Comparison

Dawnmaker vs Eldershyft

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

Head to head
About

Dawnmaker

A solo strategy game blending city building and deck building mechanics. Rebuild a world shrouded in toxic smog by constructing buildings, acquiring powerful cards, and upgrading your lighthouse to reclaim lost lands and technologies.

Highlights
  • City building mechanics
  • Deck building gameplay
  • Resource management
  • Lighthouse upgrades
  • Smog reclamation
  • Technology recovery
Read full description

Dawnmaker is a solo strategy game combining elements of city building and deck building to create a board game-like experience. In a world covered by a toxic Smog, only you can rekindle the ancient lighthouses and bring light and life back. Construct buildings, gain new cards, generate resources and improve your central lighthouse to unlock new building space. Optimize your deck - gain increasingly powerful cards as you improve your city. Your cards and buildings interact in various ways: choose them wisely to create the most powerful combinations! Build efficient cities - make the best of your limited space by optimally positioning your buildings. Improve your lighthouse to repel the Smog and expand your city. Manage your resources - grow farms, build industries, develop science and inspire your people to create the rarest of resources: Eclairium! Reclaim the lost continent - the continent of Heksiga has been covered by a toxic Smog. Repair and improve magical lighthouses to repel that Smog and reclaim the land, region by region. Recover lost technologies - explore vestiges of the old Empire and rediscover technologies that were lost to the Smog.

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

Dawnmaker4 screens
Eldershyft4 screens

Verdict

The call

Dawnmaker and Eldershyft both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Dawnmaker's written reviews are positive against 50% of Eldershyft's. Dawnmaker also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). Eldershyft's advantage is price (Free vs $8.99) and ratings volume (8 vs 2). On rating, 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; Dawnmaker costs $8.99 up front. Eldershyft sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Dawnmaker asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Dawnmaker against 5.0 for Eldershyft. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 8 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Dawnmaker's written reviews are positive against 50% of Eldershyft's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dawnmaker ships an update daily, Eldershyft every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Dawnmaker versus Eldershyft: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDawnmakerEldershyft
Price$8.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings28 — better
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB7 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperAcram DigitalKIERAN HARTNETT

Customer experience

Dawnmaker

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Eldershyft

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

In-app purchases

None

Dawnmaker

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Eldershyft

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

Questions

Is Dawnmaker free?
Dawnmaker costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Eldershyft free?
Eldershyft is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Dawnmaker or Eldershyft?
Dawnmaker and Eldershyft are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 8 ratings respectively.
Do Dawnmaker or Eldershyft have ads?
Neither Dawnmaker nor Eldershyft shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dawnmaker or Eldershyft?
Dawnmaker ships an update daily, and Eldershyft every 3 weeks. Most recently, Dawnmaker was updated on October 6, 2026 and Eldershyft on October 8, 2026.

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