Rust Bucket vs Vactics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rust Bucket
Embark on a turn-based dungeon crawl with simple swipe controls. Navigate treacherous environments, battle diverse monsters, and overcome deadly traps. This challenging game offers endless exploration and strategic combat, perfect for quick gaming sessions.
- Swipe to move and attack
- Fast-paced gameplay
- Puzzle traps
- Diverse monster types
- Endless dungeon exploration
- Strategic combat
- High score competition
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Rust Bucket is a turn based dungeon crawler that is built with mobile in mind. Swipe to take a step, swipe into enemies to attack. It’s as simple as that, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a casual game! • Navigate using simple swipe to move controls. • Game play is fast and death is never far away so it’s perfect for your daily commute. • Puzzle your way past deadly traps or use them to catch enemies. • Many monster types, each with their own distinctive rules to overcome. • Make your way through the levels to become a fully qualified looter • Explore an endless dungeon, with more to discover the deeper you go. • Become a master of strategic combat and reach the top scoring dungeon rooms. • Compete against your friends high scores on Game Centre Important information! This game is funded by adverts but is completely free to play with no timers or boosters to ruin your experience. There is an option to remove popup ads for a one off In app purchase. *Please note that this does not remove Cross Promotion ads for other Nitrome games* We hope you enjoy our little game. If you do please consider giving us a nice review, tell your friends and maybe try some of our other games.
Vactics
Engage in tactical, chess-like combat by building powerful mechs to battle robotic enemies. Face randomly generated challenges and fight for a better future in this strategic warfare game.
- Mech building
- Tactical chess-like combat
- Randomly generated challenges
- Mech and tech upgrades
- Extended campaign
- Leaderboard competition
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Build the mech to fight against robotic Vactics in tactical chess-like combat. The war is already over and the heroes of the city have fallen. Take on a new randomly generated challenge every time you play and join with the citizens to fight for a better future. Vactics is designed to let you play as much as you like and upgrade to the full version at any time. Unlocking the pro version of the game provides: • Access to all 18 mech types and dozens of additional tech modifiers. • Access to the full 24 colour palettes to choose from with custom app icons each. • An extended campaign with additional enemy types and areas to fight through. • An additional phase to the campaign with the true ending and all the co-pilots. • The daily district challenge where you can compete with others on the leaderboards. • Much more to discover.... -- Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Vactics at none against Rust Bucket's shown. Vactics also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 weeks). Rust Bucket's advantage is ratings volume (180 vs 56). On price, rating, review sentiment and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Rust Bucket sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Vactics sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for Rust Bucket against 4.0 for Vactics. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 180 and 56 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 72% of Rust Bucket's written reviews are positive against 71% of Vactics's.
Rust Bucket ships an update every 6 weeks, Vactics every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rust Bucket | Vactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (180 ratings) | 4.0 (56 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.3% of reviews — better | 70.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 180 — better | 56 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 105 MB | 309 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Nitrome | Gerard Delaney |
Customer experience
Rust Bucket
Vactics
User reviews
Rust Bucket
From 180 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun puzzle game
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 💎 Excellent pixel art and visuals
- 🎨 Creative enemy designs
- 🎶 Great soundtrack
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and progress loss
- 🔁 Repetitive level design
- 🕹️ Slow character movement
- 💰 Expensive ad removal
- 🔍 Lack of level variety
Vactics
From 56 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Innovative gameplay mechanics
- 👍 Deep tactical gameplay
- 🎨 Gorgeous art style
- 🎶 Excellent synthwave score
- ✨ Well-balanced gameplay
Room to improve
- 💰 High price for pro version
- 💸 Expensive subscription options
- 😩 Frustrating paywall
- ❓ Lacking tutorial explanations
- 🐌 Slow restart function
Bugs and requests
Rust Bucket
Reported bugs
4 issues- Progress reset when exiting levels
- Level select screen locking completed levels
- Compatibility issues on older devices
- Clipboard copying behavior
Requested features
5 requests- More levels and content updates
- Ability to save progress
- Weapon/item upgrades and customization
- Multiplayer or co-op mode
- Level editor
Vactics
Reported bugs
6 issues- Combo attack bonus cancelled by heavy landing
- "Restore purchases" not working after update
- Cannot equip more than one ability
- Inconsistent combat: adjacent Vactic not hitting
- Cannot mount one tech in Chassis and one in Engine
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- Line-of-sight for ranged enemies unclear
Requested features
20 requests- Add more upgrades
- Add more game modes
- Add online co-op
- Add infinite wave competition
- Add diverging paths on map like FTL
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Add small story elements at decisions
- Add new enemies and technologies
- Add a big boss
- Add Russian language support
- Improve tutorial clarity
- Faster restart function
- Option to confirm selection before moving
- More customization options for mechs
- Unlock more mechs for free
- Add wallpapers in the art style
- Support for lowercase game text
- Option to change palettes easily
- Save progress on runs
- Adjustable difficulty settings
- Add more content
In-app purchases
Rust Bucket
- Buy 50 Coins$0.99
- Buy 200 Coins$1.99
- Remove Ads$3.99
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- Buy Coins 3$3.99
Vactics
- Subscribe to Vactics Pro$2.993 Months
- Vactics Pro$8.99
