Finding a New Daily Solo Puzzle with Dungeon Run: Pocket
Explore a dungeon and puzzle through the best routes through random monsters and treasure in Dungeon Run: Pocket.
There’s nothing more spooky than traveling through an unknown dungeon, right? Ha! I found myself with a copy of Dungeon Run: Pocket, and was intrigued by the concept. Extremely simple rules, random elements, and just a small page to complete in a single play. Definitely felt like the right solo game to check out and spend a little time with each day!
Game Overview
Game Name: Dungeon Run: Pocket
Publication Year: 2025
Designer: Alexander Shen
Artist: Alexander Shen
Publisher: Self-Published
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Most of the activity takes place on a random dungeon page. A deck of treasure cards sits at the ready, while a set of 4 randomized monsters create additional challenges. The goal is to survive, accumulating victory points while remaining alive to complete the dungeon! Each play is a fun puzzle.
First Play
September 28, 2025
Complexity
1
Latest Play
October 1, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
26
Game Area
14" x 14"
Low Score
13
All Set and Ready to Go
This is all that’s needed to play! Monsters define the denizens of each dungeon, labeled from 1-4. It’s quite easy: These monsters are levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 going left to right.
So here, I had level 1 Dragons, level 2 Slime Kings, and so on. At first glance, moving through this dungeon might seem easy… Just take out each successive level. No big deal.
Ah, but there’s much more to think about! Maximizing victory points means timing combat, and taking risks.
That treasure deck might look enticing, but watch out! Not everything is helpful, and there are even some traps.
Evaluating Monsters
Before taking a single step, it’s important to understand the various abilities in play. Some monsters might be much more difficult to take on, resulting in losing precious health.
In this case, I was fine with taking on the Dragons and Slime Kings. No problem! It was the higher levels that would prove to be much more difficult. Like the Rock Monsters…
All of the level 4 sections were adjacent to walls or borders, so these were bumped up to level 6 monsters. Whoa!
I loved thinking through my actions before I started to trace a path through the dungeon. Would the treasure even help?
A Treasure Horde
Flipping over a card from the treasure deck was excellent! Results ranged from empty chests to items with special abilities, along with a healthy sandwich and dreaded poison.
These are the cards that bring in a lot of exciting moments, as the next draw could be anything. Well, unless the Seeing Eye shows up, which is a pretty awesome ability to utilize!
Note that the play area doesn’t expand: I just wanted to show off these charming illustrations and the variety.
Was my first outing great? I probably could have done better, yet it was so easy to learn the rules and start playing!
Tracing My Paths
Since I often end up with odd angles if I attempt to keep my drawn lines perfectly straight, I went with a curvy pattern as I drew my paths with a pencil. The perfect solution!
The boxes at the bottom helped me track my progress, and although there isn’t a deep story here, it’s clear how healing up helped me go even further through this dungeon.
Yet I left a lot of monsters in the dungeon, and might have done better to take on a Rock Monster at some point.
No matter! This book contains 200 maps, so there was no need to re-try this page. I just had one idea in mind for it…
The Right Solo Game at the Right Time
A big part of the solo game hobby, at least for me, is figuring out how to get the most enjoyment out of each game. Part of that comes down to the game itself, yet it’s also about me choosing wisely. When this arrived, I was sort of looking for something to act as a daily activity that wouldn’t be too time-intensive. Excellent timing, indeed! Such a nice time.
I used to look back at my recent plays and wonder what I was doing… “That’s it? That’s all I played? What’s wrong with me?” The answer is, of course, nothing. I might spend months playing shorter or lighter games, yet those were the right choices at the time. If I start rating every game I play 40% or 50%, that’s when you know something’s wrong!
New games often fall into the realm of sitting around until I feel ready to give them any attention. Just think about the work and effort that’s involved with a new game: Component counting, box organization, setup… And actually learning how to play. There’s almost always a great experience waiting, but not when I’m not feeling up to it. Future fun, right there!
Colorful Dungeons
Hurray for color pencils! I’ve been looking for a way to use them again, and a proper coloring book didn’t quite match up. Voila! Found a perfect use for them with these maps.
This is absolutely unnecessary and took me longer to color in the boxes than actually play… But it made me happy!
It’s easy to see which monsters I missed, too. Not that clearing every map is required, yet it’s a nice goal to aspire to. Finally, this helped give the dungeon a personality.
A pair of Bulldog Blunderbusses still patrol the upper left region, and you better believe the Rock Monsters remain!
The Next Map
With 200 maps in this book, I’m on a quest at the moment to play daily. That might fizzle out eventually, yet it’s a nice way to enjoy the game every day. A lovely little puzzle!
Another attempt rewarded me with a lot of excellent cards from the treasure deck. A sword even granted me a clear path forward, and my final score was quite impressive.
Besides surviving and not getting carried out on a stretcher by expensive goblin medics, victory is self-defined.
My threshold is hitting 20 victory points, which isn’t easy and has a lot to do with the monsters in play.
Eyes (Almost) All over
As I colored in this map, I was pretty excited because I remembered that I had a very particular order to fighting the monsters. I cleared the way to defeat the Slime Kings.
Then came the Octo-Eyes and Goblins, and finally, a clean sweep of the Coldbalds. Completely cleared: I did it!
Uh-oh. Except I totally forgot to backtrack to take out an Octo-Eye right near the entrance. Oh no! Ha ha! There was nothing stopping me from crossing it out. I definitely got it.
But guess what? I thought it was funnier to have the Octo-Eye as a nemesis, and I would try to clear another page!
Halloween Darkness
Trick or treat! I promised Calico Critters in costumes during October, and I found the perfect one to pair with this monster known only as Darkness. Love the huge hat!
This is also a great example of the quirky nature of the game. The Dragon might have been a higher level, but you know who’s more dangerous? Darkness. As a cat. Ha ha!
It’s pretty neat to see the various assortments of monsters. Even repeats tend to be different, especially with new maps.
And each dungeon is unique in its own way, creating a little puzzle to think through in order to survive and score well.
So Much Treasure!
Talk about all kinds of treasure! I had an interesting experience with literal Shadows, which reduced my level… But then a Monster Manual helped save the day later on.
The different cards in the treasure deck add just enough unpredictability to make opening treasure chests risky.
Yet it takes around 10 minutes to play, so losing from a bad card draw is nothing to be upset about. For me, I expect something bad to happen so I can laugh about that map.
Speaking of which, keep these monsters in mind, for I had some fun with the coloring aspect of this dungeon page.
Color Cubes Galore
Another nearly clear map page! Alas, there was a single Darkness monster I could walk through, but never defeat.
Take a look at those Color Cubes! Did that level of detail take longer? Absolutely, but I was really excited about the final result. They stood out against the Dragons and Coldbalds.
Gameplay might look repetitive, yet as a daily activity, a single play offers a neat puzzle. I thoroughly enjoyed these plays, and expect to continue on as long as I can.
200 maps to start with… 4 down, and only 196 to go! I may take a few breaks, yet completing this book is now a goal.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-4
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Play Details: Runs A-1, A-2, A-3, & A-4
Outcome: 13, 25, 13, 26 (2 Wins & 2 Losses)
Such a great dungeon to end with! My early experience with the Octo-Eye brought the monster back in full force… And this was the perfect page where 8 Octo-Eyes appeared! I was so close, yet the last monster would have destroyed my final health. There was no chance I was getting carried out by the goblins, and then subsequently billed. Ha ha! Really glad I have this one to enjoy, and I look forward to more dungeons!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Gameplay is very easy to understand, with clear rules printed at the start that are short and straightforward.
- Monsters provide a unique set of challenges to think about, and different assortments can function differently.
- Drawing treasure cards is an exciting moment since the deck contains a range of items, both positive and negative.
- Each map is its own puzzle about tracing paths, timing monster combat, and finding ways to earn victory points.
- Very little table space is required for this compact game, which involves a booklet and a few small decks of cards.
- Play time is very quick, likely in the 5-10 minute mark for many players, which is great for a daily puzzle game.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are sometimes just a few too many victory point boxes to mark off, requiring a few memorized sums at times.
- Luck plays a major role with the treasure deck, which is mostly a feature, but may feel a bit unfair to some players.
- At the moment, it can be tricky to hunt down a copy, and the spiral-bound version appears to be a special edition.
- The black-and-white color scheme is wonderful in many ways, yet it can be easy to accidentally miss a number.
Victory Conditions
Score 20+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 67%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 20 points.
Score at least 25 points.
Completely clear a dungeon of all monsters and treasure.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite part of Dungeon Run: Pocket? Have you had a particularly memorable set of monsters show up? I sometimes struggle with dungeons like this, especially when the rules feel like too much. This one is simple, but that allows the puzzle to take center stage. Unless you’re dealing with Octo-Eyes… Ha! Loving this as a daily activity right now!
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