Getting Started Guide

How Many Dudes? is a roguelike dudebuilder developed by Butterscotch Shenanigans. Your goal is simple in concept but deep in execution: recruit an army of Dudes, build unstoppable synergies, and survive the escalating chaos of the Dude Ranch. This guide covers everything from launching the demo to your first 50-wave run.

Downloading and Launching the Demo

The free How Many Dudes? demo is available on three platforms. Steam is recommended for the best experience — it runs at full 4K resolution with superior performance, and any progress you make carries over to the full game upon release.

To get started:

1. Visit the official Steam page and click Play Demo
2. Alternatively, play directly in your browser at itch.io or Gx.games
3. On first launch, work through the brief interactive tutorial that introduces the core loop: recruit Dudes, position them, watch battles unfold

Understanding the Core Loop

Every run of How Many Dudes? follows the same structure:

Between battles: You visit the Dude Ranch to recruit new Dudes, spend Silver and Gold on upgrades, and choose Relics from the available pool.

During battles: Your Dude squad fights automatically. You control only positioning (before the fight starts) and which enemies to prioritize. The autobattler system handles all combat math.

After battles: You earn Silver, Gold, and sometimes Star ratings for individual Dudes. Higher Star ratings improve that Dude’s base stats permanently.

This loop repeats until your entire squad is Knocked Out. How far you get is your score.

The Six Dude Families

Dudes are the heart of How Many Dudes?. There are 42 unique Dudes across six families, each with a distinct role:

Family	Role	Example Dudes
Undead Dudes	Grow stronger as allies fall	Zombie Dude, Vampire Dude
Employed Dudes	Economy and support	Workin’ Dude, Finance Dude
Warrior Dudes	Frontline tanks and bruisers	Knight Dude, Samurai Dude
Fantasy Dudes	Magic damage and control	Wizard Dude, Cleric Dude
Sci-Fi Dudes	High-tech burst and utility	Hacker Dude, Medic Dude
Action Dudes	Aggressive damage dealers	Ninja Dude, Cowboy Dude

Each family has 6–8 unique Dudes. Within a family, all Dudes share a synergy bonus — combining 2 or more Dudes from the same family activates that family’s bonus. Combining 4 or more often unlocks a stronger variant of the bonus.

Building Your First Synergy

The most common beginner mistake is trying to use Dudes from too many families at once. When you do this, you spread your synergy stacks thin and end up with a team that has no strong bonuses.

Instead, focus on one or two families and build around their synergy. Here are three solid starter builds:

Zombie + Necromancer (Undead) Zombie Dudes gain attack power every time another Dude falls in battle. Necromancer Dudes resurrect fallen allies, which means more Zombies scale faster. Stack these two together and watch your damage spiral.

Ninja + Cowboy (Action) Ninja Dudes gain Stealth after a kill, making them harder to target. Cowboy Dudes can lasso allies out of danger, protecting your key damage dealers. Together they create a hit-and-run playstyle.

Wizard + Cleric (Fantasy) Wizard Dudes deal heavy area magic damage. Cleric Dudes heal the squad and provide temporary HP through Taunt mechanics. This pairing balances offense and sustain through the mid-game.

Relics: The Game-Changing Collection

Relics are the other half of How Many Dudes?’s depth. There are over 100 Relics in the game, each permanently altering how a Dude or the whole squad behaves.

Examples from the demo and official previews:

• Bloody Talisman — whenever a Dude receives healing, they gain 1% attack speed for the rest of the battle (stacks up to 20 times)
• Clerical Error — the Cleric Dude’s healing pulse also deals damage to enemies equal to 50% of the Cleric’s DPS
• Bat Wings (Vampire Dude specific) — grants escape abilities after taking lethal damage

Relics drop from battles and Wandering Dude events. You can influence which Relics appear by controlling the Relic Pool — choosing Dude Families at the start of a run narrows which Relics are likely to show up.

Trinkets: Boss Rewards That Reshape Builds

Defeating Act Bosses earns you Trinkets, which are powerful items assigned to a specific Dude Type. Unlike Relics, Trinkets are chosen from a small selection after each Act Boss, letting you deliberately craft a strategy.

For example, giving your Wizard Dude the ADHD Trinket or your Samurai Dude a Taser creates entirely new play patterns. Some of the most powerful builds in the game come from combining a Trinket with the right Relic and Dude synergy.

Positioning Your Dudes

Although combat is fully automated, you control one critical element: positioning. Before each battle, drag your Dudes into different slots on the battlefield.

General rules:

• Tanks (Warriors, Knights) go in front — enemies attack the leftmost Dudes first, so put your durable Dudes at the front to absorb damage
• Glass cannons (Ninjas, Wizards) go in back — keeping high-DPS Dudes behind tanks ensures they survive to deal damage
• Medics and Support in the middle — Clerics and Medics need to be close enough to heal everyone but protected enough to not get focused

The Dudex: Your In-Game Encyclopedia

One of How Many Dudes?’s best features is its depth of information. Nearly every UI element is clickable for a tooltip. Additionally, the game includes The Dudex — a built-in glossary with in-depth explanations of every mechanic, Dude, Relic, and synergy in the game.

If you are ever unsure what something does, click it first before consulting external sources.

Key Tips for Your First Run

• Do not spend all your Gold early. Save resources for mid-run power spikes when you find a strong Relic combination.
• Prioritize economy Dudes (Workin’ Dude, Finance Dude) early. Extra Gold compounds dramatically by wave 50+.
• Bias toward Cheat Death Relics. These prevent your key Dudes from being Knocked Out, letting you take bigger risks and save money.
• Try weird team combinations. The game rewards experimentation — some of the most powerful synergies come from unexpected family mixes.
• Plan for the Act Boss. Each Act ends with a challenging boss fight. Build a squad that can handle both the boss and the waves leading up to it.

Next Steps

Once you have completed your first run, explore these related guides:

• Synergies and Build Guide — deeper look at cross-family synergy chains
• Relics and Trinkets Guide — how to manipulate the Relic Pool and choose the right Trinkets
• Game Modes Overview — Daily Dude, Ensemble Mode, and the full game release plans