Malleus is a horror roguelite where you play as a child lost and trapped in a haunted circus, by an eldritch carnival Game Master. You are forced into a rigged version of the classic 'test your strength' game. The only way out is to learn his tricks and beat him in his own con.

It is played across 10 sessions per run, five escalating runs in total. Each session has two phases; a scanning phase where you reveal and deactivate hexes to make your strength count, and a striking phase where you actually swing the hammer. Miss hexes and fatigue builds; enough fatigue and your focus drops eventually losing power. This resets the fatigue, but kills your chances for that session of ringing the bell.

You're juggling three stats, Power, Grip, and Focus. They are upgraded at a vending machine that resets every three sessions, so you're constantly deciding what to spend on versus what to save.

Between runs you pick up buff cards from a finite pool (some temporary, some permanent) and the deeper hook is the Game Master baiting you to keep playing for three "prized possessions": trapped children's souls that reshape your stats and playstyle, essentially functioning as archetypes (Brute, Coward, Perfectionist).