The Labyrinth 2026

The Labyrinth is a solo dungeon scrawler where you race to escape a maze while a minotaur hunts you through the corridors. Form interconnected words to navigate towards the exit, but every turn you take, the minotaur moves closer. Find the way out before it catches you, or become another victim lost in the endless passages.

On Your Turn: Place a word on the map by writing letters along your path. Each word must connect to your previous word by sharing or touching a letter horizontally or vertically. Your first three words are safe, but after that, the minotaur awakens.

The Hunt: Once awakened, the minotaur moves after each of your words. Roll a die to determine its movement, and it crosses off that many letters from your path, making them unavailable for future words. When it reaches a branch, it destroys all letters along shorter paths before continuing down the longest route. Rolling a 6 triggers a charge where the minotaur rests, but you cannot reroll that turn.

You start with 5 rerolls for the entire game. Use them wisely to avoid disaster, but remember that crossed-off letters cannot be used for word placement (though they don't block adjacency between remaining letters).

Winning and Losing: The game ends when you reach one of four exits or when the minotaur catches you. Each exit offers different bonus points, tempting you to push deeper into the maze for higher rewards. Your final score combines treasure collected during your escape with your chosen exit bonus. Victory means successfully escaping with your treasure intact. Failure means the minotaur destroys your path before you can reach safety.

—description from the designer