Arcadium vs Stellar Mercenaries
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Arcadium
Engage in intense pixel-art space combat with a variety of customizable spaceships and powerful skills. Battle unique enemies and bosses, collect achievements, and enhance your score with hardcore options. Join a community for feedback and discussion.
- Unique and colorful enemies
- Dozens of unique talents
- Multiple spaceships with unique stats
- Awesome skills for combat
- Rewarded achievements
- Hardcore options for score boosting
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The arcadium invaders feel as strong and colorful as never before! Join the fight for survival in this fantastic pixel-art shooter game! Pick your spaceship and get ready for an intense and exciting battle! Features : * Plenty of unique and colorful enemies, including powerful bosses and fun special waves! * Dozens of different talents to build a unique fight! * Many spaceships to choose from, each with unique stats and abilities! * Awesome skills to aid you in the fight against the aliens! * Tons of rewarded achievements, including hidden ones! * Hardcore options to boost your score and rewards! * And many more features that you will find out in game! Have suggestions, feedback or just want to chat? Feel free to join me and many other fans: Email: lucianobercinidev@gmail.com Discord: https://discord.gg/73w3kFA Twitter: https://x.com/lucianobercini
Stellar Mercenaries
Engage in offline, vertical scrolling arcade action with this sci-fi RPG. Upgrade your ship, weapons, and abilities to battle rival mercenaries and conquer the solar system. Enjoy endless procedurally generated missions with diverse objectives and challenges.
- Vertical scrolling arcade shooter
- Offline capable gameplay
- Upgradable ships and weapons
- Customizable loadouts
- Procedurally generated missions
- Rival mercenary system
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Ready to vanquish your enemies and change the solar system forever from anywhere? Stellar Mercs is a vertical scrolling, offline capable, action arcade shooter with upgradable ships, weapons, and special abilities. Customize your loadouts for each mission depending on the environments and enemies you'll face! Each mission will reward you with unlocks and cash to continue building your arsenal. You're not the only mercenary out there - the more successful and accomplished you become, the more attention you'll attract. Enemy mercenaries can become persistent arch-rivals, leveling up along side you. Defeating them will net you great rewards, but if you die at their hands, they'll grow even further in power. The fun is never-ending! Fly missions through endless procedurally generated missions with a variety of environments, objectives, hazards, enemies, and rewards. Hijack cargo from speeding space trains, break into heavily guarded research and development space stations to acquire new prototype ships to fly, or defeat mighty leviathan capital ships in your quest to become the wealthiest, most powerful mercenary in the system! Stellar Mercs operates as a single handed action arcade game, so you can play comfortably on the go. SM is offline capable, so even without signal you can keep gaming and conquering the solar system! Configure your spacecraft's loadout and autoshoot your way to victory - focus on maneuvering through hazards and waves of enemies while you employ special abilities for maximum carnage!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Stellar Mercenaries at none against Arcadium's shown. Stellar Mercenaries also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (38 vs 12). Arcadium's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 86%). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Arcadium sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and Stellar Mercenaries sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Arcadium against 4.8 for Stellar Mercenaries. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 38 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Arcadium's written reviews are positive against 86% of Stellar Mercenaries's.
Arcadium ships an update every 4 months, Stellar Mercenaries every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Arcadium | Stellar Mercenaries |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (12 ratings) — better | 4.8 (38 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 85.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 38 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | 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 | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 99 MB | 198 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Luciano Bercini | Quest Builders LLC |
Customer experience
Arcadium
Stellar Mercenaries
In-app purchases
Arcadium
- Bits x5000$0.99
- Gemstones x500$0.99
- Bits x25000$2.99
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- Exspiravit$2.99
- Gemstones x2500$3.99
- Parvus Corydon$3.99
- Ad-Free Revival$3.99
- Aurum Aliena$4.99
- Gemstones x5000$6.99
- Bits x100000$7.99
- Super Bundle$13.99
Stellar Mercenaries
- Currency - Small Pack$1.99
- Starter Pack - Basic$1.99
- Gem Pack - Small$2.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Currency - Medium Pack$3.99
- Stater Pack - Advanced$5.99
- Gem Pack - Medium$7.99
- Currency - Large Pack$7.99
- Gem Pack - Large$15.99
- Starter Pack - Legendary$15.99
Questions
Is Arcadium free?
Is Stellar Mercenaries free?
Which has better reviews, Arcadium or Stellar Mercenaries?
Do Arcadium or Stellar Mercenaries have ads?
Which is updated more often, Arcadium or Stellar Mercenaries?
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