Best mobile games with 0 microtransactions?

ericbomb@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 176 points –

I do like having games on my phone, but it's always a struggle looking for games with 0 microtransactions. So would like a game I can out right pay for, or one with ads. The ability to disable ads for $5 is chill though.

I've played a lot of games that you can "have fun being f2p" but some days I just get really sick and tired of games I play trying to sell me things every 30 seconds.

So do you guys have any?

If not I may go back to playing GBA games on my phone XD

EDIT: Oh selling like expansions is probably fine if it's legit like a full other game. I'm on android

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Shattered Pixel Dungeon is great, it's an open-source dungeon crawler. Neither adds, nor transactions, micro or otherwise. If you want to pay tho, there's a donation link for the dev team.

And if you still want too play GBA games, check check out the Lemuroid emulator, it's also open source and has no adds. Works for nintendoDS too.

You can find both of these on F-Droid. They're also be on Google Play, but since I've only tried the F-Droid version idk if the other has adds.

the dev team

The team is one guy. His name's Evan.

I also highly recommend Shattered Pixel Dungeon. I've been playing it for years.

There's also a version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup on mobile. Although the UI is quite clunky with the control and shift commands imported from PC. But the gameplay is more elaborate than Shattered Pixel Dungeon, I'd say.

Great game. Been playing it for years.

However, the mobile UI has some serious issues since it was more of a secondary thought. It's really easy to accidentally tap to move somewhere and ruin an entire run that you were really enjoying. There's no undo or any way of editing the save to help recover the run. I've stopped playing for months because I was just so discouraged after shit like that constantly happening. In fact, I've hit that point just now.

Some stuff like that's definitely happened to me. My dumbest defeat was after drinking a potion of levitation to get past some disintegration traps, accidentally tapped he wrong part of the screen, thought I might still have enough fuel to make it to the chest and I'd use my spirit chain on the way back... But nope, I fell right on a trap and died. I had an ankh, but not a blessed one, so even tho I could make it back to that room's entrance I had no way to recover my bag.

Started playing Balatro on my phone at work.

I didn't need to know mobile balatro was a thing, oh no. Not good.. not good.

Don't download Balatro on mobile unless you want to lose your job, family, friends, and health. It's that addictive.

Ooh yeah pc games that have good mobile ports are a good shout!

Surprised Slice & Dice hasn't been mentioned, it's amazing. That and Dawncaster.

A useful tool is DarkPattern.games, which lists dark patterns in mobile games (such as micro transactions).

I am ready to dedicate my life to adding reviews to that site and getting more people to contribute. I want an app store that automatically filters out things below like a 2.

I am in love.

  • Slice & Dice
  • Balatro
  • Stardew Valley
  • Terraria
  • BloonsTD6
  • Arcadium
  • Shattered Pixel Dungeon
  • Geometry Dash
  • Mini Metro
  • Brotato
  • Slay the Spire
  • Peglin

Whatever emulator you can run and the ROMs of your choice.

Mindustry is basically Factorio-meets-tower-defense. It's open-source, also available on desktop.

Ahhhh Mindustry, such an amazing game! I play it on my phone almost daily

Slay The Spire

How is the mobile port? I like the PC version but recall someone saying the mobile port specifically wasn't great.

It's exactly the same game

The only quirks I've noticed are minor. You sometimes go back to your home screen if you try dragging a card too close to the edge of the screen. Sometimes the the lower background elements don't stay in the background and cover pertinent information

Mini Metro. Its a transportation strategy game where you build and manage a city´s metro system through the style of the London tube map. You pay once and get the whole game. No ads or micro transactions.

Open Tyrian is an old shoot em up thats open source and has been ported to dozens of platforms, including android. It plays very well with touch controls.

If you want a Minecraft like game thats free and has no microtransactions I recommend Minetest (Now called Luanti). Its open source and has tons of mods.

Minetest is a good suggestion, but it's worth noting that the base application won't have anything playable on install. A few of the games made with it attempt to recreate Minecraft, but it's not limited to that.

Also, while the core team has announced the name change, it's still listed as Minetest on both the play store and F-Droid.

Thank you so much for the Mini Metro suggestion! Loving it!

It’s been a while. Have you thrown your phone yet?

Still loving it! After fucking up a bunch of times I started reading up on some strategies. Still stuck on London, but I'm enjoying it

Some good ones from the fdroid app-repo.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon - already mentioned roguelike

SGT-Puzzles - already mentioned microgame puzzlers

Frozen Bubble - already mentioned bubble-shooter

Vector Pinball - already mentioned pinball

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.artificialworlds.boxstacker/index.html - Physics puzzler

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.simondalvai.ball2box/ - flick ball to the box for 3-stars

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.gpl.rpg.AndorsTrail/ - Massive story quest driven RPG

https://f-droid.org/packages/de.chadenas.cpudefense/ - Tower defense on a PCB

https://f-droid.org/packages/ch.logixisland.anuto/ - trad tower-defense

https://f-droid.org/packages/it.alessandropira.wesnoth114/ - hex turn-based fantasy RPG

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.lettucepie.flickybee/index.html - flick the bee through the course

I didn't see Unciv recommended yet, it's a decent mobile open source version of Civilization.

Pocket City 2 also gets a shout-out, it's not very deep but a nice casual city builder with a one time purchase.

Slay the Spire is one of my favorite games of all time, and has a nice android port I play before bed all the time. No ads, just caw caaaw

Oh no! It looks like you don’t have enough block! Would you like to buy enough block to survive this round with 1 HP for $0.99?

Balatro and Slay the Spire both have a lot of reply value. Very different games.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a really good roguelike for mobile. Ton of variety, no ads, only thing you can buy is a supporter pack that gives the ui a different fringe color, and that doesn't get pushed.

Stardew Valley! It was worth the $5 already in vanilla, then it got updated with more content at no extra charge and then again. And now 1.6 is around the corner with even more. It is the love child of one dev that keeps on giving and giving and giving. And there are tons of mods of all kinds including entire world overhauls that adds even more replayability. Very much recommended.

Freeciv Unciv on Android is an almost feature complete re-creation of Civilization 5 with minimal graphics. You can also download the JAR and run it on a desktop if you have a Java SDK installed. As a Civ player that started with 4, I found it easier to pick up than freeciv which is trying to replicate something more like Civ2.

Edit: provide correct name

Plague Inc - control a plague and try to kill all humans on earth (tactical simulation)

Interstellar Pilot and Interstellar Pilot 2 - human explorers jumped through a wormhole to distant space and lost contact with earth. Factions control different sectors, some are friendly some are warring. You start with a single ship and try to do anything between simple survival and building a new faction to conquer all of this new space. (Open world rpg with tactical simulation elements)

Battlecruisers - The machines won, humanity is no more. You are not the smartest robot and somehow you managed to accidentally hijack a military battlecruiser. You are pursued across the world's oceans by several navies while you try to figure out how to get out of the mess you created. (shipbuilder)

The Netflix version of mobile games have their micro transactions removed (or at least all the ones I've downloaded).

Threes

Fun puzzle game that got ripped off by 2048 and it's endless clones. They wrote a blog post on how shitty mobile game development can be.

DATA WING is a great racing game with an amazing, short story.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a fun little RPG with lots of humour

Dribble is a surprisingly unique platformer, free with no iaps and unique swipe controls.

You can get ports of the marble blast games on Android, I particularly like Ultra.

Turnip Boy seems to require microtransactions according to the reviews.

Balatro, works really well with touch, numbers go brrrrrrrrr

Endless Sky is a solid space trader and combat game, free on f-droid

Frozen Bubble is a pretty fun bubble bobble Puzzle Bobble clone, also on f-droid

Arx Libertatis allows you to play the full version of Arx Fatalis, a super in depth underground RPG inspired by Ultima Underworld. You need the PC game files to transfer to your phone though.

Surely frozen bubble has absolutely nothing to do with bubble bobble.

If you enjoy puzzle games then Baba is You, Snake Bird and Railbound will keep you busy for quite a while.

The best Windows game ever made, ported to Android

I had no idea this was ported to mobile, thank you for informing me. May all your pillows be your preferred temperature for sleeping on both sides for the rest of your life.

Wow this is amazing. My dad and I used to compete against each other to get the highest score on our old PC. Thanks for the recommendation

Balatro has no micro transactions but will consume your life regardless

I grabbed Rusted Warfare RTS not long ago. It's a real-time strategy game. $1.99 on the Google Play store.

I've just downloaded that in the past few days but haven't tried it yet. How do you like it?

Have you played Supreme Commander? It's basically a simplified Supreme Commander.

You gather credits by building extractors, and extractors can only be put on resource deposits, so your aim is to control those deposits.

But where SupCom 2 has mass, energy, and research, Rusted Warfare has only credits.

What I look for

When I play RTS games, it's almost-exclusively:

  • co-op against the AI
  • with teammates
    • ^^ teammates who don't spend time practicing RTS skills

So I'm looking for very specific things in a game. So far, of the games I've played, Rusted Warfare is top three when it comes to those things. (The other two in my top 3 are Age of Empires 3 and Nemesis of the Roman Empire (aka Celtic Kings 2)).

It got into my top three by being strong in the following areas:

Simplicity

Rusted Warfare is simple enough that my teammates can follow my requests without needing to train and practice on their own.

For instance, I can advise my teammates, "upgrade your extractors" and they can follow my advice without requiring a tutorial on resource management and energy shortages.

For comparison, in Supreme Commander (the franchise that was very clearly the inspiration for this game), trying to upgrade your extractor without sufficient knowledge on energy shortages can lead to choking out your entire economy.

Bull-headed AI

This is the most important thing I look for in casual co-op RTS.

In most RTS games, if the AI has 100 units? They are now attacking you on 100 different fronts. And focusing on any one front will deliver you losses at the other 99. It's a game of whack-a-mole where you are punished for every mole you miss.

I know I said Age of Empires 3 is in my top three, but Age of Empires 2? Exhausting, excrutiating, and infuriating. It's basically impossible to enjoy playing against the AI.

Same goes for Company of Heroes. I have broken a clavicle and wrist, and I can tell you without hesitation that playing against the AI in Company of Heroes is several times more painful than breaking bones.

Some people like that in a game. I do not.

Rusted Warfare, on the other hand, features an AI that mostly attacks you directly. Put a cluster of turrets between your base and theirs? You're now battling 80% of their incursions. They'll attack your flanks eventually, but you don't have to divide your attention evenly between all 100 different locations. It's almost like you and the AI are looking at the same place.

It's rare to find an RTS game where you are allowed to enjoy yourself. Most punish anyone who drops below 200 actions per minute.

But in Rusted Warfare, you can just... play.

Progression

I have extraordinarily heavy ADHD (first percentile on impulse control and sustained focus). But as long as a game has the bare minimum of progression (upgrades, building tree, etc) then I don't get bored and disengaged.

And Rusted Warfare has that. It's got at least the bare minimum.

There's always something for me to do: upgrade extractors, add turrets, build experimental factories, etc. And finishing this process does yield some pretty satisfying armadas... especially if I'm playing with mods.

In summary

I highly recommend it for casual co-op.

Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful. I will definitely be trying this out sooner than later. The main RTS I played was Command & Conquer Red Alert as a kid. I've been wanting to dabble in the genre again, but didn't want anything too complicated. This sounds perfect

Minecraft pocket edition has microtransactions but it only ever pushes them on the menu never actually in game so maybe that's a compromise? Also it's simple but this port of Simon Tatham's portable puzzle collection is pretty good and has no ads or microtransactions https://f-droid.org/en/packages/name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles/

... What is mc pocket edition even trying to sell?

The stupid paid texture packs and maps and skins on the marketplace

Maps, skins, mods, texture packs and cosmetics

The first 4 of them can be obtained from third party sites for free

I really enjoyed playing the platforms cats are liquid: a better place(there is also a light in the shadow, but that game is worse); catbird, nameless cat, kitty death room and the 4 dadish games

If you want a game that has microtransactions, but rarely try to sell you things, i would recommended the tower defense game(i think) the battle cats. There is also a 10 year celebration that gives you a lot of rewards

Fran Bow . It's a psychological terror click adventure, available on both Mobile and PC. On mobile I think it has 5 different chapters, and 0 transactions other than the buying price. Really recommend it!

The Lifeline series from 3 minute games is excellent if you like a twist on choose your own adventure games.

Old school RuneScape

There is a f2p that you can get hundreds of hours out of, but the full game has a monthly membership. It’s possible to sustain the membership with the in-game money you make just skilling/pvm drops.

Cookie clicker paid, stardew valley, Terraria, freedoom (gzdoom + open source IWAD packaged on fdroid store), mindustry, original peggle you can find apk on internet archive, opensurge, minetest engine with voxelibre game for open source minecraft.

as a Rhythm Game Enjoyer I always gotta recommend Cytus. There are paid songs but the base game has over 100, each with at least three difficulties :3

tho even if you like rhythm games I definitely recommend looking up the game first because I have yet to ever properly convince my other rhythm game-loving friends to genuinely play cytus. Still it is one of my all time favorite games

I am a rhythm game enjoyer, I've genuinely played Cytus. At this point I'd consider the best mobile rhythm game, but I don't play it often as I'm not stuck playing only on a phone that often. Like, only play it on airplanes sometimes. I did fiend it for a bit when I first discovered it (10 years ago already?). Much easier to master than any other rhythm game I've played, might be part of why I don't play it more.

As a rhythm game enjoyer, i must also chip in with Geometry Dash🤩. You could install the free version, but i highly recommend you get the full version as that includes not only the game's levels, but also the levels of other users. It's only $4 and that's it. No other microtransactions.

Well, backgammon is the best gambling game ever invented. Knowing how to play marks you as a person of distinction the world over. Computers can almost beat the best players in the world.

Lots of backgammon Android apps, the best is Backgammon NJ

iPhone or android?

There are a decent number of indie games, at least on iPhone. I play Balatro, monster train, binding of Isaac, stardew valley, slay the spire, dead cells, dicey dungeons, alto's odyssey on iPhone (some with a controller).

Oh Android, but those are all great suggestions and appear to be on android as well! I haven't played all of those, but I've heard wonderful things about all of those on PC. Didn't realize all of those have pc.

Yeah, discoverability kind of sucks (on both OSes) because they get flooded out by microtransaction slop. I have Apple Arcade (because I use the other Apple one stuff and it's cheaper just to package it), and filtering by that makes life easier. Several of those are included.

The other option that excels on Android is emulation. You might kind of need a controller for real time games, but there are a lot of substantial turn based games on older platforms that hold up well and are tolerable with on screen controller for menu navigation.

I haven’t seen DATA WING by Dan Vogt mentioned! It’s a short top down “racing” game with really fun space drifting physics that’s 100% free to play with no ads and no micro transactions. Each level is only a minute or two long so it’s great for on the go

mindustry is free on Android, it's a tower defense/factory building game (it's also open source)

I got bloons td 6 for like 7 bucks, for some reason it also has microtransactions but they are not required or pushed onto you. I think btd6 is the best tower defense game, it just has so much content and is still getting regular updates.

Kairosoft titles are typically $5 to $7 dollars. Tons of Dev and Tycoon style business builder titles. Most are fantastic.

Luck be a Landlord is fantastic! I just got it and spent way too much time playing it.

Ascension if you like deck builders. It has full expansion packs like getting the physical card game, but it’s fun without them and the expansions are cheap as hell. There’s a pack where you get tons of them that goes on sale sometimes. It doesn’t have dark patterns, but the packs could be classified as DLC I think. They’re just a couple dollars USD instead of 20-30 like the physical cards.

Full disclosure: I own the physical cards and fucking love this game.

I adore deck games, so will have to look at ascension!

Oh I love it sooooo much! I really appreciate the asynchronous multiplayer, where I can play a turn, send it to my partner, and they can take their turn whenever they want later on. I don’t love having to be attached to my phone while playing phone games and not able to quit whenever I want.

I'm enjoying NecroMerger. It has optional ads (no forced short ads either) and the micro transactions are either some general buffs, ad-free version or gems. The gems are dished out royally imo, where I've purchased most of the premium currency content by just playing.

Something you can't play right now but can sign up to play for later: WalkScape. It's an RPG game in a similar style to RuneScape, but you actually have to walk to craft, skill and walk around the map.

The team has often said that they are against microtransactions and other monetization schemes that currently plague the industry, so they have plans to release a freemium version and a paid version.

Halls of Torment released recently and seems to be a direct port of the PC version. I've been enjoying it quite a bit

I used a 3 month trial for Play Pass and have found quite a few games through it. It strips out ads and microtransactions and gives you all the content for free, at least in my experience so far. Some of the games in this thread are included. I'm debating keeping it after the trial

Soul knight is good, but does have micro transaction