Nova vs Typeforge
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nova
Command a star fleet in a real-time galactic conquest game. Engage in strategic battles, forge binding diplomatic contracts, and manage your empire efficiently. Play at your own pace, from quick sprints to long campaigns, with background notifications keeping you informed.
- Real-time galactic conquest
- Binding diplomatic contracts
- Fog of war for strategic depth
- Customizable game pace and duration
- Background notifications
- Map editor for custom galaxies
Read full descriptionHide full description
You command one star at the edge of a contested galaxy, with a few hundred ships in the garrison and a clock counting down. Everything else is neutral, or held by a rival who wants it as badly as you do. Hold the most living stars when the mission timer ends and you win. Knock every rival out first, and you win early. Nova is a real-time space-strategy game of galactic conquest for two or more players. Every commander starts with exactly the same star, ships, and credits, so games are won by decisions, not dice. A war of decisions. You move under fog of war, seeing only what your own stars and scouts can reach, so a spy probe before an assault is often worth more than the ships it costs. The defender always holds the home-field edge, which means you have to outnumber a garrison by better than three to two just to fight to even odds. Capture stars, build factories, and your fleets and treasury compound together; spend on speed, range, or battle power and the advantage carries across your whole empire. Drop a nova bomb and a star is gone for good, which denies it to a rival but scores it for no one. Diplomacy you can hold someone to. Talk in-game on a global channel or in a private thread with a single commander. Then make it binding: a contract offers another player cash outright, or only if they send the fleet you ask for, to the star you name. The moment they accept, the cash moves and the fleet launches on their behalf, and it cannot be recalled. Alliances are only as good as the deals behind them, and here the deals actually stick. Set the pace yourself. A game's host decides how long it runs and how fast its clock turns. Spin up a one-hour sprint where production ticks every few seconds and the whole war is settled over a lunch break. Or stretch the same game over days or even weeks, a long campaign you think about between meetings and come back to when something shifts. Any player can propose a pause for sleep or work, and once a second player agrees, the whole game freezes, deadlines and all, until it resumes. Let it run in the background. You never have to keep the app open or refresh anything. Nova notifies your device when it actually matters: a star of yours under attack, a shield that just blocked a spy probe, a fleet that reached its target, a message from a rival, a pause proposal, the game kicking off. Leave a slow game running for days and you will not lose the thread. Less micromanagement, more strategy. Fleets route themselves through your territory, so you can strike far beyond a single jump without plotting every hop. Standing orders turn a safe rear star into a supply pump: keep a garrison, forward the surplus, and reinforcements march to the front on their own while you think about the next move. Build your own galaxies in the map editor and play them with friends, or drop into a balanced Risk-style world for two to six commanders. Play from your iPhone, iPad or a browser against the same opponents; a game runs identically whether you join from iOS or the web.
Typeforge
Read full descriptionHide full description
Typeforge: Twin Cities is a strategic tower defense game built around movable-type fusion. Every tile is more than a resource: combine words into units, fortifications, settlements, and heroes, then shape a defensive civilization of your own. TYPE FUSION, LIVING CIVILIZATION Start with basic type tiles and discover multi-stage recipes. Forge hunters, slingers, granaries, beacon towers, Hero Monuments, and advanced units. Deployment, recall, and fusion upgrades can all change the battle. TWIN-CITY COMPETITION Face an AI rival assembled from rank-appropriate item and equipment loadouts. Both cities defend against synchronized waves, adjust formations, and use tactical items until one city falls. Competitive and cooperative modes are asynchronous AI experiences, not real-time multiplayer. COOPERATIVE DEFENSE Join an AI ally on a shared battlefield. Support fire can cross the central line as both cities face larger waves and powerful bosses. If one city falls, the surviving city must withstand the remaining assault. HEROES OF EAST AND WEST Complete kill, boss, and civilization requirements to ascend a unit along an Eastern or Western legacy. Each hero has distinct skills, levels, signature weapons, and combat effects. ENDLESS CYCLES Enemy types, routes, and bosses evolve over time. Combine area attacks, piercing shots, chain effects, slowing, buffs, naval combat, and fortifications to see how long your civilization can endure. ITEMS AND WEAPONS Active items can turn a critical moment; passive items define long-term strategies. Enemies and bosses may drop weapon fragments for units and heroes. The game supports English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. Optional rewarded ads are available and never block core play. A one-time Permanent Ad-Free Chronicle purchase can skip rewarded videos while preserving all original cooldowns, eligibility rules, and usage limits. Restore Purchases is available in Settings.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Nova at none against Typeforge's 1. Nova also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Typeforge sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Nova asks for nothing beyond the download.
Nova ships an update weekly, Typeforge every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nova | Typeforge |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 443 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Kevin Gilpin | Pin Huang |
In-app purchases
Nova
No in-app purchases
Typeforge
- Permanent Ad-Free Chronicle$4.99









