Nonstop Knight Review

The past few years have given rise to incremental games, and it’s easy to see why this genre has gained so much popularity. It’s akin to watching a profitable business run itself. In these games, you watch your character/business/whatever make progress through levels while earning money and upgrades, so that they become more powerful and are able to progress even faster, raking in even more money. Essentially, they take the upgrade system from most RPGs, but make it infinite so that your sense of progression never ends. These games become a never-ending cycle and require very minimal input from the player—but they’re so colorful! You become so strong, fast, and rich that it keeps the game addictive. I don’t play too many games in this genre because they always get a bit too addictive, but Nonstop Knight is one of the best incremental games I’ve played so far.

With Nonstop Knight, what flaregames has developed is essentially what Diablo would have ended up as if it were created in the current gaming landscape. It’s an Android RPG with a fantasy theme that focuses on murdering every creature within each area in order to acquire better loot. To start, you name your knight and then watch him advance floors by slaying an endless amount of monsters with minimal input. Should you choose to actually put in some effort, there are plenty of options available to you.

While the attacking in Nonstop Knight is automated, you’re able to upgrade your gear and use skills, both affecting how well your knight will fare in battle. My favorite skill so far is Slash, which lets you rip through groups of enemies and cause critical damage to some of them. Other skills you can use include summoning clones, pounding the ground, and whirling your weapon around. During some boss fights, the timing with which you use these skills becomes very important because the battle could be over within three seconds. A well-timed clone or leaping strike could save you from having to use one of your precious revive potions. A bit of strategy could be the difference between life and death.

On the other hand, you could just upgrade your equipment to a ludicrous degree, which makes any planning completely null and void. Like most incremental games, Nonstop Knight lets your knight continue his journey even when you’re not playing. If you forget about the game or just don’t play for a day or even a few hours, you’ll have thousands of gold coins waiting for you when you come back. You can do this a few times to make your weapons and armor incredibly overpowered, making any tactics pointless, at least until the enemies catch up to your level. The best way to play is to strategize while also having powerful gear. I once beat an “impossible” boss battle by just upgrading my sword, armor, accessory, and activating my skills in a particular order. So, while intelligently using your arsenal of skills helps, overwhelming power will get you very far.

Nonstop Knight is not particularly challenging or revolutionary, but it presents its gameplay in a very appealing way. The situation is similar to the Saints Row series. Sure, there are loads of open-world games that accomplish many gameplay aspects better, but Saints Row has great presentation, is colorful, and it’s loads of fun. Of course, the microtransactions might get in the way for some people. However, whether you use them or not, you’ll still be watching your knight murder multitudes of enemies, so the temptation wasn’t really there for me, personally. Overall, Nonstop Knight is a great showcase for incremental games, and it’s definitely addictive, so be careful.