I grabbed Soda Dungeon 2 on my Windows 11 PC through Steam last week. Small download. It took about two minutes on my home Wi-Fi. The install was light too, around a few hundred megabytes. Blink and it was done. I love when a game doesn’t make me wait. If you’d like to check it out yourself, the game’s listing is live on Steam.
The setup: easy as a soda run
- PC: Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 1660, 16 GB RAM, 1440p monitor
- OS: Windows 11 Home
- Controller: Xbox Series pad (worked fine), but I mostly used mouse
It launched fast. No weird drivers. No extra accounts. I flipped between windowed and full screen with no hiccups. It sat at a smooth frame rate the whole time. It’s a 2D game, so that checks out. Performance-wise it reminded me of how painless it was to get the charming retro platformer Realms of Pixel running on my rig.
Cloud saves worked for me between my laptop and desktop after I toggled it on in settings. Handy if you bounce between rooms like I do.
So… what’s it like?
Here’s the thing. Soda Dungeon 2 looks cute. It feels simple. But it isn’t. For a broader snapshot of opinions, its Metacritic page rounds up critic and player scores in one place.
You run a tavern. You buy different sodas. Those sodas bring in new classes. Then you send a team into a dungeon to grab loot and smack bosses. When they wipe, they drag the loot home. You spend it on better gear, tavern upgrades, and relics that carry across runs.
I started with the basic soda junkies. They whiff a lot, but they’re cheap. My first “real” team was:
- Nurse for heals
- Carpenter for sturdy hits (and that handy shield feel)
- Thief to snag extra stuff
- Two junkies because my wallet was sad
With that crew, I reached floor 38 on day one. I felt smart. Then a boss slammed me into the floor like a pancake. Classic.
That’s the loop though. Fail, upgrade, try again. Bit by bit, things open up. New classes show up after you buy the right drinks. The smith starts crafting. Relics grow. Auto-battle does the busy work. You know what? It’s a cozy grind. If you’re after something a little flashier yet still skill-based, my hands-on review of Afterimage on PC might scratch the same itch.
Real moments that sold me
- Lunch break run: I set up an auto team with two Nurses and watched them slowly chew through floors while I ate soup. Came back to a pile of wood and shards. Spent it all like a kid in a candy store.
- Night grind: I left it running while I cooked dinner. Came back to floor 102 and enough stuff to boost my damage relic to level 8. Felt like free money.
- The “oh no” boss: On floor 150, my Thief got one-shot. I swapped him for a sturdier Carpenter next run and used items more. Beat it by a hair. I actually said “let’s go” out loud. My cat did not care.
Controls and feel on PC
Mouse is king in menus. Drag, click, done. Controller worked too, but picking gear felt slower with a stick. I turned on auto-equip and it saved time. The UI scales well at 1440p. Text is clear. No squinting.
Sound is cheerful and a bit bouncy. I kept the music on low while I answered emails. It’s that kind of vibe.
What I liked
- Quick download and tiny footprint
- Smooth on mid-range hardware
- That steady “one more run” loop
- Auto-battle that you can trust most of the time
- Relics that make each run stronger
- No pressure timers; it’s chill
What bugged me a little
- Early on, the team variety is thin. You wait a bit before the fun combos show.
- The menu clicks pile up. Lots of little taps to sort gear and craft.
- If you leave it on auto, the team can waste items at odd times. I learned to tweak skills.
- Story is light. It’s mostly jokes and grind. I like that, but some folks want more plot.
Of course, not every break from the grind has to involve another video game. If you feel like swapping swords and soda for something a bit more risqué, the no-strings photo platform at Local Nudes can serve up real, user-submitted pictures from people in your area, giving you a quick distraction before you dive back into the dungeon.
For readers based in Pennsylvania who’d prefer a more localized set of listings—particularly around the Hazleton area—there’s also Backpage Hazleton, where streamlined filters and regularly updated posts make it easy to find casual meet-ups or companionship without sorting through irrelevant ads.
Tips I wish I knew (from a very normal human who messed up a few times)
- Buy the tavern upgrades that help you gather stuff faster before you chase cute gear. It pays off.
- Keep at least one healer early. Even a Nurse can carry you far.
- Use auto-battle, but check skill rules. A small change can save a run.
- Don’t hoard relic shards. Spend them. Power now beats power later.
- Try mixed teams—one tanky, one healer, one damage, two flexible. It’s basic, and it works.
Performance notes, quick and clean
- No crashes in 18 hours of play
- Fast loads between floors
- Works fine Alt-Tabbing to Spotify or Slack
- Controller deadzone felt normal out of the box
If you want to squeeze a few extra frames out of modest hardware, a quick browse of the tuning threads on TabletPCBuzz can help you dial in settings without fuss.
Final sip
Soda Dungeon 2 on PC is simple, smart, and kind of sneaky. It lets you relax, but it also lets you plan. I got hooked by the “build a little, run a little” rhythm. The download was fast. The play is smooth. The grind is gentle, not mean.
If you want a light dungeon crawler that runs on almost any PC and fits around your day, this is a sweet pick. I keep telling myself “one more floor.” Then it’s midnight. Classic me.