Valpiedra Descensus ad tenebras

Valpiedra: Descensus ad tenebras is a game that went somewhat unnoticed at Essen Spiel 2025. However, I had a feeling that it might be a hidden gem of the fair.

The game caught my attention mainly because of its dark graphics and interesting cover. However, there wasn’t much information about it on the internet. That’s why I took a look on YouTube to find something about Valpiedra. Unfortunately, it turned out that there were only a few videos, and they were in Spanish. Since I know a few words in Spanish (mainly from Pitbull songs), I decided it was worth checking out. Especially since it’s a co-op game, and you know how much I enjoy those kinds of games.

Valpiedra: Descensus ad tenebras is a small card-based dungeon crawler in which we descend into hell to save the titular city of Valpiedra. Each of us plays a brave hero whose task is to find a magical artifact and escape to the surface to breathe the sweet air of freedom.

Numerous hordes of demons, ghouls, skeletons, and other dark enemies will stand in our way. As we descend to the next levels of the dungeons, we will face increasingly stronger waves of enemies. After entering the next chamber, we will line up our opponents. Some of our characters will only be able to attack the nearest enemy, while others will be able to attack from a distance.

Combat in Valpiedra is dice-based and highly random. As a rule, we need a roll of 1 to 3 on a d6 die to injure an enemy. Some items increase our chances of hitting, and some enemies can negate threes on the dice.

Of course, we also have ways to reroll the dice, but it all depends on how we build our heroes. After defeating enemies, we can decide how to use their cards. They can serve as new equipment, experience needed to improve our team’s health, or to lower the level of evil. These choices are very important because you have to constantly maintain a balance between these three aspects of Valpiedra.

When it comes to our heroes, we only have four to choose from. Beltran is a typical warrior who excels in close combat. Sister Agnes transforms scrolls into reusable items. Aston has a built-in reroll ability and can change the position of enemies. Iria shoots arrows from a distance.

The selection of available characters is small, but with enemies, it’s a completely different story. Each of them provides a different level of challenge through numerous skills that will make our lives miserable. Our opponents can strengthen each other with their abilities, and their position in the row is of great importance. You often have to decide who to focus on in order to weaken the rest at least a little. However, there were also situations where a certain combination of enemies was drawn, and Valbeating was guaranteed. I remember once we died literally on the first level of the dungeon. Our rolls didn’t come through, and the enemies were so strong that they quickly depleted our health.

Graphically, it’s simply stunning. The illustrations are dark and perfectly capture the atmosphere of the game. I also like how compact the Valpiedra box is. It’s the perfect dungeon crawler to take on vacation alongside Tiny Epic Dungeons.

As for the number of players, there is a bit of a strange situation here. The game seems much easier with two players. There are fewer enemies, so we don’t have to worry so much about our health level and can develop our heroes better. This situation is also influenced by the heroes we have chosen. Iria, for example, will be better when playing in a larger group. Considering that there are more opponents, it will be easier to use her skills. That’s why it’s a shame that there are so few characters available.

Summary

Valpiedra: Descensus ad tenebras turned out to be a very good, small, and fast dungeon crawler. The gameplay formula is very simple. We descend, defeat enemies, develop, and repeat everything just to escape. At the same time, we make many important decisions in the form of who to attack and how to use the cards of defeated enemies. We constantly had to maintain a balance between upgrading heroes, our evil and health level . An additional advantage of the game is its sensational, dark atmosphere, which is created by beautiful illustrations straight out of the worst hellish nightmares.

The battle in Valpiedra can be very random, and sometimes it didn’t matter how well we were developed. We were often destroyed by unlucky dice rolls. It was especially painful when we were literally one step away from victory. However, when everything went our way, we felt enormous satisfaction from achieving our goal. The last rounds were particularly exciting, when we literally played standing up, waiting to see the light of day.

Final verdict: Valpiedra: Descensus ad tenebras is a game with a dark atmosphere, in which we pray for positive rolls and a breath of victory.

Pros

• Dark graphics
• Fast gameplay
• Simple mechanics
• Many different enemies
• Dungeon Crawler perfect for travel
• Massive excitement

Cons

• Small selection of heroes
• Easier with two players
• Sometimes you lose because that’s what fate says

[Game provided by PIF Games]