The 18 best mobile roguelikes for iPhone and Android
Eighteen roguelikes and roguelites that play properly on a phone, grouped by the kind of run you want, with what each one costs on the App Store and Google Play.
By The Path of Orren team
The best mobile roguelikes respect how you play on a phone. A run should fit in a commute or stretch over an evening, the game should save the moment you close it, and the controls should be built for a thumb, not squeezed down from a gamepad. All eighteen games below do that. Prices are the US App Store and Google Play prices on the day we checked them, and every game links to its store page.
We are a small team making a dark fantasy party roguelite for phones, so we spend a lot of time with this genre. That is also why this list leaves out games that only work well with a controller, games that were pulled from the stores, and free-to-play games built around energy timers.
Quick picks
| If you want | Play |
|---|---|
| The best roguelike on a phone, full stop | Slay the Spire |
| Something to play for ten minutes | Balatro, Luck be a Landlord |
| A party to build and manage | Slice & Dice, Loop Hero |
| Fast action with a touch screen | Dead Cells, Vampire Survivors |
| A big free game with no paywall | Shattered Pixel Dungeon (Android), Soul Knight |
| Something you haven't seen before | Peglin, BALL x PIT, Dungeon Clawler |
| A free dark-fantasy party roguelite, coming soon | Path of Orren (ours) |
Our game
Path of Orren
- Free, coming soon to iPhone and Android
- Join the waitlist
Full disclosure: this one is ours, so it isn't ranked with the others. Path of Orren is the game our small team is making, a free dark-fantasy party roguelite for iPhone and Android: you gather a party of unlikely heroes, set them on the field and lead them down a road of fights, forges, treasures and strange events, and the battles play out on their own while your choices decide who makes it to the end. It is built for phones from the start, with runs you can play in short sessions. It isn't out yet, and you can join the waitlist to play it first.
Deckbuilders and card roguelikes
Card games are the best fit for a phone: turn-based, readable at a glance and easy to pause. These are the ones that hold up after dozens of runs.
1Slay the Spire
- iPhone
- Android
- $9.99, no ads
- PC: $24.99
The game that defined the modern roguelike deckbuilder. You climb a spire floor by floor, fight with a small deck of cards, and add one card after almost every fight. The skill is in what you refuse: a thin deck that does one thing well beats a fat one that does everything badly. Four characters play very differently, and the higher difficulty levels (Ascensions) keep it going for hundreds of hours. On a phone, the touch controls feel made for it. If you only buy one game from this list, buy this one.
2Balatro
- iPhone
- Android
- $9.99, no ads
- PC: $14.99
Balatro takes poker hands and turns them into a roguelike. You play hands to reach a score, then spend your winnings on Jokers that bend the rules: a Joker that counts every face card twice, one that pays you for discarding, one that multiplies your score when you play a pair. A run is short, the combinations are absurd, and it is very hard to stop at one more. You don't need to know poker beyond the basic hands.
3Wildfrost
A winter-themed deckbuilder with a board: your units and the enemies stand in rows, and everything acts on a countdown, so you can see exactly when each attack lands. It looks cute and plays hard. Wildfrost is free to try on both stores, with one unlock for the full game.
4Dicey Dungeons
- iPhone
- Android
- $4.99, no ads
- PC: $14.99
You play a giant die walking through a game show dungeon. Each turn you roll dice and drop them into equipment cards: a sword that wants any number, a shield that only takes a six. The six characters change the rules completely, and the humour is a big part of its charm. A good pick if Slay the Spire felt too serious.
5Luck be a Landlord
A slot machine you build yourself. Every spin pays coins, and every few spins you add a symbol to the machine, trying to build combinations before the rent comes due. Runs are short and the whole game fits on one screen, which makes it one of the best fits for a phone on this list.
Party and strategy roguelikes
These are the closest to what we are making: you don't play one hero, you lead a small party, and the run is about making them work together.
6Slice & Dice
Slice & Dice gives you a party of five heroes, each one a die with its own faces. You roll them all, reroll the ones you don't like, and resolve the turn. As heroes level up, you pick new classes and the faces change, so every run builds a different team. A fight takes about a minute, and the interface is clean on a small screen. Free to try, with one unlock for the full game.
7Loop Hero
Your hero walks a loop on its own and fights on its own. Your job is to place the world around the road: forests, villages, cemeteries, mountains. Every tile you place makes the loop more dangerous and more rewarding, and the combination of tiles is where the depth is. It is a strange, gloomy game with a lot of personality, and it suits short sessions well.
8Into the Breach
- iPhone
- Android
- With a Netflix subscription
- PC: $14.99
A small tactics game in which every enemy shows its next attack before it happens. Your three mechs have one turn to push, block and redirect those attacks, and a perfect turn feels like solving a puzzle. On phones it is only available with a Netflix subscription, with no ads and no purchases inside. If you have Netflix, this is a must.
9Backpack Battles
An autobattler about packing a bag. Between fights you buy items and arrange them in your backpack, where items next to each other boost each other. Then the fight plays itself against another player's backpack. It came to phones in February 2026, and the touch controls for dragging and rotating items work well.
Action roguelites
Action on a touch screen is hard to get right. These games either have excellent touch controls or are designed so that you barely need them, and most of them also support a controller.
10Dead Cells
A fast, hard action game with a castle that changes every run and a huge list of weapons. Dead Cells has some of the best touch controls of any action game on mobile, with an option for automatic attacks if you want them. The paid expansions add new areas and bosses, but the base game is already huge.
11Vampire Survivors
The game that made the "survivors" genre popular. You only move: your character attacks on its own, the screen fills with monsters, and your build turns into a storm of weapons within twenty minutes. On mobile it is free, with optional ads for bonuses and paid expansions. It plays well with one thumb.
12BALL x PIT
A brick-breaker crossed with a survivors game. You fire balls at enemies walking down the screen, and balls can be fused into new ones with combined effects. Between runs you build a small town that unlocks new characters. It came to phones in March 2026, and it is free to try before the full unlock.
14Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
A survivors game in the Deep Rock Galactic universe. You play a dwarf miner who also has to dig through the walls of the cave for minerals while the swarm closes in. It came to phones in late 2025 with controller support, and a free trial before the full unlock.
Classic dungeon crawlers and free picks
15Shattered Pixel Dungeon
A traditional roguelike: turn-based, one life, and a dungeon full of items you have to identify by using them. It is one of the most generous games on mobile. On Android it is free, with an optional supporter purchase. On iPhone it costs US$4.99. If you want the classic genre, this is where to start.
16Soul Knight
A twin-stick shooter with dungeons that change every run, hundreds of weapons and a lot of characters to unlock. It is free with ads and purchases, but the core game can be played without paying. It also supports controllers and local multiplayer.
Something different
17Peglin
Peglin mixes a pachinko board with a roguelike. You fire orbs at pegs, every peg hit adds damage, and the orbs you collect during the run change how the shot behaves. It is relaxing and smart at the same time, and it works very well on a touch screen. Free to try on both stores.
18Dungeon Clawler
- iPhone
- Android
- $6.99, no ads
- PC: $14.99
A claw machine as a weapon. Each turn you grab items from the claw machine: swords to attack, shields to defend, and odder things with stranger effects. Your claw and what's inside the machine improve as the run goes on. It is short, silly and surprisingly deep.
Before you buy
A few things that help when you shop for roguelikes on a phone:
- Premium means one payment and no ads. Most games on this list are premium.
- Free to try is honest. Wildfrost, Peglin, Loop Hero, Slice & Dice, BALL x PIT and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor let you play the beginning before one purchase unlocks the rest.
- Watch for two versions of the same game. Brotato has a free app and a Premium app, and several games (Slay the Spire, Balatro, Dead Cells, Vampire Survivors, Dicey Dungeons and Dungeon Clawler) also have a separate version in Apple Arcade if you subscribe.
- Netflix games are free with the subscription. Into the Breach is the standout there.
Roguelike or roguelite? In a roguelike, every run starts from nothing. In a roguelite, some progress stays with you between runs, like new characters or permanent upgrades. Most of the games here are roguelites, and people use both words for both.
Questions
What is the best roguelike game on mobile?
Slay the Spire is still the safest pick. It plays perfectly on a touch screen, costs US$9.99 once on both stores and has no ads. If you want something lighter, Balatro is the other easy answer at the same price.
What are the best free roguelikes on iPhone and Android?
Soul Knight and Vampire Survivors are free on both stores, with optional purchases. Shattered Pixel Dungeon is free on Android and US$4.99 on iPhone. Several premium games, such as Wildfrost, Peglin and Loop Hero, are free to try before a single unlock.
Is Hades on mobile?
Not any more. Hades came to iPhone through Netflix Games in 2024, and Netflix removed it from its catalogue in July 2025. There is no standalone mobile version.
Is Slay the Spire 2 on iPhone or Android?
No. Slay the Spire 2 has been in early access on PC and Mac since March 5, 2026, and Mega Crit has not announced a date for phones. The first Slay the Spire is on both stores.
Is Darkest Dungeon on iPhone or Android?
The first Darkest Dungeon is only on iPad, as Darkest Dungeon Tablet Edition, with no iPhone or official Android version. Darkest Dungeon II was announced for iPhone and Android on October 28, 2026, for release in 2027.
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