loot chase—fast runs, crunchy decisions, and builds that feel yours—it can still land. Assemble has shipped thoughtful indies before, so I’m cautiously optimistic on scope control and polish.

For now, the playtest is the proof point. If it already feels snappy on controller, communicates danger clearly amid the gore, and makes Forge gambles feel clever instead of cruel, there’s something here. If not, there’s time to tune. Either way, this is one survivors-like I’m not dismissing out of hand—because underneath the demon splatter, there’s a proper loot game trying to break out.

TL;DR

Grind Survivors blends survivors chaos with Diablo-style itemization and a risky crafting Forge. It could be the rare horde survival game where decisions matter mid-run, not just at level-up screens. The playtest will tell us if the risk-reward tuning—and the readability—are on point before its 2026 launch.