Shroom and Gloom Pathways
Two routes to The Gloom at Early Access, unique card pools, and a third path planned later.
Shroom and Gloom is scheduled to open Steam Early Access on 10 September 2026 with two distinct pathways to The Gloom. Team Lazerbeam and Devolver Digital have been blunt about the split: each path carries unique explore and combat card pools, unique characters, and unique dungeon verbs. Steam’s Early Access FAQ puts the paid launch in a “good, playable state” with about 300 explore and combat cards per pathway. That is not 1.0. A third path is planned to roll out during Early Access, which the studio currently plans to last 12 to 24 months.
This page is how to choose a route without inventing a fake card encyclopedia. The demo you can play today is still the cavern slice: Paperboy, 26 handcrafted tunnels, wooden locks, shovels, and a mushroom key for the Gloom door. The Facility is the second Early Access path. Facility lock verbs and metal rooms also live on the Explore Deck Guide. Roster notes live on the Characters Guide. Dates and the 12–24 month window live on Early Access.
Two paths at Early Access launch
The August 2026 Steam log is the roster and path pillar. Five playable characters: Paperboy, Concerned Parent, Lunchlady, Janitor, and Activist. Two separate paths to The Gloom, each with unique card pools. Devolver’s diary Emerging into Early Access on September 10 names the cavern route as The Forgotten Path and the industrial route as The Facility. Do not treat those names as skins of the same dungeon. Dig spots, lock verbs, enemy silhouettes, and the shop bowl all change when the wallpaper stops being moss.
The demo is one path. Official demo copy still says 26 handcrafted tunnels, spore-swarming enemies, biome bosses, and eight hidden Foresight rewards. That is the Forgotten Path classroom. Playtopia 2025 showed a public slice of The Facility’s first act in a 12-meter booth tunnel. Early Access is where that path is supposed to exist as a real second route, not a festival booth. If you have not finished the demo yet, start with Getting Started and the Demo Walkthrough.
About 300 explore and combat cards per pathway is the team’s current-state sentence, not a promise that every card is equally deep on day one. Quests unlock characters and bolster pools. Synergies and unlocks are how they sell replay. This wiki will not publish a numbered list of 300 names nobody has sourced. Named tools you can actually cite today are still the demo set: Distant Shadow, Toasty, Seasoned, Burning Sensation, the practice dummy, the frog statue. Facility names belong here when the paid build prints them.
The Forgotten Path
The Forgotten Path is the cavern you already know if you installed the free demo. Hand-drawn moss, hanging caps, wooden doors, glowing locks, Mossy and Thorny and Trippy dirt that pays tunnel-specific cards when you dig. Paperboy is the starter: campfire, Fireballs you can feed for Headpoints and Burning Sensation, and a habit of taking one extra explore turn if warmth allows. Lunchlady and Concerned Parent live on this side of the roster in official diaries. Lunchlady cooks and feeds with a pet dog. Concerned Parent runs moods, Parental Instinct, and Hysterical Strength.
Explore verbs here are still keys, headbutts that spend Headpoints, shovels, rest, camp structures, the practice dummy, and the frog statue. Combat is roast, season, stab, optional Distant Shadow, and whatever growth the dummy printed. There are no classic block cards. You live on Headpoints, food, and eating. The Combat Deck Guide and How to Eat Enemies stay true on both paths; the Forgotten Path is simply the pool the demo already teaches.
Biome labels change which dig spots pay. Forks advertise Foresight. The Gloom door still wants the mushroom key. None of that is a Facility tutorial. Do not backtrack the current 26 tunnels looking for a janitor closet that is scheduled for the paid build. The map guide is the cavern layout lesson: 26 rooms, an improved map, camp torches, and a warning not to linger.
The Facility
The Facility is a second pathway toward The Gloom with its own cards, characters, and mechanics. Developer overviews show an ominous metal tunnel, flickering lights, a hazmat corpse you loot, rusted chain-link fencing, broken machinery, barrels of toxic waste, and high-tech doors with digital locks that need to be gunked or hacked instead of opened with a wooden key. Caves still appear, but the modern setting is no longer a rumor. Breaking out of rocky caves leads through a destroyed reception area into decontamination chambers, servers, and laboratories.
Janitor is the Facility-facing class the team has teased around gunk, machines, and data. Activist is listed in the Early Access roster of five. Neither kit is the demo starter. Official diaries have postponed a full tour of gunk, machines, data, and the Janitor kit for a later log. That honesty is the guide. Speak in systems until named cards are public in the paid build: new lock verbs, junk resources, a new explore pool that still feeds a combat deck, because the double-deck rule does not change when the lights go fluorescent.
The Facility is not a reskin of the Forgotten Path. Unique explore and combat card pools is the Steam sentence. If you draft as if every shovel and roast will transfer, you will be holding cavern tools in a digital lock. Use the deck planner after you have actually seen the pool, not before. Rank systems on the tier list hub until both pools are playable; the card rankings and build list are demo-era tools, not a Facility spoiler sheet.
How to choose a path
Choose the Forgotten Path if you want the demo’s language at full length: warmth, camp, roast, dummy, frog statue, Paperboy’s extra turn, and the kitchen Lunchlady will later own. Choose The Facility if the metal rooms and digital locks are why you wishlisted, and you are willing to learn new verbs on 10 September instead of importing a 26-tunnel muscle memory.
You do not need to “main” a path on day one of Early Access. The studio has framed quests as the unlock loop for characters and extra cards. Paperboy remains the on-ramp. Concerned Parent and Lunchlady sit with the Forgotten Path in the diary. Janitor sits with The Facility. Activist is a scheduled fifth name with a thinner public kit; do not invent a signature card to fill the silence.
If first-person motion already bothers you in the demo, neither path will become a static card table. Confirm system requirements and controls before you pick a wallpaper. Install notes stay on the demo hub. The loop that feeds both decks is still How to Play. Bosses and the mushroom key still sit on How to Beat Bosses. A path is a vocabulary. It is not a different game with block cards.
The third path later
Steam’s Early Access FAQ says the full version is planned to differ by expanding the game with a new pathway featuring unique explore and combat cards, new character classes, and additional quests and challenges across all pathways. The diary’s third and final path to The Gloom matches that sentence. It is not a day-one promise. It is a 12-to-24-month plan.
Do not wait in the demo for a third door. The demo’s job is the cavern slice, the prologue, the improved map, and a Gloom ending event. When the third path actually drops, that is a new log, not a sneaky rewrite of this page. Follow news and official links for the diary that names it.
Until 10 September 2026, the honest choice is simpler than a three-column chart. Play Paperboy on the path that already exists. Learn rest, warmth, eating, and one Foresight. Wishlist the paid app. When Early Access opens two unique pools of about 300 cards each, pick the dungeon whose verbs you actually want to click — moss and campfire, or gunk and a digital lock — and leave the third hallway for the year the studio is willing to print it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Shroom and Gloom questions.
How many pathways does Shroom and Gloom have at Early Access launch?
Two distinct paths to The Gloom, each with unique explore and combat card pools of about 300 cards. A third path is planned later during Early Access. See Early Access.
What is The Facility?
The second Early Access path: metal tunnels, digital locks that want gunk or a hack, and Facility-facing characters such as Janitor. Tool verbs are on the Explore Deck Guide.
Is the demo the same as The Forgotten Path?
The free demo is the cavern classroom: Paperboy, 26 tunnels, eight Foresights. It is not the full two-path Early Access build. Route notes are on the Demo Walkthrough.
Which characters belong to which path?
Paperboy, Lunchlady, and Concerned Parent sit with The Forgotten Path in official diaries. Janitor sits with The Facility. Activist is listed in the five-character Early Access roster. Details are on the Characters Guide.
When does the third path arrive?
Not on 10 September 2026. Steam's FAQ plans a new pathway during a 12-to-24-month Early Access. Wait for a named log, not a rumor door in the demo.
Do card pools transfer between paths?
No. Unique explore and combat pools are the point. Draft after you see the path, and use the deck planner instead of assuming every shovel transfers.