Hoplite vs Tower Swap
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hoplite
Engage in challenging turn-based tactical combat on small maps. Strategize your moves carefully to overcome procedurally generated levels and unlock upgrades. Compete with friends on leaderboards and test your skills in daily challenges.
- Turn-based tactical movement
- Procedurally generated levels
- Quest mode with upgrades
- Challenge mode with daily challenges
- Leaderboard rankings
- Hard but fair gameplay
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"Blanket recommendation for this one." - Pocket Tactics (5 stars) "It's very simple to learn, but there's a huge amount of depth to the game" - Touch Arcade (5 stars) Hoplite is a turn-based strategy game focusing on tactical movement around small maps. This game is designed to be hard, yet fair. You'll need to think before you act if you hope to win. Every move counts! Quest Mode: • Make strategical choices to upgrade your abilities as you dive deeper into the underworld. • Earn achievements and unlock access to new upgrades. • Procedurally generated levels give a new experience every play. • Challenge your friends and see how you rank on the leaderboard. Challenge mode: • Jump straight into the action with a randomized set of upgrades. • Try to beat the daily challenge or play predetermined challenges at two difficulty levels.
Tower Swap
This match-3 puzzle game combines strategic tower defense with a medieval theme. Match three stones to create towers and defend your castle from incoming dragons. Enjoy instant play with no signup and offline capabilities.
- Match-3 puzzle mechanics
- Tower defense gameplay
- Castle defense against dragons
- Merge stones to build towers
- Offline play available
- Online high score competition
- Portrait mode for one-handed play
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The match-3 Tower Defense game! It's like a match-3 puzzle game but your matches turn into towers! Then dragons fly over the board and you have to defend the castle. Merge three stones to make a tower. - No signup required. Try playing it instantly. - Play offline without internet when logged out. - Play online to compete for high scores against friends. - Portrait mode game. Play one-handed. - Turn based game. Look away any time and you're fine. - A small download, and loads quickly. - Over one million plays! Featuring retro medieval pixel art by Kyle McArthur.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Tower Swap at Free against Hoplite's $3.99. Tower Swap also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Hoplite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and ads (none vs shown). On rating and device support 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
Tower Swap is free to download; Hoplite costs $3.99 up front. Tower Swap sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Hoplite asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Hoplite against 4.6 for Tower Swap. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hoplite has 787 ratings behind it against 76, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Hoplite's written reviews are positive against 75% of Tower Swap's.
Hoplite ships an update every 3 months, Tower Swap every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hoplite | Tower Swap |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (787 ratings) — better | 4.6 (76 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.8% of reviews — better | 75.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 787 — better | 76 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #108 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Douglas Cowley | Curtis Robinson |
Customer experience
Hoplite
Tower Swap
Bugs and requests
Hoplite
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes on launch with certain OS versions
- Agility upgrade not functioning properly
Requested features
4 requests- More game modes or levels
- Customization options for the character
- Landscape mode support
- Ability to start at higher levels
Tower Swap
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hoplite
No in-app purchases
Tower Swap
- Pile of Gold$0.99
- Pile of Gold$1.99
- Barrel of Gold$2.49
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- Barrel of Gold$4.99
- Five Barrels of Gold!$9.99
- Five Barrels Of Gold$19.99
