Puzzle Forge 2 vs Merchant RPG
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Puzzle Forge 2
Become a blacksmith and forge powerful weapons by combining resources on a board. Sell your creations to heroes, earn gold and experience to upgrade your skills, and discover new heroes attracted by your talent.
- Unique weapon creation system
- Combine resources to build weapons
- Add gems and enchantments
- Earn spells and magic items
- Increase blacksmith skills
- Meet and serve heroes
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Heroes of Burning-Blade needs your help! As the new blacksmith of the realm, put together ressources on the board to build powerful weapons. Sell these equipments to heroes, earn gold pieces and experience to increase your skills. Who knows which new hero will be attracted by your talents? - Build 2000 differents weapon thanks to the unique creation system of Puzzle Forge 2. - Add gems and enchantments to your creations. - Earn spells and magic items in quests. Use them to improve your unique weapons. - Like in any RPG, use your experience to increase your skills. - Meet many heroes with strange requests.
Merchant RPG
Manage a fantasy shopkeeping empire by sending heroes on quests for materials and using crafters to create gear. Balance crafting, selling, and hero upgrades to build your trade empire and conquer foes. This offline idle RPG blends tycoon mechanics with traditional RPG elements.
- Send heroes on quests
- Craft weapons and armor
- Manage shop economy
- Upgrade heroes and crafters
- Raid bosses
- Customize characters
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Be the Merchant of your very own empire! Quest, Craft, Profit, Upgrade! As the Merchant, you are the commander of your own domain! Blending together traditional RPG systems, tycoon mechanics, and a fantasy overworld, Merchant aims to reimagine the traditional mobile RPG. In Merchant, players take the role of a shopkeeper who must manage a team of Heroes and Crafters. Heroes are sent out on quests in order to fight enemies and gather materials. Crafters then use those materials to create weapons and armor. As the shopkeeper, players must balance their micro-economies between selling items for gold and crafting items to better ensure success for the Heroes. * * * TAKE REIGN OF YOUR MARKET - Send Heroes out on epic adventures! - Pay Crafters to create gear! - Earn gold and dictate the direction of your economy! - Grow your inventory and profit from your trade empire! VICTORY THROUGH CONQUEST - Choose your cast of characters from multiple Hero classes! - Ride out to battle to bring back items and loot! - Customize your champions with weapons and armor! - Band together to raid powerful bosses as a party! - Better performance leads to greater rewards! CRAFT YOUR LEGACY - Utilize the unique Crafters to create items and gear to use and sell! - Train the Crafters to create better items, allowing them to master their trade! - Ensure the victory of your Heroes by outfitting them with superior items! * * *
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Puzzle Forge 2 at none against Merchant RPG's shown. Puzzle Forge 2 also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Puzzle Forge 2 sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and Merchant RPG sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Puzzle Forge 2 against 4.6 for Merchant RPG. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 104 and 276 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 70% of Puzzle Forge 2's written reviews are positive against 69% of Merchant RPG's.
Puzzle Forge 2 ships an update every 5 weeks, Merchant RPG every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Puzzle Forge 2 | Merchant RPG |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (104 ratings) | 4.6 (276 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.4% of reviews — better | 68.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 104 | 276 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 7.1 — better | 8.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 160 MB | 67 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Tuesday Quest | Retora Game Studios |
Customer experience
Puzzle Forge 2
Merchant RPG
User reviews
Puzzle Forge 2
From 104 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎮 Highly addictive and engaging gameplay
- 🧠 Strategic depth requiring planning ahead
- 🎨 Beautiful graphics and charming art style
- 😄 Humorous character dialogue and personality
- 🔄 Unique merge puzzle mechanics
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Game-breaking bugs with frozen boards
- 🐛 Data loss and progress not saving
- 🐛 Tutorial is confusing and inadequate
- 🐛 Shop top shelf items unclickable
Merchant RPG
From 276 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Simple yet deep mechanics
- 🎨 Lovely pixel art style
- 💰 Fair monetization model
- ⏱️ Quick progression
Room to improve
- 🔇 Cuts off background audio
- 🤔 Confusing for new players
- 🤖 Lack of combat animations
- 🧠 Repetitive gameplay loop
Bugs and requests
Puzzle Forge 2
Reported bugs
18 issues- Game crashes and freezes during gameplay
- Frozen board bug in tournament mode
- Progress not saving after reinstall
- Top shelf shop items not clickable
- Ads reappearing after purchase removal
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- Restore purchases not functioning
- Game crashes when skipping ads
- Enchanted slots disappearing
- Hero not accepting completed weapons
- Contract completion showing 0 gold reward
- Game slowing down after extended play
- Tutorial completion blocking progression
- Academy not appearing on map
- Money glitching and not decreasing
- Freezing when handing equipment to NPCs
- Orc shield request not accepted
- Game ending prematurely with moves remaining
- Gem delivery not working after purchase
Requested features
16 requests- Undo button for accidental moves
- Ability to delete or sell unwanted weapons
- Comprehensive recipe guide for crafting
- Better and more detailed tutorial
- Chinese language localization
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- Spanish language localization
- Third game in the series (Puzzle Forge 3)
- Additional ore types beyond Netherium
- More weapons and items to craft
- Difficulty settings at game start
- Mini-games for variety
- Cross-device progress synchronization
- Better contact/support system for issues
- Fill empty screen space with content
- Option to use shop items when game over
- Legendary weapon crafting guide
Merchant RPG
Reported bugs
3 issues- Ads not working properly
- Inventory management issues
- Progression-blocking bugs
Requested features
4 requests- Add save slots or cloud sync
- Improve equipment visuals
- Implement auto-repeat quests
- Provide more guidance for new players
In-app purchases
Puzzle Forge 2
- 1000 Gold$0.99
- 1 Wisdom Stone$0.99
- Remove Ads$2.99
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- 5000 Gold$3.99
- 6 Wisdom Stones$4.99
- 30 Wisdom Stones$19.99
- 50 000 Gold!$29.99
Merchant RPG
- 16 Inventory Slots$0.99
- 16 Additional Inventory Slots II$0.99
- 16 Additional Inventory Slots III$0.99
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- 16 Additional Inventory Slots$0.99
- Unlock the Jeweler$0.99
- Hero Slot I$0.99
- Hero Slot II$0.99
- Enchanter Unlock$1.99
- Unlock all Shop Themes$2.99
- Frozen Tome Expansion$2.99
- Scribe Expansion$3.99
- Unlocks Everything$14.99
