Last updated on November 27th, 2025 at 12:08 pm
Cthulhu Realms – Board Game Review
Cthulhu Realms is a Board/Card game from White Wizard Games LLC, first launched in 13th June 2016.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 63+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Cthulhu Realms Stand Out
Star Realms has gone insane! Introducing Cthulhu Realms! Are you zany enough to play the crazier and creepier cousin of Star Realms?
Download and play today to find out why Cthulhu Realms is so crazily addictive!
In Cthulhu Realms, each player tries to drive their opponent insane or have more sanity than their opponents when the deck runs out.
"The art in Cthulhu Realms is hilarious and beautifully done, somehow complimenting the horror theme perfectly. The production value is top-notch."
— Gameosity
"It’s a surprisingly effective package that delivers a great little deck builder with a low price tag. If you can embrace the playful theme, you’ll find a pleasant gem in Cthulhu Realms."
— Geek Ken
"It certainly is not just another deck-building game, but has original and fresh mechanics that will challenge your brain."
— Board Game Maniac
How to Play the Game:
Each player starts the game with a small deck comprised of initiates, goons and followers. Five cards from the deck form a row of available cards on the table; with more than two players, place three available cards between each pair of players.
Each turn, you start with five cards in hand, playing those cards in order to put locations into play, boost your own sanity or reduce that of others, collect conjuring power to acquire new cards, and remove cards from the game. You can use the power of your locations once each turn. At the end of your turn, discard any cards still in hand and all entities and artifacts that you played.
If you lose all of your sanity, you're out of the game. If you're the only one at the table who's still sane, you win. Otherwise, the game ends when the deck runs out and whoever has the most sanity wins.
Darwin Kastle is the designer of the popular Star Realms Deckbuilding Game, and with the digital release of Cthulhu Realms, he once again provides tons of playability for free, and a one-time upgrade to be able play with your friends and more on any device.
Free Version
• Drive people insane everywhere – play across devices.
• Crazyily addictive deckbuilding game.
• Tutorial teaches you how to make people crazy in minutes.
• Awesome, comical art.
• Play VS the AI.
• 8 silly campaign missions!
Full Game Additional Features
• Play the AI on 2 different difficulty settings.
• 8 more fun campaign missions.
• Battle your friends face to face with Pass and Play.
• Play against many more opponents online.
• Challenge a friend to online Player v Player combat
Cthulhu Realms is also available at your local game store as a physical card game from Tasty Minstrel Games.
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Cthulhu Realms is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 25th September 2023
Recent improvements include:
-Updated to use new game server
-Purchase no longer required to play online.
Download & Availability
Cthulhu Realms is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Cthulhu Realms on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We do love this game. Its a reskin of Star Realms, but we like this one a lot more. There is actually a little campaign with a humorous little storyline, and each stage changes the rules a bit to give you a different challenge. The art is fun. The whole app is just a lot of fun. Try it.
A few years ago, we were obsessed with the campaign. Recently redownloaded, and it was fun for a day or two but there just isnt enough ftp content for us. We wish there was just more campaign. Ty for the enjoyment.
Star Realms but Cthulhu! So much fun.
Endlessly fun. Best purchase Ive made in our tablet.
Yes this isnt Star Realms. Yes the UI might be a little cluttered looking. Yes the voice acting in the tutorial is sub-par. But it is basically still the same gameplay as Star Realms, just with its own unique twists. Personally we even prefer this game over Star Realms! Its a shame the developers dont seem to update this game anymore. We think it offers a fresh perspective, and the artwork & atmosphere is spot-on. Also, whoever does the voice-overs for all White Wizard games Campaigns, that man deserves an award or something. Dude has the perfect narrating voice. TL;DR, dont listen to the negative reviews. If you like Lovecraft, and strategy card games, Cthulhu Realms is your ticket to ride.
We paid for the full version because we were enjoying the free one. Purchasing it didnt give us a ton more to do other than to play random on-line games and unlock the hard levels (which arent really much different than the easy ones). Still, Ive had a lot of hours of enjoyment. Its a pity the developers dont seem much engaged with it anymore as more levels and more features (rank ladders for on-line play… Or just fix the current stats which are broken) would be awesome. Neat cards, nice mechanics, fun theme.
Overall we're really happy with the app. We love the card game and this app gets our our fix. Great art, great UI, great sounds. However, there appears to be a problem with the mechanics in a couple of spots. First, the "abjure" action is supposed to let you abjure a card from YOUR HAND, your discard pile, or the available cards in the center. The app doesn't give you the option to abjure from your hand; only the discard and available cards. Second, the +1/-1 card action is supposed to let you CHOOSE a player to draw and discard. But the app forces you to do it yourself. Again, other than these two missing features, we really enjoy the game.
They didnt do a good job with working around the camera block on Face ID iPhones. Words are cutoff.
This game is considerably more confusing/complicated than Star Realms for two reasons. Each card has numerous rules on it, and the wording used is ambiguous at best ("conjuring" for money, "abjuration" for banishing, even using "+" or "-" sanity to indicate "bonus sanity for you" or "attack on opponent"). So the learning curve is definitely steeper. That said, the game is quite fun once you get the hang of it. The worst part though is the "lobby" for online play. No friends list, no list of online players, if you challenge someone who doesn't accept, you can't delete the challenge! And they can't refuse the challenge! So it just stays in your queue indefinitely as far as we can tell. That's just stupid. And then there's a bug such that if you start an online game while you already have challenges waiting, the text saying "waiting for player" is covered up by the game challenges. And you can't delete/stop the process of waiting once you start. Why doesn't this game use the Star Realms lobby system?? That one, while not the best, is still way better than this one.
In app purchase says available on all devices but that is not so. Either a mistake or an outright lie not sure because because there is no option to contact developer. The game is great we bought this instead of hard copy card games because there so much more to keep track of it seemed like it would be better but $5 per device in the house hold.
We played three other versions of a Necronomicon/H.P. Lovecraft card game that was on different online arcades and they were very easy to learn, even with some of the complex rules about locations, monsters, and, health, and insanity. We thought this was the same card game except as an iOS app. We were so wrong. Here, its too many rules for each card in relation to other cards and too many different piles of cards. The graphics are nice, but this was so confusing.
This was absolutely a letdown. Don't get us wrong, in execution, it wasn't bad. It's well enough made, despite complaints we think the UI is fine. However, the AI is terrible. Easy AI is either too easy or way too hard, and hard is actually ridiculous to the point that it seems it's less RNG and more forced difficulty. The tutorials are fairly weak, we'd say. If we weren't knowledgable about deckbuilders already, they would have left us more lost than before. Perhaps this is just our opinion though, as we were taught in person by friends. Overall, the harsh rating is based more on comparison to other deckbuilders than in relation to the game itself. The game itself would only get a 3.5 from us, anyways. If you have no one to play deckbuilders with in real life, or if you are just so obsessed with them that you need to play all the time, this is for you. Otherwise, wait til game night.
Being a big fan of the card game of the same name, we think White Wizard did an amazing job making a version we can play any time we have the itch.
Sure the UI is not perfect, but it works well. Online play with others is implemented very well. App badge and notifications when it is your turn. It is easy to setup game and quick to check if it is your turn. It is free to try, but anything worthwhile costs money. It is much cheaper than the real game. So quit complaining about a measly $5. We highly recommend this game.
You can play the single player for free without even logging in, unlike what the other reviewer claims. It's a good Dominion-like game. Just look at the Board Game Geek reviews of the physical game. Totally worth the one time price.
A fun game that takes a lighthearted approach to the tentacle & madness filled works of H.P. Lovecraft. We loved reading those stories, and we're really enjoying this challenging & entertaining game that builds on them. We agree with some of the other reviews that UI could be improved so cards are legible when choosing which to play or discard. But a solid game overall. Free to try, send the developers $5 if you want more. Totally worth it in our opinion.
A very fun game with a nicely done digital version. The First Chapter of the campaign is free and you can always play against the AI. The full game will cost you $5. You can figure out if it's worth it after going through the initial parts of the campaign.
Like similar reviews, we cant stand the interface, especially the repeated zooming in and out. The art and sounds are fun. Though the theme makes no sense, it still has a fun feel. Ill come back if the interface is ever improved.
Cool game but wont let us buy the full version.
Seems all of this companies games the AI cheats. Done with them.
Since updating to latest iOS, both friends and ourselves are having issues with connecting to the game network. A lot of times, it won't connect for online play, sometimes you have to quit, other times over reinstalled. Not sure what the issues are, but hope they get straightened out.
This game will drive you insane, and not in a way that's meant to be a compliment. Easy levels are so easy it's insulting and the hard levels are impossible, as the AI gets the best hands to play at the best possible moments for it; In short, it's programmed to cheat, in a sense. Plus, campaign mode has all of 2 chapters and the online mode has never given us a match due to nearly no online players. Don't waste your time or money.
The game is fun, in that it's more or less a skin of Star Realms. The interface is super annoying to use, unfortunately. Even zoomed in the cards are more difficult to read than Star Realms, and the art isn't as good.
This game is nearly if not exactly the same as star realms. We like star realms. However, unlike las the information representation is obtuse, the meter face is clumsy, and it is hard to survey the board and see what is going on. Given the competition, we see no reason to slog through a frustrating interface. Also, the theme of Cthulhu realms doesn't make any sense. In star realms you were building a space empire and attacking, sometime blocked a by outposts – that makes sense. Here, you are investigators who are buying monster to haram each other's sanity. Why do the great old one do the bidding of a human? Why are the humans trying to drive each other insane? Why do location protect you from sanity loss? None of it makes sense.
Every feature is restricted and requires a in app purchase of at least 5$ ,there is no free features aside from logging in.
Amazingly fun yet simple game with an absolutely hilarious story narration.
Something is broken with notifications. The flag on the icon never goes away anymore.
Bought full game. Broken. Please Fix.
Bought this game on release. Paid for the full unlock. It worked well up until a few days ago, when it suddenly locked itself like we didn't pay. Now it won't let us buy the game or restore the purchase. Fun game, but do not buy it until they fix it. Edit-as of July4th it's working again updated score to 5 stars. Game is similar to star realms but with more intricate gameplay, but still easy to learn.
The game is a lot of fun, it's not a deck builder so you aren't getting gouged like most "free" to play card games. In fact the paid version just opens more game types and is a 1 time purchase.
We like the game but we swear this game cheats on hard mode. Center card flops consistently have a high cost, AI loves to get a lot of yellow cards so we can switch cards over and over in the same hand them womp you for 20-25+ damage in a round… Usually right before you can finish the AI off. Played hard chapter 1 ep 1 for 7+ hours still can't beat it even once.
Changing our review after we paid for the full game. Even after we paid for it we are still not able to login or play multiplayer- it is constantly logging us out. Please fix this.
Still can't make the purchase for full game. What a shame of all the lost revenue.
Paid for the game and when ever we try to play online the game pops back to saying we need to purchase it. Pops back and forth. Needs to be fixed. Wasted our money.
We liked the game and ended up buying it. Problem is it wont unlock paid content even tho we paid for it. Do not buy until this gets fixed.
Game is buggy. Paid to unlock game. Received an online challenge but every time we try to accept it tells us we have to pay to unlock.
Still broken doesn't allow purchases.
It's amazing, but everything White Wizard makes is gold! Star Realms is by far our favorite card game, and Epic isn't far behind. This is another welcome (digital) edition.
Love this game. We been playing Star Realms for over two years with friends. Now we have something else to compete in! There is a bug that the app doesn't remember we bought the in-app purchase. We keep having to rebuy the game to unlock features. Thankfully Apple doesn't recharge us and it is for free since we already paid. Please fix this.
We really love the game. The app is a great way to enjoy the game when not able to play the actual game. Just wished you could fire up a real time game with a friend who owns the app. Also it loses connection often. Reconnects quickly back but wished it would not disconnect.
This game is enjoyable but overall it's not as good as other similar games. The icons/powers are not intuitive, the interface is clunky, and we hate the Seuss-like art. However the game grows on you and the AI isn't bad. Still shake our head every time we see the title/logo. Darwin Kastle <> Reiner Knizia.
Good game, just a re-skinned Star Realms. The interface though takes more steps to do things then Star Realms. Attacking in Star realms is a double tap on the opponent. Here it requires a confirmation. Lots of extra taps where they aren't needed.
The app uses a non-consumable purchase to allow online play, however, doesn't honor it for all accounts created by the app. Same developer screwed up in star realms too The developer should either use a consumable in-app purchase so multiple members of the same family can play together, each easily purchasing an account, or they should allow multiple online accounts to be made off a single non-consumable purchase For star realms, you had to buy one member of the family an account outside the appstore using the desktop software. This is against appstore policies to force that, but it will solve the problem if the developer doesn't fix their account sign up/IAP system and you the player wants to play online vs a family member.
Push notifications don't appear at all. Badge notifications only appear after opening the app and syncing, then quitting without playing your turns, which defeats the whole point of badge notifications. We'll update our rating after this bug is fixed.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.230921.41000
- Size: 205.82 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: White Wizard Games LLC
Last updated: 25th September 2023 | Genre: Board, Card | Developer: White Wizard Games LLC