# Gladiabots — AI Combat Arena

> Robot combat strategy game with AI programming and customizable robot squads. (iPhone/iPad app by Sebastien Dubois.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gladiabots/id1469623947 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Sebastien Dubois](https://appshunter.io/developer/1469623946)
- Category: Games, Education, Simulation, Strategy
- Price: $3.99 with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.50/5 from 90 App Store ratings · 91 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 17+
- Requires: iOS 9.0 · 182 MB
- Languages: Korean, Dutch, German (Germany), Russian, Romanian, Lithuanian, Vietnamese, Swedish, European Spanish, Arabic and 14 more
- Released: 2019-12-14
- Data updated: 2026-09-07
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gladiabots/id1469623947/reviews.md

## What is Gladiabots?

Gladiabots is a robot combat strategy game in which you carefully construct the AI of your robot squad and send them into the battle arena. Improve, refine and repeat until you outsmart all your opponents and friends online.

Features:
- Create your own AI and watch your robots execute it in the arena
- Fix it, improve it and repeat it until you outsmart all your opponents
- Simple and powerful AI programming system offering millions of possible combinations (with no programming skills required)
- Create and customize your robot crew
- Single player campaign with hundreds of solo missions 
- Online multiplayer career mode featuring, ranked, unranked and private matches
- 3 distinctly different game modes: elimination, domination and collection
- Create and compete in tournaments
- Asynchronous multiplayer - battle friends even if they are not online
- Sandbox mode in which you control both teams to test your tactics
- Rank up and earn points to unlock new robot skins

IMPORTANT NOTE
This game doesn't have any ads and is NOT pay-to-win!
The in-app purchases allow you to buy in-game credits that you can use to unlock new skins for your robots. They are optional, purely cosmetic and don't give any gameplay advantages.

## Key features

- Create and program robot AI
- Customize robot crew
- Single player campaign
- Online multiplayer modes
- Multiple game modes
- Tournament creation
- Asynchronous multiplayer

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: $3.99.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hello World Pack | $0.99 | one-time |
| Script Pack | $1.99 | one-time |
| Algorithm Pack | $4.99 | one-time |
| Automaton Pack | $8.99 | one-time |
| Neural Network Pack | $17.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Gladiabots?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 💡 Innovative programming concept
- 🧠 Great for learning logic/programming
- 👍 Satisfying to see AI work
- 🚀 Deep and complex gameplay
- 😊 Rewarding when AI works
- 👍 Good tutorial
- ✨ Unique gameplay mechanics
- 💯 Addictive and engaging
- 🎮 Great PC port to mobile
- 🌟 Worth the price
- 👍 Responsive developer
- 🤝 Active and helpful community
- 🏆 Asynchronous combat is great
- 💡 Endless possibilities for play
- 💎 Pay once, play forever model

**Cons**

- 🐛 Steep learning curve
- 🤔 UI can be confusing
- 📚 Tutorials can be complex
- 💸 Some find it expensive
- ⚠️ English-only wiki/hints
- 😵 Can be overwhelming
- 🐛 Some AI logic bugs
- 🚧 Difficult to master
- 😵 Can be mentally taxing

**Commonly reported bugs**

- iOS version not up-to-date
- AI logic bugs/unexpected behavior
- Screen not fitting iPad Pro
- Game not running on older iPads

**Most requested features**

- Korean language support
- Option to toggle FPS (30/60)
- Add more robots
- "Quit" confirmation button in training

## Recent user reviews (10 of 91)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gladiabots/id1469623947/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Asynchronous combat here we come

*2026-02-14*

Really enjoyed the well planned tutorials so far. Looking forward to testing the asynchronous combat, as this was my main reason playing.

### 1/5 — Tutorial too complex for me.

*2026-01-19, version 1.4.28*

I was wanting to get into this game, but it's too complex, and the tutorial didn't help me either, waste of money.

### 4/5 — Great tactics

*2025-01-19*

Awesome challenging tactics. Really like the idea and possibilities. UI is quite confusing sometimes, but worth learning.

### 5/5 — Great game; easy to learn, hard to master!

*2024-11-01*

This is a fun game to kill some time with if you need an easy game to burn time away and an even better game if you’re looking for a deeper game system.

### 5/5 — Nice

*2024-10-16*

Einfaches konzept mit viel tiefe

### 5/5 — Very nice Game

*2024-10-07*

Of you like programming and optimize you’re bots that’s you’re game… And you need no money just brain cells :)

### 5/5 — Great game

*2024-05-17, version 1.4.28*

I like how the robots fight in a battle of who has the best team setup and code

### 2/5 — あと少し.....

*2024-02-28*

とても完成されているゲームです
自分はあまりプログラミングが得意ではないのでこのゲームで少しでもプログラミングが学びたいなと思い購入させていただきました！！
まだ初めて2日ですが思ったことを書かせていただきたいなと思います。
最初に思ったことは「わからない」です
なぜ動かないのかなぜ攻撃しないのかが全然わからないです。のでチュートリアルをもう一回やろうとと思いやってみても全くわからないです
二つ目はヒント？のようなものがありそれを押すとwikiのページに飛びます。
ですが全て英語です
訳がわかりません

### 5/5 — Wooo yeah!!!!

*2022-12-24*

5 stars all day, no matter the gaming system this might find it’s way to. Fairly deep and a pretty steep learning curve, but if programming robots and seeing how your plan plays out against others sounds like your cup of tea…. This could wind up becoming your next obsession. 
The amount of actions/moves you can put into place is crazy and watching your team of bots just inch it out past someone else’s team is a pure adrenaline booster. 
Thank you for making this game. Thank you for releasing it in the AppStore.
You guys rock.
This game rocks.
Woooo!!!!!

### 5/5 — Very complex

*2022-07-30, version 1.4.28*

Endless way to play. 10/10!

## Frequently asked questions about Gladiabots

### What is Gladiabots?

Gladiabots is a robot combat strategy game where you design the AI for your robot squad and send them into battle arenas. You can refine your AI and tactics to outsmart opponents in both single-player and multiplayer modes.

### What are the key features of Gladiabots?

Key features include creating and programming your own robot AI, customizing your robot crew, a single-player campaign with hundreds of missions, and various online multiplayer modes like ranked, unranked, and private matches. It also offers tournament creation and asynchronous multiplayer.

### How does Gladiabots make money?

The game is free to play and does not feature ads or pay-to-win mechanics. In-app purchases are available for in-game credits, which can be used to unlock optional, purely cosmetic robot skins that do not provide any gameplay advantages.

### Can I play Gladiabots with friends?

Yes, Gladiabots supports online multiplayer, including private matches where you can battle friends. The asynchronous multiplayer feature allows you to challenge friends even when they are not online.

### What are the different game modes in Gladiabots?

Gladiabots features three distinct game modes: elimination, domination, and collection. Additionally, there is a sandbox mode for testing tactics by controlling both teams, and players can create and compete in tournaments.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.4.28 — 2020-08-14

1.4.28
- Multiplayer: fixed matches with deleted players appearing as "to be deployed"
- Multiplayer: reduced leaderboard activity timeout from 1 month to 1 week
- Multiplayer: fixed not downloaded matches appearing with "0" map generation code
- Tournaments: check if registration is enabled on server when using the in-game "register" button
- Team setup: fixed color patterns shaking for certain resolutions
- Tutorial: fixed "A and B" intermediate mission (victory by default)
- Tutorial: unlocked node selection in "Attack" mission to enable node tooltips on mobile
- UI: move bug report button to the settings menu
- Localization: improved AI tooltips for french language
- Localization: fixed typos
- Stats: fixed player daily score and ranking graphs displaying "0" value when player is inactive

### 1.4.27 — 2020-06-30

1.4.27
- Team setup: added 5 setups per game mode (replacing the 2 campaign/multiplayer setups)
- Bot customization: added 2 textures, 20 skin textures
- Bot customization: improved textures quality
- Bot customization: tweaked texture prices
- Campaign: lowered AIs starting elo ranges (chapter 2 starts at 900 instead of 1000)
- Campaign: updated chapter 2 to 10 missions for all games modes with latests ghosts from season 3
- Multiplayer: fixed match lists private match invitation button creating a match in the wrong mode
- Tournaments: fixed in-game notification when a new tournament is created
- Sandbox: fixed team composition error message appearing in team setup screen
- Localization: fixed drop resource action tooltip
- Tutorial: fixed "finish tutorial first" message appearing the first time the AI editor is opened
- Tutorial: fixed setup toggles shown in team setup screen
- Tutorial: fixed team setups getting overriden by changes made during tutorial missions
- Stats: added team tournament victory icons
- Linux: builds now use the "universal" format (handling 32 and 64 bits architectures)

### 1.4.23 — 2020-06-09

1.4.23 changelog:
- Multiplayer: fixed displayed league thresholds

### 1.4.22 — 2020-05-28

- Sandbox: fixed maps getting replaced by random maps when restarting/rewinding/coming back from AI editor

### 1.4.20 — 2020-05-16

1.4.20 changelog:
- AI editor: allowed connections to comment nodes
- AI editor: move parent node without it's children when holding left click or left alt (previously left control)
- AI editor: remove A shortcut from add AI button
- Game: fixed lighting and post processing effects
- Game: fixed tags overlapping each other
- Game: added a delay before game over screen appears (avoids the game pausing during bot explosion animation first frame)
- Multiplayer: fixed match list not refreshing correctly after cancelling an undeployed match
- Campaign/Domination: fixed chapter 1 level 2 and 3 showing wrong CPU team size during intro
- Sandbox: fixed battle royale missions
- Tutorial/Shield DIY: added final instruction to add the flee action
- Team setup: fixed game mode buttons overlapping AI names for resolutions with big aspect ratio (Pixel 3)
- Team setup: fixed team composition error message overlapping buttons
- Tournaments: don't show new tournament messages for players below Gold league
- Tournaments: added a stage matches scheduler tool (see https://wiki.gladiabots.com/index.php?title=Tournaments#Scheduling_matches)
- Tournaments: added a team top player adding tool (see https://wiki.gladiabots.com/index.php?title=Tournaments#Adding_team_top_players)
- Tournaments: added the AllowDraws special rule (see https://wiki.gladiabots.com/index.php?title=Tournaments#Allow_draws)
- Tournaments: allowed several values for the map generation seed parameter
- Account: improved data sync conflict message (added campaign progress info)
- UI: fixed messages gettings mixed up
- UI/Main menu: removed shop button, added wiki button
- Localization: changed english date format from dd/mm/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy
- Localization: fixed redundant "league" word

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-07.*