''Backpack Battles'' is an

auto battler '' Dota Auto Chess'' (2019) was the codifier of the genre. An auto battler, also known as auto chess, is a subgenre of strategy video games that typically feature chess-like elements where players place characters on a grid-shaped battlefield du ...

inventory management Inventory management may refer to: * Inventory management (business): the function of understanding stock mix of a company and the different demands on that stock * Inventory management (video games), when a player adjusts the items in their inve ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by PlayWithFurcifer and published by PlayWithFurcifer and IndieArk. The game was released into

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

on March 8, 2024, and regular work has continued on the game into 2025. The release of the full game was announced for June 13, 2025.

Gameplay

''Backpack Battles'' consists of up to 18 rounds with two phases, the shop phase and the battle phase. At the start of the game, the player chooses from four classes: the

Berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective ''wikt:berserk#Adjective, berserk'' . Berserkers ...

, the Pyromancer, the

Reaper A reaper is a farm implement that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass, especially wheat. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used ...

, or the Ranger. Players also choose a starting

backpack A backpack, also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, pack, booksack, bookbag, haversack, packsack, or backsack, is in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders; b ...

from two choices per class. Players may also opt to be randomly assigned a class and starting bag. In the shop phase, players manage their backpack. Using money provided each round, players can buy items to put into their backpack or buy additional sacks to add to the backpack's capacity. They can also sell items and sacks to earn more money to buy other items. The shop can be re-rolled to get a chance at purchasing different items. Rare, powerful items are more likely to appear in later rounds. The items consist of many different shapes and sizes, and they may interact with one another. For example, the Pan weapon will deal more damage in the battle phase if it is next to items classified as

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. The Mrs. Struggles

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

will trigger its effect faster if items classified as dark are near one of its hands. In the battle phase, the player's character battles against another player's character asynchronously without player control. Items will trigger at specific intervals for each item and based on other nearby items. Items can provide a number of benefits including dealing damage to the other player, adding armor to absorb attacks, giving the player health regeneration or other buffs (such as increased speed or accuracy), or inflicting debuffs on the opponent (such as poison). The first player to run out of health loses, and the other player wins. Battles typically last for about 10–20 seconds. At the end of the battle phase but before the shop phase, items in the bag may combine into more powerful items through the recipe system. For two items to combine, they must be adjacent to each other. As an example, if the Hero Sword (which damages the opponent for 2-4 health points every 1.4 seconds and provides a 2-point damage boost to adjacent weapons) is adjacent to two Whetstones (which each provide adjacent weapons with a 1-point damage boost), they will combine into the Hero Longsword which provides significantly more damage (10-12 damage every 1.6 seconds) and provides a better damage boost to adjacent weapons. A player wins the game if they successfully win 10 battles before losing 5 battles. A player who reaches 10 wins is given the option to play in Survival Mode until round 18, but if they lose 5 battles first, they may receive a lower ranking than they would have if they had stopped at the 10th win. As players attain higher ranks within the game, they face other players of similar rank and increasingly difficult battles.

Other game modes

''Backpack Battles'' includes ranked and unranked play. While the game typically is played asynchronously and opponents are chosen semi-randomly from other players' runs, players can choose to join a custom lobby for synchronous play with friends. There is also an option for players to play with modifiers such as additional money or extra chances at rare items, but these runs are not added to the pool of players that can be matched in ranked or unranked play.

Release

In June 2023, ''Backpack Battles'' was released as a free demo to download or in a web browser on

itch.io Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 1,000,000 ...

. In the demo version, there were only two playable classes, the Reaper and the Ranger, and the item pool was small. Prior to its official release, ''Backpack Battles'' was wishlisted 500,000 times on

, and the demo reached 19,000 concurrent players. When ''Backpack Battles'' was released into early access on March 8, 2024, two new classes, the Pyromancer and the Berserker, were added. In its first month of release, ''Backpack Battles'' sold 640,000 units Steam, including 500,000 within its first two weeks. China has accounted for about half of the game's sales, due in part to IndieArk, one of the game's publishers, being headquartered in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. At launch, ''Backpack Battles'' peaked at over 36,000 concurrent Steam players. Early bundles with other indie games like ''

Slay the Spire ''Slay the Spire'' is a 2019 roguelike deck-building game developed by the American indie studio Mega Crit. It was published by Mega Crit for its initial PC release and by Humble Bundle on home consoles and mobile. The game was released in early ...

'', '' Brotato'', and '' Balatro'' represented nearly half of the game's first-month sales. ''Backpack Battles'' was initially intended to be in early access for 3 to 6 months. The early access period was to be used to balance the two most recently added characters, the Berserker and the Pyromancer, as well as add additional items, the custom lobby functionality, a combat log for evaluating the character's performance in each battle, and additional cosmetics for each character. Initially planned for the full release was a 5th character, the Adventurer, as well as

achievements. In May 2025, PlayWithFurcifer announced the game would be released on June 13, 2025. In addition to the Adventurer character, the Mage would be added as a sixth class.

Reception

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' reviewed ''Backpack Battles'' shortly after its early access release and awarded it a score of 6 out of 10. ''IGN'' described the shop phase of the game as "an enjoyable process that tickles the part of your brain that fires off in other games like '' Unpacking'' or just neatly fitting a bunch of your stuff into a closet," but warned that the game lacked enough items to make doing multiple runs interesting. Ali Jones of ''

GamesRadar+ ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and '' Compute ...

'' wrote prior to release that he was "already locked in" to the game.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{Cite web , last = Livingston , first = Christopher , date = March 12, 2024 , title = Steam's latest big hit is a little game about stuffing a huge backpack full of magic items , url = https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/steams-latest-breakout-indie-hit-is-a-fantasy-autobattler-about-how-many-magic-items-you-can-fit-in-your-backpack/ , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website =

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

{{Cite web , last = Kash , first = Sam , date = July 23, 2024 , title = Fight or Kite: Backpack Battles puts your bag sorting skills to the test , url = https://massivelyop.com/2024/07/23/fight-or-kite-backpack-battles-puts-your-bag-sorting-skills-to-the-test/ , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website = Massively Overpowered {{Cite web , last = Swan , first = Cameron , date = March 14, 2024 , title = A New Early-Access Auto Battler Offers an Interesting Take on a Classic RPG Problem , url = https://gamerant.com/backpack-battles-auto-battler-inventory-system-good-unique/ , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website = GameRant {{Cite web , last = Shafiq , first = Zunair , date = March 18, 2024 , title = Backpack Battles: Ranks, Explained , url = https://www.thegamer.com/backpack-battles-ranks-explained-guide/ , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website = TheGamer {{Cite web , last = Allsop , first = Ken , title = Joyful new indie game makes Diablo's worst bit fun, out now on Steam , url = https://www.pcgamesn.com/backpack-battles/steam-early-access , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website =

PCGamesN ''PCGamesN'' is a British website with articles about PC gaming and hardware. History Parent company Network N was founded by James Binns (formerly of Future Publishing) in late May 2012. ''PCGamesN'' launched the following month. PCGamesN ...

, date = 8 March 2024 {{Cite web , last = Higham , first = Michael , date = March 15, 2024 , title = Backpack Battles Early Access Review , url = https://www.ign.com/articles/backpack-battles-early-access-review , access-date = February 14, 2025 , website =

{{Cite web , last = Jones , first = Ali , date = February 8, 2024 , title = My winning tactic in this certified hit Steam Next Fest strategy game is eating as many bananas as possible for Skyrim-style healing , url = https://www.gamesradar.com/my-winning-tactic-in-this-certified-hit-steam-next-fest-strategy-game-is-eating-as-many-bananas-as-possible-for-skyrim-style-healing/ , access-date = January 15, 2025 , website =

{{Cite web , date = February 14, 2025 , title = Backpack Battles Patch 0.9.33 , url = https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/17364287/ , access-date = February 17, 2025 , website = SteamDB {{Cite web , last1 = Kollhoff , first1 = Dorothea , last2 = Janke , first2 = Mario , date = May 23, 2025 , title = Backpack Battles 1.0 is Coming June 13th!! , url = https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2427700/view/645814564414293497?l=english , access-date = June 12, 2025 , website =

External links

''Backpack Battles''
at

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