Comparison

Taploom vs duk.

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

Head to head
About

Taploom

A minimalist puzzle game where you tap tiles to create color ripples that drain the board. Plan your moves to chain reactions and solve each level efficiently. Features hand-crafted levels, a daily puzzle, and an endless mode.

Highlights
  • Minimalist ripple puzzle gameplay
  • 55 hand-crafted levels
  • Daily and endless puzzle modes
  • Built-in level editor
  • Three-star scoring system
  • One-handed play
Features
Read full description

Tap a tile. Watch the color ripple outward. Drain every tile on the board. ColorDrain is a minimalist puzzle game built around one simple idea: every tap sends a wave through the grid. Plan your taps, chain the reactions, and clear each board in as few moves as possible. HOW IT PLAYS You have a board of empty tiles. Each tap fills the tapped tile and ripples outward through its neighbors. Tiles, walls, mirrors, and other obstacles shape where the color can go. Your goal is to fill the entire board, and your score depends on how cleanly you do it. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT Most puzzle games ask you to match. ColorDrain asks you to plan. The same board can be solved in five taps or twenty, and finding the elegant solution feels like solving a tiny machine. FEATURES • 55 hand-crafted levels across 11 themed rows • A fresh daily puzzle, the same seed for every player worldwide • Endless mode with seeded levels you can replay • A built-in level editor for designing and saving your own puzzles • Three-star scoring rewards efficient solutions • Built one-handed for iPhone, fully portrait, no ads, no IAP A GROWING TOOLBOX Each row of levels introduces a new tile that changes how the ripple flows: • Amplifiers boost a tap into a long beam • Mirrors bend rays around corners • Bombs detonate when filled, taking neighbors with them • Teleporters warp the ripple to their partners on the same heading • Frozen barriers thaw under bomb blasts • Canals carry rays across long distances • Prisms burst light in all four directions • Locked tiles open only when surrounded • Infection tiles spread on their own once seeded • Heart tiles are the final puzzle: protect them, route around them, or finish them last BUILT FOR THE DEVICE Every action has a haptic. Every fill has a sound. Tap placement is precise enough to play with one thumb on the bus, and slow enough to think through on the couch. No accounts. No tracking. No internet required.

About

duk.

A charming puzzle game where you guide a character across lily pads by stepping a specific number of spaces. Solve 80 unique ponds in classic mode or tackle a new daily challenge. Enjoy a relaxing, ad-free experience with no internet or accounts required.

Highlights
  • Numbered lily pad stepping mechanic
  • 80 classic ponds
  • Daily puzzles (easy, medium, hard)
  • Streak tracking for daily play
  • No ads or accounts
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

duk. is a cozy little puzzle about duk trying to reach his friend goose. each lily pad holds a number, so you step exactly that many pads across the water, sinking the one you leave behind, wrapping around the pond's edges, until every pad is gone and you land on goose. 2 ways to play: • classic: a journey through 80 ponds, each named for a real water lily, growing gently harder as you go. • daily: a fresh puzzle every day at easy, medium, or hard. a win on any tier keeps your streak going. no ads. no accounts. no internet required. nothing tracked. made for a calm few minutes, whenever you need them.

Screenshots

Taploom4 screens
duk.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Taploom at 3 against duk.'s 1. Taploom also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Taploom against 5.0 for duk.. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Taploom ships an update every 3 weeks, duk. every 11 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Taploom versus duk.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTaploomduk.
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCylandea Systems LLCBetula Noir LLC

Customer experience

Taploom

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

duk.

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Taploom

No in-app purchases

None

duk.

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Taploom free?
Taploom is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is duk. free?
duk. is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Taploom or duk.?
Taploom and duk. are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Taploom or duk. have ads?
Neither Taploom nor duk. shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Taploom or duk.?
Taploom ships an update every 3 weeks, and duk. every 11 days. Most recently, Taploom was updated on October 31, 2026 and duk. on October 31, 2026.

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