Turbo Tap Masters › Tap RPG games › Active incremental games

Active incremental games: where playing beats waiting

Most incremental games reward you for closing them. Active incrementals reward you for playing: your input, timing and choices make the numbers grow faster than any timer does. Here are six on mobile, one of them ours.

Active or idle: what is the difference?

Every incremental game is built on numbers that keep growing. In an idle one they grow on their own, and the best strategy is often to check in twice a day. In an active one your input is the engine: you jump, tap, steer or time a skill, and doing it well is worth more than waiting. Plenty of games mix the two; the ones below lean active.

The short list

Game	What you do	Where your input matters	Platforms
Turbo Tap Masters	Tap monsters, beat bosses, duel players	Every hit is a tap, and monsters hit back	iOS, Android
Idle Slayer	Run, jump and slash for coins	Jumps, bonus stages and portals	iOS, Android, PC
Leaf Blower Revolution	Blow leaves off the screen and upgrade	Where you blow, until automatic blowers take over	iOS, Android, PC
Egg, Inc.	Hatch chickens and grow a farm	How fast you hatch and what you build next	iOS, Android
Grow Castle	Defend a castle against waves	When you fire each hero's skill	iOS, Android
Clicker Heroes	Click monsters, hire heroes	Clicking and skills, if you build for active play	iOS, Android, PC

1. Turbo Tap Masters: not idle at all

Ours, and the most active entry here: nothing happens while you are away. Each round you tap monsters before they wear down your shields, and a round can be lost. Progress is gear you equip, socket with gems and refine, plus a class with its own skill tree after level 10. Ranked duels add a skill no idle game asks for: reading another player, because every round you choose where to strike and where to block.

2. Idle Slayer: the runner

A side-scrolling runner inside an incremental game. You jump and slash through short runs, chase bonus stages and portals, and spend the coins on a huge upgrade tree. Coins keep coming in while you are away, but the runs are where the game lives. More in games like Idle Slayer.

3. Leaf Blower Revolution: one action, taken very far

You push leaves off the screen with a leaf blower, sell them and upgrade everything, all the way to nuclear blowers. You can play it actively or hand it to automatic blowers, and resets bring permanent upgrades. A good example of how far one simple action can go.

4. Egg, Inc.: the busy farm

Hold a button to hatch chickens, then build hen houses, buy trucks and research upgrades. The farm runs while you are away, but the active part (hatching, boosting, choosing what to research) decides how fast a run goes.

5. Grow Castle: timing is everything

Waves of monsters attack your castle; heroes around it fight back, and you tap them to fire their skills at the right moment. Gold from each wave goes into upgrades, so the timing of your taps decides how far the castle grows.

6. Clicker Heroes: choose your style

The classic incremental, with a choice built in: build your heroes and upgrades for idle play, or for clicking and skills. The clicking builds are where Clicker Heroes turns into an active game. More in games like Clicker Heroes.

How we picked

Every game here is free on iPhone and Android and rewards playing over waiting, at least some of the time. For the wider genre, see the tap RPG guide; for competitive play, idle games with PvP.

Other game names on this page are trademarks of their owners. Turbo Tap Masters is not affiliated with any of them.

Frequently asked

What is an active incremental game?

An incremental game, built on numbers that keep growing, where your own input (tapping, jumping, timing a skill) is the main way to grow them, rather than waiting while the app is closed.

What are the best active incremental games on mobile?

Idle Slayer for a runner, Leaf Blower Revolution and Egg, Inc. for one simple action taken very far, and Turbo Tap Masters for an RPG where monsters hit back and nothing happens while you are away.

Is Turbo Tap Masters an incremental game?

It shares the incremental loop (hit, earn, upgrade, hit harder), but it is a tap RPG: rounds can be lost, gear drops from monsters and there is no progress while you are away.

Try an incremental you actually play.

Turbo Tap Masters is free on iPhone and Android.