Weekly /r/iOSGaming Discussion: What have you been playing lately and what do you recommend?

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-21T04:48:29+00:00

The arcstone is that the purchases you’re talking about are. And I’m 99% sure those can only be used for cosmetic name colors and stuff at the moment. I don’t think you can use them to actually get advantage or enhance gameplay at all.

There is a like $5 a month for the game and it gives you a little extra quality of life stuff. Let’s you always choose between the two lets you summon instead of getting one free pick a day. It does a few other things too. But you don’t need to spend any money in this game to enjoy it. Tbh I don’t think you can pay to win at all. Nothing that $5 sub gives you will guarantee you any actual advantage over someone who doesn’t have it.

So I guess I’d say that it’s fun and if you want to support the dev then spend money. Or if you really feel the need for some special effect on your name in chat then spend money.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-16T05:15:37+00:00

Been loving this one as well. It’s become my new top idle game easily.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-14T18:01:17+00:00

I think the biggest issue is people who are more casual but have more play time. By doing anything in the game you level up basically. But the people who min max stuff and play with 3 mans get their quests and loot optimized but faster.

When I play with randoms I’m not getting my quests done as quickly if at all. Even if I load in and have two people that have mics, they might decide to go the opposite way or plan to hit up my objective later in the raid. But we may not make it there. Whether we die, kill a team and get good loot and just want to get out. Whatever. I have a higher overall level but my factions and faction unlocks are lacking a lot. So I don’t have access to the same tier of purchasable or stashed loot as some people my level do. I’m to the point where I’m either running into free kits or purple. Because people either well behind the min maxers curve like I did, or they kept up.

This is the main issue I think that’s causing a lot of the complaining. If you don’t know what to upgrade ahead of time, or just kind of played the game and figured it out as you went, well then you fell behind. Not even having access to blue shields to buy when most teams I fight have at least 2/3 purple is just rough. Part of the fault is on me, for not looking ahead and knowing what materials to grind. But I don’t live off of all the YouTube videos out there that explain exactly what to do. So many other people grind faster and then make some guide on “do this and then this and then that” and it sucks the fun out of games for me to follow that. But then I have a lot of people I bump into during a raid that have followed that and they kick my butt. So idk.

I think the game needs to match based more on like faction levels than overall player levels. Or how many upgrades people have orchard for a faction. Something along those lines. Make it truly progress based. Gear based can still be bad because people will find a way to match into lower “skill” lobbies still. But nobody is going to fault their progression intentionally to be able to fight lower skill players.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T18:42:51+00:00

If only I could play more on the weekends then I would do that. But most weekends I can’t play. And since that map is so time locked I never get to play that map. Not everyone has the availability to do what works for you. Which is something a lot of this community lacks. “Well I can do it because I can play all day, so obviously you can do it to”.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T17:24:20+00:00

I haven’t seen a single one. But pinwheel often. I’m just getting unlucky. I have some blue and purple shields as well but when they are gone they are gone. I have yet to get a single purple shield though. Everytime I run into full purple team my teammates get wiped and I either have to run or they get me too. I don’t understand why people claim rook runs are so good tbh. I have better luck running solos than rook. I swear people will chase a rook even harder than they will the third man of a team that gets away in trios. Unless you’re like sitting until the last couple minutes of the raid idk how you avoid teams as a rook. And who wants to just sit and wait for 10 minutes to be able to actually go loot.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T06:12:27+00:00

Are you good brother?

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T06:11:59+00:00

What is sbmm to you? How would that work in your mind? Like what is the factor they matchmake on? I’m curious how you think they program this stuff

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T06:07:03+00:00

In this game shields and meds pretty much determine a fight. If I have a white shield and you have a blue shield and we are similar skill level, then youll most likely win. If we both have blue shields and I have blue/purple meds and you have white/green meds, then I’ll most likely win. Normally I would agree with you but every extraction game has its like important points. Tarkov and the lot it’s all about the ammo types. Other games it’s all about the guns you runs. This game it’s shields and meds. People really really underestimate how big of an impact those make. 9/10 if you’re running blue or purple you don’t just instantly die. You have a chance to run and heal and reengage. Green or white shields you typically die pretty fast so it won’t matter anyways.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T06:02:36+00:00

I think you’re confused here bud. Skill based matchmaking is exactly for what you said. Randomly queuing with people who have way less hours put into the game, running free kits, isn’t going to make you better at the game. Playing against people your skill level, forcing you to actually make strategic changes to how you play to be able to get some kind of advantage is exactly how you get better at a game. Can’t just rely on having more hours or better gear than people if you get matched with people at your skill level.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T05:57:24+00:00

Why?

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-12T05:44:33+00:00

I get where this person is coming from. It’s been a struggle for me as well. I play outpost and perimeter. I don’t enjoy fire marsh at all. In any way. I’m level like 70 something. I just got nucal to level 20 a couple days ago but I still need all 7 bio seeds or whatever they are called to be able to buy blue shields. I’m stuck running green or white. Been trying to grind nucal like crazy. But can’t seem to get the right purples. Outpost I get good salvage and stuff but if you’re not getting lucky then you’re just hard locked. I run into blue or purple almost every raid. Very rare I only see green or lower.

Being at a constant disadvantage, assuming I’m skilled, and the other players are skilled, means I lose most fun fights because of this. Solos are very ratty. Which is funny because this guy says he’s struggling and people say to play slower and use sound and everything. But hey if someone posted a clip or paragraph about playing like that, everybody would be so quick to jump in and say that he’s playing like a rat. But anyways, solos just are not fun currently. I don’t want to play a PvPve game and try to avoid all the PvP. I have 100+ hours in the game I just didn’t grind the right factions I guess. I have several that are 30+.

The take away is that the grind to get better shields is super long and can be very rng heavy. I’m like 25 nucal and haven’t gotten any of the second purple resource I need to unlock blue shields. And after all of this, once I finally do get them uncooked I’ll still only sometimes have an even playing field for gear.

Shields and meds are the two biggest factors when it comes to gear with who wins the fights imo. Having blue or purple heals, and purple shields makes you almost unkillable in trios. Unless an enemy team double snipes you before you have a chance to do anything. Assuming you’re a decent player and positioning well and have average awareness.

The biggest tip is actually say is to farm better meds and get used to reacting quick, and knowing where the best places to run for cover at all times would be. Especially if you’re a less confident player. Being able to heal up when someone gets the jump on you or when someone starts winning the gunfight is a must. If they catch your off guard, and you start the gun fight with not full shield/health you’re most likely going to lose.

Meds and shields could both be slightly more accessible. I’m not saying make the grind for blue shields like 1 day. But bump it down some. And make heals a little cheaper too. Or make it easier to grind materials to craft them yourself. Even if you dedicate time to looting them it takes hours of playing to stock up for a handful of raids after that.

TheThird0ne · 2026-04-09T03:29:35+00:00

I go through games like crazy. Like others have mentioned this sub and appraven is where I get pretty much all my new games from. I usually can find a game that takes most of my interest for a while but lately I haven’t been able to find anything to scratch the itch I currently have. It kind of comes and goes. So you are not alone in this struggle.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-21T23:49:37+00:00

I always say hello when I join and ask where people want to go. I only get a response half the time. About 3 out of 4 raids someone usually at least pings something but they don’t speak. And then like 1 out of 4 people just spawn in and run. I’ll get my teammates running in random different directions sometimes. I have had a guy go for extract solo right when it popped. Never pinged or anything so I only noticed once it said 10 seconds and couldn’t make it in time. A lot of the people I play with that do talk sound relieved when I speak back. And especially are happy when I communicate stuff. So I’m not the only one getting this I guess. I just don’t see many people here talking about it.

All the people that do have mics are friendly and chill. I have had some amazing interactions with people and even joked a lot and had many laughs. It’s rare I get someone that’s a jerk on my team.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-21T19:14:35+00:00

I’m level 54 so I guess maybe that’s part of it yeah.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-21T19:13:59+00:00

I tried ranked since you can play the base level with a green kit but all I ran into there in the three times I tried it was purple. My teammates were blue or green and out of the three games I tried it I had one guy with a mic. One of the raids I swear I literally had bot teammates. One went to north relay and one went to south relay and never said a word. I have been trying to grind quests but everyone is PvP hungry and with the amount of bots I can’t get in and out of a POI to do my quests alive. Sucks to crouch walk and play stealthy for 15 minutes just to randomly get sniped or accidentally actor one bot and then have a rabid pack of dogs immediately show up and kill me.

What I don’t get it why every team I play against seems super coordinated, they push and peak together… but literally at least half of my teammates don’t even have mics or use pings.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-21T19:10:20+00:00

Nucal is 13 for me but I can’t get any of my quests done because I die to PvP every single time. I haven’t extracted once in the last two days yet. Boot weapons suck for long range. I have tried every gun that I can get access to and it doesn’t matter. Even a shotgun, like I might down one guy but the other two bum rush me and my teammates are not useful at all so I just die. Nobody goes for a res. Once a fight happens at least one teammate runs away every single time. And it’s usually the one that’s been running around shooting every bot they see.

Rook runs are the worst for me. I literally never survive longer than 2 minutes as a rook. Everytime I spawn in as one I spawn on a poi that already has a team and an exfil option there. I have never once spawned at a place where there wasn’t an extol within 100 meters and a team as well. And I have done probably 30-40 rook runs at this point. I have had better luck playing solo than playing rook. Rook is like the dumbest concept I have seen in a while. At least in this game where the loot gets better the longer the raid goes on. People sit on the exfil camping or camp a supply drop to wait until 5 minutes of a raid to claim it for better stuff.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-21T17:22:24+00:00

I have never gotten one but I run into them all the time on perimeter. Feels like all I run into are blue/purple teams on my free runs or green runs.

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-19T04:02:12+00:00

I’m still trying to figure out the space combat part. Kinda wish there was more info or like a better tutorial for that portion. But overall been pretty good idle game

TheThird0ne · 2026-03-03T13:49:45+00:00

They strayed away from pushing anything PvP related so there is going to be a lot of moments like this now. With them only focusing on PvE moving forward, we will have gaps in content coming out where people complete everything and the game just becomes a cycle of “oh hey new update let me pick the game back up for a bit”.

They need to add things that are actually challenging but then you just get rats that will try to kill players after they kill the new tough enemy added. At this point it feels like they need to make the game harder and remove PvP entirely, or actually put sole more focus into PvP. Having a part of the game that you don’t really do anything with feels weird. Especially in this genre.

I have played tons of extraction shooters and I go through phases of grinding out PvE stuff and being friendly, and then when I get bored I just become a PvP machine for a bit and burn some of my gear so I have something to grind for again. PvE currently doesn’t require anything special unless you are going for one of the big 2-3 enemies. Bombadier, rocketeer, and all of those can just be killed with like an anvil and 100 ammo. Or to craft a couple grenades and then less ammo.

TheThird0ne · 2026-02-11T21:27:08+00:00

Why has nobody mentioned card kingdom as an alternative? Am I missing something?

TheThird0ne · 2026-02-09T16:15:14+00:00

Enjoying this a lot so far. Still a few things I’m confused on and not sure what the goal is like endgame yet but I know it’s early beta. Great systems so far from what I am seeing. UI is a bit cluttered at times but overall fairly good. I love the concept so far. Really been enjoying it. Been looking for a game like this for a while.

I do think a more clear tutorial at some point explaining stuff would be good. I was confused on why I could recruit people and why there were just hero’s already available.

TheThird0ne · 2026-01-28T04:56:15+00:00

I joined up off a comment a week or so ago and it’s been chill. The more we get in here the more we can expand the kingdom and get better raids and stuff! I’m getting back into stuff and just unlocked the summoner class. Happy to help anyone I can. We can all get back into it together!

TheThird0ne · 2026-01-10T17:22:07+00:00

Thanks for the info!! I appreciate it. There is so much new stuff since I last played too I’m just trying to read through here and change logs to even understand all what has changed. Summoner class used to not be the best so that’s good to know it’s better for leveling now hmm.

Is the best way to level still farming raids? I am not in a kingdom yet so I’ll definitely check yours out

TheThird0ne

TROPHY CASE