🧙‍♂️ Edit Wands Always: Experimentation, Modding, and Metagaming in Noita

Abstract: The roguelike genre is often defined by a relatively tough difficulty that is meant to prevent the player from consistently succeeding and instilling each run with layers of emergent and unpredictable gameplay. In most roguelikes, players will be given options along the way to experimentally customize and upgrade their avatar’s abilities, ideally (though not always) making it easier for them to reach the game’s ending. This chapter explores the tension between navigating a roguelike’s difficulty and the urge to exploratorily tinker with its available options through an in-depth analysis of Noita (Noita Games, 2020) alongside a selection of the game’s most currently popular mods on the game’s Steam Workshop page. Looking at the most subscribed mods for Noita on its Steam Workshop page at the time of this chapter’s writing, it becomes evident that many players want to tailor their gameplay experience such that it is easier to both tinker with their spells and to stay alive long enough to further use and build upon them. In this case, I argue the renowned difficulty of the roguelike genre does not seem to be the main appeal for many Noita players and that the urge to mod the game has productive synchronicity with the urge to modify their spells and wands within the game.

Keywords: Noita, roguelikes, roguelites, metagames, modding,

Please reach out to me via email if you would like to read a preprint copy of this chapter.

Recommended citation: Bailey, A. (2025).“Edit Wands Always: Experimentation, Modding, and Metagaming in Noita.” In The Rise of the Roguelite: The Influence of Roguelikes on Contemporary Video Games, edited by James Cartlidge, Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003415473