Games like Clash Royale that aren't pay-to-win: what to check

Five things to check in any card battler

1. Does it sell random rewards? A paid chest or pack with unknown contents is a loot box. You are paying for a chance, and the game is tuned so the chance is expensive.
2. Is anything only available for money? Cards, factions or levels that a free player can never reach are the clearest form of pay-to-win.
3. Do card levels affect ranked play? In most games in this genre they do. Then the question becomes how long the free route takes.
4. Who are beginners matched against? A new free player thrown at long-time spenders loses for reasons that have nothing to do with skill.
5. Is there a way to play that ignores all of it? A friendly mode, a practice mode, anything where you can enjoy the game without the ladder.

Skyfire's answers, without the gloss

1. Random rewards for money: no

Skyfire has chests, and they are random. They cannot be bought. You earn one for every win, one free every day, bonus chests for your first few wins each day, and one at every promotion. The store has never sold a chest, on purpose: the moment real money buys a sealed random reward it is a loot box, and we do not want one in the game.

2. Paid-only content: no

Every hull drops from chests once your rank with that race is high enough. The rarest ships of all come only from the top chest tiers and cannot be bought with a token at any price. Every race is unlocked with tokens you earn at rank milestones. Nothing in the game is reachable only by paying.

3. Do upgrades matter in ranked: yes

This is the part a marketing page usually skips. Cards have ten tech levels, and a higher-tech ship has better weapons and stronger shields. The store sells megacredits (the upgrade currency), wildcards (a blueprint for any hull) and tokens that unlock a specific ship or race. So money does buy progress faster. A player who spends will reach high tech levels sooner than one who does not.

What limits that advantage: an upgrade never makes a ship faster, so skill at timing and placement is never out-levelled; a level is one step on a ten-step ladder rather than a wall; and matchmaking keeps the early ladder separate, as below.

4. Beginner matchmaking: protected

Commanders in the first three ranks are matched only against each other. Nobody above them can be paired into that pool, however long the queue. New players are also kept away from fleets far above their own tech level while they find their feet.

5. Ways to play outside the ladder: two

The Simulator lets you fight the computer with any deck, as often as you like. A friendly challenge against someone on your friends list is a real refereed battle that changes nothing: no rank, no rewards, no stakes.

What is in the store, exactly

That is everything money can buy. There is no paid season pass, no timer that stops you playing or makes you wait to open a chest, and no advertising between battles.

How fast is the free route?

Every win pays a chest and every loss still pays megacredits. The first few wins each day pay double. Each promotion on the 27-rank ladder pays a better chest, and several of them pay a token for a new race. The early tech levels come quickly: the first upgrade needs two blueprints. The last few levels of a favourite ship are a long-term project for anybody.