Games

Once Upon a Galaxy is my new favorite. Not sure why it has bad/mixed reviews because they don't pay wall anything it seems like. You never play against cards you don't own and all the characters unlock for free every few months. You only spend money if you want to play new stuff RIGHT NOW, but I've found there's a lot of variety already.

Anywho, it's an autobattler where you pick a champion with an ability. Then, you're presented with two shops each round where you can choose fighters and spells. Your fighters then battle against other teams. The winner will replenish 1/2 a heart if it's already been reduced by half, but not if it's empty. If the winner has 2 or less fighters survive, the loser loses 1/2 a heart. If the winner has 3 or more, the loser loses a full heart, but only if the heart was already full, otherwise it's the remaining half. Lose all 3 hearts and you're eliminated.

Each fighter has bronze, silver, and gold versions you level up into each time you select them from the shop. You get a new shop any time you choose a silver upgrade. Once they're upgraded to gold, you choose among three items equal to the fighter's tier. You can also get items by completing quests for certain fighters, like dealing 6 damage in a round or recruiting three villains from the shop.

The main way to win is to get as many bonus shops each turn, especially through abilities and items. It's a simple enough mechanic, yet there's all these combos and stuff you can do to get more upgrades than your opponents. Each player is recruiting from the same pool of fighters, so you want to be the one who has accessed more shops to inch out an advantage.

It's free and uses asynchronization, so you can play at your own pace each game to think about your choices.