VERMILION vs Samguk.io
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VERMILION
Experience a complete Three Kingdoms strategy RPG with over 100 legendary generals. Collect, grow, and strategically deploy your heroes in diverse formations and tactics. Enjoy an offline adventure with multiple story endings, all without ads or subscriptions.
- Collect over 100 Three Kingdoms generals
- Strategic hero growth and formation
- Tactical combat with unique abilities
- Offline gameplay
- Multiple story endings
- In-game gallery and mini-games
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■ No ads. Generals earned through play. A complete collection RPG. The first 12 battlefields — up to Guandu — are free for everyone. Finish the prologue, and buy the full campaign once only if you liked it. No subscriptions and no rewarded ads. You never pay real money directly for a draw: recruiting (random) uses in-game currency, which optional bundles also provide. Optional bundles can speed up growth, but every general is obtainable through play alone. ■ Over 100 generals, each with a story Choose your allegiance — Cao Cao's dominion, Liu Bei's benevolence, or Sun Quan's Jiangdong — and gather over 100 generals including Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhou Yu and Sima Yi. Every general has a unique skill and a written biography, and generals bound by historical ties awaken hidden power when fielded together. ■ More than collecting · Raise — train, awaken and equip your generals · Battle — set formations and tactics, then cut through the field · One vs. Ten Thousand — a 2-minute-30-second action mode where a single general cuts through an endless army · Campaign — follow 50 battlefields across the era · Codex — collect and admire portraits and records ■ The ending you choose There is more than one road to unifying the land. Close the story with a branching ending shaped by your choices. ■ Offline, all the way through No internet connection required. No account, no login. Your data stays on your device — there is no server. Play on the subway, on a plane, anywhere.
Samguk.io
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A realm in chaos, and three minutes is all it takes. samguk.io is a 3-to-5-minute .io battlefield: raise your banner with a single general, absorb soldiers, storm castles, and unite the land. ▶ One finger, three minutes, one war Drive your horde with the joystick and wanderers and routed soldiers rally to your banner. Collide with an enemy army and the fight is on. No button combos, no long tutorials. ▶ Break them and they join you Defeated soldiers do not vanish. The enemy banner snaps, the soldiers kneel, and they turn your color. Thirty men become a screen-filling horde. ▶ Duels: settled by might When two generals meet, time slows for a one-on-one bout. Blows are traded, a winner is decided, and the loser's army wavers. Lü Bu's halberd, Guan Yu's Green Dragon blade: the gap in might is settled by a single duel. ▶ The gate opens: the climax always comes After three minutes the castle gate opens. The gatekeeper's final host pours out, and every run ends in battle. There is no losing by timeout. ▶ 58 regions, one realm Rise in Zhuo and defeat the gatekeeper holding each region. Every region you take is painted in your color on the world map. Paint all 58 and the realm is yours. Defeated gatekeepers join the field from the next run on. ▶ Form up before you march, grow on the field Read the triangle of infantry, archers and cavalry and set your formation. Terrain, morale, provisions, and the warhorses and war manuals you pick up make every session different. ▶ Your nemesis always returns Lose, and the general who beat you is marked as your nemesis and appears next run. Take revenge for double the reward. Retry straight from the results screen, zero wait. We sell only cosmetics and time. Combat power is never for sale. * Available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional) and Korean. * A work of fiction inspired by Romance of the Three Kingdoms; it may differ from history.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: VERMILION at none against Samguk.io's shown. VERMILION also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 2 days). Samguk.io's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, in-app purchases 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. VERMILION sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Samguk.io sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
VERMILION ships an update daily, Samguk.io every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | VERMILION | Samguk.io |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 96 MB | 86 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | KYOUNG HOON SONG | Jegeon Jung |
In-app purchases
VERMILION
- 보급 상점 — 급양 꾸러미$1.99
- 보급 상점 — 군수 보급$3.99
- 본편 — 천하 통일의 길$4.99
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- 보급 상점 — 대장군의 궤$6.99
- 보급 상점 — 승상의 궤$14.99
- 보급 상점 — 제왕의 금고$29.99
Samguk.io
- Banner Codex$1.99
- Remove Ads$3.99
- Founding Retainer Pack$3.99
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- Moe Army Skin$3.99









