Idle Mars Survival vs LanternKeep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Idle Mars Survival
Survive and thrive as an astronaut stranded on Mars. Generate power, secure vital resources, and expand your base to accommodate more survivors. Develop oxygen production systems and defend against dangerous spore invasions to establish a successful colony.
- Generate power from solar and wind sources
- Secure food, water, and essential supplies
- Expand base and recruit new astronauts
- Produce oxygen for colonization
- Defend against spore invasions
- Explore for mineral resources
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As an astronaut stranded on Mars, your main objective is to survive and thrive in this challenging game. Here's a guide on how to survive: Generate Power: Maintaining various devices is crucial, so you need to find a way to generate electricity. This can be achieved through solar panels, wind turbines, or other power sources available on Mars. Secure Resources: You must find food, water, and other essential supplies to sustain yourself. Explore the surroundings to gather resources like plants, minerals, and water deposits. Develop strategies to extract and store these resources efficiently. Expand Your Base: As you progress, expand your base to accommodate more survivors. This involves constructing additional structures, living quarters, and facilities to support the growing population. Each survivor brings unique skills and abilities, so recruit more astronauts to enhance your chances of survival. Produce Oxygen: Develop systems to produce sufficient amounts of oxygen to support the colonization plan. This can be achieved through the cultivation of plants or the utilization of oxygen-generating equipment. Defend Against Spore Invasions: Mars is inhabited by dangerous spores that can harm both humans and infrastructure. Build defensive structures and implement countermeasures to protect your base from spore invasions. Research and develop new technologies to improve your defenses. Remember, perseverance and resource management are key to your survival. Good luck in your journey to establish a successful colony on Mars! Features: 1.Combination of simulation (SIM) and light role-playing game (RPG) elements. 2.Simple and relaxed 2D graphics style. 3.Explore the map to collect various mineral resources. 4.Construct defensive fortifications to fend off spore invasions. 5.Recruit more astronauts as companions to aid in your survival.
LanternKeep
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Build a defense along a moonlit shrine path and keep the yokai from reaching the shrine. Choose between the Lantern, Ofuda, Bell, and Kagami towers, each with a distinct range and role. Adapt to armored, flying, splitting, and regenerating enemies by changing your placement and targeting priority. Call the next wave early for a larger reward, or take the time to prepare. Your ward can turn the tide once per wave. Each UTC day brings one deterministic Daily Omamori rule: yokai speed, enemy HP, kill gold, ward damage, or lantern damage changes. Hold all 15 waves for the daily reward; leak nothing to earn a perfect-clear record that can be reported to Game Center. Survive the story, then continue into endless defense to chase a higher record. Five maps offer one-route and forked layouts. An interactive tutorial teaches placement, wave starts, upgrades, and the ward; a checkpoint is saved after every cleared wave so you can resume. Read the yokai and tower codex, then choose a specialization branch after bringing a tower to 2/3 damage and rate. Calm Japanese-inspired audio, haptic feedback, and focused controls make each short session easy to start. Features: - Four tower types and four targeting modes - Armored, flying, splitting, and regenerating yokai - Risk-and-reward early wave calling - One full-field ward per wave - A 15-wave campaign plus endless mode - Daily Omamori: UTC rotation, five rules, clear rewards, and perfect clears - Game Center leaderboards for daily/endless waves plus six achievements - Five maps, a yokai/tower codex, interactive tutorial, and wave checkpoints - Two specialization branches for each tower after 2/3 upgrades - Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and English - Local save data; no account required Optional in-app purchases: - Saisen: a consumable item that grants in-game gold for a defense - Omamori: a non-consumable item that grants starting-life and starting-gold bonuses Payments are processed by Apple through the App Store. Consumables cannot be restored. The non-consumable Omamori can be checked with Restore Purchases. Prices are shown by the App Store. https://lantern-keep.pages.dev/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: LanternKeep at none against Idle Mars Survival's shown. LanternKeep also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). Idle Mars Survival's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. Idle Mars Survival sells 14 one-off in-app purchases and LanternKeep sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Idle Mars Survival ships an update fortnightly, LanternKeep every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Idle Mars Survival | LanternKeep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.5K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 34.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 249 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Oneorwa Technology Co.,Ltd. | 凯 邵 |
Bugs and requests
Idle Mars Survival
Reported bugs
5 issues- Incorrect resource calculations
- Stuck on second planet with no way to progress
- In-app purchases not working as expected
- Freezing and crashing issues
- Oxygen/resource production imbalance
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to move buildings
- Improved resource balancing
- Notifications for resource collection
- Cloud save/sync across devices
- Ability to listen to own music
LanternKeep
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Idle Mars Survival
- Novice gift$0.99
- 80 Power Stones$0.99
- 500 Power Stones$4.99
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Limited Ad-free$4.99
- Festival Gift No.1$4.99
- Festival Gift No.4$4.99
- Ad-free$9.99
- Caretaker$9.99
- 1200 Power Stones$9.99
- Advanced Pass$9.99
- Luxury gift package$14.99
- 2500 Power Stones$19.99
- 6500 Power Stones$49.99
- 15000 Power Stones$99.99
LanternKeep
- Small Saisen$0.99
- Middle Saisen$3.99
- Omamori$4.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Large Saisen$6.99
Questions
Is Idle Mars Survival free?
Is LanternKeep free?
Do Idle Mars Survival or LanternKeep have ads?
Which is updated more often, Idle Mars Survival or LanternKeep?
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