Idle Pins

About

Idle Pins is a single player casual role playing game. It was developed by Arkshija and was released on October 16, 2021. It received neutral reviews from players.

Tired of those incremental games where you have to buy the first highlighted upgrade without thinking? Do you enjoy the rewarding feeling after unlocking hard earned stuff? THIS-IS-YOUR-GAME! I've been working and updating this game in my free time, as a hobby, during the last two years. I want to thank the community for their support and feedback. Hope you enjoy it. Fuse two Pins to get an…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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58%

Audience ScoreBased on 389 reviews

gameplay7 positive mentions

grinding60 negative mentions

Unique and complex idle gameplay with strategic pin formations and merges.
Free to play with generous daily premium currency rewards and developer-run community events and giveaways.
Active and helpful community along with an engaged developer who interacts on Discord and Twitch.

Extremely slow and grind-heavy progression, requiring the game to be kept running 24/7 for meaningful progress.
Lack of offline progression severely limits idle gameplay and forces active play or constant game running.
Heavy monetization with many quality-of-life features and important upgrades locked behind premium currency, creating a pay-to-progress environment.

grinding
61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The game is widely recognized as extremely grindy, with slow progression and lengthy resource collection that can become tedious without quality-of-life improvements or guidance. While some players appreciate the challenging, slow-burn idle mechanics and find the rewards satisfying, many note the grinding often feels excessive, repetitive, and sometimes pay-to-win features exacerbate the issue. Overall, the grinding aspect is a defining but polarizing feature that suits only those who enjoy long, deliberate idle experiences.
- “The game is extremely grindy to the point of making progress nonexistent.”
- “You need to spend weeks grinding prestige points to eventually reach the end of certain upgrade tracks to get perks that only save about 5% of your run time.”
- “The rate at which you earn new pins turns into a grinding halt very early, and the amount of pins needed to upgrade grows exponentially.”
gameplay
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
77%
10%
The gameplay is characterized by slow, grind-heavy incremental progression with a mix of unique mechanics such as pin management and prestige, requiring active play and strategic planning. While some find it rewarding and deep once mechanics unlock, many criticize the grindiness, lack of offline progress, confusing explanations, and pay-to-win elements that hinder enjoyment. Overall, the gameplay appeals primarily to dedicated incremental fans willing to invest significant time and effort.
- “It's a slow and grindy incremental with pretty neat mechanics.”
- “That said, reaching the milestones and unlocking stuff is rewarding, the game changes a bit as you move further, and when you get the mechanics of the pins and setups, things start to get a little more dynamic in the future, but still: expect to grind a lot, if you like this kind of thing, this game is for you!”
- “Altogether with the Discord community and the dev streams the game has become a lot easier to get started on and is an interesting grind with its mechanics and I will be playing for many more hours.”
- “I do know one of those mechanics also costs derium in general to advance, and when I learned that, I came here to write this and uninstall.”
- “Then I found out that the prestige mechanic doesn't really add much to your overall power, and even pin tuning (which seems to be the most powerful upgrade I have found so far) is insanely slow.”
- “You need to arduously work on getting correct pins (attacking units) while not having a proper AFK mode for about first week or two of gameplay - after that you might prestige, and make the game a bit idle friendly.”
monetization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
55%
30%
Monetization in this game is heavily criticized for being intrusive and feeling like a cash grab, with constant advertisements and expensive microtransactions that can total over $100. However, some players appreciate that certain premium items can be earned through community events and Twitch streams, and the developer’s approach avoids forcing purchases. Despite mixed opinions, many find the monetization aggressive but somewhat balanced compared to typical idle games.
- “A lot of reviews touch on the microtransactions available, but there are really only a handful of things that are locked behind a paywall (mainly a few formations, and some optional boost pins). These can all be obtained by participating in community events and watching the developer's Twitch streams, where additional premium currency and items are given out to players on a regular basis.”
- “It's free to play with in-game purchases to support the developer.”
- “In-app purchases aren't in your face and the developer is pretty generous with premium currency.”
- “This game feels like a highly efficient cash grab.”
- “The monetization of this game is ridiculous.”
- “I see a lot of potential in this game, the fighting system is interesting, and I could ignore the really bad graphics and UI, but shoving microtransactions in your face all the time sucks.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The graphics feature a charming, retro pixel art style that some find addictive and well-designed, though it deliberately forgoes modern visuals. However, the lack of resolution options and low-quality presentation limit visual customization, which may detract from the experience for some players.
- “Pros: simple but addictive with the most charming pixel graphics.”
- “The art style is charming and the different phases of the grind are well thought - certain things will click into place just as you start scratching your head about the next way to progress.”
- “Don't be obfuscated with those innocent non-combatty graphics!”
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel art as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customize the graphics settings.”
- “There's no way for gamers to try to improve the low quality graphics.”
story
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The story is widely regarded as lacking or nonexistent, failing to provide meaningful progression or engagement beyond basic gameplay elements.
- “There's no story, no sense of unlocking cool abilities besides the ability to add more pins to the board, and no active vs idle gameplay choice that might help push for higher rewards before a restart or something.”
- “I think a lot of these things could be quality checked to make it a more interesting start that can lead into a grind, but the story and graphics can't really hold if you're not going to drop $50 or more on the premium stuff!”
- “No story.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is highlighted through the developer's engaging and amusing live streams featuring unique lotteries, adding a lighthearted and original touch. Players appreciate the genuine and fun atmosphere, with humor emerging naturally from the community interactions.
- “The dev also runs short streams often, where he holds funny lotteries where we each can participate!”
- “Original, funny and free.”
- “So yeah, cheaters leave negative reviews; funny that.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game lacks musical accompaniment and overall sound, leading to a sparse audio experience that many users find disappointing. Additionally, the need to leave the game open without active engagement further diminishes the value of its minimal music presence.
- “There is no musical accompaniment.”
- “There's also a real lack of sound and music.”
- “To actually utilize all these ideas and put them into action, you need to spend a hefty amount of time just having the game open, doing nothing, maybe listening to music or watching videos, which aren't part of the game, which is why this review is negative.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant optimization problems, including massive memory leaks and poor performance even on capable computers, leading to frequent crashes. Additionally, there is little to no support for resolving in-game performance issues.
- “Performance issues on computers that should be able to run it?”
- “You'll get no support for in-game problems or performance issues, and tough luck if you have any ideas for the game.”
- “Can't recommend a game with such massive memory leaks; performance is terrible, and it's a game that loves to crash your system.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game generally runs smoothly with strong community support and well-managed events, but stability issues arise from the auto-save feature failing over time, causing freezes when exiting.
- “The game uses an auto-save feature which seems to stop working after a while, and if you hit the exit button it tries to save but then freezes.”