Pixelvale vs Rootflux
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pixelvale
Solve logic puzzles to reveal pixel art and build a charming valley. Enjoy a relaxing experience with no timers or pressure, and watch your world grow across seasons. Support development through optional donations.
- Solve logic nonogram puzzles
- Build a growing pixel art valley
- Experience seasonal changes
- Relaxed gameplay with no timers
- Offline play
- Hand-drawn pixel art
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Pixelvale is a cozy nonogram game: solve elegant logic puzzles and bring a little valley to life, pixel by pixel. Every puzzle you solve reveals a hand-painted piece of pixel art—an apple tree, the bakery, a villager—and adds it to your world. So a living valley slowly grows out of pure logic puzzles, transforming across four seasons. RELAXED PUZZLING Nonograms (also known as picross or griddlers) are elegant logic puzzles: use the numbers along the edges to work out which cells must be filled. No luck, no time pressure—just you and a calm, satisfying flow of thinking. A WORLD THAT GROWS You don't come back to "Puzzle #47"—you return to your valley. Each picture has its own fixed place on the map. Season by season the mood shifts—from blooming spring to quiet winter. FREE AND FAIR • Completely free to play • No ads • No energy system, no timers, no nagging If you enjoy Pixelvale, you can support development with a voluntary donation—entirely optional. It unlocks no content: you always have the whole game. FREE PLAY Want more? In Free Mode you can solve as many random nonograms as you like, in grid sizes from 5×5 to 25×25—perfect for a short break or a long evening of puzzling. MADE WITH CARE • Hand-drawn pixel art, no stock material • Warm, modern interface with subtle haptic feedback • Native iOS app: launches instantly, runs on older iPhones, fully playable offline • Available in English and German Pixelvale is a calm place to keep coming back to. Grab a puzzle, fill in a few cells—and watch your valley bloom.
Rootflux
An idle growth game where you expand an underground root system. Gather nutrients, strengthen your network, and break through strata to build a deeper living system. Features include idle growth, visible expansion, and long-term systems like challenges and automation.
- Idle nutrient growth
- Visible root network expansion
- Transport, absorption, branching, and depth upgrades
- Permanent growth through strata breakthroughs
- Seedfall, challenges, and automation systems
- Frequent updates with new content
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Rootflux is an idle growth game about sending roots deeper underground. Grow new roots, gather nutrients, strengthen your transport network, break through strata, and gradually build a wider and deeper living system. Features: - Idle nutrient growth over time - A root network that visibly expands as you play - Upgrades for transport, absorption, branching, and depth - Permanent growth through strata breakthroughs - Longer-term systems including seedfall, challenges, and automation Rootflux will continue to grow through frequent updates with new systems, balance changes, and usability improvements.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Pixelvale at none against Rootflux's shown. Pixelvale also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Rootflux's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly) and ratings volume (88 vs 8). On price, rating, review sentiment and in-app purchases 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. Pixelvale sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Rootflux sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Pixelvale against 4.5 for Rootflux. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Rootflux has 88 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of Pixelvale's written reviews are positive against 60% of Rootflux's.
Pixelvale ships an update weekly, Rootflux every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pixelvale | Rootflux |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (8 ratings) | 4.5 (88 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 88 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 161 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yves Kopmann | Idle System, Inc. |
Customer experience
Pixelvale
Rootflux
In-app purchases
Pixelvale
- Small Thank-You$0.99
- Coffee for the Valley$1.99
- A Generous Round$2.99
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- Grand Gesture$3.99
Rootflux
- Ad-Free Pass$2.99
- Dandelion$4.99
- Spider$4.99









