How come rifts never contain nice things, like free cake and gift vouchers? 

Eerie Worlds, from developer Avid Games, is the latest mobile title to demonstrate that rifts and mystical gateways are to be avoided at all costs. In this case, because they’re jam-packed with monsters. 

If you played Cards, the Universe and Everything, Avid Games’s previous foray into the world of trivia-based card-battling, you’ll know roughly what to expect from Eerie Worlds. It’s another fun, slick, exhaustively researched tactical CCG with deceptively deep gameplay. 

Except this time there’s a massive menagerie of terrifying monsters to contend with. These monsters are drawn not from the imaginations of the developers, but from the annals of real world monster mythology. 

There are Yokai from Japanese folklore, monsters from Slavic folklore, celtic Kelpie, Mexican El Chupacabra, and West Virginian Mothman, among many others. Eerie Worlds is a who’s who of history’s most terrifying creatures and apparitions, with more to come.

These monsters all belong to one of four Alliances: Grimbald, Zerrofel, Rivin, and Synnig. You can choose to stick with one alliance or mix and match to give you the greatest number of tactical options. They also come in Hordes, consisting of monsters that share common characteristics.

Your collection of cards is kept in your Grimoire, and each card comes with its own meticulously researched information on the back, including where it comes from and what kind of horrible things it did to earn its place in the twisted pantheon of the monsters. 

Whenever you end up with duplicates, these can be combined to create a single, more powerful card, while various synergies let you take the initiative in battle.  

There are 160 cards at the moment – that’s a huge number of combinations to experiment with, tactics to learn, and synergies to find. 

To get started, download Eerie Worlds for free on Android and iOS – just click here.