Shroom and Gloom tips

Each tip below says who it comes from: the developers replying on Steam, a demo patch note, or a named player. Player advice is labelled before or after the Early Access launch wherever the post makes that clear, because a lot of useful advice was written for the demo.

From the developers

1. 01Developers

   Gunked cards are still playable

   Gunk raises a card’s cost; it does not lock the card. Asking a player whether this was clear, Team Lazerbeam described the design goal as “making gunk cards playable (at a higher cost) or being able to make cards sparkling so they hit twice” in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor, 11 September 2026.

2. 02Developers

   Clean a clean card to make it sparkling

   In the same reply the developers point out a rule that is easy to miss: using a cleaning card on a card that is already clean makes that card sparkling. Sparkling cards hit twice, so a spare cleaning card is an upgrade, not a dead draw.

3. 03Developers

   Don't measure yourself against the Janitor

   “Our analytics show that only 2% of janitor runs are ending in a win! Clearly too punishing!” (Team Lazerbeam, in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor, 11 September 2026) The same reply says card reworks to buff him are underway, and the developers also said they would look at changing the quest so Activist can be unlocked more easily, since the Janitor’s difficulty was blocking that unlock. Unlock paths are on characters and unlocks.

From players in Early Access

1. 04Player, Early Access

   On the Janitor, commit to one engine

   Nyaphomet advises specialising in only one mechanic for combat, such as gunk or machines, and picking cards that end fights quickly because the Janitor is squishy. The developers answered that this early read on how the Janitor plays was spot on (both in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor, 11 September 2026).

2. 05Player, Early Access

   Fix the heater, then the vending machine

   From the same post, for camp: “ofc always FIX your heater first round”, and get the vending machine working as early as possible with Break or Fix for heals and energy. Nyaphomet also favours camp cards with Fix, Reveal and Break (in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor, 11 September 2026).

3. 06Player, Early Access

   Let reset cards sit in your hand

   Cards that say they reset healing build up a value and drop it back to zero when played. Nyaphomet’s advice is to let those cards linger until the reset is worth it, and notes that adding gunk helps keep them in hand (in Steam discussion: What does "resets healing" on a card mean?, 13 September 2026).

From players before launch

The first three come from foolbunny’s list in the Dear Devs thread, posted days before Early Access while players only had the demo in Steam discussion: Dear Devs, 1 September 2026. Early Access rebalanced the game after that, so check them against your own runs.

1. 07Player, pre-launch

   Skip card offerings

   “Don’t be afraid to skip card offerings - keep your combat deck limited to cards you want to see as often as possible.” The reward screen in the screenshot above has a No Thanks button for exactly that.

2. 08Player, pre-launch

   Bank food before a Mole shop

   Eat during a fight if you must, but save as much food as you can in the fight just before a Mole shop. If you have a soup pot, keep at least 2 food in your combat deck before a campsite, so you can at least afford the 2-food choice, which foolbunny finds often more helpful than the 3-food one.

3. 09Player, pre-launch

   Open the camp's exit door early

   Unlock the door to the next tunnel as soon as you can, even if you plan to stay. Leaving it until later risks not drawing the card that opens it and dying to the Gloom.

4. 10Player

   Scale cards at the upgrade stations

   A later reply in the same thread: use the upgrade stations to add scaling and multihits to your attacks, use shovels to add new cards, and get food in each fight so the shops stay open to you. Resting even when it costs a little health can be worth it for the extra camp actions, a point argued out in full on resting and camp.

Rules the demo patches changed

These lines come from demo patch notes. Early Access was rebalanced on top of the demo, so treat them as how the rules were set, not a promise they are unchanged.

1. 11Demo patch

   Identical cards stack, modified ones don't

   A demo patch let big hands collapse: “All identical cards can now stack if you have a large hand”, with the catch that “Cards with different Modifications won’t stack” (0.4.70, in Steam announcement: 2 months of demo updates lead to this! Shroom and Gloom 0.4.71 is here!, 11 July 2025). A card you have upgraded sits apart from its plain copies. How evolving enemies behave is on the enemies page.

2. 12Demo patch

   Deck view order is not draw order

   “Deck randomization has been improved, you should not draw cards in the same order that you see them in the deck view.” (0.4.67, in Steam announcement: 2 months of demo updates lead to this! Shroom and Gloom 0.4.71 is here!, 11 July 2025)

3. 13Demo patch

   One Constant rage per deck

   “Constant rage has been limited to 1 per deck.” (0.4.75, in Steam announcement: 80K Wishlists, Demo update and NorthernLion! Shroom and Gloom Aug 2025 Dev Log!, 19 August 2025)

4. 14Demo patch

   Only the Sneaky Mole sells the Scythe

   During the demo the developers confirmed the Scythe had become rarer, turns up deeper in the caves, and that only the Sneaky Mole’s shop can offer it, not the Hungry Mole’s (Team Lazerbeam, replying in Steam discussion: No more scythe, 31 August 2025). That reply dates from the demo, so treat it as a lead rather than a rule.

Traps that end runs

1. 15Trap

   The explore softlock, and the way out

   A reviewer describes finishing an explore room with 1 energy and an empty hand, walking out to a crossroads where both doors need a Break or Unlock, and being dealt the only matching card at a cost of 2. With no way to rest or walk back into the previous room, the run was stuck. Their fix was to quit the game and reload the autosave from before the enemy encounter (in a Steam user review, 13 September 2026). Because the game saves after every fight you win, reloading costs the progress since that fight, not the whole run.

2. 16Trap

   Stuck on the W card at the start

   A demo thread opened with a player facing the W card and unable to do anything. Replies explain the card means hold W to walk, and the developers suggested the up arrow or middle mouse button instead. Several Linux players then found W only works while also holding A or D, and one noticed that pressing A or D first at the very start of a run fixed it for that session. Another player who moved at a crawl got going again by opening and closing the map (all in Steam discussion: Unable to play. I see the "W" card but nothing is happening, 18 June 2026).

   The problem has not gone away with Early Access: one reviewer reports W, the up arrow and the middle mouse button all unresponsive, with no way to rebind or check the controls (in a Steam user review, 13 September 2026).

3. 17Trap

   Walking on its own

   If your character walks without input, the developers call it a top priority and suspect hardware. They pointed players to a temporary fix from Bebel-O-Rama, whose wireless keyboard and mouse showed up in Windows as a game controller: in Device Manager, under Human Interface Devices, disable the HID-compliant game controller (in Steam discussion: Auto-Walk, 22 June 2026). Other controller problems are on controller support.

4. 18Trap

   Watch the space bar in camp

   A demo player complained that pressing E, right next to W, rested instead of walking, and the developers replied that the Early Access version won’t have rest on E. A later post in that thread reports resting by accident with the space bar one fight before the final boss, and dying for it (both in Steam discussion: Please change the rest shortcut, 7 July 2026). Which key rests in Early Access hasn’t been published, so check before you tap anything in camp.

5. 19Trap

   Don't replay a boss for a missing achievement

   The developers have confirmed that achievements sometimes don’t fire (replying in Steam discussion: Achievements bugged?, 13 September 2026). So a kill that didn’t pop an achievement doesn’t necessarily mean you missed a hidden condition. The full list is on the achievements page.

More help

• Beginner guide: how a run works if you are brand new.
• Enemies: which ones players say to kill first.
• Gunk Worm: the curse loop in its third stage and the counter players are testing.