Gargoyles vs Illuminaria
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Gargoyles
Command a strategic army of gargoyles to defend against attacking automatons and predators. Evolve your gargoyles through unique trees, harvest pixies, and follow a compelling story to uncover the source of the attacks. Features include diverse enemies, randomly assigned gargoyle perks, and in-game achievements.
- Strategic gargoyle army placement
- Pixie harvesting and resource management
- Gargoyle evolution with multiple trees
- Defeat diverse enemies and automatons
- Engaging story campaign
- Randomly assigned gargoyle perks
- 22 in-game achievements
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Lulu ported a gargoyle from the Between. She had last seen a gargoyle when she was ten. Her grandmother had brought her to the forest, and helped her feed a pixie to the strange unmoving creature. This gargoyle, too, ate a pixie from Lulu’s careful hand. It sang a pure note of pleasure. Then it spoke into Lulu’s mind. At that moment the automatons attacked. Place your gargoyle army strategically to harvest pixies and defeat the hordes of attacking automatons and predators. Level your gargoyles, evolving them into more-powerful forms in three different evolution trees. Try a tanky Boulder for defense and a Black Mage for ranged vapor-type damage—or maybe experiment with the Lure ability of the multirow Manticore. In the main campaign, follow Lulu and her companion gargoyle Poe to discover the source of the automatons and how to stop them. Your gargoyle army stays with you as you proceed through each battle of the campaign. With your favorite evolutions and best battle tactics, you might make it to victory. FEATURES • 24 distinct enemies including vaporwolves, tetrapods, and lightbats • every gargoyle pup is different because of its randomly assigned perks (some rare!) • 22 in-game achievements • pause the combat at any time • save and load the game at any time • tutorial, game tips, and an “easy” difficulty setting are available if wanted • optional story mode • original music by Joel Roston • no in-app purchases or ads
Illuminaria
Build and manage multiple bases, command robot swarms for resource gathering and defense. Explore dungeons, research technologies, and assemble an army of golems to reclaim a world from darkness.
- Robot swarm control
- Multi-base management
- Automated resource gathering
- Base defense systems
- Dungeon expeditions
- Golem army creation
- Technology research
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Mine resources, manage and defend multiple bases. Go on expeditions, fight in auto-battles, research new technologies, and create your army of golems to drive out the darkness and bring back the light. ■ Control a swarm of robots using simple interactions Choose where to build, what resources to gather, and then watch the robots do the heavy lifting. They'll gather the resources, build, load weapons, fight, and respond to the world around them. ■ Defend your bases from incoming attacks Vicious enemies of darkness will attack your base, attempting to destroy your reactors and steal your resources. Build turrets and load them up with ammunition to repel the attacks. ■ Build multiple bases and manage them all at the same time Instead of having a sandbox world, you'll need to build several smaller bases with finite space. Be on the lookout as all the bases keep functioning at all times and can be attacked by the enemies. ■ Venture into dungeon-like expeditions to battle and find precious relics Adventure and explore to find hidden treasures, and fight enemies in auto-battles. This way, you'll get rare resources to use to your advantage. ■ Research new technologies in different regions The game will have five regions, each with new resources and technologies to discover. ■ Liberate the world by lighting beacons and crafting your own army The world of Illuminaria was taken over by darkness. Unravel the story about what happened on the planet as you clean and liberate the five regions by lighting beacons and sending your armies of golems to attack.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Gargoyles at every 8 months against Illuminaria's every 25 months. Gargoyles also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%) and price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On rating, ratings volume, 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
Gargoyles costs $1.99 and Illuminaria $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Gargoyles holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Gargoyles's written reviews are positive against 83% of Illuminaria's.
Gargoyles ships an update every 8 months, Illuminaria every 25 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Gargoyles | Illuminaria |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | 4.8 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 83.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months — better | Every 25 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 520 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Karl Voskuil | Selva Interactive |
Customer experience
Gargoyles
Illuminaria
In-app purchases
Gargoyles
No in-app purchases
Illuminaria
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Gargoyles free?
Is Illuminaria free?
Which has better reviews, Gargoyles or Illuminaria?
Do Gargoyles or Illuminaria have ads?
Which is updated more often, Gargoyles or Illuminaria?
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