Report updated May 7, 2026

TL;DR:SOULS defends its position in the squad-RPG market through high-fidelity art and a grid-based combat system that rewards long-term hero investment, yet the game faces a growing churn risk as late-game progression walls force a pay-to-advance transition. Users feel Excited, praising absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players but frustrated by pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers. SOULS holds its category lead through visual fidelity and an ad-free loop, but the lack of automation in late-game progression risks alienating the core player base, so the team must prioritize battle-skipping to prevent churn..|TL;DR:SOULS defends its position in the squad-RPG market through high-fidelity art and a grid-based combat system that rewards long-term hero investment, yet the game faces a growing churn risk as late-game progression walls force a pay-to-advance transition. Users feel Excited, praising absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players but frustrated by pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers. SOULS holds its category lead through visual fidelity and an ad-free loop, but the lack of automation in late-game progression risks alienating the core player base, so the team must prioritize battle-skipping to prevent churn..

SOULS is a well-regarded games app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.4/5 rating from 115.9K reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players, though pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers remains a common concern.

What is SOULS?

SOULS is a squad-based tactical RPG for mobile, featuring grid-based combat and hero collection mechanics.

Players hire SOULS for a visually immersive, ad-free tactical experience that avoids the intrusive monetization common in the idle-RPG genre.

Current Momentum

v3.12 · today

Active
  • Added new hero Rael and skin.
  • Implemented hero ban system in Arena.
  • Added auto-recommend to Pet Wishlist.
AI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

Active Nemesis

Idle Heroes - Idle Games

Idle Heroes - Idle Games

By DHGames

Other Rivals

MARVEL Strike Force: Squad RPG
MARVEL Future Fight
Age of Apes
The Walking Dead: Survivors
Sky: Children of the Light

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Games

No ranking data

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?

Loading...

What Are The Key Features?

Tile-based CombatDifferentiator

Tactical grid-based positioning system requiring formation management to defeat enemies

Hero CollectionStandard

Inventory of over 60 unique characters with individual skills and personalities

World ArenaDifferentiator

Competitive PvP mode featuring a hero ban system and seasonal deck restrictions

How much does it cost?

Freemium
  • Free to play
  • In-app purchases for gems and resources

Freemium model relies on IAP-driven hero and artifact acquisition, with daily resource caps on competitive modes to control progression speed.

Who Built It?

HABBY app icon 1
HABBY app icon 2
HABBY app icon 3
HABBY app icon 4

HABBY

(4.3M)

Bridging the gap between casual accessibility and mid-core depth through innovative one-handed action and roguelike progression systems.

Portfolio

12

Apps

Free 11
Games100%

Who is HABBY?

Habby has established a dominant position by pioneering the 'hybrid-casual' category, successfully blending the accessibility of hyper-casual controls with the deep retention hooks of mid-core RPGs. Their primary moat is a proprietary design language centered on 'one-handed action' and roguelike progression that competitors struggle to replicate with the same level of polish. A critical strategic signal is their shift toward 'Roguelike 2.0' and IP sequels, suggesting a move to consolidate their hold on the genre as the broader market faces rising user acquisition costs.

Who is HABBY for?

  • Casual
  • Mid-core mobile gamers seeking high-intensity action with low-barrier controls
  • Long-term RPG progression
Intense

Portfolio momentum

Maintains an intense development pace with 29 releases in the last 6 months across a fully active 12-app portfolio.

Last release · 0d agoActive apps · 12

What do users think recently?

High confidence · Latest 100 of 129 total reviews analyzed · Based on 129 reviews. Signal may be noisy.

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.4/ 5
(115.9K)
Current version
4.6/ 5
+0.2 vs overall
(12.7K)
Main signal post-update: absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile RPG players.

What is the recent mood?

Excited

Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile rpg players, but report pvp matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers.

What Users Love

Absence of forced advertisements creates a refreshing experience for mobile RPG players

What Frustrates Users

PvP matchmaking imbalances create frustrating experiences for players entering higher tiers

What Users Want

Automated battle skip functionality requested to reduce time spent on repetitive campaign tasks

What is the competitive landscape for SOULS?

How's The Games Market?

How does it evolve in the Games market?

SOULS maintains a strong rating of 4.6 on iOS and 4.3 on Android, but the high volume of Android reviews (103k) relative to iOS (12k) indicates a platform-skewed user base that requires parity in feature updates to maintain retention.

ChartRankChange
iOSGrossing#61NEW
iOSFree#97NEW

The rivals identified

The Nemesis

Head to Head

SOULS must lean into its superior visual fidelity to capture the premium-casual segment, as it cannot currently out-scale the deep meta-game content of this established incumbent.

What sets SOULS apart

  • Offers a more modern, visually immersive art style that appeals to players fatigued by traditional 2D idle aesthetics.

  • Provides a more streamlined, less overwhelming onboarding experience for casual players entering the idle-RPG space.

What's Idle Heroes - Idle Games's Edge

  • Maintains a massive, established player base that ensures instant matchmaking and active community engagement at all times.

  • Delivers a significantly deeper meta-game through years of iterative hero balance and complex faction-based combat mechanics.

Contenders

Leverages globally recognized Marvel intellectual property to drive organic acquisition and lower long-term marketing costs.

Implements high-frequency live event cycles that keep the meta-game shifting every few weeks to prevent stagnation.

Provides a more action-oriented, real-time combat experience compared to the more passive, idle-focused mechanics of SOULS.

Offers extensive character customization through costume and gear systems that provide deeper progression paths for power users.

Peers

Focuses on social-heavy clan warfare and territory control rather than the hero-collection focus of SOULS.

Utilizes a distinct, humorous art direction that differentiates it from the dark, epic fantasy tone of SOULS.

Integrates survival-horror elements into the base-building loop, creating a different emotional hook for the player base.

Employs a more aggressive, high-velocity release schedule for new content to maintain engagement in a crowded market.

New Kids on the Block

Prioritizes social-emotional connection and non-verbal communication as the primary driver for player retention and engagement.

Delivers a high-fidelity, atmospheric world-building experience that sets a new industry standard for mobile graphical immersion.

The outtake for SOULS

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • High-fidelity art style sustains organic install velocity
  • Ad-free core experience differentiates from genre-standard ad bombardment

Critical Frictions

  • PvP matchmaking lacks power-level balancing
  • Late-game progression walls create pay-to-advance friction

Growth Levers

  • Automated battle skip functionality would reduce churn on repetitive campaign tasks

Market Threats

  • Idle Heroes' established meta-game content creates high switching cost for power users

What are the next best moves?

highInvest

Ship automated battle skip functionality because manual re-runs are the top-requested feature → reduce churn on repetitive tasks

Sentiment analysis identifies battle skipping as the #1 request to mitigate chore fatigue.

Trade-off: Pause the development of new hero skins — automation has a higher impact on long-term retention.

mediumMaintain

Audit PvP matchmaking logic because power-level disparity is the top complaint → improve competitive sentiment

High-frequency complaints regarding lopsided arena matches threaten the retention of non-paying players.

Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.

A counter-intuitive read

The game's lack of ads is a strategic liability, not a strength, as it removes the primary mechanism for non-paying players to accelerate their progression, forcing a harder pay-wall that drives churn.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Massive faction-based synergy systems (available in Idle Heroes but absent here)
  • Cross-server competitive infrastructure (available in Idle Heroes but absent here)

Key Takeaways

SOULS holds its category lead through visual fidelity and an ad-free loop, but the lack of automation in late-game progression risks alienating the core player base, so the team must prioritize battle-skipping to prevent churn.

Where Is It Heading?

Stable

The squad-RPG market is consolidating around titles that offer deeper meta-game content and automated progression, leaving SOULS exposed to churn if it remains in maintenance-mode for quality-of-life features. The team must transition from content-only updates to core-loop refinement to prevent the player base from migrating to more mature incumbents.

The latest release added a hero ban system to the Arena, signaling active investment in competitive meta-game balance.

Persistent complaints about manual battle requirements indicate that the core loop is becoming a chore, which threatens long-term retention.

Disclosure

Independent intel to help builders create better apps.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. See methodology.

Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SOULS, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

Hope this helps & keep building! · Found an error?

What's new in this report

The app introduced competitive PvP features but experienced a decline in sentiment score and rating due to matchmaking imbalances and unresolved chore fatigue.

declined

Sentiment Score and Rating Drop

added

World Arena PvP Mode

added

New Weakness: PvP Matchmaking

added

New Threat: Idle Heroes

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “SOULS Intelligence Report.” Updated May 7, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/intel-report/games/souls

Agent Markdown (.md)·

Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0