Brick-breaking games have come a long way since the good old days when you had to use your imagination to fill the void left by a lack of graphics. In the early 1970s, a game called Pong took the world by storm. It relied on vector calculations with real-time visual feedback, represented by a simple quadrilateral. It was a marvel of its time. Fast forward 50 years, and the idea of bouncing balls off surfaces still intrigues. BALL x PIT, I believe, represents the most interesting take on that idea in quite some time.
BALL x PIT is described as a brick-breaking, ball-fusing, base-building survival roguelite. I had no idea that combination of words could be used to describe a game, but here it is. The gist is that you lead a group of adventurers into dungeons where you will pelt hordes of enemies with balls that ricochet all over the place. Your objective is to take whatever stuff you find in the pit for the benefit of your homestead, all the while attracting more adventurers to your cause.
There’s not a lot of backstory in BALL x PIT. All you need to know is that there was once a place known as Ballbylon. It was destroyed in a mysterious explosion, and all that remains is a massive hole in the ground now affectionately referred to as The Pit. And that’s about it. The game is so confident that it doesn’t need to elaborate in the opening at all.
At the start of your run, you will first choose the adventurer(s) who will descend into the Pit for a resource run. The resources you gather on said run will contribute to the base-building aspect of the game. The base-building aspect can be seen as the most tedious part of the game, as it involves building placement and a level of min-maxing, or it can be the most engaging part of the game outside of the dungeon runs. It all really depends on how much time and effort you want to invest in it. In my experience, I have found the city-building aspect to be greatly satisfying. Though I can understand if some players decide not to fully engage with base building simply due to the somewhat ridiculous cost of some town structures.
During your run, you will control your team of adventurers as they make their way to the end of the dungeon. A wall of monsters will descend literally upon your party. In typical shoot ’em up logic, these monster bricks will slowly move down the screen, shooting and doing their best to restrict your character’s movements. If they are allowed to reach the bottom of the screen, they will leap towards your party, causing guaranteed damage. To defend yourself, your adventurer(s) can launch a barrage of balls that bounce after hitting a surface. Every adventurer in your service interacts and launches balls differently. Some characters shoot a flurry of baby balls, while others only shoot special balls. I love the range of abilities on display with each adventurer, but I will say that they did go a little too far with the turn-based mechanics of the general and the auto-play mechanics of the ‘gamer’. They were novel characters at first, but I have grown to despise bringing them out on runs.
At the very core of the game’s appeal lies its Fusion System. Fusion allows you to combine and create new special balls that take into account the attributes of the component balls. After clearing a certain threshold, the game will reward you with your choice of power-up. Every choice you make has the potential to make things easier on your run or make the next few minutes a living hell. The best thing about this system is that the new special created is usually a lot stronger than the balls that created it. That’s all well and good until you realize later on how restrictive the combinations are. At some point, you will realize that if you are not going all-in on an elemental set, vampire, or a baby ball build, you will suffer greatly. And don’t get me started with the friendly unit power-ups. They are by far the most underwhelming power-ups in the game. In fairness, when everything comes together neatly, you feel downright invincible when you see all these damage numbers popping up everywhere on screen.
The most interesting aspect of this game has to be the method in which your adventurers collect resources from resource nodes you build around New Ballbylon. Your adventurers gather at your base entrance, where they line themselves up to launch themselves into town, harvesting resources every time they hit a resource node. It’s a rather interesting way of handling base building. I spent way longer than necessary in town positioning lots to get the most value from them, placing them in locations that result in more bounces. I would watch it all play out, hypnotized as the entire crew moved faster, the more they bounced around. Also, raising and constructing buildings involves our adventurers running headfirst into the build site. The developers really went all-in with the whole ball-bouncing aspect.
The most surprising part of this game, and the moment that elevated it from a normal shoot ’em up to a must-play shooter, was when I unlocked the ability to send two or more adventurers out on dungeon runs. The results were felt almost immediately. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the game threw a curveball, and I was awestruck all over again. I am amazed by the numerous synergies present in this game.
Believe it or not, the game does have an “ending”. After completing the final stage with a set number of adventurers, you are treated to a light show that is worthy of seizure warning. I was not ready to see all that psychedelic stuff on screen, and thus couldn’t believe that this was the game’s ending. Or so I thought. NEW GAME+ is unlocked immediately after watching the ending. It’s basically everything from the base game, except everything is harder, and failure is more likely. Thankfully, you have everything you’ve unlocked so far, so you are free to continue on if you are looking for a new challenge.
BALL x PIT is not an incredibly long game. You can clear the base game content in around 20 hours. The rest of the dozen or so additional hours I’ve spent were dedicated to completing the Encyclopedia of Ball Evolutions and unlocking all passive item entries. In all that time messing around, doing runs never felt like a chore. Sure, there were times I was dealt a bad hand or a very bad run. But I just rolled with it and employed every strategy and option available to get my desired build into play. And even when runs end early, I would look forward to heading back to the homestead because endgame buildings like the Evolution Chamber and the Relic Collector require a boatload of resources to make. So, that kept me on for far longer than I expected.
In terms of visuals, you really can’t beat the charms of the 16-bit era. The pixelated art style looks great on a standard screen, and it probably looks great while playing on the Steam Deck. The game’s techno soundtrack is equally great. It is a good mix of chiptune and modern sounds. Honestly, apart from the epilepsy warning, that is the game’s ending, I really can’t think of a single negative thing to say about the presentation.
The developers announced last December 2025 that they will release three new updates throughout 2026 as a way of showing their appreciation to the 1 million+ players who have purchased the game. January marked the release of the Regal Update. The update included new adventurers, new balls, and the new Endless Game Mode. You unlock this free content by making progress in the game. For players who have finished the main content, you can find the new building blueprints inside old dungeons. Don’t forget to look at the dungeon’s description to know which ones to tackle.
This first update was OK by most standards. While I didn’t change the meta the way I would have liked, the Falconeer and Carouser added so much fun to my dungeon runs that I decided to complete every dungeon again using them. If the upcoming Shadow Update (April) and Naturalist Update (July) are as good as this, then the game may be worth doing all over again from scratch. I only hope that the next two updates shake up the meta more, as well as actually introduce new dungeons and bosses.
BALL x PIT is a sleeper hit that will be remembered for its addictive gameplay and unique approach to base building. It is also the kind of game that insists on adding more unexpected twists right when you think you have everything figured out. And I cannot recommend this game enough, especially to players who enjoy a good Shoot ‘Em Up experience with a hint of unpredictability.
BALL x PIT (PC)
BALL x PIT is a sleeper hit that will be remembered for its addictive gameplay and unique approach to base building.
The Good
- Incredibly addicting
- Crazy combinations
- Unique approach to base building
- Great visuals and soundtrack
The Bad
- Slow start
- RNG reliant
- Falls short in terms of build diversity
- Not much of a story to speak of
