Card of Darkness
An Epic Card Adventure
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Prices are current as of 16 Oct 2026.
Card of Darkness has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to Card of Darkness
| Card of Darkness |   The Oregon Trail |   SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit |   Lost in Play+ |   Oddmar+ |   Creaks |   Old Man’s Journey+ |   Alba: A Wildlife Adventure |   Rabbids Multiverse |   Monument Valley 2+ |   The Battle of Polytopia+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.6 |
| Reviews | 2.4K | 118K | 103K | 28K | 21K | 10K | 10K | 7.2K | 6.8K | 2K | 1.5K |
| Released | 2019 | 2021 | 2020 | 2025 | 2021 | 2020 | 2022 | 2020 | 2024 | 2022 | 2024 |
Card of Darkness reviews
4.0 out of 5, based on 2,418 reviews.
What people like
- Cute and charming art style
- Daily challenges add replay value
- Satisfying strategic puzzle gameplay
What they complain about
- Bugs make weapons behave incorrectly
- Game freezes or crashes often
- RNG makes skill irrelevant
- No character progression or leveling
I just want more!
I love love love this game! The gameplay is addicting and the daily challenges offer a nice bit of extra depth for long term players, I almost just wish there was more! Also I completed the game without equipping a single card of darkness my second time around so I’d say once you get a feel for this game nothing is particularly impossible or unfair. I keep saying this but I just want more! There’s not much to do once you’re done. There’s no infinite mode or anything, just the daily challenge, which gets a bit boring when you want to play play play haha. Can’t wait to see what else this team makes!
no background music
I used to play this game two years ago, everything’s perfect, but as I download again this month, I find it didn’t work well with bgm(the sound effects work fine as before). In my memories, the first map has an excellent music. I can’t find any button to reset that
3 Stars alone for Presentation
The art and sound design in this game is excellent. I’d genuinely recommend playing it alone for that if you enjoy cartoony psychedelic-type media. The game itself is very hit-or-miss. I’ve seen other developers try to make a puzzle-centric rpg game, and they often fall flat. This game is wildly swingy, and winning or losing very often didn’t feel like much of a skill-based deal, even as I’m close to the end of the game. The upgrades are even more hit or miss. About 40% of them are highly situational and useless. There’s a lot that basically except you to go into a level to see it’s content before you can even reasonably expect to use the highly situational cards. It leaves the game feeling very underwhelming and un-polished.
Buggy
I wanted so much to love this game. It's fun, love the graphics, play can be really challenging, but the end comes too soon--it took me a mere 53 levels to reach the end, which in light of the worst flaw is a miracle. Because the game randomly freezes up. I've played it for a few years, and the freeze is recurrent. I delete it, reload, and it reloads still frozen! I start over with a new game, and the same thing eventually happens again. Nope. Unforgivable. I'm out. This time, for good.
Purposely unfair
So I’m guessing it’s not as much an adventure game as a survival game because you will most likely almost die on every stage at least once. It’s a health management game. Weapons are extremely limited and there are tons of enemies. This game is just a “pray to the RNG gods game” and that’s fine but that’s what makes it just an ok game.
Love it Wish there were more levels
I have finished the game and gone back to get all the stars for each level, now I just do the daily challenge. I really wish there would be additional levels added. I’d download (even pay $) them no questions asked!
All progress gone
I was in the 30s, first try in the second? Major boss. Opened the app, everything is gone. Back to the tutorial and all progress gone. Ouch.
Love hate relationship
Love this game so much. It’s complex and challenging. Unique and funny. And will absolutely piss you off lol. Nice work gentlemen! Would have rated it a 5 but I’ve been experiencing some bugs where my game will glitch and it will get stuck on certain animations. I have to close and reopen the app. Nothing else will work for me. ZACH! HELP! (Playing on the newest iPad Pro if that context is helpful)
Doesn’t work
I’ve had this game for a while. It used to be good but crashes constantly. Also, the cards don’t work. For example, the weapon that is not supposed to mark piles, marks them every time. Curses that are supposed to last one floor, last the entire dungeon. Card of ease doesn’t work at all. Maybe it’s supposed to be a joke.
Great concept, buggy
I really like the game play, the addition of a daily challenge system is great, and the game is super buggy, I would expect better from an Apple Arcade game, please fix bugs. It’s really frustrating to make great progress on a star and then have weapons not work the way they are supposed to, or have the game become unresponsive.
Top 3 for me!
Like many players, I found the game to be difficult at times, but then again, the difficulty is proportionate to one’s wits and the luck of the draw. Ultimately delightful! One problem I’m encountering is the infrequency of certain cards’ mechanics. Sometimes they follow their descriptions, sometimes not. It’s somewhat frustrating to deal with is when the main metric of scoring the daily challenge is by accumulating coins. One other bug I’ve encountered is when the game freezes, but the animations continue. Closing the app and opening it again fixes the second problem, but not the first. Otherwise, this game is in my top three favorites! I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly and it’s a daily go-to game for me. Thanks so much!
Terrible
Don’t download this
Worth playing
Great little game. Only a few issues keeping it from 5 stars. 1. There’s a bug where the slingshot randomly acts like a dagger instead of a slingshot (possibly related to the seal card?). 2. Less important bug is the achievements don’t always sync so despite having beaten the game, I don’t have all of them. 3. There needs to be more levels!
Close but not quite
It can be fun but between 1) the issue that the distribution of cards on each level has no constraints so that you just have to keep doing over and over until you get a doable level and 2) in the arcade version you can’t actually get and use any of daily/weekly prizes, it needs some work.
On the fence
I really enjoy this game, it’s an awesome concept, and I find myself getting lost in playing until I get reminded how insufferable the RNG is in this game. You could be planning ahead perfectly. But the RNG will just screw you over. Makes me want to not even come back to the game.
I’m a dolt
I was duped into giving this a perfect score. How could I be so hoodwink-able? Joking. Game’s great. Really charming and tough. You have to carefully consider each move to survive.
Unplayable and confusing
It’s literally impossible to understand how to play this game. First of all they barely explain to you anything (basically just tells you to press random buttons without explaining to you what’s your objective). Then they randomize levels from the start to you have no idea of what you’re doing is what you’re supposed to. I didn’t get past the first level because I couldn’t get a grasp at what the hell I was supposed to be doing
Rng but good game
Rng is going to throw some impossible floors at you but a good game and really fun when you get Granny Smiths to give you a 99 level sword
Completely RNG
No strategy or planning can overcome bad RNG. Player choice isn’t of any value.
Great potential
This game should be astonishingly fun as I love card games like this. I also welcome a challenge even if it’s not to the same extent of Slay the Spire. My sole gripe early on is the tutorial. It tells you next to nothing beyond simply saying “tap here” without saying why you need to. For a game that seems to have a fair bit of complexity you’d expect a tutorial would at least tell you the core gameplay mechanics, but it does not.
Challenging but I loved it
Definitely took me a while to beat this game, but I really enjoy the strategy you need to implement in the later levels. Unique characters and lovely art style too!
Worst RNG
You can’t make any level progression. The game sets you up like it’ll be easy with some challenges but once you’re on your own you get weapons that are 3 turns while enemies are 7+ and all the health boosts you get just get poisoned
Love this game so much but there are some bugs!
I seriously am in love with this game I've been playing it nonstop, I love the art style and gameplay and everything. But theres some bugs I've noticed! Like on the volcano boss level when I finished it, it wouldn't let me pick up the coins. And then I left the game and came back and it let me pick them up, but then it didn't leave the level and the boss had full hearts again. Then also I noticed when I left mid-game in a dungeon and came back, cards that add up each time you have a turn would stop adding up. I hope these bugs can be fixed because this game is so cute and I wanna keep playing!
Dumb luck
No skill involved. People calling this “challenging” aren’t being accurate - it’s just dumb luck what cards come up and whether you’ll be able to clear a given level. It’s a grind for coins over and over and gets really old really fast. I do not recommend it at all.
Incomprehensible
No clue how to play this game.
Guys it’s perfect
I’m chuckling at some of these 1 star reviews. When I first started this game, I too was incredibly frustrated, but I kept at it and once I was able to shift my mind and understood the game, things took off. I’ve played through the entire game twice and I wish there were more levels. I found it to be a nearly perfect game. To all those people who think this game is too hard— it is hard! But so worth it.
Stupidly random and hard
This has to be the most ungodly braindead game I've ever played. You don't get stronger at all just bash your head into the wall until you get RNG to beat a level then do it again
Controller
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Bug Report
I like this game and I’ll update with a good review if my bug gets fixed. The slingshot is inconsistent and you will sometimes just tank the damage from an enemy when you use it instead of knocking them down 1 hp. I experience it a lot in the chaos dungeon, and think it may have to do with the sword of chaos.
love. but it’s way too short
not enough levels
RNG ftw
This game takes skill. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I think it's well designed and clever. Great for fans of Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons and Balatro
Poor Game Design
While having a fun and quirky design, the mechanics just aren’t there. When a user can’t get out of the first few levels due to randomized numerical system, it creates frustration and I abandoned this title just five minutes in. There’s no strategy. There’s no character progression. Just luck. And that makes for a system built on frustration and not fun. Do not download this game until the creator puts some basic effort into it.
Fun game but short
I really have enjoyed this game but in the time that I’ve been playing it (about a week) I’ve beaten it twice. There needs to be more levels. Doing the daily chaos levels don’t mean anything when you have all the cards from beating all of the levels. Would love more levels.
Good concept ruined by poor game design and glitches
I've completed the main campaign of this and done a lot of the chaos realm runs (just daily challenges), so I have experienced basically everything in the game. So let me tell you that it is not really worth your time. If you have an Apple Arcade subscription, there are many more games that you should play instead. First, the game design. Random levels in the main campaign have a horrendous level spike where you can only win via RNG on these levels (trust me, I had at this point already purchased all the gear you can buy). Then, in comparison to this, the bosses are extremely easy. Not to mention that you purchase every upgrade possible by the time you're a third of the way into the campaign. Second, the glitches. They vary in intensity but WILL show up. Some are beneficial, such as weapons that break after one hit not doing so. But the vast majority are game breaking. Decks that are face-up may randomly flip face-down and you won't be able to access those cards. Sometimes your weapon behaves incorrectly, such as you weilding a slingshot like it is a sword, which you won't know until it is too late. And the worst part about all this? Every time there's a glitch and you want to fix it, you have to close and reopen the game. And it takes too long with how often you have to do it. Only reason I'm continuing to play is because I'm trying to 100% the game. Play any other Apple Arcade game but this.
Fun but glitchy
The gameplay is very fun and quite frankly addicting, but the downside is I can’t go one round without my touch screen failing, it’s not failing anywhere else but during the game. I don’t know what might be causing this.
Really fun.
Ok this game is so awesome and easy.
Disappointing
I saw the graphics style and thought it was like adventure time card wars but its nothing like it. This game is random no skill required. It makes no sense.
Slingshots are bugged??
I love this game and I play it for a few minutes almost every day. I really really want to give it 5 stars, but I had to knock one because of a bug. Starting just today, my rock slingshots don’t work as ranged weapons anymore! They work just like daggers instead: melee, break without even/odd parity, still decreasing by 1 per hit. This bug makes the Card of Sickness completely useless and causes me to take much more damage than I should. Certain combat situations that were fine before have become unplayable, and I have less strategic options. It’s getting really irritating to have next to no ranged weapon options! Help!
Too much
Too challenging too fast. Once again Apple Arcade makes me say it. Good concept, bad execution. Games are supposed to be for fun, not rage.
Fun but buggy
This game has some fun strategy and interesting ideas when it comes to the monsters’s abilities. Sometimes taps stop responding. Trophies refuse to go above $1 despite killing monsters much larger than 1. I had to delete the game and redownload it when the game state was somehow going to a blank black screen on launch. (Luckily the cloud save retained my progress).
Good
I want to write this report to tell her there’s a bug in this game basically when you leave the shop and then heading to a level, then exit the level without going into the level the door an animation place again
Complete RNG
0 skill 0 decision making. Unfortunately this game is completely RNG. Your decisions do not matter at all. Honestly just sit at your table and roll 2 dice and try to get both 6’s and you will have more fun than playing this “game.” Looked interesting from the video but it’s really not. I beat a few bosses before I got so bored it was hard to keep my eyes open. Definitely skip this one.
Wonderful, with some consistent bugs
Very good, indeed. It’s fun to play the daily challenge like working on a crossword, and feel yourself getting better. It’s a bummer when a bug means that you lose a match, though, because you only have three shots at the daily matches. In particular, sometimes the slingshots act like daggers.
Starts off great then quickly becomes impossible
The game starts off great, super fun to learn the cards. But as soon as you get to the area right past the mountains it becomes impossible. I’ve downloaded this game a couple times now and it’s fun till about level 24 then I cannot get any farther and end up deleting it.
Too random
for the most part, this is a very well designed game. however, as many other reviewers have pointed out, there is way too much randomness stacked against the player. i like many of the mechanics and don’t have a problem with the lack of upgrades, but often there really is nothing you can do to beat a floor. i presume there is some degree of control for the RNG, so really all that’s needed is stricter parameters for generating levels. unfortunately this game has been out for several years and nothing like this has been implemented, so i doubt anything will change at this point. you can still have fun in the game, just be prepared to face unwinnable situations frequently.
Underrated gem
This game absolutely deserves a higher rating than 3.9. It’s surprisingly challenging in the best way—it keeps me engaged and thinking the whole time. I really enjoy that it’s not too easy, which makes winning feel more rewarding. On top of that, it’s genuinely fun to play, and the art style is super cute and charming. Definitely worth checking out if you like games that test your brain a little while still being fun and visually appealing!
Near impossible after first boss… and bad art.
Seriously no matter what set up I run the 2nd steppes level ALWAYS kills me. There just ends up being wayyyy too many enemies and virtually no weapons. Otherwise the gameplay is good but the art style is pretty bad imo. Like I don’t necessarily need something rough like slay the spire, but I don’t think many people want something that I can only describe as “cutesy”.
1.1.1 is buggy
I really love this game but the most recent update seems to have broken a lot of the way the game handles its data in Chaos Realm. It’s kind of unplayable since all stats seem to be reverting to a couple weeks ago every time I open the app.
Not very fun
Bored immediately
Great game, but…
This is honestly one of my favorites games to to kill time and I’ve been looking for a game with a concept similar to this for a really long time but my biggest problem with this particular game is that there is no leveling, like the enemies just keep getting harder and your basically just as powerful as when you started the game. Also when there’s like an enemy in like every slot of the first row and there’s not a weapon until a few rows back and then by the time you get the weapon there’s no way to win.
Card of Darkness FAQ
- Is Card of Darkness free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 172 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does Card of Darkness have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to Card of Darkness?
- The Oregon Trail (4.8 from 117,886 reviews), SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit (4.6 from 102,616 reviews) and Lost in Play+ (4.9 from 27,655 reviews).
Card of Darkness download
Last updated 4 years ago.
Card of Darkness sells in 172 countries. It was released 7 years and 1 month ago, on 19 Sept 2019. It holds a 4.0 rating from 2,418 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does Card of Darkness make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.