Shroom and Gloom Guide: How the Double Deck Works

Two decks, two jobs

The name is literal. Team Lazerbeam call the game a “double-deckbuilder”, and the Steam description splits the roles cleanly: the combat deck is there to survive fights, and the explore deck is there to “navigate dungeons, modify your cards, or unlock new weapons and abilities”.

You see the split in the interface. In a tunnel the hand is green and the cards do tunnel things: CAMP FIRE (1 energy, CAMP) adds WARMTH “to hold danger at bay”, KEY (0 energy, PICK) reads “Unlock and consume”, RAT JERKY (1 energy, FOOD, 3 uses) offers “Feed or heal 3. Draw 1 card”. Step into a fight and the hand turns purple: STAB (1 energy) deals 7 damage, ROAST (1 energy) deals 12.

The practical consequence for a new player is that a bad explore deck quietly loses you the run. It is the deck that opens the locked doors, lights the camps and buys you the card modifications, and none of that shows up on a damage number.

Energy is per turn, and small

Both hands run off the same round counter in the bottom-left corner of the screen. In the official screenshots it sits at 3, with most cards costing 1. That is roughly three actions per turn, which is why free cards matter — KEY costing 0 is not a footnote, it is a whole extra action.

Health carries, and grows

The player health readout goes from 25/25 in the early tunnels to 54/64 and 26/40 in deeper screenshots. Maximum health rises during a run, so early damage taken is not automatically a lost run; it is a resource you spend and claw back by eating.

Eating is the healing system

There is no traditional block-and-heal loop. The official line is blunt: “Why block your enemies when you could eat them instead”. ROAST shows the mechanism — “Deal 12 damage. If FATAL, make TOASTY” — so a kill with the right card leaves something edible behind. Roasted enemies can also go in a pot to cook soups the developers describe as game-changing.

This is why damage tuning matters more here than in most deckbuilders. Killing something with a non-fatal-triggered card still kills it, but you leave the meal on the table.

Growth over rarity

The pitch is “infinite growth”: grow low-level starting cards into over-powered attacks, or modify rare cards into game-breaking super-weapons. One card in the official boss-fight screenshot, EVERLASTING TRUFFLE, carries 97 USES — a printed number that shows how far past its starting value a card can be pushed.

Read that as a priority rule for your first runs: a STAB you have grown beats a rare card you drew once and cannot afford to play.

Where to go next

• The card list transcribes every card legible in official material, plus what FATAL, TOASTY and LODGED mean.
• The exploration guide covers camping, hazards and the pressure The Gloom applies when you linger.
• The combat guide covers intents and fatal-triggered cards.
• If you have not played yet, the demo page explains what the free build includes.