Comparison

Shotgun King vs Eldershyft

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

Head to head
About

Shotgun King

Experience a unique twist on chess where you command a king armed with a shotgun. Fight your way through enemy pieces, strategically reload, and upgrade your abilities to reclaim your kingdom. This roguelike chess adventure offers challenging gameplay and extensive replayability.

Highlights
  • Chess with a shotgun mechanic
  • Roguelike progression with upgrades
  • 15 difficulty ranks
  • Unlockable cards
  • Over 100 achievements
  • Endless and chase modes
Features
Read full description

Chess, but all your army has gone over to the white side, leaving you with nothing but your royal shotgun and your wounded pride. Carried by your dark folly, you decide it's time to teach those white pieces to fear the Shotgun King. Every turn, you may either move your king or shoot at enemy pieces, after what you'll need to move again to reload your shotgun. Avoid checkmate and kill the enemy king to complete the floor. After each floor, you may choose between two random combinations of one upgrade for you and one upgrade for the other side. Choose wisely and keep on winning floors and you just may get your kingdom back. Runs may take ~20 minutes to complete. The game features 15 ranks of difficulty, unlockable cards, over 100 achievements to complete, an endless mode, and now a chase mode where you get continually assailed from all sides!

About

Eldershyft

A unique match-3 puzzle game where you move entire paths on a hexagonal board to create cascades and combos. Build a mystical island, tame beasts, and choose your strategy to achieve high scores or complete challenges.

Highlights
  • Hexagonal board path movement
  • Cascading matches and combos
  • Endless and Challenge modes
  • Beast management and island building
  • Stackable bonuses and abilities
  • Full VoiceOver support
  • Color-blind and high contrast settings
Features
Read full description

Eldershyft is a match-3 puzzle game with unique gameplay. Instead of swapping individual tiles, you move entire paths across a hexagonal board in 6 directions, opening up cascades, combos, and strategies. Set before the days of Eldermyth, you take control of the Curator of Lands to build the mystical Island whilst trying to tame the Beasts that have followed you from your realm. 

As you grow stronger, will you choose to focus your powers on board manipulation, Beast management or score multipliers? Or, maybe a combination of them all! Two ways to play - Endless Mode: Push for the highest score on the world leaderboard. Survive as long as possible as enemy pressure escalates and the Island becomes more complex - Challenge Mode: Settle the Island by reaching level 5 on each land type in the least amount of turns possible. Each turn counts even more in this mode Deep strategy. Pure puzzle - Cascading matches and board refill from 6 directions reward planning and positional awareness - Ever changing board from multiple different mechanics at play - A rich progression system with stackable bonuses, passive and consumable abilities, and permanent multipliers - No timers. No pay-to-win. Pure strategic depth Fully accessible - Complete VoiceOver support with full gameplay narration, accessible drag-and-drop path building, as well as colour-blind and high contrast settings Try for free before purchasing the full game!

Screenshots

Shotgun King4 screens
Eldershyft4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Eldershyft at Free against Shotgun King's $6.99. Eldershyft also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Shotgun King's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (760 vs 8). On ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Eldershyft is free to download; Shotgun King costs $6.99 up front. Eldershyft sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Shotgun King asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Eldershyft holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shotgun King has 760 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of Shotgun King's written reviews are positive against 50% of Eldershyft's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shotgun King ships an update every 5 days, Eldershyft every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Shotgun King versus Eldershyft: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShotgun KingEldershyft
Price$6.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (760 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings760 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#122 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size468 MB7 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperPlug In DigitalKIERAN HARTNETT

Customer experience

Shotgun King

All ratings709 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral1.4%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews118 reviews
Positive66.1%
Neutral11.0%
Negative22.9%

Eldershyft

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

None

Shotgun King

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Eldershyft

One-time2
  • Rival Curators$1.99
  • Full base game unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Shotgun King free?
Shotgun King costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Eldershyft free?
Eldershyft is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Shotgun King or Eldershyft?
Eldershyft is rated higher. Shotgun King averages 4.8 out of 5 from 760 ratings, while Eldershyft averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do Shotgun King or Eldershyft have ads?
Neither Shotgun King nor Eldershyft shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shotgun King or Eldershyft?
Shotgun King ships an update every 5 days, and Eldershyft every 3 weeks. Most recently, Shotgun King was updated on October 20, 2026 and Eldershyft on October 8, 2026.

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