Firestone: Online Idle RPG

Firestone: Online Idle RPG is a multiplayer idle RPG from HolyDay Studios, set in Alandria — a fantasy world where orc and undead hordes have joined forces to seize the firestones. The core loop is the genre standard: you field five heroes plus a guardian, throw them at waves of steadily nastier enemies, and progress keeps ticking while the game is closed. It hit Steam in Early Access back in September 2019 and left it on April 1, 2024, though a good chunk of its player base plays in the browser or on mobile (Android, iOS) off the same account.

What separates Firestone from the average idle game isn't the loop, it's how many systems pile on top of it. There are research trees, per-hero talents, enchantable gear, runes, alchemy, war machines and missions — and none of them stands alone: research raises your gear ceiling, gear pushes waves further, waves bankroll the alchemy. The upshot is that there's almost always a decision on the table, even while combat resolves itself. This is a game of numbers and patience, not reflexes: the skill is in reading which bottleneck to unblock next, not in clicking fast.

The "online" in the title earns its keep. Servers have their own populations, and the studio periodically opens new ones so waves of fresh players start on even ground instead of landing years behind the veterans. Guilds hand out permanent buffs and unlock co-op raids and expeditions, there's a ranked PvP arena, and on top of it all competitive events rotate every few days. None of it is mandatory to progress, but it's where the game stops being solitary: an active guild multiplies what every idle hour is worth.

It's pure free to play on every platform: no entry fee, no mandatory subscription. The premium currency is gems, sold in packs but also earned in reasonable volume just by playing — a non-paying player racks up a couple thousand a month. The typical recurring spend is the monthly Golden Battle Pass, whose daily and weekly challenges hand out items you keep forever even though its buffs expire when the calendar month does; around it orbit rotating discount bundles, first-purchase packs that double your gems, and a cheap DLC or two on Steam. The community's read is that the monetization is among the more honest in the incremental niche: nothing in the shop is exclusive or unrepeatable, it only speeds up things you'd reach anyway. Real pressure to spend only shows up if you're chasing the top of the competitive ladders.

Firestone is alive and actively supported after nearly seven years of continuous development. The cadence holds steady: a numbered patch every one or two months — usually with real substance, like regional bosses or reworked guardian aura math — plus themed events rotating every few days on top. The studio documents every change in its patch notes and on the official site, though there's no formal public roadmap beyond each version's announcement. The population is modest but stable: Steam concurrents run in the hundreds to low thousands, and that figure leaves out browser and mobile, where much of the base actually lives. Reception backs it up, with roughly 77% positive reviews across several thousand on Steam.

It suits anyone who enjoys optimizing systems and watching numbers climb, and above all anyone who wants a game that respects their time: it works just as well in two-minute daily check-ins as in a whole afternoon spent tuning formations and upgrade trees. The social layer is a bonus for players who want a guild to talk to without a classic MMO's scheduling commitment. Against it: the interface is dense and the wall of systems intimidates early on, long-term progress inevitably turns slow and repetitive, and anyone aiming for the top of the ladders will feel the shop nudging. If you want combat with moment-to-moment decisions, this isn't your game. If you want something that runs in the background and still has depth six months later, Firestone is one of the most complete options in its niche — and finding out costs nothing.