# Instigator — Start wars. Blame someone else

> Start wars. Blame someone else (iPhone/iPad app by Steve North.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/instigator/id6819030761 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Steve North](https://appshunter.io/developer/6819030763)
- Category: Games, Simulation, Strategy
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 17+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 16 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-10-17
- Data updated: 2026-10-24

## What is Instigator?

Pick a country. Start a war. Make sure everyone thinks it was somebody else.

Instigator is a satirical strategy game about the world's worst diplomat: you. Turn the great powers against each other with leaked "private messages", spy balloons, forged dossiers and very suspicious rocket tests, then sit back and sell arms to both sides. The goal is simple: be the last country standing. Every rival, big or small, has to fall.

STIR UP TROUBLE
• Turn any country against any other with more than a dozen dirty tricks, from a whispered rumour to The Big Stitch-Up
• Cheap plots backfire more often. Deniable ones rarely do, but when they do it's a disaster: sanctions, retaliation strikes and wars you didn't order
• Pick on the same country too often and its spies start to notice
• Plant moles, leak secrets, sabotage armies and raid treasuries. Your rivals are planting moles in you, too

BUILD AN EMPIRE
• Invade your neighbours. Every country is worth something different, every game: soldiers, money, warheads, reach
• A bigger empire soaks up the damage aimed at your homeland, but conquered land gets restless
• Make peace with one country, once per game, and hope they mean it

SURVIVE WHAT YOU STARTED
• Shelters, missile shields, decoy capitals and a strategic bean reserve, all before the nuclear winter arrives
• Watch the "Hurting you" tag to see exactly who, or what, is wrecking your country

STOP THE PEACE
• The world wants peace. You want it to fail. Pop the doves, seat sworn enemies side by side at the summit and swap the fondue for squeezy cheese before the Peace Accord reaches 100%

A WORLD THAT FIGHTS BACK
• 19 great powers and more than 150 smaller countries, each with its own friends and protectors, and old grudges that change every game
• Every power has warheads, from a nervous ten to several thousand
• Small countries feud and swallow their neighbours, and in most games a new world power rises right in front of you
• Erratic leaders, comic instigator groups and random incidents mean no two games play the same
• Not sure where a country is? Tap it in the World list, and the map flies straight to it

COME BACK FOR MORE
• Daily Doom: a new country and a new twist every day, the same for everyone.
• Every win earns your country a star on that difficulty. There's also a hidden badge, if you can work out how to get it.
• Three difficulties, a new intelligence briefing every game and extra scenarios.

Every leader is fictional. Any resemblance is plausibly deniable.

Contains ads. Optional purchases: Remove Ads, the Full Pass (every scenario and no ads), individual scenarios and Weapons Crates (three uses of each silly super-weapon).

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Weapons Crate | $1.99 | one-time |
| Full Pass | $5.99 | one-time |
| Remove Ads | $3.99 | one-time |
| Fat Finger Scenario | $1.99 | one-time |
| Land Grab Scenario | $1.99 | one-time |
| Post-Truth Scenario | $1.99 | one-time |


## Is Instigator safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Instigator.

## Is Instigator legit?

Instigator has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Instigator is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 3 releases)

### 1.2 — 2026-10-20

• The Big Red Button got serious: lift the cover, hold to launch, and watch it land. Mushroom clouds, shockwaves and the next morning's front page
• Silos take 20 days to re-arm, and the countries you hit move underground, so plan your strikes
• New Stats screen: a Chaos Rating, 60 ranks from Innocent Bystander to The Instigator, and a Hall of Infamy of your worst games
• 38 medals to earn (some of them secret) and four free warhead skins, including a rubber duck
• Winning feels like winning: fireworks, a fanfare and your rank going up
• Lost to the bombs? Rise from the ashes, or start a grudge match against whoever finished you
• Share your result as a picture of the world you left behind
• Country panels in five tabs (Stir, Calm, Deals, Spy, War), and the War tab shows what a war would really cost
• A beefed-up Weapons Crate, with a new defence: The Dome
• Blitz an invasion, or call in reinforcements when one stalls
• The peace talks move a little bit faster to present more of a time-based threat
• New Flashes and Vibration settings on the title screen
• Sound now comes back properly after an advert
• Various minor fixes and balance changes

### 1.1 — 2026-10-19

• Night of the Living Nations: a free Halloween scenario, here until 3 November. The first power to fall rises as the Zombie Nation, and it's hungry
• First game? A short guided tour shows you how everything works. Skip it if you've played before
• Optional ads now pay out more: start with a bigger budget, get emergency aid when your country is in trouble, or double a Jackpot
• Every Weapons Crate weapon has its own show on the map, a storm over a nuked country rains acid, and the Robot Army now comes with a warranty
• Tap a country in the World tab and the map flies straight to it
• Every win earns your country a star on that difficulty, and there's a hidden badge to find
• Every power has warheads, old grudges change every game, and new world powers rise in most games
• Hurt places fall faster to invaders, and the invade panel shows how long it should take
• Now on iPad, full screen in portrait and landscape
• Season's Beatings, a free Christmas scenario, unlocks on 1 December
• Lots of fixes and balance changes

### 1.0 — 2026-10-17

No release notes.

## Related topics

[conquer countries](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/conquer-countries) · [guerra paises](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/guerra-paises) · [country war games](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/country-war-games)

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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 2026-10-24.*