Hoplite vs Pathways
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.
Pathways
A minimalist logic puzzle game where players guide a dot to its home space by drawing colored paths. It offers increasing difficulty levels and daily challenges, with an option for advanced features like custom level creation.
- Draw colored paths to guide a dot
- Solve spatial reasoning puzzles
- Progress through increasing grid sizes
- Daily timed puzzles with score sharing
- Create and share custom levels
- No ads, playable offline
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Pathways is a spatial reasoning logic puzzle with a clean, minimalist design. The goal is simple: move the dot home! How it works: -Each grid has one dot, and one home space -The dot can only move to colored spaces -Use tabs on the side of the grid to draw paths of color -Retract and redraw paths as necessary -Move that dot home! Easy to learn, difficult to master -Start with 3x4 grids to learn the ropes -Up the challenge with 4x4 grids -Put yourself to the real test with 4x5 grids Daily Puzzles -Timed puzzles, share your score with friends -Puzzles increase in difficulty throughout the week -Build your streak! Pathways PRO -Access all packs (375 puzzles + future packs) -Access Daily Puzzle archive to play old puzzles (100+ Daily Puzzles) -Create your own levels, share with friends and/or submit to Pathways to be featured Why Pathways? -Clean, minimalistic design -Simple rules, yet challenging solutions -No ads, no wifi required Up for the challenge? Download Pathways today!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Pathways at Free against Hoplite's $3.99. Hoplite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9) and ratings volume (787 vs 26). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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
Pathways is free to download; Hoplite costs $3.99 up front. Pathways sells 9 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 4.8 for Pathways. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hoplite has 787 ratings behind it against 26, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 91% and 90% positive.
Hoplite ships an update every 3 months, Pathways every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and July 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hoplite | Pathways |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (787 ratings) | 4.8 (26 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.8% of reviews — better | 90.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 787 — better | 26 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Best chart rank | #155 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Douglas Cowley | William Arbuckle |
Customer experience
Hoplite
Pathways
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
Pathways
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hoplite
No in-app purchases
Pathways
- Support Developpment$0.99
- Support Developpment$1.99
- Support Developpment$4.99
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- Pathways PRO$7.99
- Support Developpment$7.99
- Support Developpment$9.99
- Support Developpment$14.99
- Support Developpment$19.99
- Support Developpment$29.99









