Comparison

Puzzle Strike vs Dawnmaker

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

Head to head
About

Puzzle Strike

A deckbuilding puzzle game where players manage a gem pile and improve their deck by purchasing new chips. Compete against others or AI, climb leaderboards, and master advanced tactics in various game modes.

Highlights
  • Deckbuilding mechanics
  • Gem pile management
  • Cross-platform play
  • Leaderboards and replays
  • Puzzle Challenge mode
  • Offline AI practice
  • Daily Quests
Features
Read full description

Puzzle Strike is a deckbuilding puzzle game played amongst Fantasy Strike characters. It's inspired by puzzle games such as Puzzle Fighter. Gems fall into each player's gem pile every turn, and whoever's gem pile fills up first loses. Improve your deck (of chips!) by purchasing new chips as the game unfolds. Will you go heavy on economy, offense, or build an intricate engine? In any case, make sure to adapt to your opponents because Puzzle Strike has a lot more interactivity than most other deckbuilders. And like the other games in the Fantasy Strike universe, Puzzle Strike is designed to hold up to thousands of games at the expert level, and we fully embrace the philosophy of even-playfield competition. The new iOS version of Puzzle Strike has these new features: - Cross-platform play with players on iOS, Steam or the web version on FantasyStrike.com - Chips have 4x the resolution as the web version - Climb the leaderboards in Quick Match and check out replays of top players to improve your game! - New Puzzle Challenge mode: learn advanced character tactics and think outside the bag! Beat these advanced challenges to become a real Puzzle Striker! - Complete your Daily Quests to earn Jewels, then spend them to play "Puzzle Smash", a high-powered version of Puzzle Strike - Contains all 48 Puzzle chips from both Puzzle Strike Third Edition and Puzzle Strike: Shadows, as well as the promo chips, Combinatorics, Dashing Strike and Custom Combo - Practice offline against AI Puzzlebots for the first time! - English, French and Japanese language support, with German localization on the way - The base game comes with the first four characters (Grave, Jaina, Midori, and Setsuki), with fourteen additional characters available in-app

About

Dawnmaker

A solo strategy game blending city building and deck building mechanics. Rebuild a world shrouded in toxic smog by constructing buildings, acquiring powerful cards, and upgrading your lighthouse to reclaim lost lands and technologies.

Highlights
  • City building mechanics
  • Deck building gameplay
  • Resource management
  • Lighthouse upgrades
  • Smog reclamation
  • Technology recovery
Read full description

Dawnmaker is a solo strategy game combining elements of city building and deck building to create a board game-like experience. In a world covered by a toxic Smog, only you can rekindle the ancient lighthouses and bring light and life back. Construct buildings, gain new cards, generate resources and improve your central lighthouse to unlock new building space. Optimize your deck - gain increasingly powerful cards as you improve your city. Your cards and buildings interact in various ways: choose them wisely to create the most powerful combinations! Build efficient cities - make the best of your limited space by optimally positioning your buildings. Improve your lighthouse to repel the Smog and expand your city. Manage your resources - grow farms, build industries, develop science and inspire your people to create the rarest of resources: Eclairium! Reclaim the lost continent - the continent of Heksiga has been covered by a toxic Smog. Repair and improve magical lighthouses to repel that Smog and reclaim the land, region by region. Recover lost technologies - explore vestiges of the old Empire and rediscover technologies that were lost to the Smog.

Screenshots

Puzzle Strike4 screens
Dawnmaker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Dawnmaker at 100% against Puzzle Strike's 38%. Dawnmaker also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). Puzzle Strike's advantage is price ($3.99 vs $8.99) and ratings volume (16 vs 2). On ads, monetization model, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Puzzle Strike costs $3.99 and Dawnmaker $8.99 up front. Puzzle Strike sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Dawnmaker asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Dawnmaker holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Puzzle Strike has 16 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of Puzzle Strike's written reviews are positive against 100% of Dawnmaker's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Puzzle Strike ships an update every 52 months, Dawnmaker daily. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Puzzle Strike versus Dawnmaker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPuzzle StrikeDawnmaker
Price$3.99 — better$8.99
Rating3.3 (16 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings16 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 52 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size377 MB144 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperSirlin GamesAcram Digital

Customer experience

Puzzle Strike

All ratings16 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative37.5%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral29.2%
Negative33.3%

Dawnmaker

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Puzzle Strike

One-time11
  • Unlock Rook$1.99
  • Unlock Menelker$1.99
  • Unlock Persephone$1.99
Show 8 more
  • Unlock Gloria$1.99
  • Unlock Gwen$1.99
  • Unlock Vendetta$1.99
  • Unlock Zane$1.99
  • Unlock Bal-Bas-Beta$1.99
  • Character Value Bundle$5.99
  • Shadows Character Bundle$9.99
  • Unlock ALL characters$11.99
None

Dawnmaker

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Puzzle Strike free?
Puzzle Strike costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Dawnmaker free?
Dawnmaker costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Puzzle Strike or Dawnmaker?
Dawnmaker is rated higher. Puzzle Strike averages 3.3 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while Dawnmaker averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Puzzle Strike or Dawnmaker have ads?
Neither Puzzle Strike nor Dawnmaker shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Puzzle Strike or Dawnmaker?
Puzzle Strike ships an update every 52 months, and Dawnmaker daily. Most recently, Puzzle Strike was updated on October 16, 2026 and Dawnmaker on October 6, 2026.

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