Spellatro brings a Balatro-style twist to Scrabble

The success of Balatro has prompted the launch of a whole host of roguelikes inspired by its premise, such as The Tower of 21 and Black Jacket. Spellatro gameplay combines the classic word game Scrabble with ideas from Balatro to create a single-player spelling challenge that features upgrades and puzzles to solve along the way. 

We’ve got all the details you need to know about the Spellatro game, so you can spell your way to success with powerful boosts on your side.  

What is Spellatro?

The Spellatro demo begins with the level selection screen, which features the first set as relatively straightforward. You start with a random selection of letters from your bag, each with a score tied to it, just like regular Scrabble. Although the UI is simple, it contains all the important information you need to be able to progress through the levels. 

You begin by being able to spell out words of up to six letters in a certain number of moves, also known as submits. In the first level, for example, you can submit up to three words in order to hit the total target score of 80. Every level has an increasing target score you must reach, but there are buffs you can get along the way that will help you shoot for those high scores.

Spellatro gameplay consists of different kinds of items you can take with you into future rounds. If you clear a round in three words or fewer, passives appear as rewards. Completing a round in two words or fewer offers more buffed reward items, while achieving a round win in just one word allows you to reroll the selection of rewards. You can have six passives active at once, and they appear at the top of your screen. 

Examples of passives include the A/A tile, which permanently adds a +1 multiplier to your word if it starts or ends with the letter A. The passive tile known as 6S will contribute 80 points to your score if you submit a word that is six or more letters in length, but the 4M passive adds a +10 multiplier if your word consists of four letters or fewer. 

As for buffs, these are applied to your playing tiles. The Ice tile, for example, applies the ice element to four tiles, which is a point bonus that increases after one turn. The Support buff turns five chosen tiles into support tiles, granting a +2 multiplier if they’re in your rack when you score. As you can see, the passive abilities and buffs you select can significantly alter your strategy, but they can also help you rack up large scores, even if the letters you have to work with aren’t in your favor.

Each set in the Spellatro game has a boss at the very end that wields a curse that is designed to work against you, but mini-curses can apply to regular rounds, too. The curses can vary from certain letters being debuffed to a random slot being debuffed, and even timed boss fights, forcing you to make moves faster. 

The end goal of the Spellatro roguelike is to complete all seven sets and defeat the final boss to beat the odds and become the ultimate spelling champion. With over 100 passive abilities, there are many ways you can surpass even the most difficult total target scores.

When will Spellatro be released?

The Spellatro release date is yet to be confirmed, but it’s listed as releasing on Steam in 2026, likely nearer the beginning of the year. The title was previously expected to arrive in 2025, and now that we’re in January, it’s clear that didn’t happen. When the game does launch, it will be free to play, so if you like Scrabble and roguelikes, Spellatro is worth a try. 

Who is the developer of Spellatro?

The Spellatro developer is Ian Campbell, Lead Designer at Drinkbox Studios. Campbell has also created Bleed, an action-platformer with challenging combat where you help a girl named Wryn fulfill her dreams of becoming a video game hero. Bleed 2 returned as a sequel and sees Wryn as the only remaining hero fighting an invasion of villains.

How long is the Spellatro demo?

The Spellatro demo consists of seven stages that must be completed. However, there is plenty of replayability on offer due to the presence of diverse buffs and passives, and the randomness of the playing tiles your bag will spit out. Whether you win or lose, there’s enough incentive to continue playing. Spellatro can be difficult, and if you lose a round in a set, it’s game over, and you must restart from the beginning. If you do fail a run, you are given the choice of one brand-new passive to unlock.

In addition, Spellatro features different bags and difficulty levels to choose from. The Standard bag enforces standard rules and regular letters in the starting bag, while the Timed bag has lower score targets, but every turn must be made within 90 seconds. New bags are unlocked when you discover a certain number of passive abilities. 

How does Spellatro compare to Balatro?

Spellatro gameplay focuses on stackable buffs and passives applied to tiles to help you generate big numbers, and Balatro has a multitude of card modifiers that create synergies to shift the randomness of the mechanics in your favor. Both games require you to reach a target to progress (blinds in Balatro and total target score in Spellatro), while boss fights also stand in the way of your path to victory. 

Despite both being roguelikes, the main difference between Spellatro and Balatro is that Balatro is a deckbuilder inspired by the rules of Poker, while Spellatro is based on the rules of Scrabble. Placing your strategy around Poker hands in Balatro and the tactical use of letters in Spellatro offers a distinct gameplay dynamic from cards and probability in Balatro to the more puzzle and word-optimization angle of Spellatro.