It all started with the ‘100 men vs 1 gorilla debate’, a viral internet thought experiment about whether 100 ordinary, unarmed men could defeat a single silverback gorilla in a fight to the death. Fast forward to recent days, and we are about a week before the release of the game that was inspired by memes and passionate debate. ‘How Many Dudes?’ turns the dial up to eleven by pitting superpowered enemies against a brotherhood held together by synergy and broken item combinations.
How Many Dudes? is described as a roguelike deckbuilder (or, as the game calls it, a “dude builder”) that’s all about game-breaking synergies and simulated chaos. You take command of an ever-growing band of dudes in pursuit of the philosophical question of “How many dudes does it take to down X?” It’s one thought experiment after another in this game, and every choice you make is a ‘make-or-break’ moment for each run.
The demo is as close to the actual game as possible. It only has half the full game’s worth of content, but it is already very addicting, at least when everything is going according to plan. There are three factions included: Warrior, Undead, and Fantasy. Each unit has a unique playstyle, and it will be up to you to draw out its full potential. Often requiring you to forge synergies to the point of breaking the game. Honestly, creating utterly breaking synergies might be the only way to get ahead in the latter rounds, where enemies can be brutally difficult.
Every run starts with one Dude vs 10 Toddlers. After each round, you will be given the option to recruit new dudes. The team you are trying to assemble will consist of up to 5 different ‘Dude types’. And depending on your current game, you will be choosing from a pool of candidates or a pre-determined combination. Regardless of the game mode, you will have but one objective: to get as far as possible with the team you have. Every so often, you get to choose a relic that further defines your playstyle. Choosing the right relic at the right time is far more impactful than choosing the 5 dude types that appear on your team.
There are 110+ rounds available in the demo. Reaching round 100 is the bare minimum requirement for a decent run. The real challenge starts at round 101, where the challenge exponentially increases, and nothing less than completely broken synergies can give you hope to prevail.
Since this is an auto battler, you will units will move independently towards the nearest target. Each unit has special abilities that make it stand out in battle; be it a healer keeping the group alive, a tank drawing agro, or the pesky DSP that knows nothing else but being quick at defeating enemies. You can assist in the brawl by use of consumables, but those have to be used sparingly, especially if you expect to go on a very deep run.
What I really like about the game is how surprised I was with its strategic depth. It’s one thing to know which units can mesh with each other, but it’s a completely different ballgame knowing that every build has the potential to be overpowered; all it takes is knowing which “relics” to prioritize above the rest. I have ended so many deep runs in disappointment after looking back and realizing the relic I needed was staring me in the face, and I took the other one that pumps up damage numbers.
I mentioned earlier that every choice you make matters. Even the simple act of choosing guarantees or over money has long-lasting consequences that you will not feel until much later. For example, experience will tell you that you should take a moment to reconsider taking on 800 bees or 60 honey badgers. If you don’t have the right composition, and more importantly, the right relics, you could find yourself in a world of trouble within the first 10 seconds of the round. That is how brutal this game can be, and it is why I can’t seem to pull myself away from it.
My biggest complaint about the game so far is that it is so easy to end a run prematurely. You can choose the “wrong” dude at the start or choose the wrong set of opponents as your second round, and you may find yourself on a one-way trip back to the main menu. Sometimes, it’s not even your fault. RNG determines unit placement at the start of each round. That means there will be times when an important dude gets isolated and killed off in the first seconds of the round. You are now left hopelessly watching the rest of the round play out, knowing full well that Lady Luck has forsaken you.
Another complaint I have is with the units themselves. The “Knight Dudes” and “Frankendudes” are so hard to build around. It’s not because they don’t have a use or a position within the team, but because they are so incredibly underwhelming with or without power-ups. It is so frustrating. Even if I had an entire team dedicated to keeping them alive, they still, somehow and someway, find ways to fold like a house of cards at the slightest sign of adversity.
In fact, the whole undead line would be nothing without the “Necrodude” summoning “Skeledudes” to feed that ridiculous ‘Unconscious Dudes’ count. The entire Undead line-up is so underwhelming right now. The “Zombie Dude” is one of the most fun dude to play around with, but it requires you to have the ‘Explosive Innards’ relic. Without it, there’s little reason to play “Zombie Dudes”.
The game’s 2D sprites are probably the most distinct part of the game. Besides allowing the game to keep up with all the action on screen, the art style itself is pretty appealing – for as long as the dudes are standing upright and not face-first on the ground with their butts sticking out. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have the game’s audio. Honestly, I don’t recall hearing more than the opening soundtrack on repeat. If there was, I was probably more distracted with trying to min-max my way to the final round and beyond. When it comes to performance, the game ran great on my mid-range PC, even when the screen is full of sprites and pixelated pools of blood.
I am very much looking forward to the full release of this game. When the game releases, there will be 42 unique dude types available, hundreds of relics to make builds around, and three tiers of challenges that are more stupidly busted than the last. I have logged in more hours in the demo than I initially planned on doing. I love the game that much. The highest I’ve ever reached is round 109, and I stalled only because I had exhausted all consumables and underestimated the difficulties I faced after reaching round 100. And you know what? I immediately wanted to go back for more.
How Many Dudes? is set to release on July 20, 2026, on PC (via Steam) and mobile devices.
