Mobile roguelike deckbuilders
games like Slay the Spire you can play on a phone · last updated 2026-10-11
The roguelike deckbuilder fits a phone better than almost any genre: turn-based, card-sized, and built from short fights you can stop between. Here are the ones you can actually install on iOS and Android today, what each one does differently, and how each one charges. Every platform and pricing model below was checked against the App Store and Google Play listings in October 2026. Prices change, so we name the model, not the number.
What makes a good mobile deckbuilder
A desktop deckbuilder ported to a phone is not automatically a good phone game. Four things decide whether one lives on your home screen or gets uninstalled after a commute:
It survives being put down. A run lasts an hour or more, but you play it in five-minute pieces. The game has to save mid-run, ideally mid-fight, and pick up exactly where you left it.
It reads at phone size. Card text, enemy intent and your resources have to be legible on a six-inch screen, and the important buttons have to sit where a thumb reaches. Portrait, one-handed games have the edge on a train.
It plays offline. Planes, tunnels and bad coffee-shop Wi-Fi are where a lot of phone gaming happens. A single-player card game has no reason to need a connection to start a run.
It charges honestly. The genre's best mobile games are premium, or free to start with one unlock. Watch for energy timers, ad walls between fights, and card packs that sell power, because they break the core promise of the genre: that a run is decided by your choices, not your wallet.
The list
Listed on both the App Store and Google Play unless noted. "Apple Arcade" or "Play Pass" means a version is included in that subscription.
Slay the Spire
Mega Crit · iOS and Android · premium, also on Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass. The game that defined the genre: climb a changing spire, build one deck per run from card rewards and relics, and read every enemy's intent before you commit. If you have played none of these, start here. Its sequel, Slay the Spire 2, is in Early Access on PC only.
Balatro
LocalThunk, published by Playstack · iOS and Android · premium, also on Apple Arcade. A poker-hand roguelike rather than a fighting deckbuilder: you score poker hands and stack jokers and modified playing cards into absurd combos.
Monster Train
Shiny Shoe · iOS and Android · premium on iOS, also on Apple Arcade. You defend three stacked floors of a train at once against waves climbing toward your Pyre, so positioning matters as much as your deck. The iOS version was last updated in 2023, and Monster Train 2 is on PC only.
Wildfrost
Deadpan Games, published by Chucklefish · iOS and Android · free to start, one unlock for the full game. Your cards are companions and items on a shared battlefield, and every attack runs on a visible countdown timer, which turns each turn into a timing puzzle.
Dicey Dungeons
Terry Cavanagh · iOS and Android · premium, also on Apple Arcade. You roll dice and slot them into equipment cards as a contestant on a sinister game show.
Luck be a Landlord
TrampolineTales · iOS and Android · premium, also on Google Play Pass. A slot machine where the symbols you add to your reel are the deck, and every spin has to make rent. It plays like a deckbuilder with the fighting removed.
Dungeon Clawler
Stray Fawn Studio · iOS and Android · premium, also on Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass. A claw machine pulls the items you fight with, so building your "deck" means stocking the machine.
Vault of the Void
Spider Nest Games · iOS and Android · premium. A card battler in the Slay the Spire mold, sold as a single premium purchase on both stores.
Slice & Dice
Tann · iOS and Android · free demo, one unlock for the full game. You lead a party of five heroes, each with its own custom die, through tactical fights. Dice instead of cards, but the same draft-and-improve loop.
Card Crawl Adventure
Arnold Rauers (Tinytouchtales) · iOS and Android · free to start, one unlock for the full game. A pocket-sized solo card adventure built for very short sessions.
Pirates Outlaws
Fabled Game · iOS and Android · low-priced premium, with in-app purchases on Android. A pirate-themed roguelike deckbuilder, priced low and playable on both stores.
Night of the Full Moon
Giant Network · iOS and Android · free with in-app purchases, and ads on Android. A dark fairy-tale deckbuilder with a large card pool and several playable professions.
Meteorfall: Journeys
Slothwerks · iOS and Android · premium. A compact fantasy deckbuilder made for short mobile sessions, with a fixed cast of heroes. It has not been updated on iOS since 2020.
Dream Quest
Peter Whalen · iOS only · premium. The rough-looking 2014 deckbuilder often credited as an inspiration for Slay the Spire. Worth knowing as history; its last update was in 2017, so it may not run well on a current iPhone.
Popular on PC, not on mobile yet
As of October 2026, these have no official iOS or Android version, whatever app-store lookalikes suggest: Slay the Spire 2 (Early Access on PC), Monster Train 2, Inscryption, Cobalt Core, Griftlands, Roguebook and Banners of Ruin.
Where LADDER fits
LADDER is a roguelike deckbuilder about climbing the corporate ladder in 2026, beside AI agents. It was built for the phone first: portrait, one-handed, saved between every encounter, and playable offline with no account. A run is one fiscal year, and you can play a single meeting on a coffee break and resume later.
What sets it apart from the list above is the rules. You play one of four characters, the Engineer, the Engineering Manager, the Product Manager or the CEO, and each is a different game with its own win condition. As the Engineer you win by filling a Promotion meter, and some fights end on a condition rather than at zero HP: Scope Creep stops once you have shipped four Deliverables. As the PM or the CEO, nothing on the calendar can be killed at all. AI-Leveraged cards are fast and cheap, and they hand you Tech Debt on the way out.
The Engineer's first two levels are free to play and complete on their own, with no ads, no gacha and no energy timers. The other three characters are one-time unlocks. If you want the mechanics first, the roguelike deckbuilder primer covers the genre and the character guides cover each role.
Read next: games about corporate life covers the office games, including the corporate deckbuilders coming to PC, and the glossary defines every LADDER term in one place. Spotted a listing that changed, or a game we missed? Tell us through support and we'll fix the page.