Comparison

Thumb & Pylon vs Iron Bastion

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

Head to head
About

Thumb & Pylon

Features
Read full description

Your thumb is the power supply. Tap the core to make charge. Spend the charge on towers. Then keep tapping, because the towers drink it — and every tap that pays for a gun is a tap that is not scoring you points. That is the whole game: working out, wave after wave, what you can afford to stop doing. 34 LEVELS, FOUR ACTS Each one built around a single new idea, and each one asking you to survive it before moving on. The first teaches you to tap. The last assumes you remember everything since. NINE TOWERS, AND NONE OF THEM ARE UPGRADES OF EACH OTHER An Arc Node takes one target at a time. A Thermal Vent catches a whole pack at once. Some towers never fire at all — they sit among the others and make them faster, or cheaper to run. Where you put a tower matters more than how many you own. DAEMONS THAT PAY THEIR WAY Buy something that makes charge for you and your thumb gets a rest — or gets to score instead. Knowing when to stop tapping and start automating is half of it. BOSSES THAT DO NOT DIE POLITELY Ten hazards arrive on the backs of things built to break a line that was working. You will rebuild more than once. CLIMB THE BOARDS A leaderboard for every level, and one for your total across all of them. You see the top twenty and exactly where you stand — even if that is a long way down. PLAY ANYWHERE No connection needed. Underground, mid-flight, anywhere at all. Your scores catch up when you do. NO ADS. NO PURCHASES. NO SIGN-UP. Just the game.

About

Iron Bastion

Engage in fast-paced, strategic tower defense roguelite gameplay. Build and upgrade your automated bastion to withstand escalating waves of enemies. Adapt your strategy with randomized upgrades for each focused run.

Highlights
  • Fast portrait gameplay
  • Automatic targeting with strategic decisions
  • Multiple difficulty modes
  • Randomized roguelite upgrades
  • Persistent progression
  • Offline play
  • No ads or in-app purchases
Features
Read full description

The battlefield never stops. Your bastion fires automatically—but survival depends on the choices you make. Iron Bastion is a modern military tower-defense roguelite built for fast, focused runs. Destroy advancing combat units, spend battlefield credits on tactical upgrades, and select powerful new capabilities as each operation escalates. CHOOSE YOUR THREAT Start as a Beginner, test your command experience, or face the brutal Pro deployment. Each difficulty changes enemy pressure, rewards, and the pace of battle. BUILD A DEADLIER BASTION Improve caliber, reload speed, armor, critical systems, and more during every run. Combine upgrades into a build that can withstand the next wave. ADAPT BETWEEN WAVES Choose one of three roguelite upgrades and reshape your strategy. Every decision changes how your defense platform performs under pressure. SURVIVE AN ESCALATING WAR Enemy strength adapts as the battle continues. Elite threats and increasingly punishing waves prevent a successful defense from becoming comfortable. FEATURES - Fast portrait gameplay designed for iPhone - Automatic targeting with meaningful strategic decisions - Beginner, Experienced, and Pro difficulty modes - Randomized roguelite upgrade choices - Persistent progression between runs - Offline play with no account required - No ads and no in-app purchases in version 1.0 How long can your bastion hold the line?

Screenshots

Thumb & Pylon4 screens
Iron Bastion3 screens

Verdict

The call

Thumb & Pylon and Iron Bastion are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Thumb & Pylon versus Iron Bastion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThumb & PylonIron Bastion
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB5 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperFrunkfriendsAskar Fuzaylov

In-app purchases

None

Thumb & Pylon

No in-app purchases

None

Iron Bastion

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Thumb & Pylon free?
Thumb & Pylon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Iron Bastion free?
Iron Bastion is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Thumb & Pylon or Iron Bastion have ads?
Neither Thumb & Pylon nor Iron Bastion shows ads.

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