Comparison

Vactics vs Lowlife

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

Head to head
About

Vactics

Engage in tactical, chess-like combat by building powerful mechs to battle robotic enemies. Face randomly generated challenges and fight for a better future in this strategic warfare game.

Highlights
  • Mech building
  • Tactical chess-like combat
  • Randomly generated challenges
  • Mech and tech upgrades
  • Extended campaign
  • Leaderboard competition
Features
Read full description

Build the mech to fight against robotic Vactics in tactical chess-like combat. The war is already over and the heroes of the city have fallen. Take on a new randomly generated challenge every time you play and join with the citizens to fight for a better future. Vactics is designed to let you play as much as you like and upgrade to the full version at any time. Unlocking the pro version of the game provides: • Access to all 18 mech types and dozens of additional tech modifiers. • Access to the full 24 colour palettes to choose from with custom app icons each. • An extended campaign with additional enemy types and areas to fight through. • An additional phase to the campaign with the true ending and all the co-pilots. • The daily district challenge where you can compete with others on the leaderboards. • Much more to discover.... -- Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Lowlife

Control a healer in a dystopian future, focusing on keeping your party alive against villains. Collect and upgrade healing scripts, trade items, and specialize your healer through skill trees. Compete on global leaderboards and team up for raid bosses.

Highlights
  • Heal party members in battle
  • Collect and upgrade healing scripts
  • Trade and shop for scripts
  • Specialize healer with skill trees
  • Compete on global leaderboards
  • Team up for raid bosses
Read full description

All you gotta do is heal. Take control of Lowlife and heal your downloaded Scripts as you scour a corrupt, dystopian future. Your goal is not to hurt the countless Villains you will face spanning across several Simulations and Raids, it is to keep your party alive so they can do the hurting - by any means necessary. Throughout the Healing Simulations, you will incept Memories which can be used to trade for new Scripts - or if you have downloaded Scripts with their own god-rolled skills, level them up with Memories or by taking them with you! Sell your extra Scripts in the Auction House for extra Memories to spend. Also shop for other worldwide players' listed Scripts to use for your own. There are 35 uniquely skilled subclasses of Scripts to be found, including Tanks and Melee DPS to place on your front line, Mages and Ranged DPS for your back line, and Shamans - a wildcard class that can be placed anywhere in your party setup. Lowlife places you in battle with a variety of weak and powerful Villains, equipped with only a variety of healing spells to keep everyone (and yourself!) alive. Spend your gained Parameter Points to build the perfect healer and fit your play style. Sprinkle a little of your personal playstyle on top by spending Node Points in one of three skill trees to build your perfect healer specialization. You'll need it to get the highest scores on the Global Leaderboards. Complete Quests and level up to gain access to a variety of Simulations with Bosses and challenges that await you. When you feel confident enough, team up online to take down a Raid Boss or two. Lowlife is free to play, unlimited, with no commercial breaks. Also works with no WiFi or internet connection (Auction House, Leaderboards, and Raids not available with no internet).

Screenshots

Vactics4 screens
Lowlife4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Lowlife at 4.7 against Vactics's 4.0. Lowlife also leads on ratings volume (1.4K vs 56) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 weeks). Vactics's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 18.0). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Vactics sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months and Lowlife sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lowlife holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lowlife has 1.4K ratings behind it against 56, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Vactics's written reviews are positive against 75% of Lowlife's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vactics ships an update every 3 weeks, Lowlife every 6 days. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Vactics versus Lowlife: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVacticsLowlife
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (56 ratings)4.7 (1.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.9% of reviews75.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings561.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size309 MB32 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperGerard DelaneyCoast Media House LLC

Customer experience

Vactics

All ratings56 ratings
Positive73.2%
Neutral8.9%
Negative17.9%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive70.9%
Neutral12.7%
Negative16.4%

Lowlife

All ratings1,390 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews106 reviews
Positive75.5%
Neutral10.4%
Negative14.2%

User reviews

Vactics

From 56 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Innovative gameplay mechanics
  • 👍 Deep tactical gameplay
  • 🎨 Gorgeous art style
  • 🎶 Excellent synthwave score
  • ✨ Well-balanced gameplay

Room to improve

  • 💰 High price for pro version
  • 💸 Expensive subscription options
  • 😩 Frustrating paywall
  • ❓ Lacking tutorial explanations
  • 🐌 Slow restart function

Lowlife

From 1.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast-paced gameplay
  • 👍 Unique healing-focused concept
  • 💡 Interesting progression system
  • 🎨 Sleek and minimalistic design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 🤔 Lack of in-game instructions/tutorials
  • 🔍 Difficulty understanding abilities and mechanics
  • 🔍 Unclear or hidden information

Bugs and requests

Vactics

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Combo attack bonus cancelled by heavy landing
  • "Restore purchases" not working after update
  • Cannot equip more than one ability
  • Inconsistent combat: adjacent Vactic not hitting
  • Cannot mount one tech in Chassis and one in Engine
Show 1 more
  • Line-of-sight for ranged enemies unclear

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add more upgrades
  • Add more game modes
  • Add online co-op
  • Add infinite wave competition
  • Add diverging paths on map like FTL
Show 15 more
  • Add small story elements at decisions
  • Add new enemies and technologies
  • Add a big boss
  • Add Russian language support
  • Improve tutorial clarity
  • Faster restart function
  • Option to confirm selection before moving
  • More customization options for mechs
  • Unlock more mechs for free
  • Add wallpapers in the art style
  • Support for lowercase game text
  • Option to change palettes easily
  • Save progress on runs
  • Adjustable difficulty settings
  • Add more content

Lowlife

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game overheating issues
  • Progression and save data not working properly
  • Auction house and marketplace bugs

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to view skill descriptions outside of combat
  • More detailed stats and information about scripts
  • Improved marketplace functionality and responsiveness
  • Option to reset game progress

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Vactics

Subscriptions1
  • Subscribe to Vactics Pro$2.993 Months
One-time1
  • Vactics Pro$8.99
5 purchases

Lowlife

One-time5
  • 5,000 Memories$0.99
  • 15,000 Memories$1.99
  • VIP Ticket$2.99
Show 2 more
  • 50,000 Memories$4.99
  • 100,000 Memories$7.99

Questions

Is Vactics free?
Vactics is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lowlife free?
Lowlife is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Vactics or Lowlife?
Lowlife is rated higher. Vactics averages 4.0 out of 5 from 56 ratings, while Lowlife averages 4.7 from 1.4K ratings.
Do Vactics or Lowlife have ads?
Neither Vactics nor Lowlife shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vactics or Lowlife?
Vactics ships an update every 3 weeks, and Lowlife every 6 days. Most recently, Vactics was updated on November 3, 2026 and Lowlife on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons