Beethro Budkin returns to King Dugan's Dungeon with his nephew Halph, to explore a previously inaccessible passage in level 10. This passage leads deep down into an expanding underground empire. More importantly, it leads to more puzzles to solve, more monsters to smite, and more secrets to discover!

Core gameplay is unchanged from the original turn-based DROD. Each level to conquer is made up of several connected rooms, and each room is filled with monsters, doors, and environmental obstacles. To clear a room, you must destroy all of the monsters in it, which will open doors that give access to more rooms. Your primary weapon for splattering monsters is your sword, and careful maneuvering of it is necessary to kill them in a timely manner while preventing any from attacking from your vulnerable sides or rear.

DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold adds several new monsters, such as Golems, Wubbas, Living Mud, and the seemingly invincible Slayer. In addition, it features a new hi-res graphics engine, characters with fully voiced dialogue, and CaravelNet, a server that ranks players' efficiency and speed of clearing the rooms, and hosts dozens of user-created levels which can be downloaded in-game and played.