Ironcast

Ironcast is a game that needs to be approached with a very specific mindset. You must accept things will often be outside of your control, and skill alone will not always constitute a win. It’s a core tenet of stoic philosophy - you're at the whim of random number generation deciding whether or not you get to act this turn at all. If you can accept that, you'll come to know Ironcast as the best Match-3 game on the market that is not yet another dating sim or smut.
The premise of Ironcast is simple: complete as many objectives as possible in preparation for the big boss fight. The objectives don't necessarily involve combat, or killing your opponent. Some involve diplomacy - as in, choosing the right dialogue options - others are about preserving gear to use as your own, or collecting specific gems, or surviving an enemy attack.
The gem board is naturally where most of the action happens. Combat and movement involve collecting resources within a 3-turn span before the enemy gets to play their own. There is an exception to this rule: getting an extra turn after defeating an enemy, when fighting multiple ones. The board is bezeled in fashionable Victorian-esque decorations, and the Steampunk mechs are placed opposite of eachother waiting to act their moves out accordingly.
Ammo gems (purple) let you fire your weapons, two of which can be carried at a time. The weapons should preferably serve two different purposes, i.e. one to take down shields, another to damage exposed enemy subsystems. The weapon variety is fairly poor, however the types that do exist get the job done. It is often better to soften up a shielded target with a laser or a missile, then pepper it with machine gun fire or flak.
The weapon tiers vary solely based on stats, and scale linearly as the game progresses. This means you cannot get worse weapons than the tier you've last obtained, but also can’t get better ones, or sell ones you don't need. The ammunition type also does not correlate to the kind of damage it can do - energy weapons are not especially effective against shields, and projectile weapons are not especially useful against hull, like FTL led you to believe.
Energy gems (orange) power your defensive countermeasures. By default, Ironcast need to be fueled or powered each turn to keep them moving or shielded. There are 3 tiers to each measure, giving exponentially better evasion or damage reduction. Shields are surprisingly capable, however in the lategame it is usually better to spec into evasion, as it has a chance to completely negate damage rather than soften it.
Repair gems (green) allow repairs of specific subsystems, which is a nice segue into talking about how health works. Each Ironcast has its drive, its shield, and its two weapon modules. Each part can be targeted to deactivate its accompanying function, as well as damage the overall HP of the mech. Once overall HP reaches 0, the mech dies. Other than two abilities, there is no active healing in the game, it has to be done in the hangar between each op.
Therein lies the biggest source of player agency in the game - choosing what systems to target on enemy mechs, or repair on their own. It's also where it’s most evident the AI cheats - it will be able to repair damaged systems no matter what, and then activate them immediately, sometimes leading to a stalemate; that said, if you manage to get the AI to repair, it will likely not attack (to simulate a limited resource board), and so the cheating is not blatantly obvious.
Coolant gems (blue) allow to use other resources and modules, as each action (bar repairs) consumes coolant in addition to its main gem. Running out of coolant means your Ironcast will be overheating, and taking incremental damage to its systems and hull. You might have enough ammo or energy to power up, but can you afford the cooling? It's a nice additional layer of resource management and decision-making to top the basic system play off.
To account for the restriction, the coolant pool is the largest for each Ironcast, and there are plenty of means to regain coolant that aren’t collecting the resource from the board. This allows for certain flexibility while balancing the ammo and energy systems so that players have to choose between playing defensively or offensively against different types of opponents.
Finally, scrap gems (yellow) do not have an immediate effect on the battlefield, but serve as looted currency that allows to potentially purchase new gear. It’s also used to repair the mech in the hangar, or improve resource quotas. The implementation of the currency system is restrictive, probably for balancing reasons; without collecting scrap, you will not be able to purchase a single weapon, or worse, be forced to spend all money on repairs without progress.
There are also unique gems that do not belong to any one pool. Overload gems (white) empower your next action, like firing an extra shot from a weapon, or gaining extra evasion from activating the drive. Without those, systems have a default overload chance of 5%. They can also act as a bridge between two nodes of the same resource. Link gems allow to create multi-colored chains, and are where most turn efficiency and optimization comes from.
You can attempt to keep Link or Overload nodes to prepare for a big chain, however those take precious space away from more useful resources, and so another aspect of decision-making is introduced into the game. Should you keep the gems for later, or clear the board now to make space? Moments where you get to make these decisions are where the game truly shines.
The AI you fight is well-balanced, in the sense it lets you play the game instead of immediately obliterating you. It is given leniency so that it doesn’t target each subsystem until it is destroyed, like the player is likely to do. It manages to spread damage evenly among subsystems and gives you a fighting chance as you are not immediately immobilized or de-shielded, then annihilated without a way out of the situation.
Another source of player agency comes from Ironcast abilities. The abilities are the safety net of the player from losing runs to RNG, which is what makes the AI "cheating" acceptable. Using them does not cost a turn or resources, and is where skill and game knowledge come into play - as choosing the right Passives and Actives are crucial for reaching the endgame.
The Passives range from less resource consumption, to better damage or gun accuracy, to an increased chance of certain gems appearing. Frankly, some effects are marginal, but they still grant tangible means with which to progress your gear. Actives make or break runs, and getting one ability can change the tide of battle. Since the AI cannot use skills or abilities, its mechs get much more health, and stronger weaponry, eventually rivaling those of bosses.
Each player Ironcast starts with one unique Active, and can gain more upon leveling up. These abilities can change gems to other gems, collect all type of gem on the board, or siphon resources from the enemy cargo hold. The most useful abilities are often ones that enable you to fire an extra shot at no cost, or to ignore shields, or to have shots not miss for a turn.
They're a contributing factor to the replayability of the game, otherwise weakened by the same missions appearing in every run, a limited selection of mechs, and limited guns to use against them. Admittedly, a disappointing amount of content for a Roguelite, however a completionist would certainly get their money’s worth.
Not many games embrace RNG the way Ironcast does, giving you just enough control over the battlefield to make the experience tolerable. RNG can work in your favor, or in favor of the AI, it's truly one chaotic ordeal - where a 5% chance to overload can decide whether an hour-long run lives or dies. An enjoyable one at that, too, provided you embrace the consequences.

TIPS TO START ON THE RIGHT FOOT :)
- Early on you'll want to focus more on shields than your evasion, Even when the enemy comes with high damage energy weapons having high shields will mitigate a good percentage of that damage. Also taking out said high damage weapon is a good way to render the enemy unable to do damage to you.
- Drawing out the fight as long as you can so you can get extra matchs from the board, more matches leads to more scrap and XP which means you will have more abilities+more health to take on the final boss. That said be sure you have the situation under control before you attempt this otherwise the extra damage you take (and thus have to repair) will undermine the point of drawing out the fight!
- Conversely you want to have a high Evasion stat as get closer to end game as it'll be near impossible to mitigate every little bit of damage. By the time you reach this point you'll hopefully have both a good shield AND a good drive system so you should be using both in tandem anyway.
- The game is much more luck based than any other Rogue-like out there, there will be times where you simply cannot win due to how your gems fall or your enemy simply got good luck and hit you through your 40% evade chance while you coulden't get a hit in because the bastard is able to keep both his shield and evasion maxed for 6 turns straight. Try not to get to frustrated although it'll probably happen.
- The best general use pilots are the first (Powell) and last (Kylock) as they let you manipulate how much energy you need to active your shields and drive systems.The best general use Ironcast is actually the first one (Dunraven) if you want to think of it in the Faster Than Light sense you start with the Kestral thinking "wow i want to use these other ships, they look cool!" but then after using them you find out "oh wait, the Kestrel is probably one of the best ships in the game!" Kylock in particular can be a beast if you get the ability that lets you change nodes to energy then use that to max out your evasion early on in a fight for super cheap.
- Whenever possible, your first turn should accomplish the following, in descending order of importance: Bring up at least two levels of shield, get an overdrive, fill up your ammo, fill up your energy, fill up your repair.
- Whether or not you make that massive 10+ symbol match should depend on how confident you are that you can win in the next turn or two without the wasted resources. If you can, the extra XP is great. If not, you're probably better splitting it into two matches.
- Try to keep your shield at maximum at all times. Just about every mission gives you plenty of time to play defensively, which will save you a lot of scrap in the long run.
- Sometimes, waiting to fire for a turn to let your opponent's shields lower a bit is the right move. Especially if their shield's in overdrive.
- Don't bother wasting energy on your drive until you're getting at least 10% dodge chance per level.
- Scrap should always be used first to repair first, then only after build parts.
- Don't waste scrap on building a part unless it's either rare or at least two ranks above your current. The exception is for even halfway decent Dense Shields, which are worth their weight in gold.
- Survival missions are never worth it.
- Passive perks that reduce resource usage or give you more are almost always the best option. I'm especially fond of the "1 free coolant per turn" one.
- Active perks are much more about personal play style, but Ammo Leech is never a bad choice.
- Rapid fire weapons have way higher average damage, but single shot weapons are necessary to punch through shields. Always have one of each, ideally in whatever type (energy or projectile) that your character is best with.
- Don't forget that you can target specific areas by clicking the little crosshair on the right. Generally, your targeting order should be something like Shields > Single shot weapon(s) > Armor > Drive > Other.
- As an exception to the above, when fighting a boss, aim for shields and their highest average damage weapon. Don't bother shooting at anything else.
- Salvage missions always give you a free part or HP boost if you succeed, at the cost of limiting your targeting and weapon choices.
- The second ironcast has a very good ability, especially paired with the first pilot, and together they're a very good choice for a new player.
ENJOY THIS GREAT GAME!

Why is this game so fun lol its pretty hard too but surprisingly a very good time very glad i tried it!

Great game all around. I was wary of the 'Match-3' mechanic being present in the game, but it is really used differently here and the game has so much more.
It it basically a Roguelike, tactical, turn-based, Match-3 game (in that order regarding the importance of my 'tags'). It will not be for everyone, but if anything above tickled your brain, at least try it out.

I recommend this unlikely mashup to anyone who can enjoy Match 3 or roguelite games, as it might be my favorite match 3 hybrid. The core gameplay is that matches most often give resources that can be used for various mech actions: Attack, defense, or repair. There are some exceptions such as powerups, links, or crates. Between missions: The player collects rewards, picks from a selection of new abilities if all of a mission is completed, and can buy other upgrades. There is some variety to missions, as they have a variety of difficulty, some have multiple enemies (only facing one at a time though), some require getting a certain number of crates, some are just trading, etc.
This is only an FTL-like in that this is a roguelite, there's a big boss at the end, and each of 7 day's missions (one per day) can be selected from a group of a few per day.
There is progressive XP gained from playthroughs that give permanent bonuses, unlocking more loot variety, and unlocking new mechs & pilots, which should make this easier for people who aren't into roguelites.
The whole point of games like this is to adapt & overcome with what options you are given, whether its your match board, reward options, or shop options. So if you expect to play only one specific way, then you won't enjoy this game for long.

Exceptional art design, and engaging rpg elements do a lot to elevate this one. Great fun if you have any love for connect-3 games.

it's a very short but fun game. the story was very interesting. i wish we had more choice at the endings. this deserves a sequel solely for the story.
an extremely big problem are the stutters are so bad, i have 200+ FPS and it still stutters like crazy from one second to another, so its not about FPS, i thought it was somehow my laptop but after finishing the game and seeing the top review here that apparently the game keeps trying to connect to some amazon services or whatever infinitely, So despite the game being good, i wouldn't exactly recommend playing this unless they remove that.
i didn't notice anything weird other than that but it seems shady as the top review on this game says.