I guess it's my turn to say it in a thread:
Best classic roguelike on mobile IMO
I was going to also suggest Downwell but it doesn't seem to be available any more
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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Awesome.
Here is another that I found recently. Awesome little gem. Hoping it will get saving capability at one point, but it's great as is:
I would highly recommend Monument Valley (1,2 and 3 is coming soon) as far as puzzle goes, for a quick arcade fix, I like Breakout 71 (with rogue-lite elements) and all games by Arnold Rauers (Card Crawl being my favorite, but by a small margin).
Here's a quick selection from the top of my head, if you want I can go throw my app history for a few more :)
The different types of Gameboys and most of their games emulate really well on a smart phone. I prefer playing them in landscape orientation for the larger display, but portrait mode gives a more accurate recreation with the screen on top and buttons on bottom.
I'm out of touch with what the latest best options are for emulators and where to source your ROMs, but if you ask around in communities focusing on things like piracy, they'll point you in the right direction.
Recommended to use a VPN for any downloads.
Deep rock galactic survivors is on mobile now and it works in both portrait and landscape mode
Thank you so much. I've been playing it on pc but haven't found much time recently. This is perfect for me.
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Goddamn this is knowledge you could have kept to yourself
I'm only just over having balatro on my phone
Here are some FOSS games on Android that can be played on a portrait orientation.
Flang - it's like chess, but not chess.
BlastOff - endless runner
Chip Defense - it is a tower defence type of game, and is one of my favourites. You should try it.
Thank you. Also for directly linking it. Installed Chip Defense straight away. Am curious. 🙂
It’s an older game, but Downwell is fun. Just a little action/arcade game where you fall down a well and try to get combos by not touching the ground by bouncing off of enemies.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devolver.downwell_rerelease
Slay the spire!
Edit: nvm I'm an idiot and forgot about "vertical" in your request. Its not, but I still recommend it because its a good game
I'll do ya one better, the Simon Tatham's puzzle collection. http://chris.boyle.name/projects/android-puzzles/
I love puzzle games, either ones with an overaching story or standalone puzzles. I love the professor layton series Googke Play Store. I believe you should also check out Monument Valley Google Play link. If you're looking for a FOSS option, there's Simon Tatham's puzzle collection F-Droid Link
Slice & Dice is a dice building rogue like, didn't originally have portrait mode, but they added it in at some point, I love the hell out of it
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Currently playing Block Blast as my time killer and loving it.
magic survival
Downwell is one of the best mobile games of all-time
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devolver.downwell_rerelease&hl=en_US
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Downwell
Square Valley
A Way Home
Dicey Elementalist
Perfect Grind
The Way Home
I don't play many Android games, and enjoy even fewer, but Hoplite is great. It's pretty simple to play but still requires some thinking, which is what I want out of a mobile game.
Gonna go with the wildcard here and suggest Walkscape. It's still in beta, so access requires a one-time patron sub ($4.50, then cancel) or a free written application through their portal (may take like a week to approve)
It's a classic runescape-style RPG where all actions cost "steps" walking. It's designed to keep screen time to a minimum and walking time to a maximum.
Character management is generally pretty passive and 1-handed. Definitely much more casual by nature, but encourages much more active participation.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.midjiwan.polytopia
I play this one more than I should
I definitely played this one more than I should.
The original Shapez is vertical. I don't love how it plays on mobile in terms of controls but it works
Once Upon a Galaxy has been my default game since I first played it.
It's an asynchronous alternating activation autobattler (like Arcane Rush, or Storybook Brawl/Hearthstone Battlegrounds but you play against ghosts). Games take about 10-15 minutes.
It's largely public domain fantasy themed, but has been expanding into the "legally distinct" cultural references as they add content, basically every captain/unit/treasure is a reference.
The shop mechanic is simplified, there's no currency, you just get a set of choices, and can pick 1. You get two shops per round by default, lots of ways to get extra.
Asynchronous play means that you face challenging opponents that naturally evolve with the meta game but you can also take time to make thoughtful decisions.
The draft pool for the shop has a large base pool that you add to by selecting a custom sebset from a second large pool as your captain's deck. The progression is through unlocking cards for each captain's secondary pool, and unlocking new captains. You can naturally earn all cards through play, most captains are free, new captains are paywalled for a limited time.
Monetization is through 3 paths: cosmetics, acceleration of card unlocks, access to paywalled captains. I haven't found it to be particularly exploitative or negative feeling.
My only gripe is minor, that it doesn't have mid-run save/resume, but that is on their road map.
There is essentially no story, if that matters to you.
If it's not obvious, I'm really enthusiastic about this game. I'm not affiliated/sponsored in any way. Happy to answer any questions.
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Dawncaster is a great deck builder that's vertical if you are into those!
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Surprisingly, mindustry hasn't been mentioned yet! Great quality, well thought out, addictive combination of tower defence, RTS and factory building.
I got it. What a masterpiece!
YMBAB is just so addictive!
For casual time wasters, Feudal Tactics and Shattered Pixel Dungeon are good games.
I just finished Monument Valley 2 and adored it. Short little puzzle game where you kind of mix the background and foreground together to progress. There's 3 of them.
Nethack runs good in vertical. I use the version called Pathos. Good dungeon crawler.
I would say Umamusume but don't get into it if you don't really have much time.
Not exactly an Android exclusive thing, but I like to play GameBoy ROMs vertical so it feels more like a gameboy color.
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