Don't Lose Aggro Turns the Most Thankless MMO Role Into a Solo Roguelite
A solo developer with 15 years of raid tanking experience just launched an action roguelite built entirely around keeping aggro. It already has Very Positive reviews on Steam.
Every MMO player knows the deal. DPS gets the glory, healers get the gratitude, and the tank gets blamed when someone pulls an extra pack. Don’t Lose Aggro takes that thankless role and builds an entire roguelite around it.
Solo developer Oren Koren launched the game into Early Access on Steam yesterday, April 15. It already sits at Very Positive reviews.
What Makes This Different
You play as the party’s tank. Your job is not to deal the most damage or have the flashiest combos. Your job is to keep every enemy focused on you while your AI companions do their thing. Lose aggro and your team dies. Simple concept, surprisingly deep execution.
The game offers four distinct tank archetypes. The Dodger focuses on evasion, the Blocker on damage mitigation, the Kiter on movement and positioning, and the Taunter on raw threat generation. Each plays fundamentally differently, with unique upgrade paths that change your approach to every encounter.
Three game modes keep things varied. Wave Defense tests your crowd control and positioning. Dungeon Crawl rewards speed. Boss Rush demands precise cooldown management and execution.
A Passion Project 15 Years in the Making
Koren spent 15 years as a raid tank, primarily in World of Warcraft. He started learning Unity during the COVID lockdowns in 2020, participated in game jams, worked in AAA for a year, then went solo. Don’t Lose Aggro took 2.5 years to build from scratch.
He describes it as “both my love letter to tanking, as well as my take in creating a safe practicing environment for people to explore tanking without the usual fear and anxiety.” Anyone who has ever hesitated to queue as tank in a random dungeon finder will understand exactly what he means.
What You Get in Early Access
The current build includes three shields that each change your playstyle, three talent trees, two AI companions with their own upgrades, three biomes, and 10 selectable abilities per session. Koren estimates the current content at over 10 hours. The Early Access roadmap targets a 12 month development period, with plans to add more companions, larger party sizes with difficulty scaling, and expanded MMO inspired systems.
The game supports 13 languages at launch and is Steam Deck verified with full controller support. Impressive scope for a one person team.
Should You Try It?
If you have ever enjoyed the action roguelite genre, Don’t Lose Aggro carves out a niche that genuinely does not exist elsewhere. No other game focuses exclusively on the MMO tank fantasy as a solo experience. The closest comparison might be the shield combat in Doom: The Dark Ages, but this leans far more into the tactical MMO side with threat management, taunts, and party protection.
It is also bundled on Steam with Erenshor, another solo MMO inspired indie game, which suggests a growing appetite for games that capture the feeling of online multiplayer without actually requiring other people.
Don’t Lose Aggro is available now on Steam for $9.99 with a 20% launch discount bringing it down to $7.99 until April 29. A free demo is also available if you want to test the waters before committing.
Looking for more roguelites? Check out our list of the best roguelike games in 2026 or explore games like Hades for more action focused picks.
Written by
Florian HuetiOS dev by day, indie game dev by night. Trying to give life to GameDō Studio.
Building games and talking about the ones I can't stop playing.
