King Smith vs Ethos Idle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
King Smith
Embark on a heroic quest to save the kingdom from monster attacks. Manage a forge, craft powerful weapons, and assemble a party of heroes to defeat enemies and rescue villagers. Discover hidden blueprints and forge legendary weapons to operate a giant golem and vanquish the ultimate evil.
- Manage a forge and craft weapons
- Collect blueprints for powerful items
- Operate a golem with crafted swords
- Assemble a party of heroes
- Battle monsters and collect materials
- Rescue captive villagers
- Explore for hidden legendary weapon blueprints
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The Kingdom is suffering from monster attacks. Manage the Forge with cute Forge King and Heroes and start a new adventure to save the Kingdom. Our cute Forge King never tires. Making better, stronger weapons is his joy. Collect Blueprints and craft weapons until you craft the most powerful weapon in the world. Operate the Golem. The Kingdom's last hope is the Golem. Craft the Great Sword to operate the Golem and defeat the enemy. Hurry up and craft the Great Sword in the middle of the village. Be on a fun adventure with the Heroes. Defeat the monsters around the Kingdom and collect materials. The villagers are held captive by monsters. Assemble a party and equip a weapon to save them all. What's the most powerful legendary weapon? The sword that slain the Demon King. The sword made of dragon bones. The bow carried by the archangel. Start your story of seeking the hidden blueprint. Manage the Forge with our cute King, the last Blacksmith of this world, and other Heroes to save the Kingdom! The sequel for "Warriors' Market Mayhem" is finally released! More diverse adventures, item collection, Hero growth await. Travel across the Kingdom and collect materials to build a Forge that can craft the most powerful weapon of all.
Ethos Idle
Guide humanity's progress from its earliest discoveries to the distant future. Manage your tribe's choices, develop over 200 unique ideas, and explore the world. Advance your civilization, unlock bonuses, and enjoy a single-player, offline experience with optional ads.
- Develop over 200 historic ideas
- Explore and exploit the world
- Manage tribe choices
- Unlock exploration bonuses and synergies
- Prestige mechanic upgrades
- Customizable challenge scenarios
- Offline single-player experience
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Chart the progess of Humanity through the ages, and guide their every discovery from the moment they kindle the first fire to the far future. Develop over 200 unique ideas across three different flavours of thought. Help your people to conquer or make peace with their enemies, explore and exploit the world, and develop projects to meet their needs. Manage your tribe's choices to squeeze out more strength, or sit back and idle as your clan develop on their own. Advance as far as you can take your people, and then collect bonuses to improve future runs. Select varied challenges that change the way the game plays, and combine these challenges to create your own unique scenarios with big rewards. Features: - Over 200 historic ideas to develop, across 3 flavours of thought - Dozens of exploration bonuses and synergies to unlock and exploit - Permanently power up your civilisation with prestige mechanic upgrades - Combine varied challenge conditions to create your own scenarios with powerful rewards - Optional, out-of-the-way ads won't interrupt your experience - A completely offline, single player experience - All game content is accessible for free
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: King Smith at 12.0 against Ethos Idle's 15.0. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. King Smith sells 26 one-off in-app purchases and Ethos Idle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for King Smith against 4.8 for Ethos Idle. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 255 and 241 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of King Smith's written reviews are positive against 84% of Ethos Idle's.
King Smith ships an update fortnightly, Ethos Idle every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | King Smith | Ethos Idle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (255 ratings) | 4.8 (241 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 79.0% of reviews | 84.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 255 — better | 241 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 164 MB | 101 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Indie Cat Co. | Graham Goldstein |
Customer experience
King Smith
Ethos Idle
User reviews
King Smith
From 255 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ⭐ Addictive and fun gameplay
- 👍 Cute and well-made graphics
- 🎁 Free gems and content
- 🎨 Crafting and customization options
- 🔍 Engaging progression and challenges
Room to improve
- 🚧 Unskippable banner ads
- 🐛 In-app purchases not working
- 🔍 Lack of clear direction after tutorial
Ethos Idle
From 241 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast progression
- 👍 Minimal ad interruption
- 👍 Simple and enjoyable design
- 👍 Great for relaxing and watching numbers go up
- 👍 Excellent incremental game design
Room to improve
- 🐢 Slower progression speed desired
- 🛒 IAP for 2x production doesn't eliminate video ads
Bugs and requests
King Smith
Reported bugs
2 issues- Ads freezing and preventing gameplay
- Save data being reverted or deleted
Requested features
2 requests- Comprehensive hero stat list
- Improved save system to prevent data loss
Ethos Idle
Reported bugs
2 issues- RNG for challenges is unfair and unfun
- Unlocking buffs for inaccessible technologies
Requested features
2 requests- Option to remove ads entirely
- Clarification on prestige warp gain multipliers
In-app purchases
King Smith
- Event Item 01$0.99
- Starter Pack$0.99
- Daily Deals01$0.99
Show 23 moreShow fewer
- weekly pack1$1.99
- Season Event Package 01$2.99
- Starter$2.99
- Gem Touch$2.99
- Event Item 02$4.99
- Advanced$4.99
- Daily Deals02$4.99
- Gem Pouch$4.99
- Weekend Event Pass$9.99
- weekly pack3$9.99
- Advanced$9.99
- Food Package$9.99
- weekly pack2$9.99
- Main Event Pass$9.99
- Video Ad Removal Package$9.99
- Event Item 03$9.99
- Gem Box$9.99
- Gem Cart$19.99
- Rune Package$29.99
- Premium Contract Package$29.99
- Homun Package$29.99
- Gem Warehouse$49.99
- Gem Mine$99.99
Ethos Idle
- x2 Speed$6.99
