Comparison

Sunforge vs Nivalis Cast

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

Head to head
About

Sunforge

Features
Read full description

A block made of visible mini blocks slides over your tower. Tap to drop it. Whatever hangs past the edge shears off and tumbles away โ€” and only the mini blocks that STAY are added to your sum. Hit the sun's target exactly and your streak smelts into a gold ingot: tower repaired, combo climbing. Go one past it and the streak scorches black. That's the whole cruel deal of Sunforge: landing exactly the number you need often means hanging cells over the edge on purpose. You trade tower width for the sum โ€” or sacrifice the sum to stay wide. Width is life. The sun doesn't care which you choose. ASCENT โ€” THE CLIMB โ€ข Three suns, ramping speed, forge targets that grow with your altitude โ€ข Tactical discards for hopeless blocks โ€” earned back by forging โ€ข An eclipse sky that darkens as you rise, from sun-bleached sand to black totality โ€ข Milestone stingers every ten floors THE BLOCKS THAT BREAK THE RULES โ€ข The diamond block: land it perfectly centered and your block regrows to full starting width โ€” the comeback the sun occasionally grants โ€ข The burgundy block: cursed, and it comes in fast. It never joins the tower โ€” let it fly past and it costs nothing; touch it down and it burns away every mini block it covers. Watch the NEXT chip for the warning. MIRAGE โ€” ZEN, UNTIL THE STORM Pure precision stacking, no sums โ€” but every so often a storm sways your tower, and honest physics decides what stands: if the weight above any edge leans too far, it topples. Stack centered and the wind finds nothing to take. LEARN BY PLAYING Two short playable lessons open on first launch โ€” one for Ascent (stacking, the forge sum, the diamond, the cursed block) and one for Mirage (stacking and the storm). Each is skippable in one tap and replayable from the menu. PLAY HANDS-FREE (OPTIONAL) Turn on Sound to Drop and a clap, a tap, or a short word drops the block โ€” no tapping the screen. It's an accessibility option, off until you enable it. The microphone is used on your device for loudness only; nothing is recorded, saved, or sent anywhere, and the game plays exactly the same by tap. NOTHING BEHIND THE CURTAIN โ€ข No ads, no accounts, no in-app purchases โ€ข Zero network calls โ€” works in airplane mode forever โ€ข No tracking and no third-party code; your best score never leaves your device โ€ข The only permission is the microphone, and only if you turn on Sound to Drop Built natively in SwiftUI and SpriteKit for iPhone and iPad, iOS 17+, with synthesized audio, haptics, and a hard-edged desert-forge look. The sun is watching. Forge something.

About

Nivalis Cast

Features
Read full description

A field station out on the Arctic was left half packed, the generator still warm and the notebook gone. Five instruments remain on the shelf, and each one asks for a different kind of thinking. A sonar ping over an eight by eight Arctic field returns a range and a bearing, nothing else, and three readings are usually enough to stake a shoal before you commit. Open water moves through three depth layers, one tap picks your target, and then line tension begins, held and released while a halibut sulks before it dives or a char swings in a spiral that widens the longer you wait. The memory grid does not snap back, since frost takes two and a half seconds to close over a pair that did not match. Sliding floes have to join the auger hole to open water inside a move budget, and every board shipped was measured for a real shortest solution. Twenty-four species fill a journal, seven chapters of notes open along the way, and tackle comes off a compass rose you turn once a day rather than out of a shop. Plays offline, with no ads, no purchases and no account.

Screenshots

Sunforge4 screens
Nivalis Cast4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Sunforge at every 3 days against Nivalis Cast's weekly. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sunforge ships an update every 3 days, Nivalis Cast weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Sunforge versus Nivalis Cast: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSunforgeNivalis Cast
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days โ€” betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size9 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHailey JenkinsYates Gallagher

In-app purchases

None

Sunforge

No in-app purchases

None

Nivalis Cast

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sunforge free?
Sunforge is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nivalis Cast free?
Nivalis Cast is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Sunforge or Nivalis Cast have ads?
Neither Sunforge nor Nivalis Cast shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sunforge or Nivalis Cast?
Sunforge ships an update every 3 days, and Nivalis Cast weekly. Most recently, Sunforge was updated on October 5, 2026 and Nivalis Cast on October 13, 2026.

Other comparisons