What are you playing?

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Does anyone play any MMORPGs on iOS? Iā€™m looking for one to play with some friends that offers engaging play, actual multiplayer, and isnā€™t microteansaction-dependent. I havenā€™t really tried many but I am under the impression that many of the iOS MMORPGs are just vehicles for spending real money on many multiple currencies and such, much like the ā€œgachaā€ ā€œstrategyā€ RPGs that seem to be everywhere.

My friends and I have, over the years, played FFXI, WoW, Guild Wars 1/2, and currently FFXIV. We just want a similar experience on mobile, fully acknowledging that some sacrifices have to be made for the platform.

Itā€™s possibly not the type of mmorpg youā€™re after, but eve echoes is exceptional. Netease really did the eve brand justice with their mobile version. Compromises were made to create a mobile version, so itā€™s not a direct port, but you can tell itā€™s full of genuine eve DNA.

That said, itā€™s been a few months since Iā€™ve played it, so the economy might have gone to the dogs. Also, as I say, itā€™s not exactly the kind of fantasy mmos that youā€™ve listed so possibly isnā€™t what youā€™re after

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I donā€™t mind the space theme as long as it isnā€™t pay to win or needlessly over-grindy because of timers and currencies and stuff.

The closest I found was Villages and Heroes. It was a pretty full experience. When I tried it it was not P2W, though there were cosmetics.

Thereā€™s also OSRā€¦but itā€™s hard to recommend that one with Jagexā€™s recent decisions.

Finally went in on Slay the Spire, got it on my phone. I enjoyed my first run, although it seems like it lacks the difficulty of a Dream Quest. I guess I beat it? I got a score of 816 and then my dude passed out in front of a heart, but I get the feeling it is supposed to be that way. Have to try out my newly unlocked character tomorrow.

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Thereā€™s a lot more to unlockā€“including the ā€œrealā€ final bossā€“and the game does have an ascension mode for each character which ramps up the difficulty.

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Okay, good. Because I made some mistakes with my cards out of ignorance and still felt like most of it was not a challenge, aside from the last half of the last floor.

Thereā€™s plenty more to enjoy about slay the spire. ā€œWinningā€ a run on your first go is kind of rare, so well done.
Thereā€™s 20 ā€œascensionsā€ to unlock for each character broadly speaking with each ascension being more difficult or with a different challenge to the previous.
Thereā€™s also another boss to face.

And then thereā€™s a custom mode with many gameplay tweaks to muck around with such as draft mode where you can also draft cards from any character etc. ie you draft your card deck before you start the run.

StS is possibly my favourite game of all time. There I said it.

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I just suck at the game. Iā€™ve only played StS a few times since it is kind of in my backlog right now, but I came nowhere close to winning.

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I think I just had an advantage because, even though I never played StS before, it is clear that it borrowed from other games I have. It was not a blatant rip-off like Night of the Full Moon, but the DNA of Dream Quest is clearly woven in here pretty thoroughly, and I have played hundreds of DQ games over the years, even nuked the Lord of the Dream a few times. I also played a less popular game called Card Crusade that felt a lot like this (I think in that case it might be the ripoff, but it was fun).

@Shadowfax That sounds right up my alley. And Dream Quest is easily in my top 10 games of all time, so I can dig it. The Silent proved tougher (miss that healing every match) and I fell to the second levelā€™s boss. Looking forward to digging in even more.

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Iā€™m bad at StS but I love playing it. According to Steam Iā€™ve clocked up 250+ hours, and Iā€™ve won maybe 15 times across the four characters? I donā€™t change my playstyle enough, Iā€™m addicted to targeting elites for relics, I always end up with bloated decks, you name it, I do it wrong.

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Yes! This whole genre proves the mantra about the definition of insanity for me. There are so many ways to play these characters and I always seem to lock in to one. When I inevitably lose I go back in and do almost the exact same thing rather than switching it up. I definitely get locked into a play style and seem to think that luck and/or some untapped well of skill will change my fortune this timeā€¦

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Part of my problem is I seem to have difficulty imagining new builds without playing them first, e.g. I need to luck into a card combo or certain relic & deck combo to realise ā€œOh, thatā€™s how that works.ā€ like Dead Branch and a shiv-heavy build with the Silent, or Ice Cream and Plasma orbs with the Defect, Entrench and Barricade with the Ironclad, etc.

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I did the robot guy on my third run and that went pretty well. Lots of recursive channeling and such. I won, but got a lower score than I did with the first character. I unlocked a fourth person, but that whole pulsing light graphic showing the green thing unlit seems to imply I had better go back and try to clear it with the Silent.

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I do love the Defect ā€¦ Iā€™ve made serious Ascension progress with that character, and am just kind of puttering along with the others. Something about that play style just really clicks for me.

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I came crashing down to Earth now after those first few runs. I beat it with the Silent on my next attempt and then unlocked those color keys, but trying to get all those led to several failed attempts. On run 10 or 11 I finally managed it with the Ironclad, by far my best build (centered around using Flex and that card that raises Strength if they are going to attack you until even regular Strikes weā€™re doing like 24 damage, plus Reaper for healing and the artifact that has you not discard your hand). I got to the last boss, and it is clearly a Lord of the Dream derivative. Taking health down for every card played, and ultimately wiping me out with a whopping 72 damage attack combo after I had taken out 600 of its 750 HP. I think to take him on I need the artifact that lets block carry over.

Still have yet to beat it with the girl ninja. Sheā€™s a tough one to figure out.

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A friend of mine caused me to lose my shit, describing the Ironclad as ā€œeasy modeā€, but he has some really simple, powerful combos (Headbutt + Pommel Strike, Power Through/Reckless Charge/Wild Strike + Fire Breathing) that are easy to get and use.

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Does anyone know of any of these Rogue-likes/dungeon crawls/card games that have any kind of friend leaderboard? Iā€™d love to play one where my friends and I can track our high scores against each other. I donā€™t care if is a bit of a stretch to call it part of my requested genre. Cars Crawl, for example, lets you compare scores with friends. Iā€™d love others.

Edit: I should add that Iā€™m talking about iOS for this request.

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Card Crusade has an overall leaderboard. Not just a friends one that I know of, though so few people play it that you can likely still find each other if you use distinct names.