Terraforming Mars vs Hero Realms
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Terraforming Mars
Lead a corporation to terraform Mars by building cities, forests, and oceans. Manage resources, complete objectives, and increase your Terraform Rating to make the planet habitable. Compete against rivals and lead humanity into a new era.
- Official board game adaptation
- Play against AI or up to 5 players
- Online and offline multiplayer
- Corporate Era variant
- Solo challenge mode
- Expansions available for new content
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CREATE LIFE ON MARS Lead a corporation and launch ambitious Mars terraforming projects. Direct massive construction works, manage and use your resources, create cities, forests and oceans, and set rewards and objectives to win the game! In Terraforming Mars, place your cards on the board and use them wisely: - Achieve a high Terraform Rating, by increasing the temperature and oxygen level or creating oceans... Make the planet habitable for future generations! - Get Victory Points by building cities, infrastructure and other ambitious projects. - But watch out! Rival corporations will try to slow you down... That's a nice forest you planted there... It'd be a shame if an asteroid crashed right on it. Will you be able to lead humanity into a new era? The terraforming race begins now! Features: • The official adaptation of Jacob Fryxelius' famous board game. • Mars for all: Play against the computer or challenge up to 5 players in multiplayer mode, online or offline. • Game variant: Try the rules of the Corporate Era for a more complex game. With the addition of new cards, including 2 new corporations, focused on economy and technology, you will discover one of the most strategic variants of the game! • Solo Challenge: Finish terraforming Mars before the end of generation 14. Try new rules and features in the most challenging Solo mode on the (red) planet. DLCs: • Speed up your game with the Prelude expansion, adding a new phase at the start of the game to specialize your corporation and boost your early game. It also introduces new cards, corporations and a new solo challenge. • Explore a new side of Mars with the Hellas & Elysium maps, each bringing a new set of twists, awards and milestones. From the Southern Wilds to the Other Face of Mars, the taming of the Red Planet continues. • Add the Venus board to your game, with a new Solar phase to hasten your games. Shake up Terraforming Mars with the Morning Star expansion, featuring new cards, corporations, and resources! • Spice up the game with 7 new cards from the Original Promo Pack: Includes everything from the microbe-oriented corporation Splice to the game-changing Self-Replication Robot project. * Try the Big Box Promo Pack and its 23 cards to raise the level even higher. Play as the expert-only Pharmacy Union or enjoy the more relaxed Astrodrill corporation with this DLC! * Establish outposts and trade with them in Colonies! Featuring 49 project cards, 5 corporations, and a whole new game system, Colonies is the most content-packed DLC to date! Languages available: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish Having an issue? Looking for support? Please contact us: https://asmodee.helpshift.com/ Find all the latest news for Terraforming Mars on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TwinSailsInt Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwinSailsInt YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/twinsailsinteractive © Twin Sails Interactive 2019. © FryxGames 2016. Terraforming Mars™ is a trademark of FryxGames. Developed by Artefact Studio.
Hero Realms
Engage in strategic deckbuilding combat, recruit powerful champions, and level up your heroes. Enjoy PvP, co-op against AI bosses, or a single-player campaign. The free version offers core gameplay with optional expansions.
- Deckbuilding combat
- Recruit champions
- Hero leveling system
- Online PvP
- Cooperative play vs AI
- Single-player campaign
- Multiple character classes
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Become a hero! Choose your class, perform mighty actions, and recruit powerful champions to your cause as you grow in power. Awarded Origins Fan Favorite Best Card Game. From the makers of the award-winning Star Realms® Deckbuilding Game, Hero Realms® combines the fun of deckbuilding games with the interactivity of trading card game-style combat. As you play, use Gold to add new actions and champions to your deck. When played, those actions and champions generate powerful effects, give you additional gold, and attack your opponent and their champions. If you reduce your opponent's health to zero, you win! [Non-Collectible Deck Building Game] Hero Realms does not require you to collect new cards. You start every game with a basic deck, and will acquire cards from the shared center row to build up your deck and defeat your opponent. Victory rewards skill, and not your collection of rare cards! [Level Up Your Heroes] Create a hero from one of several classes (free players start with the Fighter and Wizard available). Level them up with new skills, abilities and equipment, and take them to battle in thrilling Online PVP. Hero Realms uses fair match making, only allowing matches between equal levelled heroes. However, if you feel daring, you can choose to engage in combat against higher levelled opponents for additional XP and bragging rights. [Cooperative Online Play] Hero Realms also features online co-operative play. Battle against challenging AI bosses with another human player as a partner. Free players have access to the Pirate Lord mission, with other co-op missions available with the Base Set purchase. [Single Player Campaign] For offline play, take on the Welcome to Thandar campaign. Fight your way through scripted, story-based chapters against varied AI opponents. [Free Version] Free players will get to experience: - Addictive Deckbuilding Game with Player VS Player Combat. - Play VS the AI - Play with the Fighter and Wizard character classes - Level-up your characters up to Level 3 - Play the first 3 missions in the Welcome to Thandar campaign - Play the Pirate Lord co-op mission Purchasing the Base Set will unlock the full Hero Realms experience: - Unlocks hard AI difficulty level - Unlocks the Cleric, Ranger, and Thief character classes - Level-up your characters to Level 12 - Unlocks the entire Welcome to Thandar campaign. - Unlocks the Necromancers, Inquisition, and Orc Riot co-op missions. Please note that Hero Realms purchases are not compatible with Family Sharing.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Hero Realms at Free against Terraforming Mars's $8.99. Hero Realms also leads on review sentiment (60% vs 45%). Terraforming Mars's advantage is ratings volume (7.6K vs 219) and chart position (#27 vs unranked). On rating, update cadence, ads 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
Hero Realms is free to download; Terraforming Mars costs $8.99 up front. Terraforming Mars sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Hero Realms sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Terraforming Mars holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Terraforming Mars has 7.6K ratings behind it against 219, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 45% of Terraforming Mars's written reviews are positive against 60% of Hero Realms's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Terraforming Mars ships an update every 3 weeks, Hero Realms every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Terraforming Mars | Hero Realms |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (7.6K ratings) — better | 4.3 (219 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 45.1% of reviews | 60.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7.6K — better | 219 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #27 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 353 MB | 435 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Twin Sails Interactive | White Wizard Games |
Customer experience
Terraforming Mars
Hero Realms
User reviews
Terraforming Mars
From 7.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Faithful adaptation of board game
- 👍 Great UI and animations
- 🕹️ Smooth solo gameplay
- 💰 Good value for money
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🕹️ Unreliable multiplayer experience
- 🕰️ Long load times to resume games
- 🤯 Confusing multiplayer features
- 🤖 Weak AI opponents
Hero Realms
From 219 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great game mechanics
- 🚀 Smooth and polished app
- 💡 Diverse game modes (PvP, co-op, campaign)
- 👍 Faithful adaptation of the physical card game
- 💡 Character progression and leveling system
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bugs and crashes
- 🔒 Lack of local multiplayer (pass-and-play)
- 💰 Expensive in-app purchases for additional content
- 🌐 Lack of language support (e.g., no French, Spanish)
- 🔍 Unclear tutorial and explanations of game mechanics
Bugs and requests
Terraforming Mars
Reported bugs
4 issues- Science tags not counted properly
- Power infrastructure card not functioning
- Inability to place tiles in some cases
- Saved games not loading properly
Requested features
5 requests- Undo button for actions
- Ability to see final game metrics
- Notifications for turn updates
- Ability to track win/loss records
- More expansion content
Hero Realms
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes when trying to play online
- Inability to access purchased content
- Freezing and black screen issues
- Incorrect character level progression
- Matchmaking problems and long wait times
Requested features
5 requests- Add more expansions and additional content
- Implement a friends list and social features
- Improve the campaign mode with more levels and challenges
- Add an option to check the contents of your deck before playing
- Implement a turn timer to prevent players from stalling
In-app purchases
Terraforming Mars
- Original Promo Pack$2.99
- Terraforming Mars - Prelude$3.99
- Hellas & Elysium$3.99
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- Venus Next$3.99
- Colonies$3.99
- Big Box Promo Pack$4.99
Hero Realms
- 80 Gems$0.99
- 200 gems$2.29
- Four Journeys Campaign$3.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 500 Gems$4.99
- Hero Realms: Call to Arms$4.99
- Journeys Expansions$4.99
- Journeys Promo Expansion$4.99
- Dungeons Expansion$7.99
- 1200 Gems$9.99
- Hero Realms Base Set$9.99








