Deep Shaft vs Tether Arcade
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Deep Shaft
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Sink the shaft. Strike it rich. Deep Shaft is a satisfying idle mining tycoon. Work the rock face by hand, then hire Foremen to automate every level while you dig deeper and deeper โ from the dirt at 100m, down past the Core, into endless procedurally-generated depths. DIG, AUTOMATE, GET RICH - Tap to mine by hand, or buy a Foreman to run each level automatically - The elevator rides the shaft, collecting full ore carts and hauling them up to the Refinery to cash in - Level up each seam for faster mining, richer ore, and bigger loads GO DEEPER โ FOREVER - Breach sealed bulkheads to open the next 100m: dirt, stone, iron, silver, gold, gems, diamond, mythrilโฆ and keep going past the Core DEEP RESET & THE FOUNDRY - Deep Reset to mint prestige Bedrock Cores, then spend them in The Foundry on permanent upgrades that boost every run - Boost the Hoist to carry more and the Refinery to sell for more - Crack open crates for permanent gear, and keep earning with offline income COMPETE EACH WEEK - Climb the weekly Game Center leaderboard โ the week's Top Earners win Geodes CLEAN, HANDCRAFTED PIXELS - Cohesive 16-bit pixel art, from the headframe to the deepest void rock - New to mining? A short guided first dig shows you the ropes (replay it anytime) - Cloud backup: reinstall on the same iPhone and your mine comes back automatically - Plays fully offline โ no account, no sign-up How deep can you dig?
Tether Arcade
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Tether is a one-touch arcade game. No account, no sign-in, no in-app purchases and no ads. It works fully offline. HOW TO PLAY Hold anywhere to hook the nearest anchor and swing around it. Release to fly off along the tangent, then hold again to catch the next one. There is no brake and no undo - just how far you get before the wipeout. SKIM THE SAWS Saws sit between the anchors. Cutting close to one without touching it stacks your multiplier, so the tighter your line, the faster the score climbs. Play it safe and you score slowly. Play it greedy and you score fast. DAY STREAK Come back on consecutive days and your streak raises the score floor you start every run from. SKINS New looks unlock as your best score climbs, from the first at 60 all the way to 1500. SHARE Every run ends with a card of your score, ready to share. LANGUAGES The game reads the device language at launch and shows its text in whichever of its thirteen supported languages matches: English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, French, Bengali, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Thai. Any other language falls back to English.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Deep Shaft at none against Tether Arcade's 1. Tether Arcade's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Tether Arcade sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Deep Shaft asks for nothing beyond the download.
Deep Shaft ships an update every 2 weeks, Tether Arcade every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Deep Shaft | Tether Arcade |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days โ better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 14.0.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luke Garbett | Adolfo Orlandini |
In-app purchases
Deep Shaft
No in-app purchases
Tether Arcade
- Tether Pro$2.99
Questions
Is Deep Shaft free?
Is Tether Arcade free?
Do Deep Shaft or Tether Arcade have ads?
Which is updated more often, Deep Shaft or Tether Arcade?
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