Short answer: the browser version is free, with nothing to buy. The phone version will be free to play, with a small shop. No version has ads, loot boxes or an energy meter. Here is the long answer, platform by platform.
In the browser: free
The game on the Play page is the full game: the whole campaign, the Gauntlet, the Daily, skirmish and the tutorial. It has no shop, no boosts and no paid continues. There is no account, no sign-in and no payment of any kind. Your progress is kept in your browser on your device (see saves).
On phones: free to play, with a shop
The phone version, for Android and iPhone, is coming. It is planned as free to play. What it will sell:
- Cosmetics. Banners and dot skins. A dot skin only changes how your own dots look; it never changes a number.
- A one-time supporter pack.
- Council boosts, in the campaign only. A boost gives you something at a Council, for example an earlier first Council. They can be used from campaign level 23 on, never in a teaching level, never in a skirmish, the Gauntlet or the Daily, and every level is designed to be winnable without them.
What it will not have: ads, loot boxes or anything random for money, or an energy meter that stops you playing. Everything sold lists exactly what it contains, and every purchase asks before it takes anything.
Coins, the game's other currency, are only ever earned by playing (a better medal, a first Daily win, a deep Gauntlet run) and are never sold.
On PC, later: one price
A PC version is planned after the phone launch, at a single price, with no boosts and no paid continues.
Is any of it pay-to-win?
In the browser, there is nothing to pay for, so no. On phones, the only things that touch a battle are campaign boosts, and they are kept out of every mode where you are compared with other players or with yourself on a level playing field:
- The Daily's Today's Battle is the same battle for everyone, with no boosts.
- The Gauntlet never takes boosts.
- Skirmish never takes boosts.
Inside the campaign, a boost is a help, not a requirement. The levels are tuned to be won without one.
A word on what is unfinished
The game is still being made, and some numbers above (prices, what a boost does) are not final.
Where to go next
- Want to play without a connection? See can you play offline.
- New to the game? Start with how to play.
- Want to hear when the phone version is out? Follow the launch.