Offline apps for when you have 5 minutes to kill?

gollum@lemmy.world to Android@lemmy.world – 119 points –

At my job, we have neither signal nor wifi in certain places (bathroom in the basement). So would appreciate tips on apps to kill five minutes.

88

I'll be the old stodger voice and mention that taking 5 minutes from time to time to not be stimulated is good for mental health, and apparently creativity too.

... And then I'll put in my vote for Simon Tatham's puzzle collection. (In F-droid as Puzzles, app by Chris Boyle)

Just a nice collection of quick, simple puzzles. A perfect time killer. It's a staple that I've got on all the devices in my old 2000s PDA collection since it was also built for Windows Mobile and PalmOS.

It was WHAT? Time to dust off my HP Jornadas

I'll have to try and remember where I found the Windows Mobile version of it. While there's a humongous website for downloading PalmOS programs, I haven't found one for Windows Mobile yet.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon

Warning: HIGHLY addictive.

Just won the game like a minute ago

How?? Pixel dungeon is like 99% RNG

Once you get the hang of it, you can win like 95% of the games.

In the first ten levels, starve yourself and only eat at 30% hp.
Use corners and other obstacles to your advantage to get sneak-attacks. Don't equip any unidentified equipment if possible - especially if it is suspiciously high level for the area. It is probably cursed. Save up your upgrade scrolls until you find some tier 4 or 5 weapons and armor. If you're a mage, just dump them in your wand of fire from lvl 1 with no regrets.
Learn how the bosses attack. The slime hits really hard after charging, so figure out how to dodge or get out of range.

I one trick mage class. I always upgrade my staff as soon as I find a scroll. Once I feel comfortable I'll then imbue my staff and continue to upgrade it.

Is that a bad idea? I've always felt comfortable doing that because I know that my staff will always be my primary weapon.

I've never beaten the game. Only got past the gnome king a handful of times.

Interesting! I'll test out your tips

I have ebooks on my phone that I read when I can't get Internet.

I'm pretty sure reading ebooks is the most common thing I do with my phone.

Duolingo. You can waste time and learn something. There are countless other apps that help you learn stuff.

I find Duolingo far too parasocial. Their "come back to the lessons" mails and stuff really knocked me off.

You can disable them in the settings iirc.

Yep, I also liked having the daily reminders because that's when I'd go and do them

Yeah you can just turn those off. I only get a reminder once a day, just on my phone, not via mail. And it's a silent notification.

But my point was not to sell people on duolingo, my point was to sell people on doing something productive rather than play a silly game.

Does Duolingo work offline?

https://blog.duolingo.com/how-to-travel-with-duolingo/#:~:text=Luckily%2C%20Duolingo%20Plus%2C%20our%20subscription,can%20keep%20your%20precious%20streak

Oh sweet! I didn't know that. My precious 500 day streak is a little better protected thanks to you.

Well you're gonna have to pay for it

I just started Super recently, so no problem there. Still upset they axed the comments, though. They were often helpful.

simon tatham's puzzles.

I love this app. It's got like 3 dozen different games, all of which you can scale in difficulty, and works great offline. It is my go to bathroom diversion.

Anki might be worth your while if you are trying to learn something.

Load it up with a flashcard deck of something you want to remember, and it'll show you those flashcards. Lots of people use it to learn languages, but it's also good for anything that requires memorisation.

If you like reading books, comics, etc, maybe Librera Reader?

Dunno how it is on Google Play, but it's available FOSS and DRM free outside of it:
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/

This is the absolute goat of logic puzzle games. It has all of them offline, free, with multiple difficulties. Simon Tatham's Puzzles

Tatham's puzzles are great!

Also in this vein, PySol FC has an exstensive library of solitaire card and tile games. Definitely worth checking out.

Sudoku! There's a few different apps on F-Droid, take your pick of the one that looks the best to you. The underlying game is the same, but some apps have different versions that add some complexity to keep you thinking.

There's one that I really like called Sudokyuu. Unfortunately, it has been taken of the Play Store but the APK can be found online.

2048 & Retro Stack are on fdroid, and there are other decent offline games on the playstore

The lemmy apps could probably implement something like Offline Reader for Reddit

I little too specific but when I have spare time I use AnkiDroid to memorize kanji.

pixel dungeon series is very pick up and put down-able. they're all roguelikes, f/oss, with different variations for different game experiences. right now i'm playing Experienced Pixel Dungeon because it introduces a character class I really like (the duelist: rather than being a straight fighter or a caster it's a melee weapon fighter where each type of melee weapon comes with a different special attack).

The fun in these is that for each variation the gameplay will be similar, but have different elements added. There are some that have skill trees, some that have new PC classes like I outlined above, some that are just basic nethack/rogue clones with a GUI, and a bunch that I haven't tried yet. And they're all offline, turn based, and let you save at any point so you can just pinch it off and get back to whatever you need to do in an instant.

Install Duck station emulator and run Vagrant Story.

You can complete one dungeon room in less than 5 minutes.

Seeneva. It's a comic reading app. I've taken to reading manga like "Go Go Loser Ranger" and "Akira" during the lulls where I would scroll mindlessly.

I've got a few games on my phone for when I'm flying. Minesweeper, Freecell, Alpha Omega...

I enjoy Idle Slayer. It’s just a fancier version of Cookie Clicker though. Very mindless.

fdroid 2048 - for my 1 minute elevator ride

Started a 6x6 game months ago and am still not done yet. It's super repetitive but perfect to just reset your mind for a while every now and then

Mindustry

5 minutes, not 5 hours, lol, love this game but deffo is a quick way to lose an hour

You're probably right. I was comparing it to Factorio.

Would you ever recommend Factorio to someone who asked for a good 5 minute game!? One of my favorite games, but doesn't fit the bill for me

I'll just play Factorio for 5 minutes before I get my chores done... [5 hours later] oh no

I like walkmaster. Its a fun silly game with weird physics.

You can download full crosswords on the NYT Games app!

Don't you need a subscription to do any other than the daily?

Probably. A lot of libraries have access to the NYT, probably worth checking!

If you like deck builders, Dawncaster is pretty fun, and saves after you finish each fight (be sure to get back to the "route" screen after beating a monster)

I normally get a game or two of Mahjong Solitaire done when I have a brief respite.

Been playing Gauguin. It's like sudoku but with math to solve.

8 ball pool. The popups/ads suck, but you can play time attack mode on single player offline. Also a good time killer while online.

I find that some of the neat low mental effort games that are filled with ads are actually fairly playable when you don't have signal to power the ads. Like "throw swords at this thing" or "draw lines to contain this cat" where each level is quick, simple and mindless fun but unbearable with ads.

I'm talking the games that are clearly part of some ad network where they all advertise to each other. The concepts are cool and I'm actually compelled to install some from the ads. But when each level takes 20 seconds and there's a 30 second ad between, I'm uninstalling. With some though, if you have no signal you get to churn through the levels and just don't see the ads