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What are some good incremental/idle mobile games?
I’m a big fan of simple incremental/idle games to burn a few minutes on the bus, but most of the games for mobile are pretty low quality.
My all time favorite is easily Idle Apocalypse, but there are bound to be other good ones as well.
Universal Paperclips ($2, and on both iOS and Android) starts you off making paperclips one at a time. Once you have sold enough, you can automate production. Then you start selling more and more of them until eventually you...well, play the game and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. (Spoiler alert: the hole is very deep)
The only downside is the game will not run in the background, but depending on how you like to play this might not be a downside.
You forgot about the part where you start playing and suddenly an hour goes by.
So you finish the last…wait, did another hour just go by?
What day is it?
I'm not sure if it counts as Idle, but my go-to brief time waster is Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It looks like it may cost money on the App Store (I got it on Android where it is free, but I've since put about $15 into it as donation because I like it so much).
It's a rogue-lite dungeon crawler, so it has pseudo-randomly generated levels with permadeath. It has a ton of documentation and a very active developer. Each movement is a "turn", and it constantly keeps track of your progress, so it is great for pulling up for 30 seconds. It can also entertain you for much longer than that whenever you get on a good run.
Thanks for this, this is an excellent game! Well worth the money. One question which you may know the answer to: are all the keys for the doors and chests on a given level necessarily hidden on that level? Or do you sometimes have to retrieve a key from a different level and then go back? It seems I’m leaving quite a few locks locked.
Fantastic question. Keys actually only work on the level they are found. All locked chests/doors have a corresponding key on the same level. Some may have to be found using search (tapping the magnifying glass twice). In fact, this goes for all blocked-off area. If you find some items blocked by green fire, a potion of frost is guaranteed to be on that level. Some chests on a floating platform, a potion of levitation. And so on.
Whenever you start out, you may find it better to ignore some of these things because you will die of starvation if you take too long. As you get better, you will start to see patterns much easier and be able to clear out floors quickly enough.
I'd highly recommend the wiki as a starting point: https://pixeldungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Shattered_Pixel_Dungeon
Link to Super Cat Bros went to Neko Atsume. I'm guessing you meant to link to this? Thanks for the rec!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FDGEntertainment.SuperCatBros.gp
Ah yes, thanks for the correction!
I'm honestly disappointed you can't play the second one as a cat 😄
I just start playing Merchant and so far it's been exactly that "play for a few minutes" sort of idle game I was looking for. It's free to play but has a one-time purchase to unlock everything including cosmetics. Or you can grind your way up.
Play Store
App Store
Steam
You convinced me to try it out, and so far it's been good to do exactly that, play for a couple minutes between meetings, and just put it down without feeling the need to constantly monitor it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Exponential Idle is a fun one about math and exponential growth (iOS/Android).
Microcivilization is a clicker/strategy game hybrid on Steam (Windows). There's a demo available right now that I've been enjoying, with a full release planned for later this year.
I've played a lot of idle/incremental games but Kittens Game has spoiled me on all of them. Nothing even comes close to it for me.
Edit--Almost forgot to mention, not only is it free on the web but the apps are a one-time-purchase with no IAPs whatsoever, so that has a big impact on my love for the game as well.
Kittens game is great but it's just a warm up for Trimps
I really wish there was a nice mobile friendly version of trimps.
I've been playing for quite a while now... Does it get more complex at some point?
Kittens Game is orders of magnitude more complex and interesting so far.
I have no idea where you're up to so hard to say. It's probably about as complex as Kittens but spread over a much larger game. I'm still finding new story even after five years, and I know there's even more to come.
I got bored of Kittens, I haven't yet got bored of Trimps.
Cell to Singularity is pretty fun, and almost educational.
After trying out a few different games for a few days, I think Cell to Singularity has been my favorite.
Like most clickers, it's fast at the beginning then slows down, but the premise is less kitschy than most games of its type.
As a biology person, I really enjoyed Cell to Singularity! The dinosaur stuff thrilled my inner child too!
Is this the right game? It looks pretty neat.
That's the one!
A Dark Room has a great mobile version (that is paid as opposed to free in browser, but it's definitely worth it)
Not 100% sure this fits the genre, but Tiny Tower is a great little time waster.
Its sister game, Pocket Planes, it a great time waster too!
I’ve been playing pocket planes, but it seems to be a pretty slow start.
Judging by your comment I’ve been playing for 4 days and only just unlocked my first airport outside of the starters.
I almost feel like I am missing something 😅
The start is slow, yes, but eventually you'll have quite a few planes running between quite a few airports.
Spaceplan is great. Fairly short but really well done.
I absolutely loved spaceplan!
WHY DID YOU SHOW ME THIS
If you like Runescape, Melvor Idle is pretty fun
Melvin idle looks great, and I’ve heard the developer is pretty active with the community, but I have never been able to get into it.
I play Realm Grinder for many years now (I stop for weeks or months and just pick it up again when I feel like it). The game changes quite a bit in your playthrough with what you can do, what to unlock, which builds and boost you can use. It has cloud save too, so you can play on Mobile or PC as you want.
Alto's Adventure/Odyssey
Asphalt 8 (feels every bit the made-for-mobile game that it is, but it's a great arcade racer)
Riptide GP (ditto)
Monument Valley
The Room 1-4
Terraria
and the number one answer
Stardew
edit: how could I forget the GTA games? Extremely well-ported and easy to play. I spent more time playing San Andreas on my phone than I have on Steam.
While excellent, I don't think Terraria is simple nor can it be played in short session as op requested.
I grant your very good point. For context, I like Terraria but I've never understood what the point of the game is, so I play it in bursts like whack-a-mole. I mainly enjoy the funky music and the premise of endless dungeoneering, but I never get far with it at all.
Asphalt 8 is an amazing game.., as long as you play older versions of it. 1.2~ is just about perfect on Android. And I think Apple Arcade has a classic-ish version with basically no micro transactions.
I was looking for the same thing last night and found Egg, Inc. which has been a fun time waster so far. Same basic concept as Cookie Clicker, if anyone remembers that.
It's a good game in concept, but unlike Cookie Clicker it has a TON of monetization. If it was simply released "as is" it wouldn't be an issue, but the game will bug you constantly to spend money, which got on my last nerve. I do not recommend, unless you can overlook the monetization bits.
Interesting, I haven't really run into any of that yet. It's definitely present, but not in your face as long s you don't open the "spend money here" tab.
Perhaps they've changed things since I last played a few years ago, but I distinctly remember that a lot of the bonuses you were offered came with something equivalent to "watch an ad to double your bonus".
Not very into idle games, but magic research is quite good imo.
I'm playing my way through, debating whether I should reset to get past the second Tournament of Magic boss. It's been a fun time!
I mean, if you've never done a Cookie Clicker run... Now is the time. It's on mobile now. Steam. Funny game with YEARS of dev time put into it.
Cookie clicker is what got me started into these types of games 😁
I was hoping to find this one in the comments. I ended up at this thread specifically because I wanted more like cookie clicker. All hail the grandmother's.
BitBurner, if you enjoy programming in JavaScript.
Does anyone 🥲
Kittens Game (Android, iOS) and Scrap Clicker 2 (Android, iOS) are my mobile go-tos. I play Kittens for my pseudo-"civilization manager" incremental and "unfolding mechanics" fix, while Scrap Clicker 2 is the only "merge game" on mobile that I can tolerate with basic enough gameplay to keep me occupied on public transit.
Some other suggestions:
I don't know exactly why, but Egg, Inc. is a really fun game to me. Pretty sure it's on ios and android. You really don't even have to look at the screen the whole time.
This is exactly the kind of game I enjoy!
For anyone that ends up playing this and wants to join the co-op coops, I highly recommend joining discord for the private coops. You will never go back to public coops!
Neko Atsume/ Cat Collector is a great little time waster! As implied, it’s a collection game. You set up your yard and try to tempt neighborhood strays to come visit. They leave behind in-game currency so you can buy better swag for the cats to visit. When the cats are in your yard, you can take pictures of them for the in-game photo album. There’s not much to it, but it’s very soothing and sweet, and there are cute kitties that sometimes wear costumes.
I like Adventure Communist/Adventure Ages because it's essentially just pure math. It has a fair amount of ads, but they are all optional. I haven't spent any money on the game and I've made it pretty far and have quite a bit of supreme researchers.
I've been hooked on Idle Slayer for over a year now.
Checked out Night Skate last night and I'm already hooked.
I've been playing idle slayer quite a bit lately, I do feel like the progression falls off pretty hard around level 800ish, the mythic rates are insanely slow.
AFK Arena is a nice game fitting the criteria of killing a few minutes on a bus ride. There are so many separate mini games in it, so if you have a longer bus ride one day, you can dive into those! Otherwise, the daily quests take 5-10 minutes to complete per day and you don't really get punished skipping other stuff
I've been enjoying https://realzoo.itsyipy.com/ lately.
FarmRPG is one of the best to do it. The creator is a really nice guy too.
“Skip registering and play now” 🙏
No doubt it’s made by great people.
Polygrams is an awesome quick play or play for a while game.
You might enjoy "Idle Slayer". It's actively developed, it has what feels like a lot of content. There's a community on that other website.
When I played it the monetisation was reasonable - an IAP to turn off ads, and some IAPs that you don't need to buy. I haven't played it for about two years though, so maybe they crammed more in there.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pabloleban.IdleSlayer&hl=en&gl=US
https://www.reddit.com/r/idleslayer/
Idle Research hasn't been updated in a while sadly, but it's probably one of my favorite ones! there's layers to it that is super addicting
Seaport - Basic gameplay is spending a few minutes sending out your feet to pick up or deliver supplies. Then you come back periodically and keep doing that. There are some other things to do at your port as well.
Monetization is very reasonable. No forced ads, but you can watch in exchange for some benefit. There's a premium currency that you can buy but also can slowly earn by playing. Some exclusive ships can only be bought but you don't need them. I have not spent any actual money. I do watch some ads.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.pixelfederation.seaport.explore.collect.trade
Idle Planet Miner
You mine materials, refine them into ingots, then use them to make items. As time goes you unlock other planets to mine, higher tiers of items etc. It's great for jumping in a few mins at a time.
I see a "Starter Pack," I uninstall.
A ten dollar price tag should be the whole game, not a premium currency taster to try to get you accustomed to spending more and more money.
Hate this mobile dreck.
Alto's Odyssey/Adventure. I've had Odyssey for years and can pick it up whenever I'm bored or looking to kill time.
I've been enjoying Zen Shards. Pretty basic but still has a sense of progression that's motivating.