Comparison

StarQuest vs Nightfall

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

Head to head
About

StarQuest

Embark on an epic space adventure, battling enemies and collecting resources to upgrade your ships and gear. Prepare for challenging quests and earn glory and rewards in a vast universe.

Highlights
  • Explore space universe
  • Battle challenging enemies
  • Scavenge for scraps
  • Upgrade loadouts and ships
  • Earn glory and rewards
Features
Read full description

Explore the StarQuest universe and face off against challenging enemies as you scavenge for scraps. Use scraps, gold, and Infamy to increase your loadouts and ships to take on more exciting challenges for glory and rewards. Prepare for the Quest of a lifetime!

About

Nightfall

Build and defend your kingdom in this strategy tower defense game. Construct defenses and manage resources during the day, then lead your troops against enemy waves at night. Engage in thrilling combat, upgrade your forces, and challenge other players.

Highlights
  • Kingdom building and defense
  • Day/night cycle gameplay
  • Strategic resource allocation
  • Tower and troop upgrades
  • Intense combat against enemy waves
  • Player vs. Player challenges
Features
Read full description

When the night falls, the war rises! Nightfall: Kingdom Frontier TD is an adventure strategy tower defense game. It's a game about building a kingdom during the day and defending it from waves of attackers at night. Every day you spend coins turning little nodes in the landscape into structures: arrow towers and walls for defense, houses, mills, and farmlands for growing your economy. Some structures straddle the line between defense and economy. You can choose when building a mill, whether you want extra coin production or a mill that explodes when attacked causing damage. This game provides an excellent item system, hundreds of weapons and the defenses are divided into several different maps. The kingdom is built around a central hall, and this is the building that you're protecting at night when waves of enemies appear. You can ride out on your horse and lead the battle, and you can also rely on arrows from your arrow towers, and troops, which are created at any barracks you build, and which can then be led around and placed in useful spots with a few simple button presses. At night you defend, and every morning you get a shower of coins from any economy buildings you have and any coin-bearing monsters you've defeated, and you spend these coins on making your kingdom bigger. Build up your base during the day, defend it til your last breath at night. Build your kingdom during the day, strategically placing walls, towers, and barracks. Upgrade your defenses and train your troops to withstand the relentless attacks of darkness. When night falls, the battle begins. Take direct control of your forces, wielding powerful abilities to fend off hordes of menacing creatures. Fight bravely, for the fate of your kingdom rests in your hands. But defense is only half the story. Expand your territory, challenge other players, and prove your might as you strive for ultimate dominion. Build your kingdom: - Strategically allocate resources to construct walls, towers, and barracks. - Upgrade your defenses and troops to withstand fiercer attacks. - Expand your territory to uncover new challenges and rewards. Defend your realm: - Engage in thrilling combat against waves of enemies.   - Command your troops wisely to overcome overwhelming odds. - Use powerful abilities to turn the tide of battle. Conquer your foes: - Challenge other players in intense PvP matches. - Prove your strategic prowess and become the ultimate ruler. - Earn glory and rewards for your victories. With its simple yet addictive gameplay, stunning visuals, and endless replayability, Nightfall offers a unique and exhilarating experience for strategy fans. Key Features: - Dynamic Day and Night Cycle: Build and strategize during the day, then defend your realm against relentless attacks at night.   - Intense Combat: Engage in thrilling, fast-paced battles with hordes of enemies. - Deep Strategy: Build and upgrade your kingdom, manage resources, and develop powerful tactics. - Competitive Multiplayer: Challenge other players and climb the ranks to become the ultimate ruler. - Minimalist Aesthetic: Immerse yourself in a visually stunning and atmospheric world. - Easy to play: Intuitive controls for easy pick-up-and-play Can you manage to balance building your economy and strengthening your defenses? Do you need more archers, sturdier walls or another mill? Will you hold off the enemies with your longbow or charge at them on horseback? The night ahead will be challenging, but there's nothing like watching the sunrise over your kingdom and surviving for another day. If you are a super fan of strategy tower defense games, classic tactics and strategy game, level-up games, action games, slow then fast, role-playing games and adventure games, don't miss this Nightfall: Kingdom Frontier TD - one of the most epic strategy tower defense adventure games and it's free. Download now and embark on your journey to become the greatest monarch!

Screenshots

StarQuest4 screens
Nightfall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Nightfall at 4.9 against StarQuest's 4.3. Nightfall also leads on ratings volume (7.4K vs 167) and chart position (#165 vs unranked). StarQuest's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (78% vs 48%). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. StarQuest sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Nightfall sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Nightfall holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Nightfall has 7.4K ratings behind it against 167, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 78% of StarQuest's written reviews are positive against 48% of Nightfall's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

StarQuest ships an update weekly, Nightfall every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
StarQuest versus Nightfall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarQuestNightfall
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (167 ratings)4.9 (7.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.9% of reviews — better48.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1677.4K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#165 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size557 MB1.0 GB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperCosmic Games ULCFansipan Limited

Customer experience

StarQuest

All ratings168 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral1.8%
Negative14.9%
Written reviews86 reviews
Positive77.9%
Neutral2.3%
Negative19.8%

Nightfall

All ratings7,296 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral0.6%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews721 reviews
Positive48.0%
Neutral12.2%
Negative39.8%

User reviews

StarQuest

From 167 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎮 Engaging and addictive gameplay loop
  • 🎨 High-quality graphics and visual design
  • 📱 Easy to learn and understand controls
  • ⭐ Fun progression system with ship unlocks
  • 🎯 Well-designed for mobile gaming

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and force closures
  • 💸 Pay-to-win mechanics in later chapters
  • 🔄 Repetitive gameplay with limited variety
  • ❌ Poor game balance and difficulty spikes
  • 🎯 Auto-aim removes player skill requirement

Nightfall

From 7.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great gameplay loop
  • 👍 Relaxing and enjoyable
  • 🎨 Nice art style and music
  • 💰 Ads are optional

Room to improve

  • 💰 Heavily monetized with microtransactions
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches (e.g., Christmas event issues)
  • 🔍 Unbalanced difficulty progression
  • 🔊 Sound issues (e.g., mute not working properly)

Bugs and requests

StarQuest

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • App crashes on startup or loading screen
  • Game freezes at chapter 5 war zone
  • Cannot tap to start after update
  • Enemies spawn directly in front of player
  • Lag spikes when using power-up abilities
Show 10 more
  • World border collision detection issues
  • Item pickup mechanics broken or unreachable
  • Shield enemy targeting system malfunctions
  • Game exits to home screen unexpectedly
  • SFX button doesn't toggle properly
  • Ship flickers on spawn
  • Hangar ship selection jumps randomly
  • Infinite mob swarms with immortal nests
  • Boss difficulty scaling problems
  • Progress loss when force closing

Requested features

13 requests
  • Multiplayer and co-op game modes
  • Capture the flag game mode
  • More diverse game modes and story content
  • Password reset/forgot password functionality
  • Ability to choose weapon upgrade order
Show 8 more
  • Ship stat comparison feature
  • In-game tutorial system
  • Public Discord community server
  • More ships unlockable with in-game currency
  • Adjustable joystick position
  • Screen transition smoothing and responsiveness
  • Detailed stat explanations and tooltips
  • Profile page with actual functionality

Nightfall

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Progression loss after reinstall
  • Incorrect screen scaling on some devices
  • Christmas event rewards not working

Requested features

5 requests
  • Endless mode
  • More level variety
  • Ability to reassign/group troops
  • Better camera controls
  • Ability to break down/merge items

In-app purchases

10 purchases

StarQuest

One-time10
  • 100 StarCoins$1.99
  • Admiral TrayNee$2.99
  • Dawn$3.99
Show 7 more
  • The current special deal$4.99
  • 550 StarCoins$4.99
  • THE REPUBLIC$4.99
  • 1200 Starcoins$9.99
  • 2500 Starcoins$19.99
  • 6500 Starcoins$49.99
  • 14000 Starcoins$99.99
9 purchases

Nightfall

One-time9
  • Chapter Pack 1$2.99
  • Game Speed x2$2.99
  • Starter Pack 1$2.99
Show 6 more
  • Starter Pack 22 variants$4.99
  • No Ads$9.99
  • Game Speed x3$9.99
  • Growth Fund Normal$9.99
  • Battle Pass$19.99
  • Starter Pack 3$19.99

Questions

Is StarQuest free?
StarQuest is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Nightfall free?
Nightfall is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, StarQuest or Nightfall?
Nightfall is rated higher. StarQuest averages 4.3 out of 5 from 167 ratings, while Nightfall averages 4.9 from 7.4K ratings.
Do StarQuest or Nightfall have ads?
Nightfall shows ads; StarQuest does not.
Which is updated more often, StarQuest or Nightfall?
StarQuest ships an update weekly, and Nightfall every 4 days. Most recently, StarQuest was updated on November 3, 2026 and Nightfall on November 8, 2026.

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