Android game reviews: Droplet Idle 💧, Idle Gem ⛏️, ♾️ Energy Loops

2 very idle games and one game with no idleness whatsoever, yet all with a vaguely similar 2D aesthetic! Here’s 3 more reviews.

#1: Droplet Idle

I originally found this simple-but-satisfying idle collecting game via a dev post on r/incremental_games, and I’ve been checking it a few times a day for a couple of weeks now!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.1.8:

Main screen	Upgrades	Prestige upgrades	Achievements

Review

Droplet Idle starts undeniably slow. After ~5 minutes I actually closed the game and was pretty ready to uninstall, as it seemed to just consist of swiping the screen to collect the slowly spawning water drops, upgrading drop value etc, and repeat.

Luckily, I gave it another go, and it’s got a lot more going on! Once the momentum of droplet spawning & auto-collecting & auto-upgrading picks up, the game reveals itself to be worth putting time into. Alongside the typical upgrades (droplet value, spawn rate, offline time, etc) are longer term prestige mechanics. Whilst these aren’t dissimilar, they are powerful enough (e.g. double income) to be immediately felt.

Interestingly, these prestige upgrades aren’t entirely permanent. Instead, they will reset on the very rare occasion that you change location, something I’ve only managed to do once so far (but can afford the next movement). Persisting through these are a truly permanent upgrade mechanic: prestige talents. Split into active, passive, and utility, these abilities let you customise your bonuses based on playstyle, and can be redistributed at any time for free.

The developer is clearly listening to feedback, with essentially every criticism from the original post addressed, and it even updated the day before writing this review with minor redesigns and bug fixes! I’m confident it has a lot of potential, although I worry how many other players won’t push through the initial slow gameplay.

Whilst there’s no story or narrative whatsoever besides numbers go up, progressing through the areas (I’m on “City”, next is “Tropical Forest”) to unlock new backgrounds is enough of a motivation for now. It’s also worth mentioning that the quality of life upgrades such as auto-upgrade and idle prestige currency gain are quite early on, meaning the game can be fully idle if desired.

The game also includes an interesting achievements system. 8 metrics (total offline time, prestiges, droplets collected, etc) have up to 18 “tiers”, where each new tier gives an increased relevant bonus. For example, I’m currently tier 8 total offline time (2 days), tier 9 (3 days) would give me +5% offline earnings, a small but noticeable bonus. Additionally, in the most recent update, 1.5x income multipliers were added for being an early adopter (playing before March 2026), completing the game early, or finding a game breaking bug. Nice!

Overall the gameplay loop is not complex, but it’s a straightforward dopamine drip-feed (no pun intended). The need to balance immediate upgrades vs overall prestige value is typical for the genre, as is the lack of any way to lose progress or do any active gameplay besides swipe the screen to collect.

Regardless, it’s a solid candidate for your next “check occasionally” game, and I’m sure the future upgrades will continue to improve it!

Monetisation

There are banner adverts, but they can be disabled in exchange for losing 15% of income. This is a great trade-off, and lets users who would uninstall (me!) continue playing at a reduced speed.
Adverts can be watched for a 20 minute 2x multiplier, a reasonable rate. Additionally, due to the achievement tiers, watching more adverts actually increases the per advert benefit, with 200 advert watches in the bonus becoming permanent!
All adverts can also be removed for £3.49 (~$5).

These options are suitably varied, and I haven’t felt pressured whatsoever to buy them yet (primarily since all adverts are optional). Personally I’d appreciate an additional in-app payment to permanently increase income or similar, as an extra incentive to spend some money, an action I’m currently unlikely to take due to lack of incentive.

Tips

Occasionally turn off your auto-upgrade to see if you are near a new upgrade tier (e.g. 50, 100), listed below each upgrade type. Saving up to get to these can be far more efficient than upgrading everything equally.
Moving to a new location resets your prestige bonuses but not talents, so make sure you have purchased as many talents as reasonably possible before moving.
Offline progress is fairly limited in both time and impact even after quite a few upgrades, so if possible it’s a good “keep open and swipe occasionally” game.
The game has a website, but no Discord / subreddit.

#2: Idle Gem

Idle Gem is a somewhat confusing idle mining game, where I’m not fully sure what’s going on even after over 10 hours of gameplay! I originally found it via r/incremental_games, in one of the “what are you playing” threads.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 0.7.10:

Mining	Merging	Combat	Automation	Prestiging

Review

Okay, imagine lining up 5 random idle game mechanics, giving them a grey mining aesthetic, and putting them in a blender. What do you get? Idle Gem! This isn’t necessarily a criticism, it’s just the only explanation I can find for each tab in the game often being almost entirely unrelated, besides shared currencies of “soil” and “tears”.

The “main” screen of the game(?), the mining, is a straightforward automated income method. Your equipment will mine blocks, with timed “DPS check” levels every now and again unlocking deeper depths with higher income. This all happens entirely automatically, with your input limited to simple upgrades to speed, power, earnings etc. So where does the equipment come from?

The equipment tab! Here you’ll spawn items (pickaxe / hammer / mattock) and item enchants (extra resources / chance to teleport to target / damage surrounding blocks / etc) using chests earned idly or with soil / tears. Merging 3 of the same item or 4 of the same enchant increases the level, this process can be repeated until you run out of space to merge.

This merging process has unusual mechanics like the ability to convert all items / enchants to another type, a slightly awkward deletion process for unwanted items, and a manual moving process that only sometimes works. I found merging to be quite painful, with tool & enchant automerging being my top priority for automation upgrades.

Alongside this idle mining game is an idle combat screen that baffles me. Your last prestige’s equipment automatically fights ghosts and other simple enemies, earning… powerup cans(?) that increase various stats. There are a few areas to battle in, although it’s rare that you’ll open the screen at the right time to pick. Reaching various milestones in an area will earn you some sort of… sentient flame(?) icon, that can be used to improve the equipment spawned for merging.

None of these mechanics are particularly strange, I just don’t really have a clue what’s going on? Numbers go up, equipment gets better, prestige bonuses apply, upgrade purchasing gets automated but it’s all slightly mysterious. This could just be user error, yet each screen / component feels like an isolated feature with no real plan.

As another example, occasionally floating chests with wings will appear on a tab, and tapping them earns you chests for the equipment spawning. This isn’t a simple mechanic, but why are they spawning? Did I do something? Is it random? No idea.

I noticed on the Discord that the developer is Japanese, so that may partially explain the difference in user experience (e.g. Japanese websites are designed drastically differently to Western sites, and I don’t play many / any Japanese games).

Overall Idle Gem doesn’t do anything new in my opinion, and whilst it is an interesting combination of various idle game mechanics, it lacks a cohesive vision / story to draw me back in. That being said, I’ve put 10 hours of active gameplay in (I find merging in general addictive…) so it clearly has something going on! Perhaps worth a try to see if the aesthetic is for you.

Monetisation

Adverts can be watched for various temporary boosts / items, such as doubled income when resuming gameplay, or double prestige bonuses.
An ad removal pack is available (which I purchased), offering all the advert-based perks and speeding up progress.
A booster pack is also available, permanently applying the advert-based power / attack / time potion boosts, however this can almost be done with the advert removal pack.

Tips

Automating is the best way to spend diamonds, especially purchasing crush power and item merging.
There is a surprisingly full Discord (700+), with the developer sharing frequent updates (at time of writing, they shared information on 6 upcoming enchants a few hours ago).

#3: Energy Loops

Energy Loops is yet another of those “rotate tiles to ensure all are connected” games that have been around for decades, albeit a very polished one that is heavily monetised.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 8.10.5:

Home screen	Simple level	Complex level	Shop	Customisation

Review

Energy Loops (or “Energy: Anti Stress Loops”, or “∞ ENERGY”) isn’t a game to love or hate. It’s fine, it’s good enough, it’ll do.

The core gameplay is pretty satisfying, as are all loop-based games, with some novel changes like a hexagonal grid and wifi blocks (connect between 2 unconnected blocks), and features some permanent progression in the form of levelling up.

These levels are earned through completing levels, and unlock various cosmetics (colours, icon types, music tracks) that don’t affect gameplay. Unfortunately this is muddied by “cards” (3x XP multipliers that recharge over time), incentivising frequent small sessions.

All the usual habit-forming aspects are here, such as limited time events, online leaderboards, limited time discounts, daily puzzles, anything to get players opening the game. These are all very shallow, with the only gameplay being completing either a square or hexagonal grid, no matter how varied the starting layouts might be.

Limited time events are baffling, with a dramatic framing (e.g. a hot air balloon race) that doesn’t actually mean anything. It claims to be “complete X levels first”, but I easily won every single time so I can only assume it matched me with inactive players. The result is a bit of bonus XP whilst you’re completing the regular levels, and nothing else.

This shallowness is a running theme throughout. Whilst undeniably aesthetic, the light and ethereal theme is somewhat one-note, with all the flowy navigations getting somewhat repetitive. The end result is a game with nothing new, just various monetisation / retention tactics slapped on top of smooth but predictable gameplay. I’ve completed around 75 levels, and doubt I’ll complete many more.

Ultimately it doesn’t feel like a game that has had love put into it, it feels like a cynical cash-grab for simple gameplay. Recently Google Play reviews mention the monetisation has become more aggressive, so it’s possible the game used to be a better experience but changed after achieving popularity (10 million installs).

If you’re after a loop-based game, this is probably one of the best so long as you’re able to ignore the monetisation.

Monetisation

Adverts to play old levels, gain hints, gain XP.
Forced adverts if you fail a daily level, or after completing a few levels.
Hints can be purchased in various packs.
A surprisingly affordable (£2.59 / $3.50) ad-free pack that also upgrades the max rechargeable “XP boost” cards from 3 -> 4.
Various obnoxiously expensive purchases, such as £4.29 / $6 for a music track, or £16.49 / $22.50 for ad removal + music track + 150 hints.
The ridiculous “Diamond membership”. £7.49 ($10) per WEEK, with various daily bonuses, no adverts, etc. It’s hard to justify any subscription for a simple game that costs over $500/year.

Overall the game can be paid for free with no adverts if you just play through the levels in order and ignore everything popping up, and there isn’t much more to the game if you did pay anyway!

Tips

It’s just a loop solving game, no tips needed!