Every game on this desk is free to begin and makes its money from optional in-game purchases, and none of them needs anything installed. What is worth a second thought is the timer: a quest that finishes in four hours is a reason to open the tab at ten in the evening, and after a fortnight that stops feeling like a decision at all.
Your time
- Pick the two times of day you will collect, and let anything finishing in between simply wait.
- Miss a cycle deliberately in the first week, and find out how little was actually lost.
- Notice whether you are logging in for the character or for the streak.
What it can cost
- Decide what a month here is worth while nothing is tempting you to spend it.
- Switch on the device's purchase approval; it is the only control that still works at midnight.
- Before buying, work out what the money is actually for — in most of these games it is simply time.
Children and teenagers
- The age rating comes from the publisher and sits on their site; read it there.
- Keep the approval for any purchase on a grown-up's phone rather than the child's.
- Try the social features first, and decide about them before the account is made.
If the time or the spending has stopped feeling like your own choice, start with your device's screen-time settings and your bank's spending controls, and talk to someone you trust.