Realm Grinder vs Salt Crown
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Realm Grinder
Build a vast kingdom from humble beginnings, earning wealth even offline. Explore deep strategic choices by aligning with diverse factions, unlocking hundreds of upgrades, and discovering new game systems. Enjoy frequent events and collect numerous achievements.
- Kingdom building and offline wealth generation
- Deep strategic choices with multiple factions
- Hundreds of upgrades and unique buildings
- Unlock new game systems and content
- Collect hundreds of achievements
- Frequent in-game events
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Grow your kingdom, build alliances, and explore one of the deepest idle RPG's ever! Use your money and influence to grow your kingdom from a single farm to a huge realm that earns wealth even while you're not online! In Realm Grinder, the player is given an incredible array of choices in how they build forge their new kingdom. KEY FEATURES: *Deep Strategy - Choose to align yourself with a dozen different factions, each of which has their own distinct play style. Will you align with the elves, who reward tapping for treasure, or the demons, who give massive bonuses to the most powerful structures? *Hundreds of Upgrades - Further fine tune your strategy by choosing unique upgrades, buildings, and spells to invest in. *Tons of Content - Continue to unlock new and exciting systems like new factions, research, reincarnations, excavations, and way more. Months and months of unique content! *Collect Hundreds of Achievements - Achievement hunters will be delighted with the broad range and depth of the achievement system. And it's not just eye candy! Many strategies rely on collecting trophies in order to boost certain upgrades. *Frequent Events - Beyond the expansive base content in the game, there are frequent events where players can enjoy unique mechanics and exciting bonuses. Please Note: Realm Grinder is a free-to-play game, but some extra game items can be purchased for real money. You can disable in-app purchases in your device's settings.
Salt Crown
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You are the Warden of Solnitsa, a salt-mine keep, on the Night the fire is low. The Host outside is bound by the same law that binds you. Nothing crosses a threshold uninvited. Nothing takes what is not owed. A name given freely is a claim. So they do not storm the walls. They stand in the dark and wait for you to break the law first — and you will, because the fire needs feeding, and the granary needs opening, and somebody is knocking politely at the gate wearing a face you know. Twelve Watches until dawn. Three bodies. One purse. Salt Crown is FTL's crew triage rebuilt as a castle under siege: a folk-horror roguelike played across a lit cross-section of the keep, one room at a time, until the Night ends or you do. EVERYTHING IS A BODY IN A ROOM No ability bars. No cooldowns. If nobody walks to the gate, nobody holds the gate. Each defender has Vigor, Hands and Nerve, and every order costs the time it takes to cross the castle. THE TALLY IS A BILL, NOT A TIMER The Host writes down what it is owed, and every mark is something you did — a door opened, a guest invited, a name given away. At three marks they come sooner. At twelve, the Crowning. A bill is a thing you can argue with. A timer is not. ONE PURSE, THREE HUNGERS Chime buys wards, Chime feeds the fire, Chime pays people, and it will not do all three. Ember is the run clock and it burns whether or not you are looking at it. The dawn screen tells you exactly where it went. FOLKLORE LAW IS THE RULE SYSTEM Guest-right, threshold-law, name-law. Salt in the mouth is a truth test. The polite thing at the gate is a mechanic, not a mood. GLANCEABLE, BRUTAL, INSTANTLY REPEATABLE The whole castle is one screen. Pause is always a tap away. A Night runs fifteen to twenty-five minutes; losing takes rather less, and starting again takes seconds. WHAT IS IN IT • 41 hand-written event cards — every word original • Eight rooms, three besieging Hosts, one hearth • A deterministic simulation: the same seed is the same Night, every time • Landscape, one-thumb controls, built for phone and iPad alike • Plays fully offline — nothing to download, nothing to log into • No ads, no tracking, no accounts, no in-app purchases; the game saves on your device Keep the fire. Keep the law. Keep the count. Salt Crown's pixel art is generated with Pixellab (AI image generation) against a hand-built style specification, then curated and integrated by hand. All design, code and writing is original work by Arkynate.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Salt Crown at none against Realm Grinder's 9. Salt Crown also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 6 weeks). Realm Grinder's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price and device support 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. Realm Grinder sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Salt Crown asks for nothing beyond the download.
Realm Grinder ships an update every 6 weeks, Salt Crown every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Realm Grinder | Salt Crown |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (3.1K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 63.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3.1K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Kongregate | Paolo Javier |
Bugs and requests
Realm Grinder
Reported bugs
10 issues- Scry not working since last release
- Crashes constantly
- Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
- Impossible to read/play on iPhone 12
- Can't collect lava stone, only holy symbols
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- No lava stones
- UI bad
- Crashes every time it connects to Game Center
- Spells cast not counting
- Can't purchase anything
Requested features
5 requests- Have to add some faction wars
- Change the screen bigger for newer iPhone models please
- Please add Chinese
- Please add Chinese
- Suggestion
Salt Crown
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Realm Grinder
- Gift of the Heroes$4.99
- Small Pack of Rubies$4.99
- Gift of the Kings$9.99
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- Medium Pack of Rubies$9.99
- Gift of the Faithful$9.99
- Gift of the Myths$14.99
- Gift of the Gods$19.99
- Large Pack of Rubies$19.99
- Huge Pack of Rubies$49.99
Salt Crown
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Realm Grinder free?
Is Salt Crown free?
Do Realm Grinder or Salt Crown have ads?
Which is updated more often, Realm Grinder or Salt Crown?
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