Games Like Firefly

Every map in Firefly is an escort. A firefly is the only light in the cave, apart from a few flares you carry. It follows you along its own path to the hold-out at the far end, and it waits while you fight. The ground it passes stays lit for a while, then goes dark. Step into the dark and your sanity drains until it drops you, the same as running out of health.

When it lands, the light swells to fill the arena, and the way out opens once nothing there is left alive.

An expedition

Three levels of five or six stops, a guardian at the end of every one: the Crypt Warden, the Bridge Troll, the Abyssal Lord. Each level opens with a fight. After that, every fork offers three gates: one to a fight and two to other stops, such as a camp to heal, a merchant, a cache, a stranger who trades power for a price you keep paying, or a door you can't read.

Four clubs

You start with four plain clubs. Rewards turn them into a sword, a bow, a wand that raises skeletons, or a healing staff, then stack modifiers on top: burn, freeze, bleed, pierce, ricochet, shatter.

Together

Between runs

Glow from every run, won or lost, lights the lantern tree. It changes your choices and your road, never your damage. Ten difficulties, Normal to Oblivion.