City of Brass

City of Brass PC is a first-person action roguelite built around whip combat, lethal traps, and fast, repeatable dungeon runs. The current Steam and Epic storefronts still list the game under its original name, with no verified rebrand or replacement edition. Uppercut Games developed and published this Arabian Nights-inspired challenge for solo players who enjoy learning through failure.

You enter a cursed metropolis as a thief searching for the treasure at its heart. Every run combines exploration, melee combat, route planning, and risk management, with shifting districts forcing you to read the environment instead of relying on memorized layouts.

How the City of Brass Gameplay Loop Works

Each attempt sends you through a sequence of procedurally arranged areas filled with undead enemies, environmental hazards, treasure, shops, and exits. The basic objective is simple: reach the next district before the timer expires and eventually push through the full run.

The challenge comes from balancing speed against curiosity. Exploring side passages can reveal gold, chests, weapons, armor, relics, or helpful genies, but lingering too long leaves you vulnerable to the pursuing dervish that arrives when time runs out.

Permadeath resets the run when your character falls. There is no conventional campaign structure built around saving progress between levels, so improvement comes from recognizing enemy behaviors, understanding trap patterns, and making better decisions with each attempt.

The game uses a first-person perspective, but it is not a conventional ranged shooter. Movement, positioning, timing, and close-range attacks carry most encounters, while the compass helps keep the exit visible when the procedurally arranged streets become difficult to navigate.

Whip Combat and Environmental Tactics

The whip is the central system that separates City of Brass from ordinary first-person melee games. It can stun enemies, trip them, disarm them, pull them toward you, grab distant objects, break weak barriers, activate environmental devices, and latch onto hooks for traversal.

Target selection matters. A strike to an enemy's head can interrupt it, a hit against the legs can create an opening, and a well-timed lash can remove a weapon before you commit to a sword attack. The whip is both an offensive tool and a method of controlling the battlefield.

Your blade finishes many fights, but the strongest encounters reward combinations rather than repeated slashes. Pulling a skeleton into a spike pit, knocking a foe into fire, or using an explosive object against a group can conserve health and make dangerous rooms manageable.

Traps are weapons when you understand their placement. Pits, blades, spears, poison gas, explosive braziers, and other hazards can punish careless movement, yet the same devices can be turned against spirit enemies with the right positioning.

Movement supports this improvisational style. Sprinting, crouching, sliding, leaping, and vaulting help you cross gaps, avoid attacks, and create space, while the whip's mobility options add another layer to route planning and emergency escapes.

Characters, Gear, and Run Modifiers

City of Brass includes multiple playable adventurers rather than a single fixed combat style. The roster includes the thieving Fool, the vengeful Traveler, the spear-wielding Soldier, the knife-throwing Brigand, the magical Hellion, and the crossbow-using Revenant.

Each character has different weapons, equipment, strengths, and weaknesses. That makes character selection meaningful: some approaches emphasize direct melee pressure, while others encourage ranged attacks, elemental effects, mobility, or more careful resource management.

Treasure is useful beyond score chasing. Genies offer opportunities to trade loot for weapons and upgrades, protective effects, secrets, unlocks, or temporary advantages. Three wishes can also provide a powerful benefit, making a shop encounter a strategic decision rather than a routine stop.

Chests can contain new equipment and powerful relics, while objects found in the environment can be picked up and thrown. The resulting build is partly shaped by what appears during a run, so adapting to available tools is more reliable than waiting for one ideal loadout.

Blessings and Burdens let players tune the rules. Blessings make the experience more forgiving and are available from the outset, while Burdens add harsher conditions and are unlocked through continued play. These modifiers can alter health, damage, enemy behavior, traps, or the pressure created by the timer.

Modifier choices also affect the character of a run. Players seeking exploration can reduce pressure, while experienced runners can add restrictions that make route efficiency and combat execution more demanding. This system gives the game more flexibility than its unforgiving default presentation suggests.

Content Model and Current Storefront Status

The current commercial model is a paid base game rather than a free-to-play service. Epic lists City of Brass as a Windows single-player title with controller support and cloud saves, while Steam presents the standard game alongside a soundtrack bundle.

Gameplay additions were delivered through free updates rather than a season-pass structure. Those updates expanded the playable roster and added weapons, relics, objects, and balance changes, including the crossbow-focused Revenant and later gear additions for several characters.

There is no verified alternate storefront name, definitive edition, or modern replacement branding that PC buyers need to distinguish from the original listing. Searching for City of Brass remains the correct way to find the current PC product.

The content is designed around mastery and replayability, not a long narrative campaign. Players return to improve execution, unlock modifiers, experiment with characters, complete achievements, and pursue better runs through the shifting city.

Who Should Play City of Brass?

City of Brass suits players who want a compact, difficult action game with a strong mechanical identity. The whip creates unusual combat decisions, while the traps and timer keep movement through each area active and deliberate.

It is especially appealing if you enjoy short solo runs, procedural layouts, score-oriented objectives, and games where knowledge gained from failure is more valuable than permanent character power.

Players who prefer broad exploration, a persistent open world, extensive narrative progression, or cooperative play should approach it with different expectations. The experience is focused, arcade-like, and deliberately repetitive by design.

The Arabian Nights setting also gives the game a clear visual and thematic identity. Its city is filled with genies, cursed treasure, skeletons, ornate architecture, and hazards that fit the fantasy premise without turning the game into a conventional role-playing adventure.

PC Features, Controls, and Localization

Steam lists full controller support, Steam Cloud, Steam Leaderboards, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Family Sharing, and a single-player category. Epic lists controller support and cloud saves for its Windows version.

The PC version is therefore best suited to players who want either mouse-and-keyboard precision or a gamepad-friendly melee experience. The storefront listings do not present co-op, split-screen, or competitive multiplayer modes.

City of Brass uses the relevant storefront launcher and requires acceptance of a third-party game EULA on Steam. No verified dedicated anti-cheat system is presented in the current storefront information, and the game is fundamentally designed for offline-style solo runs rather than online competition.

Interface localization covers English, German, French, Polish, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Korean. English is the listed language for full audio support, while the other supported languages are presented primarily for the interface.

Related PC Roguelikes

For another first-person roguelike built around procedural combat spaces, fast action roguelikes such as Immortal Redneck provide a useful comparison, although that game emphasizes ranged weapons and shooting more heavily than City of Brass.

Players drawn to cursed temples, timing-based combat, traps, and repeated attempts may also appreciate trap-filled hack-and-slash roguelikes like Curse of the Dead Gods. Its isometric view and relic system make it mechanically distinct, but the same risk-reward structure carries across both games.

If the procedural danger and treasure hunting are more important than the perspective, precision platform roguelikes such as Spelunky 2 offer another demanding loop built around traps, exploration, improvisation, and permanent failure.

City of Brass FAQ

Is City of Brass still called City of Brass on PC?

Yes. The current Steam and Epic listings use the name City of Brass. No verified storefront rebrand or replacement PC edition needs to be used when searching for the game.

Is City of Brass single-player or multiplayer?

It is a single-player action roguelite. The current storefront feature lists do not advertise online co-op, split-screen, or competitive multiplayer.

Does City of Brass have procedural levels?

Yes. The city is assembled from shifting, procedurally arranged areas, changing routes, enemy placements, hazards, and opportunities between runs. The layout changes, but the core rules remain learnable.

What weapons can you use in City of Brass?

The game centers on a blade and versatile whip, with additional weapons and equipment tied to the playable characters and run-based discoveries. The roster includes melee, thrown, magical, spear, knife, and crossbow-oriented styles.

Can you change the difficulty?

Yes. Blessings and Burdens allow you to adjust the challenge by changing conditions such as player durability, enemy strength, trap pressure, and time-related demands. Blessings are the more forgiving option, while Burdens create tougher runs.

Is City of Brass worth playing for players who dislike roguelikes?

That depends on what you dislike. If repeated runs and permadeath are the problem, the structure may feel restrictive. If you mainly want to avoid opaque difficulty, the modifier system and readable whip-based combat provide useful control over the experience.