Comparison

Starfall Vanguard vs Nova Lancer

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

Head to head
About

Starfall Vanguard

Features
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One thumb. Fifty levels. Ten star systems. How far can you fly? Starfall Vanguard is a classic arcade shoot-em-up built for one-handed play. Drag anywhere to fly โ€” your ship rides above your finger and fires while you're touching. Lift off to hold fire, weave through the barrage, and get back in the fight. Tap with a second finger to drop a bomb. CAMPAIGN - Fifty levels across ten star systems and six biomes, each with its own enemies, bosses and skies - Fourteen enemy types: rammers, gunships, armored hulls, splitters, carriers and swarms that learn new tricks the deeper you go - Twelve bosses with multi-phase attack patterns โ€” spread fans, bullet rings, homing missiles you'll learn to bait and break - Earn up to three stars per level; three means a clean run - Clear a level and fly straight into the next with your weapon, shields and bombs intact FIGHT - Weapon upgrades to a 5-barrel spread with double-damage rounds - Stacking energy shields that absorb hits before your hull - Bombs that grow from a ring to a full screen clear as you upgrade PROGRESS - Earn coins with every kill, keep them forever - Three ships to own and fly โ€” buy them with the coins you earn and switch between them in the hangar - Spend coins on hull plating, shield batteries, rapid fire, weapon mastery, bomb bays and coin magnets - Your progress syncs through iCloud between your devices COMPETE - Endless mode: ever-shifting formations, a boss every 20 waves, and a kill-streak multiplier โ€” stay clean, score big - Local top-10 high scores and a Game Center leaderboard Painted ships and enemies, neon lasers, fireball explosions and a cockpit view. No in-app purchases and no accounts. Coins are earned by playing, never bought. A short ad plays after boss victories, and after a run you can optionally watch one to double your coin haul.

About

Nova Lancer

Features
Read full description

Nova Lancer is an offline arcade space shooter. Drag to fly. Your cannons fire on their own. Twenty missions. Over 15,000 enemies. Nineteen boss encounters. Every wave was placed by hand, not generated โ€” so each mission has its own shape: where it opens quiet, where it lets you breathe, and where it stops giving you room. BOSSES Three classes of capital ship, each with its own attack patterns and a warning on the way in. The larger ones arrive with an escort wing flying formation around the hull. Bosses shed supplies as you damage them. HANGAR - Ten ships, each with its own hull strength and weapon grade, printed on the card - Two wingmen to hire and upgrade โ€” they scale with your firepower instead of falling behind - Weapon grades that open your fire from one shot into a spread across three cannons NO STRINGS - Completely offline - No ads - No in-app purchases - No account, nothing collected about you Every ship, every wingman, every upgrade is earned by playing.

Screenshots

Starfall Vanguard4 screens
Nova Lancer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Nova Lancer at none against Starfall Vanguard's shown. Starfall Vanguard's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, in-app purchases, 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

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

Starfall Vanguard ships an update every 3 days, Nova Lancer every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Starfall Vanguard versus Nova Lancer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarfall VanguardNova Lancer
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days โ€” betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS16.015.6 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size24 MB111 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperRick ConnerTrinh Thi Huong

In-app purchases

None

Starfall Vanguard

No in-app purchases

None

Nova Lancer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Starfall Vanguard free?
Starfall Vanguard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nova Lancer free?
Nova Lancer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Starfall Vanguard or Nova Lancer have ads?
Starfall Vanguard shows ads; Nova Lancer does not.
Which is updated more often, Starfall Vanguard or Nova Lancer?
Starfall Vanguard ships an update every 3 days, and Nova Lancer every 2 weeks. Most recently, Starfall Vanguard was updated on October 31, 2026 and Nova Lancer on October 31, 2026.

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