Best Turn-Based Combat Games on Steam
Combat systems where fighters take turns choosing attacks, skills, and defenses.
Browse all Turn-Based Combat →
1Baldur's Gate 3 - Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power.
Aug 3, 2023
In this game, you can…
- possess a guard, make them open a gate that releases giant spiders, then watch the chaos from the rafters.
- stack a bunch of boxes into a tower, then climb it to reach places you couldn't otherwise.
- romance wildly different beings, including vampires, ogres, lizards, and even a tentacled god.
- surround a boss with explosive barrels before the fight, then blow them up instead of fighting fair.
- turn a flooded room into an electric trap, then have the enemy freeze it into ice so everyone slips while you hold the door.
- pick up a locked chest and carry it back to camp to open later instead of unlocking it on the spot.
- earn a dog's trust step by step, pet them, play fetch, and eventually have them become your familiar.
- talk your way through conflicts, befriend enemies, or side with or kill basically any faction and watch regions treat you differently afterward.
2Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Lead the members of Expedition 33 on their quest to destroy the Paintress so that she can never paint death again. Explore a world of wonders inspired by Belle Époque France and battle unique enemies in this turn-based RPG with real-time mechanics.
Apr 24, 2025
In this game, you can…
- dodge or counter basically anything enemies throw at you, including spells, projectiles, cosmic rays, and even buildings.
- spend action points to free-aim in third person and shoot an enemy's weak spot to end a fight early.
- watch the story's yearly death countdown tick toward "33," then head out on a final mission to stop it.
- dodge, parry, and counter enemy attacks in real time during turn-based fights.
- jump over low attacks mid-fight, then land right back into the dodge-and-parry rhythm.
- swap builds to answer a specific encounter, then stack party synergies into a setup that can delete bosses in one turn.
- wander a huge world map packed with secret areas, hidden encounters, and travel methods that unlock with companions.
- walk into higher-level areas and still win if your timing is good enough on dodges, parries, and jumps.
3Darkest Dungeon® - Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost?
Jan 19, 2016
In this game, you can…
- watch a hero snap from stress and start refusing orders or even attacking teammates mid-fight.
- deliberately let the torch go out to change how battles work and gamble for better loot before looting a chest.
- come back from a failed mission diseased and traumatized, then send heroes to the tavern, abbey, brothel, or sanitarium to recover.
- bail out of a dungeon run mid-expedition, turning the rest of the crawl into a constant push-or-retreat decision.
- have a random miniboss like the Collector appear out of nowhere and wreck an expedition that was going fine.
- build parties where each character can only use certain moves from certain positions, so rearranging your lineup changes what anyone can do.
- lose heroes permanently, then recruit replacements and keep the campaign going with the town upgrades you managed to bring back.
4Persona 5 Royal - Lead the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in this award winning, stylish turn-based RPG filled with dungeon crawling, party customization, strategic combat, and Persona fusion. Explore Tokyo, build relationships, battle Shadows, and infiltrate the minds of the corrupt to make them change their ways!
Oct 20, 2022
In this game, you can…
- get framed for assault, moved to Tokyo, then dragged into a parallel world by a talking cat to commit heists.
- send a calling card, break into someone's mind, and steal their "heart" to change how they act in real life.
- talk enemies into joining you mid-fight, then fuse them into new monsters to build custom battle strategies.
- spend a full in-game year budgeting every day between school, jobs, friends, workouts, and night-time dungeon raids.
- hide behind cover, grapple to hidden routes, and ambush guards in themed dungeons that play like stealth heists.
- trigger a critical hit, chain teammate follow-ups, and end the turn with a screen-filling group finisher.
- build friendships that unlock concrete combat perks and special moves, not just extra dialogue.
5Persona 4 Golden - A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders.
Jun 13, 2020
In this game, you can…
- step into your TV on a rainy night.
- build friendships — even with a shrine fox — that directly power up your combat fusions.
- fight someone's "other self" so their Persona can awaken and join your team afterward.
- live a full school year where every day is two choices.
- capture Personas, then fuse them into custom builds with the exact skills and resistances you want.
- dive into a foggy TV-world dungeon of random floors, hunt the staircase, and push deeper for treasure and rare fights.
- investigate a string of disappearances by chasing clues across town, watching the Midnight Channel, then entering the next victim's TV world before the deadline hits.
- bounce from goofy school trips and club hangouts to life-or-death boss fights as your classmates become a full detective squad.
6Slay the Spire 2 - The iconic roguelike deckbuilder returns. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, and discover relics of immense power in Slay the Spire 2!
Mar 5, 2026
In this game, you can…
- fight over a relic in co-op and settle it on the spot with Rock-Paper-Scissors.
- take a relic that steals every item from every shop, completely changing how you interact with the run's economy.
- buff a pet hand so it attacks for you, takes hits first, and revives at the start of your next turn if it dies.
- balance two energy pools every turn, spending regular energy and Stars to build toward one massive payoff attack.
- set up doom so an enemy just dies at the end of their turn when the countdown beats their remaining life.
- enchant a card so it comes back with a second life and turns into something new instead of staying a one-and-done pickup.
- finish an act by picking 1 of 3 Ancients, then choosing from multiple options inside it, turning the reward into a branching decision.
- take your turns at the same time in co-op, as everyone shouts "wait" and then immediately plays everything anyway.
7Persona 3 Reload - Dive into the Dark Hour and awaken the depths of your heart. Persona 3 Reload is a captivating reimagining of the genre-defining RPG, reborn for the modern era with cutting-edge graphics and gameplay.
Feb 1, 2024
In this game, you can…
- step into a secret 25th hour at midnight, when everyone turns into coffins and your school becomes a monster-filled tower.
- climb a 264-floor tower during the hidden hour, clearing shifting layouts, looting chests, and pushing deeper one floor at a time.
- open a random door in the tower for a risky detour that can drop you into a hard fight, rare treasure, and even a full floor map.
- hit a weakness to knock enemies down, hand off extra turns across the team, then finish with a group attack once they're all floored.
- charge character-specific super moves in different ways, save them up, and unload them on bosses when you decide it matters most.
- play out extra mini-story arcs with party members, get new scenes, and unlock a new fusion reward when the episode wraps.
- spend late nights in the dorm cooking, gardening, watching DVDs, or reading with friends, then wake up with useful items and stronger bonds.
- plan your year day by day, choosing between school, friendships, side episodes, dorm life, and dungeon runs with limited time windows.
8Mewgenics - Build the ultimate cat army through tactical breeding and send them into deep, challenging turn-based adventures. Draft abilities, collect items, and manipulate genetics across generations in this roguelike tactics game from the creators of The Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh.
Feb 10, 2026
In this game, you can…
- eat a fetus in an alley to instantly heal your entire party.
- loop a cat's concussions into power by repeatedly killing and resurrecting it, until it becomes an absurdly armored, brainless wall that crosses the whole board.
- resurrect enemies as zombies that join your party, as long as they die first.
- watch a so-called healer trait make your tank eat every corpse, including teammates, until it's alone and dies from exhaustion.
- breed cats until one ends up casting fireball for -2 mana, then keep it anyway despite permanent osteoporosis.
- stack a bug-host trait with bug gear and duplicate bug affixes until one cat becomes a walking infestation that can nearly solo a run.
- pair "spawn 1HP flies when hit" with "allies taking damage deal 10 back" and turn getting punched into a chain-reaction kill engine.
- kill a bird and randomly get a bazooka as loot.
9Volcano Princess - Prepare the next monarch by finding her hobbies, training her for battle, and befriending the citizens she'll one day protect. Dive into an all-new parenting-simulator-RPG adventure, where every decision you make will not only affect the future of your daughter but that of an entire empire!
Apr 20, 2023
In this game, you can…
- raise the same kid into a warrior, a researcher, a courtesan, a mafia boss, or a world-ending demon on different runs.
- send her to etiquette school and have her come back with a sword, two boyfriends, and an existential crisis.
- date almost everyone, including girls, and even end up in a poly marriage with multiple partners at once.
- choose what kind of father you are and watch it branch into duels, dice gambling, horse racing, taming, and multiple endings.
- capture horses, train them, race them, and enter them in beauty contests as a whole progression path.
- pledge her to one of three lords, complete their tasks, climb noble fame, and then show it all off at the Birdie Festival.
- debate or fight people you challenge, with rhetorical debates as their own mini-game.
- finish a run, take permanent bonuses into the next one, and use that to chase secret endings across playthroughs.
10Library Of Ruina - "May you find your book in this place." Combat between the guests and the librarians breaks out as if it were on a stage. Defeated guests turn into books, and the Library grows onward. And eventually, get your hands on… The one singular, perfect book.
Aug 10, 2021
In this game, you can…
- invite people into your library, fight them, and turn the losers into books.
- win puzzle-like boss fights that demand a specific solution, then reward you with extra units, deck slots, and special pages.
- walk into a one-off boss setpiece with unique rules, beat it once, and never see that exact mechanic again.
- see what enemies are about to play, pick your responses, and watch the clash resolve on dice.
- get stronger by winning fights that literally steal the enemy's moves and passives for your own builds.
- trigger a rising emotion meter mid-fight that hands out power spikes with real tradeoffs as the battle heats up.
- intercept an enemy's planned attack by rolling higher speed and redirecting the turn's whole order of actions.
- read a defeated enemy's story by cataloging their book and unlocking more of their past after you beat them.
