Report updated Jun 7, 2026
Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike
For fans of roguelike deckbuilders and strategic card games who enjoy high-replayability, puzzle-oriented mechanics.
Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike is an established games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.5/5 rating from 1.3K reviews, it shows polarized user reception.
What is Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike?
Dice of Kalma is a strategic, poker-style dice roguelike for iOS and Android that focuses on deckbuilding and synergy discovery.
Players hire the game for the tactile satisfaction of dice-rolling luck mitigation, serving the need for high-replayability strategy sessions that reward long-term deck planning.
Current Momentum
v1.3 · 1w ago
Intense- Fixed endless mode skull exhaustion freeze.
- Resolved hand upgrade UI hang.
- Corrected daily mode rendering bugs.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Collect and manage a deck of 70+ unique skulls with distinct game-changing abilities
Select and reroll dice to form specific poker-style hands to score points
Compete against other players for the highest scores
Time-limited daily challenges with unique constraints
How much does it cost?
- Free to play with ad support
- In-app purchases available
Freemium model utilizing ad-supported gameplay with in-app purchases to monetize the user base.
Who Built It?
Delivering high-stakes deckbuilding roguelikes for players who enjoy strategic, luck-based gameplay.
Portfolio
1
Apps
Explore the full Pepperbox Studios report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Pepperbox Studios.
What do users think recently?
Analysis in progress, available soon
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (11)
How's The Games Market?
How does it evolve in the Games market?
Dice of Kalma maintains a presence in the Strategy category across multiple global markets, currently holding the #101 Free rank in the US. The gap between its free-install velocity and grossing performance suggests a need to optimize IAP conversion.
Rank progression
91 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
Dominates the poker-roguelike sub-genre with massive market penetration and direct thematic overlap with Dice of Kalma's core mechanics.
Differentiators
- Features a deep, multi-layered poker-hand scoring system that creates a more complex meta-progression than our current dice-based loop.
- Leverages a highly polished, distinct visual aesthetic that has become the industry benchmark for the poker-roguelike genre.
- Offers a massive library of unlockable jokers and tarot cards that provide significantly more build variety than our current skull deck.
Head to head
The target app must lean into its unique dice-rolling tactile feel to differentiate from the card-based dominance of Balatro+.
Contenders(2)
Shares the 'gambling-as-a-roguelike' core loop, focusing on slot-machine mechanics rather than poker or dice.
Differentiators
- Focuses on an idle-adjacent, economy-building loop that rewards long-term planning over the tactical, turn-by-turn combat of our game.
- Uses a minimalist, retro-pixel aesthetic that prioritizes clarity and speed of play over complex visual animations.
Directly competes in the dice-based roguelike space with a proven, highly-rated combat system.
Differentiators
- Implements a unique equipment-based combat system where dice values are slotted into specific gear slots for varied effects.
- Features a distinct, quirky art style that creates a strong, memorable brand identity compared to our darker underworld theme.
Same space(3)
A classic mobile card-roguelike that focuses on short, high-intensity sessions.
Differentiators
- Uses a grid-based inventory management system that forces players to make difficult resource trade-offs every single turn.
- Optimized for extremely short, 3-minute play sessions that cater to casual mobile users more effectively than our current loop.
A premier tactical roguelike that serves as a benchmark for tight, deterministic combat design.
Differentiators
- Provides perfect information combat where enemy moves are telegraphed, shifting the focus from luck mitigation to pure tactical optimization.
- Utilizes a grid-based movement system that creates a completely different strategic layer than our dice-rolling combat.
A high-quality deckbuilder that shares the roguelike structure but utilizes a lane-based tower defense mechanic.
Differentiators
- Introduces a three-lane vertical combat system that adds a spatial dimension missing from our single-target dice encounters.
- Offers deep faction-based deckbuilding that allows for significantly more complex strategic combinations than our current skull-based system.
New entrants(1)
Maintains relevance through consistent updates and a proven, swipe-based interface that remains unique in the genre.
Differentiators
- Utilizes a Tinder-style swipe mechanic for decision-making that drastically reduces the cognitive load of traditional card-based roguelikes.
- Recently shipped content updates demonstrate a commitment to keeping the game fresh for long-term players.
Compare Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Dice of Kalma: Dice Roguelike
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Dice-rolling mechanic provides a tactile luck-mitigation experience distinct from card-based roguelikes.
- 70+ skull deckbuilding library enables high-replayability through diverse synergy discovery.
Critical Frictions
- Lack of cloud-save functionality creates data-loss risk for long-term players.
- Ad-supported monetization model creates friction for the core strategy-focused audience.
Growth Levers
- Untapped B2B potential in strategic gaming partnerships.
- Expansion into wearable platforms to capture short-session casual play.
Market Threats
- Balatro+ market dominance limits growth ceiling for similar poker-themed roguelikes.
- Maintenance-mode update cadence leaves the game vulnerable to fresh, live-ops-heavy entrants.
What are the next best moves?
Ship cloud save because it is the top-requested missing feature → unlock data-loss frustration
Data loss is a primary churn driver in roguelike genres where session investment is high.
Trade-off: Push the wearable companion app sprint to Q3 — wearables waitlist is smaller than cloud-save demand.
Pivot monetization to IAP-focused bundles because ad-supported gameplay alienates strategy players → increase LTV
Grossing rank lags behind free-install velocity, indicating a failure to convert strategy-focused players.
Trade-off: Pause the current ad-network expansion — IAP conversion has higher revenue impact.
A counter-intuitive read
The game's reliance on ad-supported monetization is a strategic liability that prevents it from capturing the high-LTV strategy audience that currently migrates to premium-priced rivals.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Cloud-save functionality (available in Balatro+ but missing here)
- Grid-based movement system (available in Into the Breach but missing here)
Key Takeaways
Dice of Kalma holds its category lead through sticky deckbuilding mechanics but bleeds long-term players to data-loss friction, so revenue growth hinges on shifting from ad-based monetization to IAP-driven value.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The poker-roguelike category is consolidating around high-polish, premium-priced titles, leaving ad-supported entries like Dice of Kalma exposed to churn. The app must transition to IAP-focused monetization to sustain growth as the market shifts toward higher-value user segments.
The lack of cloud-save functionality creates a high-friction experience for long-term players, which compounds the churn risk against established roguelike competitors.
The latest release demonstrates active bug-fix investment, which stabilizes the core loop and prevents further erosion of the Android rating baseline.