# Royal's Gambit — A solitaire deck building game

> Retro strategy card game with deck building and high-stakes decision making. (iPhone/iPad app by 96 Games Studio.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/royals-gambit/id6751735893 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [96 Games Studio](https://appshunter.io/developer/1836517854)
- Category: Games, Card, Strategy
- Price: $9.99
- Rating: 5.00/5 from 3 App Store ratings
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 15 · 211 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2025-12-18
- Data updated: 2026-09-20
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/royals-gambit/id6751735893/reviews.md

## What is Royal's Gambit?

Royal's Gambit is a retro-inspired, strategy card game where every decision counts. Face off against intricate 16-card stage patterns made of powerful royal face cards standing in your way. To clear a path to the exit, you'll need to match card values to their health, planning carefully with every move.

Build your deck as you advance, unlocking new tools and strategies to overcome tougher stages. Each choice impacts your score, which rises with smart plays, combos and risk-reward multipliers. But beware, failure means starting over, making every run a high-stakes gamble.

With multiple game modes and over 80 unique stages, Royal's Gambit challenges you to think ahead, adapt on the fly, and master the board in pursuit of the perfect run. All presented with nostalgic pixel visuals and stylized retro effects.

## Key features

- Retro-inspired strategy card gameplay
- 16-card stage patterns
- Deck building with new tools
- Score multipliers and combos
- Multiple game modes
- Over 80 unique stages
- Nostalgic pixel visuals


## Frequently asked questions about Royal's Gambit

### What is Royal's Gambit?

Royal's Gambit is a retro-inspired strategy card game with deck-building elements. Players match card values to clear stages, build their deck, and aim for high scores in a high-stakes gamble.

### How many stages are in Royal's Gambit?

Royal's Gambit features over 80 unique stages for players to challenge themselves with.

### What devices does Royal's Gambit support?

Royal's Gambit is available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices.

### What is the age rating for Royal's Gambit?

Royal's Gambit has an age rating of 9+, making it suitable for a wide range of players.

### Does Royal's Gambit have ads?

No, Royal's Gambit is ad-free, offering an uninterrupted gaming experience.

### How often is Royal's Gambit updated?

Royal's Gambit was last updated on December 18, 2025, with version 1.0.4. Further updates will depend on developer plans.

### What is the price of Royal's Gambit?

Royal's Gambit is a premium game priced at $9.99.

### What kind of gameplay can I expect from Royal's Gambit?

You can expect strategic card matching against challenging stage patterns, deck building to unlock new abilities, and a focus on careful decision-making for high scores.

## Version history (last 3 releases)

### 1.1.0.1003 — 2026-09-09

1.1.0.1003 Bug Fix
Fixed the game allowing portrait orientation when it should not.

### 1.1.0.1002 — 2026-08-25

# ROYAL’S GAMBIT — PATCH 1.1 & SEASON 01 ARE LIVE!

Patch 1.1 is one of our largest updates yet, introducing Season 01, five dangerous Royal variants, animated backgrounds, drag-and-drop card play, a rebalanced scoring system, and numerous controller and interface improvements.

## IMPORTANT SCORE AND SAVE NOTICE

Patch 1.1 introduces a major scoring rebalance designed to give us more room for future reward cards, seasonal mechanics, and other score-altering content.

Because scores earned under the original system cannot be fairly compared with scores earned under the new system:

* Local high scores for every Chapter and Game Mode combination will be reset once when Patch 1.1 is first launched.
* Any active in-progress run will also be removed to prevent a score created under the previous rules from carrying into the new scoring system.
* Chapter unlocks, stage clears, achievements, and statistics unrelated to high scores will remain intact.

This migration happens only once.

## SEASON 01 BEGINS

Season 01 introduces five new Royal variants:

**PLAGUED ROYALS**
Their point value decays while they remain on the board, and the plague may spread to additional Royals.

**SHIELDED ROYALS**
Their shield completely absorbs an attack. If the Royal survives a later hit, its shield can reform.

**BURNING ROYALS**
Successful attacks can ignite cards in your hand. Burning cards gradually lose damage as you continue taking actions, and the fire may spread.

**LIGHTNING ROYALS**
Successful attacks temporarily disable cards in your hand that match the Royal’s suit.

**FROZEN ROYALS**
Overkilling one may freeze a random card in your hand. The greater the overkill, the longer that card can remain unavailable.

Royal variants award additional points and become increasingly common as you advance through a run.

## SEASONAL CONTENT WILL STAY

Season 01 is not temporary content. When the season ends, its Royal variants will remain available in the game.

Players who prefer the original Royal’s Gambit experience can disable Season 01 from the New Game screen. Classic and Season 01 gameplay maintain separate high scores and statistics, while chapter unlocks and stage-clearing progress remain shared.

## DRAG-AND-DROP CARD PLAY

Cards can now be dragged directly from your hand onto a Royal to play them.

This works with individual cards or multiple selected cards, making mouse and touch-style play faster and more natural. If a dragged attack is invalid, the cards return cleanly to the hand.

The existing drag-and-drop hand-reordering system remains available.

## NEW ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS

New animated backgrounds have been added throughout Royal’s Gambit, bringing more movement, atmosphere, and variety to each run.

## SCORING REBALANCE

Score values have been reduced across the game to provide more room for future rewards, seasonal mechanics, and score multipliers.

While scores will initially be lower than before Patch 1.1, future content will provide new opportunities to push them higher again.

## THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who has played Royal’s Gambit, shared feedback, reported bugs, posted videos, streamed the game, or joined our Discord community.

This update took longer than we wanted, but we fully intend to keep supporting Royal’s Gambit with new content. Development of Patch 1.2 is already well underway!

Slay the Royals, rebuild those scores, and enjoy Season 01!

### 1.0.4 — 2025-12-18

No release notes.

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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 2026-09-20.*