# Nova Island — Card Battle Strategy > Anime-inspired collectible card battle strategy game with PvP and PvE modes. (iPhone/iPad app by Thirteen Games, LLC.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nova-island/id1526357111 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Thirteen Games, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1526357113) - Category: Games, Card, Strategy - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.30/5 from 237 App Store ratings · 95 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 9+ - Requires: iOS 16.0 · 261 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2021-08-05 - Data updated: 2026-09-03 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nova-island/id1526357111/reviews.md ## What is Nova Island? Discover friends and card duels in this exciting strategic adventure game! Nova Island is an anime inspired card game with cute characters, amazing strategy, and an engaging adventure!  And totally ad free! Looking for a unique collectible card game that combines strategy & chance? On Nova Island, you can take on challenges, play quick matches with friends, or compete against players from around the world to climb the leaderboard. Play cards to gain strength, deal damage, plan ahead, and disrupt opponents in ways they’ll never see coming. It’s fun! Try it out for free and discover its complete strategic freedom! Alert!  A new Nova Researcher has arrived on the island!  With your help and the various Pros by your side, collect all of the Friends, Powers, and customizable Skins found on this colorful island.  Go out on an adventure of a lifetime and see all of the fun in store for you! Quick PvP Matches in Every Mode Compete in fast online Ranked Matches versus players around the world.  Try out your strategic thinking in a unique single-player experience with new themes popping in the Daily Challenges. The Best of Your Favorite TCG and CCG Experiences Train your skills with the Turbo Chaos Draft Challenge against players around the world in a fast-paced draft mode. Challenge yourself with a PVE singleplayer journey around the island and tricky limited time game modes. Level up on Research Road and collect over 100 cards and over 1500 cosmetics, including: - 8 Pros, each with a thematic soundtrack and unique playstyle. - Over 70 Friends with cute animations, sound effects, and custom skins to change their look! So get in there and build your deck with strategy and style! Pick Your Prize or Try Your Luck: Use your winning Tokens on the Vending Machines to collect rewards, level up your favorite strategies, and unlock new cards. You’ll learn more about Nova Island, the Pros and Friends inhabiting the districts, and the challenges that await you as you explore! We have a growing community who love to chat! Discuss tips and tricks with some real Nova Island Pros!  Join in for all fun things NOVA ISLAND! Discord: https://play.novaisland.com/discord Need SUPPORT? Visit our Website: https://novaisland.com or Email us: hello@thirteengames.com Just some important legal information: PRIVACY POLICY: https://novaisland.com/privacy-policy TERMS OF SERVICE: https://novaisland.com/terms-of-service ## Key features - Collectible card battles - Strategic deck building - PvP and PvE modes - Character collection - Cosmetic customization - Daily challenges - Draft mode ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | 75 Island Credits | $1.99 | one-time | | 575 Island Credits | $4.99 | one-time | | 2400 Island Credits | $19.99 | one-time | | 1175 Island Credits | $9.99 | one-time | | 90 Island Credits | $0.99 | one-time | | Welcome Party Bundle | $2.99 | one-time | | Researcher’s Starter Bundle | $0.99 | one-time | | Circuit Boiz Bundle 2 | $0.99 | one-time | | Circuit Boiz Bundle 1 | $0.99 | one-time | | Welcome Bundle | $1.99 | one-time | | ULTIMATE Welcome Bundle | $4.99 | one-time | | Daily Login Bonus | $3.99 | one-time | | Welcome Party Bundle | $4.99 | one-time | | Power Outage Pack | $1.99 | one-time | | Nova Tree Bundle | $9.99 | one-time | | Welcome Bundle 5 | $9.99 | one-time | | Intranet Pack | $5.99 | one-time | | Researcher's Starter Bundle | $1.99 | one-time | | Circuit Boiz Pack | $1.99 | one-time | | 4th Anniversary Emotes Bundle1 | $0.99 | one-time | ## What do users think of Nova Island? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Unique gameplay mechanics - 🎨 Appealing art style and animations - 💰 Completely free-to-play, no pay-to-win - 🕹️ Engaging strategic depth - 🌟 Underrated and deserves more attention **Cons** - 🎲 Excessive reliance on RNG - 🔁 Repetitive and swingy gameplay - 🕰️ Slow progression and grindy unlock system - ⚖️ Unbalanced card/character power levels - 🐛 Occasional crashes and connectivity issues **Commonly reported bugs** - Soft-locking tutorial - Inconsistent performance on some devices **Most requested features** - Offline mode or paid full version - Ability to play with friends - More character/card customization options - Improved tutorial and onboarding experience ## Recent user reviews (10 of 95) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nova-island/id1526357111/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Best Game Yet! *2026-02-26, version 1.8.7* I can’t believe it exists for so long and I’m just discovering it now, it’s really fun and doesn’t feel like it’s rushing you to pay to win, the art style is awesome and very appealing, just an overall great game that really makes you think…hope it will get the exposure it deserves ✌🏼 ### 5/5 — Lovely and fair *2025-12-06, version 1.8.6* Love this game, so unique , unlike any other card game have played, very fair and based on skill not on other factors ### 5/5 — Offline Version *2025-08-31, version 1.8.1* Will there be an offline version of this game in the future? I enjoy it a lot and would like an offline, paid, and full version of this game in case it ever gets taken off from the App Store in the future. ### 4/5 — Why *2025-07-31, version 1.7.3* I am the player named unique I love it because most cards I like Joe the bear ### 5/5 — Unbalanced? *2025-06-14* SUPER FUN GAME. I’ve played over 80 hours got all the classes unlocked. I’ve noticed that the cyber and distortion is highly abused (ranked matches just ppl spamming the specials not even creative decks just copy and paste) also let’s say I’m not good at the game I’ve made other decks & play all the classes if I’m not using the later cards or the later characters the starting three main characters can’t keep up. Also it maybe that I’m just running into alot of those players they seem to be the two main classes everyone uses. ### 5/5 — Not talked about enough *2025-03-13* I’ve been playing this game on and off over a few years on my iPad and it always took a while for me to get the hang of it, but I could tell there was something special about it. I recently started again and am surprised at how good it’s gotten. Great art, music, friendly style and gameplay- unique enough to standout as its own full bodied game to enjoy before bed or commuting .. and there are only 224 reviews??? This game is criminally underrated and I can only hope it gets bigger and better so more people can enjoy it. The tutorial levels are super helpful and I am finally getting into deck building. The UI is great, but could be a little easier to navigate. I would totally put nova island stickers on my laptop and water bottle. ### 5/5 — Cool game! But… *2025-02-19* I love playing this a little but I do make kooky sketches of that. One problem is that the people who play this may be threatened because of Executioner the Bird (Parrot?) and Mega Joe the Moxie Teddy holding a knife. Could you please remove the knife on the two? It may make us have some safe and peaceful gameplay without them having that. ### 5/5 — My favorite PvP card game of all time *2025-01-22* You're probably reading this because of some of the new sponsorships for this game, like FryEmUp. Let me tell you, this game is incredibly fun and consumer friendly. I've bounced around so many other card games (Pokemon Duel, Hearthstone, Soul of Eden, PvZH, South Park PD, Marvel Snap) and this hooked me in the fastest out of all of them. First off, despite the low player counts, the game still receives regular and major updates! New cards, balance changes, etc. It's made by a small indie team that still continues even though the game has had little attention for 3 years. Second, there's almost no gambling, lootbox, card pack, rarities, or dupe card mechanics. Once you reach enough player level, you directly buy a card with a plentiful currency. The only random aspect are occasional one time bundles of several different cards that become availible to buy at a level, with the bonus of one of those cards randomly given to you for free. Also, while reading these reviews you see many complaints from years ago. They actually addressed a lot of these in a big rework update in April 2024. For example, they added an entire story campaign with event battles! On a final note, the artstyle, soundtrack, and personality of this game is incredible. Nothing ever feels half-hearted or passionless, which is such a nice change compared to big cashgrabs from big companies. So what are you waiting for? I guarantee that just trying this for a few days will be a great time. ### 3/5 — Suggestion for Aster/Cosmic balancing *2025-01-16* Right now cosmic's combination of draw, coins, and zap can make matches draw out unbearably long with little progress after the 10 round mark where everyone's just cycling through their decks. Zap is especially a problem since there is little counterplay against zap powers. I have a suggestion to lessen extreme cases of zap stalling out matches: the maximum amount of zap a player can use each round starts at 10. Each round they zap, that limit lowers by 1 for the rest of the match. So for example, in round 8 where one player zapped in 5 rounds before, their 9 health boosted brainwave can only zap 5 nova. This should limit stalling especially in Aster mirror matches without hampering normal uses of zap. hope this suggestion reaches the team instead of being given an automated response. ### 2/5 — Great for awhile *2024-12-02, version 1.4.2* The game is great until you reach a particular level. To start the game was enjoyable and the grind was alright to get the skins and stuff but nothing. I have even enjoyed the challenges and side challenges. But ranked is really the problem once you get high enough. I played and was winning 60% to 70% in ranked and have made it to the four star level. Suddenly I haven’t won a match in over 15 matches. I rebuilt my deck using new cards but I can not even get close. I noticed that some of the people (if they are people and not just bots) they seem to get loads of free cards whenever they run out. I was set up ready to win a match, my opponent had one card in hand I had 8 friends on the field and suddenly they played five cards to ensure they got more novas than me. Where did they come from? Oddly I had bloom the whole way through 7 rounds a friend they were still at 1 health at the 9th round. Never got hit once and still never increased. Every deck I have been playing against seems to have ALOT more than the ten cards available to them and gets the perfect card to make sure they can win. The random level to be energised obviously favours one player over another as quite often one player gets theirs chosen for et and over again. Fixed this and I feel it could be great but currently going to probably remove the game sooner rather than later. Do not waste your time until they do something about this or not afraid to lose all the time once you get to a particular level. Could be a 5 star though. ## Frequently asked questions about Nova Island ### What is Nova Island? Nova Island is an anime-inspired collectible card battle strategy game. It offers a blend of strategic gameplay, chance, and adventure, allowing players to collect characters, powers, and cosmetic items. ### What are the key features of Nova Island? Key features include strategic card duels, collecting over 100 cards and 1500 cosmetics, quick PvP matches, a single-player adventure, daily challenges, and a fast-paced draft mode. Players can also customize their characters with unique skins. ### How does Nova Island make money? The game is free to play and offers in-app purchases. Players can use winning Tokens on Vending Machines to collect rewards and unlock new cards, and purchase cosmetic items. ### Can I play Nova Island with friends? Yes, you can play quick matches with friends and compete against players from around the world in online Ranked Matches. There is also a growing community on Discord where you can discuss tips and tricks. ### What kind of content can I collect in Nova Island? You can collect over 100 cards, including 8 unique 'Pros' with distinct playstyles, and over 70 'Friends' with cute animations and customizable skins. There are also over 1500 cosmetic items available. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.9.3 — 2026-09-03 Fall is here and a new season begins! ### 1.9.2 — 2026-08-13 It’s Nova Islands 5th Anniversary and the whole island is celebrating! - A New Card - A New Rare Skin Set - New Emote & Player Profile - PvP Challenges all season long - Special shop bundles - And More! ### 1.9.1 — 2026-08-05 A new beginning with a new adventure is here. Play with Max and Friends to learn more about the island and the game. Updates Include: - New Tutorial - New story, gameplay, and quick play in 1P Adventure - Updated Icons, Names, and UI elements - Improved screen transitions and server stability, and fixed a number of bugs ### 1.9.0 — 2026-07-06 A new beginning with a new adventure is here. Play with Max and Friends to learn more about the island and the game. Updates Include: - New Tutorial - New story, gameplay, and quick play in 1P Adventure - Updated Icons, Names, and UI elements - Improved screen transitions and server stability, and fixed a number of bugs ### 1.8.9 — 2026-05-04 Spring is here and it's time to shake off those winter blues! Take a tour of the Island to see the spring blooms. ## Apps similar to Nova Island | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Animation Throwdown: Card Game](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/animation-throwdown-card-game/id1080816579) | 4.7 (42,937) | Free | Games | | [Honor-Bound TCG CCG Card Quest](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/honor-bound-tcg-ccg-card-quest/id704781559) | 4.7 (12,550) | Free | Games | | [Deck Dash - CCG Card Battle!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/deck-dash-ccg-card-battle/id6449425653) | 4.6 (412) | Free | Games | | [Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/phantom-rose-2-sapphire/id6502919566) | 4.9 (364) | Free | Games | | [Monster Dungeon: Strategy RPG](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/monster-dungeon-strategy-rpg/id6498983199) | 4.5 (579) | Free | Games | | [Card Guardians - Deck builder](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/card-guardians-deck-builder/id1566663161) | 4.6 (3,081) | Free | Games | ## More apps by Thirteen Games, LLC - [Chestris](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chestris/id6738056174) All apps by Thirteen Games, LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/1526357113 --- *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 2026-09-03.*