An absolute gem of a roguelike deckbuilding game that feels both familiar and fresh, Astrea takes the bones of the genre (plotting a path through rooms in three chapters, drafting, choosing run buffs for synergies throughout the run) and clothes it in some very clever mechanics that really make it stand out. The two most notable of these are the dice and the damage system which are wonderfully interconnected.

Instead of drafting cards, you draft dice. On the very surface, it seems like a mechanic just to add a frustrating layer of RNG to a very strategy-heavy type of game, but the deeper workings of it have just as much, if not more tactical complexity than drafting cards. Dice are broken up into four 'rarities': safe, balanced, risky and epic. Each non-boss combat gives you three dice options to draft, one of each of the first three categories, with epic dice reserved for boss rewards or rare events. Safe dice have weak effects, but 5-6 of the faces are beneficial, non-mandatory actions. Balanced have stronger effects, but only have 3-4 faces with those effects on them, with the others being mandatory negative actions. Following that, risky dice only have 1-2 beneficial faces, but have very powerful effects. The RNG of literally rolling the dice is balanced by being offered numerous means of playing around or even playing with the drawbacks. You can reroll, discard or even rig the dice just to name a few.

The mandatory faces of the dice tie in to the other main mechanic of Astrea, its 'damage' system. Rather than a straightforward HP-system, Astrea uses the idea of 'purification' and 'corruption' as a stand in for both enemy and player health. Purify actions reduce corruption to 'damage' enemies, but the same action can often be played on yourself instead to effectively heal you. Corruption is the other side of the same coin, healing enemies but damaging you. Balanced and Risky dice will have various corrupt actions on them, and you can't simply opt to not play them. Any negative action like that is considered mandatory, and all dice with such faces must be played before you end the turn. Who you play them on and which order is left up to you, and as your corruption increases you unlock actions tied to points on your meter, with the stronger effects usually placed closer to the end. These actions aren't rolled, and can be triggered multiple times a turn with clever play.

TL;DR: Astrea is a very clever twist on the deckbuilding roguelike, with a HP tug-o-war and uses dice to add a layer of strategy, rather than detract from it with excessive randomness.