Comparison

Abalon vs DotZen

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Abalon

Engage in tactical turn-based combat and deck-building strategy in a tabletop-inspired world. Command units, cast spells, and outwit opponents with creative combos and strategic positioning. Explore diverse biomes, collect cards, and build the perfect deck to become a legend.

Highlights
  • Turn-based tactical combat
  • Deck building strategy
  • Top-down battlefield control
  • Over 500 unique cards
  • Character-based abilities
  • Creative combo system
  • Procedurally generated world exploration
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Abalon, a legendary tactical roguelike and deck building RPG! CARDS. DICE. TACTICS. Embark on epic roguelike adventures to explore a tabletop inspired world and discover its secrets. Abalon combines turn based tactical combat with deck building strategy. Defeat monstrous hordes and powerful bosses to reap the rewards of treasures, allies, and spells. Roll the dice and become a dungeon crawling legend! COMMAND LIKE A GOD Command from a top-down perspective that gives you ultimate control over battlefield tactics. Your characters look up to you (literally) as their god to indicate they are ready to receive your orders. Commands are intuitive: Drag cards to cast spells. Drag warriors to enemies to attack. Drag healers to injured allies to heal. Play fast and fluid with 3-5 minute battles and without having to wait for animations. You can even undo failed attacks to try different approaches. Endless possibilities are at your fingertips! OUTWIT YOUR OPPONENTS Defeat overwhelming odds by mastering tactical positions, backstabbing, feinting counterattacks, knocking enemies into allies to trigger combos, leveraging traps for bonus damage and exploiting spell synergies to manipulate the battlefield in your favor. Abalon is deceptively simple to learn with an unrivaled depth of mechanics that are challenging to master. Position matters. Facing matters. Terrain matters. BUILD THE PERFECT DECK Choose compelling characters like squirrel hurling druids, menacing liche kings, psychic lizard wizards and steampunk time traveling rats. Abalon has over 500 cards including 225 hand-crafted characters with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Select your favorite summoner, build your team and construct a deck of 20 cards. Abalon differs from other role-playing games by removing grindy leveling systems in favor of fixed character stats and abilities and interchangeable gear-based upgrades. Use everyone you have and experiment to create unique strategies. UNLEASH CREATIVE COMBOS Combine your units and spells to create game-breaking synergies: Hurl a squirrel at your opponent and command your critter to bite them in the butt. Cast Animal Growth to mutate it into a super hulk squirrel. Then use Breed to multiply it into an army of hulk squirrels and decimate your opponent in the most satisfying way! Discover something new each time you play. EXPLORE. ROLL DICE. MAKE FRIENDS. Explore an ever-changing fantasy world filled with colorful woodlands, frozen peaks, barren deserts, and perilous dungeons. Abalon is rich in lore, both gritty and humorous, and each biome offers its own characters to find and mysteries to unravel. Collect and roll D20 dice to determine the outcome of fate encounters and make friends with charming bears and birthday goblins. EXPAND YOUR COLLECTION Play for free and grow your collection with paid expansions. Abalon is a premium CCG and RPG that respects your time and money. There are no ads, randomized booster packs, cards to dust, or grinding to level up. Each expansion contains a curated set of content so you know what you are paying for upfront. Like a board game hobby, Abalon’s expansions enhance your existing content. We aim to support the game’s development for the next 10 years and beyond with additional cards, challenge modifiers, game modes and more for infinite replayability. PLAY ON ANY DEVICE ANYTIME ANYWHERE Abalon offers a true cross-platform experience with support for phones, tablets, computers, TVs, portrait and landscape orientations and offline play. ABOUT D20STUDIOS We’re a passionate indie game team who aim to inspire creativity, critical thinking and positive community in people around the world. We value player-driven development, quality products and excellent customer service, and we’d love to hear how we can make your Abalon experience exceptional. Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios Email: contact@d20studios.com

About

DotZen

Read full description

Connect falling dots as quickly as you can before they disappear. Test your reflexes, improve your speed, and chase your highest score.

Screenshots

Abalon4 screens
DotZen3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DotZen at none against Abalon's 5. Abalon's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days) and device support (4 vs 2). On price and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Abalon sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. DotZen asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Abalon ships an update every 2 days, DotZen every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Abalon versus DotZen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAbalonDotZen
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings1K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size117 MB5 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperD20Studios, LLCCOLIN LUCAS HEHLEN

Bugs and requests

Abalon

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Bugs in second chapter dungeon
  • Unable to use satchel items

Requested features

3 requests
  • Controller support for Backbone and other third party controllers
  • More variation in encounter types
  • Dark mode option

DotZen

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Abalon

One-time5
  • Animal Gear$3.99
  • Angels & Demons$7.99
  • Dark Legion$7.99
Show 2 more
  • Mean & Green$7.99
  • Space & Time$7.99
None

DotZen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Abalon free?
Abalon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DotZen free?
DotZen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Abalon or DotZen have ads?
Neither Abalon nor DotZen shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Abalon or DotZen?
Abalon ships an update every 2 days, and DotZen every 5 days. Most recently, Abalon was updated on October 17, 2026 and DotZen on September 28, 2026.

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