As regular readers will know, I don’t really play a bunch of mobile games. Being old enough to remember a time when cell phones didn’t exist, and then in their early iterations the best you could hope for games-wise was Tetris or Snake, I wasn’t really keen on finding many to play either. There was a time when “real” gamers would make fun of mobile gamers so that probably has an effect on my lack of interest. In general, most of the games I’ve downloaded onto my phone haven’t been played for very long before being uninstalled, though there have been some exceptions to that rule. Currently my absolute favorite mobile game is Clash Royale, which I’ve been playing for nearly a couple of years by now. I’ve tried many other big name mobile games like Fallout Shelter and Elder Scrolls Legends, but didn’t really get into them. One older game (and iterations) that I rather enjoyed were the Tiny Tower games — I spent a good chunk of time on the original and also Tiny Death Star. This brings me to the game in question for today: Idle Apocalypse.

From screenshots alone you should be able to pick up on the comparison, as in this particular game, you’re also building a tower. That’s not to say you’ll only be building a tower though. There is a lot going on in Idle Apocalypse, and I’ll try to cover all the bases in this post. You are an evil overlord that is building this tower with the end goal of starting the apocalypse. Using various resources you will create new floors that will each have their own purpose, from producing more and different resources to creating monsters that will fight for you. At some point they call you a cult leader, and I suppose all of the little guys running your tower are cultists, but I like the term “overlord” and “minions” better. Heroes are en route to ruin your plans, but you can do something about that as well, and this extra mode is a bit more on the “clicker” side of mobile games.

Initially you’ll only be able to watch your minions attack the heroes, but in dying they also produce resources which you then use for upgrades and additional rooms in the tower, so the circle of life is complete. Later you’ll gain access to spells with which you can punch and stun the heroes. The “dark fist” spell is on a very short cooldown, so this is where the endless clicking comes in.

Later you’ll also build a drop point, where an airship will come and drop off a crate every few minutes. To unlock the crate you have to watch an advertisement video, and then you’ll get a random prize. Sometimes this ends up being “wheel spins,” which will provide resources or gems, the games RMT currency. There are also achievements that can be earned by playing (fairly easily I might add) which also provide gems. Gems can be spent in the store on various things, mainly skins, resources and “time warps” which essentially speed up resource production. For $10 you can get the ad free verison of the game, which would probably be worth it if you planned on playing this for long enough, as there are ads for the airship drops, and also three that you can watch every 4 hours that give bonuses to production and creature damage. You’d still have to check in on the game every few hours anyway, and honestly the ads aren’t that big of a deal so I won’t be spending any cash on this one.

So what’s the point? Well there is one sort of end goal that I’ve seen so far, and that is to open up the “idol portal” and summon an idol. Again, I don’t like the terminology here, you’re clearly summoning a demon. The demon can be further upgraded to last longer and do more damage, and eventually you can start the apocalypse when you are ready. There are other demons that can be summoned too, so I would assume you should probably do a ton of upgrades and summon all of them if you can before starting the apocalypse, but I wanted to see what would happen so I went ahead and did it.

Once the apocalypse is under way, you’ll watch your demon head off to destroy the world, and in the process you gain souls. You also get the clicker bits here by tapping the world as fast as possible while this is happening. I had only upgraded my demon slightly at this point, so he only lasted for 14 seconds and then at the end he destroys your tower too. Clearly that sucks, and the devs threw in some cheeky humor acknowledging this.

So the game starts over and you have to build your tower again. However, with the souls earned you can then buy chants, which are permanent boosts to production speeds, etc. You also gain access to some items that once purchased will provide new spells (like the stun I mentioned earlier). Also upon starting this new tower, you’re given what amounts to quests (though they are called tasks) which usually require some amount or resources and pay out in wheel spins (at least initially). I’m sure the game will follow this same sort of rinse and repeat formula for a time, but perhaps new layers emerge as you go on. Overall I’d say if you like idle/clicker games or the Tiny Tower style game you’ll enjoy this as well. It’s free and a good time waster!