RAID
RAID: Shadow Legends is a visually appealing turn-based RPG with deep strategic gameplay, but it is heavily criticized for its aggressive monetization, 'pay-to-win' mechanics, and frustratingly low drop rates for desirable champions.
RAID: Shadow Legends offers engaging turn-based combat and high-quality graphics with a vast array of champions to collect. However, recent reviews highlight significant issues with its 'pay-to-win' model, constant in-app purchase prompts, and extremely low chances of acquiring rare characters without substantial spending.
What users like
What users complain about
- Aggressive 'pay-to-win' model requiring significant spending for progressR2R17R21R47
- Extremely low drop rates for legendary/mythical champions, even with paid shardsR7R15R57R68
- Constant and excessive pop-up ads for in-app purchasesR2R15R70R207
- Grindy gameplay and slow progression, especially for F2P playersR1R15R97R270
- Many promo codes are only for new players, excluding veteransR3R13R110R253
- Performance issues including freezing, crashing, and long loading timesR11R20R33R64
- Unfair or unbalanced PvP/Arena matchmakingR40R73R207R333
- Poor customer supportR12
Latest update · v11.65.0
What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):
New in 11.65.0: FEATURES: - Added the Win Streak mode in Live Arena & improved Live Arena matchmaking - Added Quick Battle option to Chimera Battles - Added 40 new Gemstones, earned from Live Arena - Introduced the ability to assign duplicate Mythical Champions as Faction Guardians in the Guardian Ring - Rebalanced the Plarium Points Program so users can progress faster - Increased the chances of summoning Perfect Souls for specific Champions in the Altar of Souls' Wishlist - Champion rebalance
Recurring themes
Who it's for
This game is for players who enjoy visually rich turn-based RPGs with deep strategic team building and are willing to either invest significant time in grinding or spend money to accelerate progress R2R37R114. It is not for players who dislike aggressive monetization, constant in-app purchase prompts, or a heavily 'pay-to-win' environment, especially in PvP R21R47R73.
Evidence note: The recent reviews skew significantly negative, with a 45.2% negative sentiment, which contrasts sharply with the lifetime rating of 4.71 out of 5 stars. This suggests a recent decline in user satisfaction, possibly due to increased monetization pressure or unaddressed performance issues. The developer notes mention new features for Live Arena and Gemstones, but recent reviews indicate ongoing issues with Live Arena balance and general performance, suggesting these updates may not have fully addressed core frustrations.
Frequently asked
Is RAID: Shadow Legends a pay-to-win game?
Are there many in-app purchase ads in RAID: Shadow Legends?
Is it hard to get legendary champions in RAID: Shadow Legends?
Does RAID: Shadow Legends have performance issues?
What reviewers actually said
Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.
- [R2] If money is of no concern…: If money is of no concern then you can basically buy your way through this game at such exorbitant prices that you could easily buy a new car. The gameplay itself is good for a turn based RPG aside from time gates, paywalls and extremely limited resources to start with. Not to mention the excessive amount of harassment of buy this or that to boost your chances, characte
- [R9] Fun: Lots of fun
- [R37] Fun strategic game: I like this game, I’ve been playing it for years now. The only thing I hate though is how there’s so many pay to win players out there, which make live arena, or any arena difficult for us free to play players. If you’re trying to do each fusion, you’ve gotta save your resources. The devs will try to throw in a double chance event between fusions, that way you waste all of y
- [R107] Fun rpg: Really was not expecting to enjoy this pace of game. Very fun game to play so far.
- [R8] SO FUN: This game is so fun the grafics are so good 👍I love it
- [R22] Fun time waster: Great detail and graphics.
- [R72] Hooked…: I can’t even say why, but I am totally addicted to this game. Great graphics, amazingly diverse legends to summon, and no end in sight! It can’t be overstated: I’m hooked! Thanks, devs… keep up the good work!
- [R224] Good game on paper.: The champions are great, amazing designs, unique moves, fun gameplay with many combinations of champions. The two glaring issues with the game: 1. If you don’t spend £10,000 to (maybe) get yourself some great champions, you’ll be looking at putting in a 9-5 worth of work every day, then after a few years you might be able to hold your own against whales. 2. The pop-up ads a
- [R15] Fun time waster at best: Pros: - Plenty of champions to collect. - Fun time waster. - Plenty of battling. Cons: - Way too much grinding just for the tiniest bit of progress. - Constantly spammed with buy offers every time you return to the Bastion/Main Menu. - Speaking of buy offers, the prices on those offers are insanely high. - The odds of pulling a legendary or mythical champion are aby
- [R114] Great game even as a F2P: The game has a lot to do and while it has its flaws none of them are raid specific such as stamina the progression is slow don’t expect even as a spender to speed through the game. However a f2p can still really enjoy the game if you’re willing to put in the work and focus on pve it’s one of the most f2p friendly out there once you understand what you’re doing and how to
- [R322] Tips for free to plays: As someone who's played this for a year and never spent a single dime I'd like to give tips for free to play players. Use new player promo codes immediately! According to Plarium you're a veteran player after a couple of days because you can't use codes after a day or once you reach level 10. Farm campaign for xp and dungeon for gear and gold. IGNORE GEAR STATS your san
- [R17] Rich audience: It’s a pretty fun game. I’m poor though and it’s kind of tough. It seems like it’s more built around like a rich audience.
- [R21] If you like getting shaken down for cash this game is for you: Do you care about your hard earned money? Well if you said NO! then your in luck because this game will constantly harass you to buy and spend your hard earned cash on useless in game items. Do you want to play a game that doesn’t care about skill or playtime, a game that only cares about the money in your bank account, and a community
- [R47] Pay to Win Trash: This game is pure “pay to win”. They lure you in with false promises of “free” things, but they make hurdles and gates to getting those things that are impossible to cross without spending money. There are no ads, but you will be constantly, ceaselessly inundated with one “limited time - act now” offer after another. The biggest kick the pants for my, and the ultimate deal break
- [R7] The spending isn’t worth: I brings rage to my heart to spend 30+ dollars to buy some accident shards during a 25x event and only to be given 23 rare champions and 1 epic champion out of the 24 ancient shards I bought. Honestly disappointing.
- [R57] Pay to win: I enjoy the game I’ve been playing for a year now but the one thing that sucks is the mythical shards no matter how much money you spend on them thinking you’ll get lucky but so far all I pulled is rare and I spend a chuck in purchasing them just to get a rare that’s where I think the game is dying for me
- [R68] It gets old fast: I’ve been playing this game for years and the absolute biggest problem I have is that you very rarely pull good characters from the portal. I can’t tell you how much money I’ve put in just trying to get something better than a rare just to be given trash every single time. I’d like better if they stopped this pay to never win stuff cause you don’t get anything worth your money if
- [R70] Could be better: Are you looking for a game that has thirty five pop up ads you have to click x on in order to play a game, then man do i have the game for you. 10/10 would play more often if they removed the popup ads all together, yes i know it only does it two- three times a day but man i am tired of clicking x just to play a mid game. Clash of Clans is the way to go if you are looking for real
- [R207] Over the top pop ups to spend: This game is fun But the over the top, constant pop ups to spend $$$ is annoying and these are not cheap at $25 to $100 and they do not provide much value as the rewards are random so you can up with junk. Secondly the PvP, you get opponents that are several time above your level, the PvP so the game pushes you so spend. An finally the constant game drops is frustr
- [R1] Not a Botted Review: I’ve been playing casually since 2019. I’ve done dailies for 3-4+ days a week pretty consistently for 7 years. I’ll be honest, I’ve spent a few hundred dollars over the years. 7+ years and a few hundred dollars spent and my account is low to mid tier. The demand this game has is unrealistic, it will literally take you years to even become desirable to a decent clan. If you sav
- [R97] Gameplay: This is a fun game and will quickly get you hooked. However, the 3 star rating is because it is increasingly difficult to play without spending money on energy. There aren’t enough opportunities to gain extra energy without spending money and as you level up it takes more energy to do anything. Either allow for energy to gather unlimited or give more opportunities to win/earn event boost
- [R270] Needs decent update: This game is good and fun but my main problem with it is it’s way to Grindy to time consuming way to boring at times there are so many moments you get stuck on things and it’s just stupid they could of made this game way less Grindy easier to get champions easier better drop chance it’s so pay to win if you don’t have the champs for arena you don’t stand a chance to get anywhe
- [R3] Good but annoying: Love the game, but the genuine issue that I have is that most of all codes are tied to only new players.
- [R13] Why can’t I use codes: So I like raid it’s a good 4. But I kept seeing these ads for free stuff I check my bar on the left I wasn’t there I thought oh it’s just because I haven’t made a account I made a account and it STILL wasn’t there I was disappointed but may just be like that for mobile other than that it’s a good game a bit to p2w tho
- [R110] Raid: I love the game but my only kinda issue the amount of champions. Like I watch all these YouTubers who have maxed out accounts while I have 3 and all of them are free login events. another mini problem is that most of the codes are for new player only.
- [R253] Feels bias: I love a good game, but I find raid despite it being a good game in graphics, ideas and gameplay. Is incredibly bias like most modern games where it only gives promo codes to new players within a short window and all existing players need to pay for the luxury of help. I’ve had the game since 2020, my dad played it and my partners. But we all got to a point where the only way to get ne
- [R11] App Freezes: This app starts to load and then freezes. It is only on IOS. Android and in my laptop works fine. This has been two days straight.
- [R20] Fun game awful performance: Game is fun. It’s like someone made a raid version of ER. But optimization/performance has to be the worst I’ve ever experienced on a game of any platform in my 30 years of gaming. And before a dev replies that it’s my phone like I’ve seen them reply to others on here about. It’s not. I have brand new IPhone 17. 2-3 months old. I play marvel strike force and clash o
- [R33] steady crashing: everytime i load into a match it never loads and jus crashes
- [R64] Crashing: Within 2 updates I went 2 crashing almost every hr
- [R40] Cheating: So much cheating in arenas teams so low power beat teams with more power it’s rediculous other then that it would be good
- [R73] -10/5 stars. Stay away unless you have a bottomless wallet or android user who hacks.: The absolute worst P2W P2P game ever. Everything about this game is programmed to reel you in order to ensure you spend money to pay to play and pay to progress. Arena battles are pathetically unbalanced, you can have over 200,000 higher power and still can lose while they have all 4 of their heroes. Apple users
- [R333] Decent PVE., Embarrassingly bad PVP (especially Live): TLDR - PVE is probably 4.5 stars since the champs required for endgame content take far too long to get.. PVP however, 1 star is too generous, it needs to be taken to the shed and put down… like George to Lenny.. The PVE stuff can offer a decent challenge although still at the mercy of RNG for worthwhile champions and you want to be playing d
- [R12] Support: That game has the worse support ever, many ridiculous rules if you have problem on that game only god can help you
- [R25] Decent but give me money to win: Decent game that passes the time but it’s so annoying when you have to be a pay pig to get any new character or just to get a legendary from a draw. Fork over 80$ and you have a 1% chance of getting a good character
- [R30] Prices of everything and anything: The prices for any in game purchases are extremely expensive for literally play to win like 40$ for the game pass which gives no rewards other then a character you can’t get anywhere else summons literally 100$ for 10 summons that are epic and your not even guaranteed to get an epic with “epic” summons not to mention legendary summons they also don’t guarantee le
- [R4] Where do I get more supplies?: As my title said. Where do I get stuff to lvl up things or get more? There is barely anything to try and get materials and you’ll have to wait for more than 3hours to get it…
- [R16] Paying to be frustrated: Some of the challenges in this game are so frustrating I’d gone them negatives stars of I could. The only reason I haven’t quit this game in it’s entirely is because I’ve spent too much time and money already. It has some really bright spots, but its difficulty isn’t among them.
- [R27] Hello: Have fun playing this game I enjoy it two weeks ago it started glitching then shuts down mid play then I have to restart. Suggestions on how to fix this please???
- [R5] Raid shadow legends: Awesome game
- [R6] Raid: Fun game, but it feels like it’s pay to win
- [R31] Mystical: Why is it so hard to get a mythical character? I’ve been opening the red shard so many time I still ain’t got one and it’s kind of making me unhappy.
- [R43] I can’t figure out how to use the promo codes: Every add says it’s in the chest icon but you first have to use the code which I still can’t figure it how
- [R105] Would give a more stars but!: Would give more stars, however, for beginners like me if you don’t know about The promo codes they have a 72 hour window on them and if you don’t claim it, you’ll miss out on some very great champions that are really hard to obtain. And will hurt your experience
Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store