Comparison

SporeGuard vs Empire Creator

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

Head to head
About

SporeGuard

Features
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The Blight is spreading. Only you can defend the Heartroot. SporeGuard is a tower defense game set deep in a living fungal network. Place towers, upgrade their abilities, and fight off waves of increasingly dangerous enemies as they crawl, fly, and burrow toward the heart of the mycelium. STRATEGIC TOWER DEFENSE - 6 unique tower types, each with 3 upgrade paths and 5 tiers - 90 total upgrades across all towers - Multiple targeting modes 13 ENEMY TYPES - From basic Threadworms to massive Rot Titans - Flying, burrowing, teleporting, and healing enemies - Blightmothers that spawn children on death 4 MAPS, ESCALATING DIFFICULTY - Shallow Roots, Fungal Caverns, Deep Mycelium, Blighted Hollow - Nightmare mode with four paths from all sides ENDLESS SURVIVAL MODE - Infinite procedurally generated waves - How far can you survive? 5 POWERFUL ABILITIES - Cooldown-based abilities that turn the tide of battle ATMOSPHERIC EXPERIENCE - Dark, bioluminescent fungal aesthetic - Procedural ambient soundtrack - Unique sound effects for every tower type

About

Empire Creator

Features
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Empire Creator is a strategy card game where you paint the map and build nations from scratch. HOW IT WORKS Each turn, draw a card from the deck. Cards let you expand territory, create new nations, merge empires, split countries, adopt religions, and swap land. Paint your borders by hand and watch nations rise and fall. REAL WORLD MAPS Play on 7 beautifully crafted maps โ€” North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, or the entire World. Each map plays differently. CARD TYPES - Expand cards give you a paint budget to grow your nation's borders - Add New Nation places a brand new country on unclaimed land - Union merges two nations into one growing empire - Split draws a line to divide a nation in two - Swap Places exchanges territory between nations - Adopt Religion creates or spreads belief systems - Mega Merge is ultra-rare (1 in 500 chance) โ€” pick a nation and absorb up to 9 others WIN CONDITIONS Dominate 60% of the map for an early victory, or outlast the 80-card deck and lead when the cards run out. Every game plays out differently. FEATURES - Multiple save slots โ€” run several games at once - Game Center leaderboard โ€” compete worldwide - Collapsible leaderboard bar tracks every nation in real-time - Auto-save after every turn - Full tutorial for new players - Works on iPhone and iPad No ads. No in-app purchases. No internet required. Just pure strategy.

Screenshots

SporeGuard4 screens
Empire Creator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Empire Creator at none against SporeGuard's 8. SporeGuard's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 6 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. SporeGuard sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Empire Creator asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SporeGuard ships an update daily, Empire Creator every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
SporeGuard versus Empire Creator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSporeGuardEmpire Creator
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily โ€” betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB21 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperMichael EakinsAndrew Mason

In-app purchases

8 purchases

SporeGuard

One-time8
  • 500 Spores$0.99
  • 5000 Spores$0.99
  • Bioluminescen Skin$1.99
Show 5 more
  • Crimson Skin$1.99
  • Void Skin$1.99
  • 1500 Spores$2.99
  • All Skins Bundle$3.99
  • 15000 Spores$7.99
None

Empire Creator

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SporeGuard free?
SporeGuard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Empire Creator free?
Empire Creator is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do SporeGuard or Empire Creator have ads?
Neither SporeGuard nor Empire Creator shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SporeGuard or Empire Creator?
SporeGuard ships an update daily, and Empire Creator every 6 weeks. Most recently, SporeGuard was updated on October 6, 2026 and Empire Creator on October 18, 2026.

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