Building comparison
head to head
DarkwoodvsUnderMine
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Darkwood
Variance · Systems & Chaos
Top-down survival horror where surviving the night is about preparation, not aim.
UnderMine
Optimization · Systems & Chaos
An action roguelike about mining gold, dying, and upgrading the next peasant down.
Darkwood leans Variance (Systems & Chaos); UnderMine leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos).
DarkwoodUnderMine
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 5
UnderMine leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Darkwood
night-defense reflexes under limited vision
UnderMine
Pickaxe-throw combat and dodging in real time
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Darkwood
creatures are scripted or random, not adaptive
UnderMine
Dungeon creatures are scripted
Variance6 vs 6
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Darkwood
procedural map and unknown night events
UnderMine
Random layouts, relics, and curses each run
Optimization6 vs 7
UnderMine leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Darkwood
barricade economy and routing are learnable
UnderMine
Relic synergies and permanent meta upgrades compound
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.