Ultrapool Demo vs Full Game: What You Get for $11.99

The three ways to play

Ultrapool exists in three shapes, all released on 24 August 2026:

• The free demo on Steam, and historically on Android and iOS as separate demo builds.
• The paid Steam version at $11.99 USD, discounted at launch.
• The free mobile version on the App Store and Google Play, with in-app purchases.

They are not three tiers of the same thing, which is where the confusion comes from. The demo is a slice; the mobile release is the full game with a different payment model.

What the demo contains

The clearest statement of the demo’s scope comes from the developers themselves. When patch V0.14.14 added a progress-restore button, the note described what it brings across: “the first 3 decks, all difficulties except All Nigher”. Working backwards, that is the demo’s content:

• The first three sets — Classic, Nature and Tech
• Chill Night, Wine Mixer, Pineapple Malibu and Bloody Mary
• Everything those unlock along the way: the snack bar, the cocktail bar, cubes

What it does not contain is All Nighter, and the remaining sets. The wiki this site cross-checks against still describes the unreleased sets in demo-era terms; the 1.0 release notes and player reviews both describe eight sets in the shipped game.

What buying adds

• The remaining sets. The launch post advertises 150+ balls across 8 thematic sets. This site catalogues 121 balls across the five sets with verified lists — see the sets page for what is and is not documented.
• All Nighter, the 20-round final difficulty, per set. How it changes deck building.
• The full unlock list — the launch post lists 80+ stickers and “dozens of other cosmetics”.
• Steam Cloud saves, achievements and Family Sharing, which the store page lists as features.

Carrying demo progress over

If you played the demo and then bought the game, do not grind the ladder again. Open Settings from the main menu and use the “I played the demo” button, added in V0.14.14. It restores the first three decks and every difficulty except All Nighter.

The same patch cycle is worth knowing about for another reason: a same-day fix briefly locked players out of saved runs and had to be rolled back, and V0.14.13 fixed saves being lost on a crash. If your progress disappeared during launch week, that button is also the recovery path.

Where the free mobile version fits

The mobile listings — “Ultrapool: Pool Roguelite” on iOS, com.icedropgames.pool on Android — carry the same description as the paid Steam build, including the cocktail bar and full set list, and are marked as containing in-app purchases rather than being trials. What those purchases unlock is not documented by the developers, so this site does not claim to know.

Practically: the free mobile build is the cheapest way to find out whether the loop grabs you. The Steam build is the one with one payment, cloud saves, achievements and a mouse. The full comparison is on the mobile page.

Is $11.99 the right price?

Steam reception is Very Positive. The counter-arguments are honest ones: it is single-player only, and the most-requested feature in its own Steam discussions is multiplayer. Our review goes through both sides.

If you are undecided, the order that costs least is: install the free mobile version, play a Chill Night run, and buy on Steam only if you want precision aiming and the full unlock track.