Strayward vs Starlane
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Strayward
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Strayward is an endless vertical-descent arcade. One thumb. Endless floors. A different face of abandonment every run. In the Forgotten City, every stray has heard the same legend โ at the very bottom there is a Door, and beyond it, a place where every stray belongs. So they descend. Through Neon Ruins, Flooded Metro, Forgotten Foundations. Floor after floor. Faster than the chase that follows. Each run picks one danger โ the Flood, the Cold, Traffic, the Dark, Hunger, Illness, Loneliness, or the Rogue Animal โ and that danger drives both the rising chase behind you and the obstacles on the floors. Floor types bias with the threat: ice on cold nights, conveyor belts under traffic, crumbling ledges when the ground itself is unwell. Pick a stray: Ash the orange cat โ a Slink that makes the chase lose ground. Patch the Shiba Inu โ a Guard invulnerability for the moments that matter. Nix the raccoon โ Scavenge pulls coins out of the bins (magnet included). Pip the pigeon โ Preen shakes off sickness, vertigo, and frostbite. One more run. Modes for every night: Normal descent, Daily with a pinned threat, Living (survive on the clock), Boss (race the Door Boss for your fastest kill), and Creative (author a challenge, share a code, or browse what others published). Personal-best toasts mid-descent. A leaderboard of strays who got further than you last night. Spend a Boss ticket in Boss mode (earn via Normal or buy for 100 coins in the shop) and you drop straight into the Door Boss fight โ bank shards on the way down, then Strike to win. Your fastest kill tops the Boss board. Free to play. Soft currency only โ every character is unlockable through play. Optional Remove Ads purchase. Downward. Homeward.
Starlane
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Outrun the lanes. Starlane is a one-thumb arcade runner set in deep space. Swipe between three lanes, climb over debris, dive under laser gates, and push as far as the corridor lets you. The speed never stops climbing. SIX SECTORS Launch Orbit, Ring Shallows, Ion Belt, Night Drift, Plasma Front and Aurora Gate โ each with its own palette, hazards and score, crossfading into the next as you go deeper. FIVE WAYS TO RUN โข Classic Dash โ endless, speed climbs forever โข Time Sprint โ 60 seconds, score as hard as you can โข Coin Rush โ 40 seconds of pure loot, barely any walls โข Gauntlet โ tight corridors, bosses twice as often โข Hardcore โ max speed, no revives, triple payout A NEW RUN EVERY DAY The Daily Challenge hands everyone the same seeded track โ identical obstacles, identical coins โ so the only variable is you. Miss a day and the streak resets. BUILD YOUR RUN Five upgrade tracks (Coin Value, Magnet Field, Auto-Shield, Score Core, Grazer), boosts you stack before launch, and twelve rockets to collect across four rarities. Every rocket is cosmetic โ none of them make you faster. SEASON 1 ยท SKYWARD Twenty tiers, a free track and a premium track, and daily missions that feed both. MADE FOR ONE HAND Portrait, one thumb, no account and no sign-in. The game itself plays offline. Every sound is synthesised live on your device โ there is not a single audio file in the download. โ Starlane is free to play, paid for by ads. Full-screen breaks appear between runs, and the rewarded videos are always your choice โ watch one for a revive, doubled coins, gems or a wheel spin. Remove Ads and the VIP Pass both take the breaks away for good. Coins, gems, crates, weekly ranks and duels are simulated on your device: the leaderboard rivals are generated locally, not real players. Gem packs, the Founder's Bundle, Remove Ads, the Piggy Bank and the VIP Pass are real purchases made through the App Store. VIP Pass is an auto-renewable subscription at $6.99 per month, billed to your Apple Account. It grants double coins on every run, +2 energy capacity and no interstitials. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel it in Settings โบ Apple Account โบ Subscriptions. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ravo-starlane.netlify.app/privacy/ The concept, engine, obstacle patterns, interface and copy were generated by Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Strayward at none against Starlane's shown. Strayward also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and in-app purchases 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. Strayward sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Starlane sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Strayward | Starlane |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | โ |
| Ads | No โ better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 โ better | 17.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 89 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yiu Tung LAM | Valodya Galstyan |
In-app purchases
Strayward
- 500 Coins$0.99
- 10 Crystals$1.99
- 1,500 Coins$2.99
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- 4,000 Coins$4.99
Starlane
- VIP Pass$6.991 Month
- Pouch of Gems$1.99
- Remove Ads$2.99
- Piggy Bank$3.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Founder's Bundle$5.99
- Chest of Gems$7.99
- Vault of Gems$14.99
- Singularity Hoard$39.99
Questions
Is Strayward free?
Is Starlane free?
Do Strayward or Starlane have ads?
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