Mid-2019 Update:
So, I originally wrote this article about 8 months ago. Since then, Stormplay has redone their app and apparently ended, or lost, some of their partnerships resulting in a big reduction to the number of mobile games that they will pay you to play. And, most of what is left are apps that are basically ads wrapped around something vaguely resembling a game. Their overall payouts also seem to be lower than the offers from the old version. On the plus side, getting credit for completing tasks seems a little better with the newer version of the app.
The long and short of it is, that while you can technically get some Bitcoin or Etherium, the amount of time to earn a couple of bucks worth of crypto is pretty long now using this app. But, it isn't a scam like some other apps that offer rewards for playing games.
--- The original article---
Stormplay is a service that rewards you with cryptocurrency for playing games, taking surveys, watching ads every 30 minutes, or buying specific things. Since I was already playing games on my phone, I figured I might as well try to get paid for it. Now, this service has been covered on here multiple times in the past, but usually in terms of a brief look at the service followed by a referal code. I'm hoping to give a more detailed breakdown of my experience, and maybe help out anyone looking to try to make a little cryptocurrency in the future.
Now, I was a little leerey about actually getting payment, but as of September 2018 I can say that this service does actually pay out still. Granted, the time required to make a few dollars worth of Bitcoin would be far more profitably spent working a minimum wage job. Over the course of aproximately a month of playing games, I ended up with about $50 worth of Bitcoin. Now, I don't have a ton of room on my phone, so I was limited in how many games I can have on it at a time. It also isn't always clear how long something will take to complete. Getting level 36 in one game might only take a few hours, while getting level 20 in another couple take months. So, my game selection wasn't always optimal for getting things cleared quickly. At any rate, I figured I would share some of my experiences on a site where people might find this sort of thing to be of interest.
For all of the tasks that I undertook, I skipped any games that required making payments as part of the completion. There are a few more game related tasks than what I have listed below, but if the goal is to try to get some extra cash then spending on this doesn't make sense. I also skipped a few tasks that require you to give out personal information or unlock lots of phone permissions. I'll list a few of these at the end for reference.
Before I get into the big list of tasks that I did, I have a few suggestions for anyone thinking of trying this out. First off, be mindful of the space on your phone! At a certain point, I noticed that the free space on my phone was disappering even though I had been uninstalling games. After digging around in the Android section of the storage, I found that a lot of games didn't quite uninstall completely. They left cached additional content, ads, and video files kicking around on my phone. If you aren't familiar with going through your phones storage, and you've had a lot of games on your phone, I recommend checking it out. Try going to Settings->Storage and look for an Other section. On my phone, clicking it takes you to a folder view of the storage. Under Android I found files left under Data and Obb. Look for folders from games you uninstalled or their publishers and delete them.
If you are doing this to try to get cash, don't get attached to the games. If you complete the task and keep spending time on a game, then you are missing out on clearing other tasks that pay. Granted, I'm guilty of this myself. But, it really depends upon your goal here. At a certain point, you will have cleared most of what they offer. Then it might be a better time to go back and revisit apps you enjoyed.
A somewhat recent patch added a new page of tasks. The original tasks I have marked with Classic in my listing. More often than not there are duplicate tasks between the Classic and new task lists. You should check out both to see if the same game is listed & which pays more. Typically the Classic tasks are better, but that is not always the case.
Stormplay lets you cash out as three different currencies: Bitcoin, Etherium, or Storm. Storm is their own altcoin, which they offer you a 20% bonus if you take payment in it. However, for ease of converting from cryptocurrency to real currency, I would recommend taking one of the other two. I personally choose Bitcoin, as it seems to have been a bit more stable in value of late than Etherium - at least at the time I'm writing this.
So, below here is my big list of tasks that I undertook and a rough guide on how long they took. I originally wasn't planning on writing an article about this, but after trying to find help on some of these I thought it might be of use to someone else. I wasn't always keeping notes, or track of what I had been doing at the beginning. So, some of the earlier task write ups are a little more vague.
I have also tried to break games down into sections of style. Since what follows is a big list of games and how much I got paid, I'll just note here that if anyone has any questions on any specific task feel free to ask in the comments. The payment amounts are in Bolts, which is what you cash in to get cryptocurrency. Roughly 10-11 million bolts was what I traded in for about .0063 BTC, though I have gotten about 2 million more after that. I can't see how many I originally exchanged in the history.
Things that Paid:
- Gambling/Casino/Card Style Games -
I'm lumping together poker, slots, and a few other games with a casino like element here.
* Coin Dozer, paid 414,579 *
A coin drop emulator where you need to reach player level 25 to complete the task. You get XP by getting coins to drop down the end of the ramp. Over time you slowly get more coins to drop down the virtual chute. You can watch ads to get bonuses, which make it a bit quicker. They do push you to purchase additional in game things with a lot of pop up ads.
Moderate duration of several days, mild active play with a lot of waiting for coins to refresh.
* Poker Heat - Free Texas Holdem Poker, paid 290,636 *
A poker app where you need to reach player rank 5 to complete the task. This went relatively quick for me, though I will say I prefer poker emulators to slots.
Fairly quick, active play.
* World Series of Poker, paid 112,832 *
A poker app where you need to reach player rank 5 to complete the task. This went relatively quick for me, though I will say I prefer poker emulators to slots. Yes, I did copy and paste that from above, but it was the same overall goal.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Texas Holdem Poker, paid 10,254 *
A poker app you just need to download and start to get credit.
Very quick, active download & start.
* Zynga Poker - Texas Holden, paid 307,725
A poker app where you need to reach Player level 11. Took a day or two of playing to get done, though it wasn't bad if you like poker.
Not too long - a couple of days playing casually, active play.
* Casino Deluxe - Free Slots & Vegas Games, paid 51,975 *
A slots simulator where you need to reach player level 13 to complete the task. This took a few days to knock out, which in terms of slot apps is relatively fast. You can watch videos to get more coins, with a 30 minute cooldown at a certain point. This is a little better than some other slots apps, which have a hard 3 hours timer on free coins. They also recently added a classic task for this to get up to level 50, which pays a lot more. It might have been better to do that one even though it will take longer. But, slots are usually a losing game in the long run, so you'll be watching videos for more chips.
A few days of casual play, active play.
* Bingo Bash - Bingo & Slots, paid 34,189 *
A bingo app where you need to get player level 2 to complete the task. Takes a few games to complete, but is relatively very quick to knock out.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Vegas Words - Downtown Slots & Words, paid 170,957 *
An odd mix of slots and scrabble. You need to reach player level 5 to complete the task. Fairly quick to complete, you can knock it out in a day.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Solitaire Tripeaks, paid 110,893 *
A solitaire style card game that you need to clear the tutorial to complete the task.
Very quick, active play.
* Solitaire, paid 6,836 *
Just need to download and start to complete the task. I think I may have played a tutorial hand, but this was very quick to get done.
Very quick, active.
* New Yahtzee (Classic), paid 60,000 *
In writing this, I found that I can't see the classic task requirements after completing them. But, as best I recall this didn't take too long to knock out.
Fairly quick, active.
- Match 3 Games -
Games where you need to line up colored baubles in Tetris like clearing of a board. Most typically have the same power ups for matching 4, 5, or getting certain patterns. Once you've played one, you'll quickly see the same style in the rest.
* Fishdom, paid 83,582 *
Complete the tutorial levels to complete the task. Typical match 3 game with an aquatic theme.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Gardenscapes - New Acres, paid 17,914 *
The listed requirements are to download and start, but I did play through the first day. Typical match 3 game.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Matchington Mansion, paid 198,996 *
The task is to clear up to level 51, which takes a few hours of active play and some skill at match 3 games. I did it over a weekend, but this may take longer depending upon luck. A bit longer than the usual game, also seems very similar to Homescapes (listed below).
Moderate time, active play.
* Merge Dragons (Classic), paid 300,000 *
A map based match game, with a time locked energy system. As best I can recall, this took a few days to complete.
Moderate time, time locked active play.
- City Building - Variant 1 -
These are essentially all the same game with different skins or slight modifications. In some of these, literally the same game reskinned. These boil down to a timer locked fantasy building game with the same set of farm, mine, quarry, vault, barracks, hospital, watch tower, wall, trading post, etc. You need to generate resources and level up buildings, usually while building an army and sometimes a separate set of hero charachters.
These games are typically fairly long, taking multiple days to weeks. But, they are heavily passive. You will eventually grind up enough resources by just waiting long enough for them build up. There always a research component as well, where you get small percentage increases on different resource production or combat abilities.
* Blaze of Battle, paid 974,475 *
In this game, you need to get a level 5 dragon. To get a dragon, you need to be able to build a dragon keep, which requires that you level up your castle significantly. This takes several days to do, depending upon how actively you log in to get the next building underway. There's a few things you can do to make it slightly faster. Normally leveling up dragons is locked behind lengthy research to enable them be able to combat monsters on a map. But, if you dump all of the free gems you get into dragon XP then you can ramp one up to the required level much quicker.
Somewhat long - several days to weeks of time locked play.
* Epic & Magic, paid 1,025,764 *
In this game, you need to clear Despair Ridge, which is essentially a dungeon. This version of the game has a hero system, where you level up charachters, combined with a separate army system. You need both heroes and troops to clear the task, as some dungeons require you clear with an army while others are hero fights. This took a few days (to weeks) to complete, and required a little more active play to clear the encounters. But, the heart of the game is still waiting for resources to build up, or building timers to count down.
Somewhat long, time locked play with some active play components.
* Lords Mobile (Classic), paid 1,5000,000 *
I can't go back and see the requirements, but as I recall this was a mutli-step task (which the classic ones support). It took a few weeks to complete, but this is more of less something you will eventually get done. It's just a matter of waiting for resources to come in and building timers to count down. This game combines hero combat and troop combat. The hero component only has a few required portions, but gives you something to do while waiting for timers.
Somewhat long, time locked play.
* Final Fantasy XV (Classic), paid 787,500 *
You only have a week to complete this task of getting a level 12 citadel, which is technically possible to do without spending cash. But, this is only doable if you make a lot of time to play the game. It is not easy to complete this in time, I just happened to start it when I was taking some time off. I suggest skipping this stressful task if you have a job or want to sleep.
But, for anyone that does want to do it here are a few tips: focus on Stone and Metal production. For some reason, you need a ton of Stone and a good amount of Metal for most of your main structures. Build multiple mines and quarries, focus all of your hero bonuses on production for these two resources, and save gold to buy extra, and spent loyalty points to get the 25% bonus production a day. You need to play the game fairly actively, even though it is the same mostly passive style game as the others in this section. You need to send your hero out to attack monsters to get bonus loot, click the free chest when you can, and in the end you can finish this.
At most a week (took me 6 days), time locked play that needs a lot of active attention.
- City Building - Variant 2 -
Again, these are basically the same game with different skins. These use a simpler two resource system than the above games. They also tend to have a combat map where you place troops on one edge, where upon they walk forward to battle enemies and try to destroy an enemy base.
* Army Men Strike (classic), paid 206,250 *
I can't go back and see the requirements. But, as best I recall this took a few days to about a week to finish. The goal was to level up your base to a certain degree, using the resources of paint and plastic. There is a lot of waiting for resources to build up or upgrades to complete, most of which can be done offline.
A few days, time locked play with some active comppnents.
* Narcos: Cartel Wars, paid 307,725 *
This task is to get up to a level 5 HQ, which takes a fair amount of the wood resource. This is your basic upgrade, build, wait on resources, with an army component. This seems to be a clone of Army Men, or vice versa.
A few days of time locked play.
* Mafia City, pays 683,839 (in progress) *
This task is to get a level 15 mansion, which is going to take a fairly long time. I only started this recently, but it is essentially the same 2 resource game (goods and cash) without the mini combat map. Instead it has some odd casino mini games. I can' really say for certain that this will trigger on completion, but noting it here for reference.
Somewhat long, time locked play.
* City Building - Variant 3 *
These games have a noticably different style than the above. I think they may be slightly older, with a focus on building and a research tree that feels more prominent.
* Forge of Empires (Classic), paid 652,500 *
An early task that I have no real notes on. As best I recall, it took a few days, to weeks, to complete enough research.
Somewhat long, time locked play.
* Elvenar (Classic), paid 219,000 *
An early task that I have no real notes on. This will take a few days to weeks to complete enough research. Was a little quicker than Forge of Empires, as I recall you can earn research points easier than FOE.
Somewhat long, time locked play.
- City Building - Other -
* Township, paid 89,550 *
You just need to complete the tutorial to complete the task. This did not take very long or leave much of an impression.
Quick, active play.
* Harvest Land, paid 160,704 *
This is a time locked tapping game where you click on things to start planting crops, or harvest them, or build things. You need to get up to rank 10, which can take a few days. I pretty quickly ran out of inventory space, which becomes a big hassle. You can pay to make it easier, but I chose to wait and deal with it.
Moderate duration, time locked play.
* Food Street, paid 67,018 *
This is a slightly simpler/better version of Harvest land. You need to get rank 13 to complete this task, but it wasn't nearly as bad. Maybe just because I knew not to go too crazy with baking bread.
A couple of days of casual play, time locked active play.
* Castle Clash (Classic), paid 112,500 *
This is a classic task, so I cannot go back and see the requirements. But, as I recall this was pretty quick to knock out as I barely recall playing the game. I do recall that it seemed to just dump you into it with little explanation. Anyhow, it did pay and was easy to complete - you can also deny a lot of the access it requests and it will still run.
Fairly quick, active play.
- Other Gameplay Styles -
* Tap To Riches, paid 30,771 *
Essentially a clicker style game. It just says you need to download and start, but I played through what was essentially the first level before it completed. It was still quick.
Very quick, semi-active play.
* Board Kings, paid 239,346 *
An odd game that is styled like a board game. You gain cash by going around the board and can upgrade squares, eventually unlock other pieces and boards. A little similar to Monopoly initially, but deserves some praise for original gameplay. You need to reach player level 3 to complete the task. Basically the time sync is waiting for your dice rolls to refresh. If you just wait and play now and again you should be able to complete this easily without purchasing anything. There is a weird PVP component where players may steal your coins, or you may steal theirs if you lands on certain squares.
Moderate duration, time locked active play.
* Pirate Kings, paid 341,925 *
Another odd game, which is more or less spinning a wheel over and over. You need to build everything on the second island to complete the task. This is by the same people as Board Kings, but I found this game to be a chore to play.
Moderate duration or a couple of days of time locked play.
* Clash of Lords 2, paid 20,346 *
I honestly didn't play enough to get much of a feel for this game. You basically just need to download and start it. I think I ran through the tutorial. It didn't make much of an impression.
Very quick, minimal playing.
* Epic Summoners, paid 218,829 *
A semi-idle squad based autobattle game. The task is to get to player level 36, which isn't actually that bad. Basically you actively clear encounters, then it idly gains resources that you can spent to updgrade to clear harder areas.
Fairly quick, active game play with some idle time.
* Magic Jigsaw Puzzles, paid 41,036 *
A jigsaw puzzle emulator where you need to complete 10 to get credit for the task. You can do it on easy mode, and knock it out in a couple of hours.
Fairly quick, active play.
* Wordsdom - Best Word Puzzles, paid 10,254 *
Weird app where you drag through letters to spell words. The requirements and to download and start, but I played through a couple of games and got credit.
Still very quick. Very quick, active.
* Z War - Zombie Modern Combat, paid 5,475 *
I didn't really play enough to comment on the gameplay style. But, it did actually pay after downloading and playing the intro for a couple of minutes.
Very quick, active download.
* Hero Hunters, paid 478,007 *
A shooting game, where you control a squad with different weapons and abilities. A little similar to the old Virtua Cop arcade game where you could hide or pop up and shoot. There's a time lock component, as well as some grinding to gear up to be able to complete the task of Reaching District 4. It took a few days to play through the task.
Moderate time, time locked active play.
* Pixel Gun 3D, paid 68,389 *
A run and gun shooter, where you need to reach player level 7 to compete the task. Took a few days of casual play to get through it, but most game play styles give XP just to make it through to the end.
A few days of casual, active play.
* Card Heros, paid 102,579 *
A squad based fantasy combat game. Basically there is a heavy time lock, making this take a few days to knock out player level 5.
Somewhat quick, heavy time locked play.
* Marvel Contest of Champions (Classic), paid 525,000 *
This is a classic task with multiple stages. Knocking out level 7 is easy, 12 takes a week or so, and 25 takes a long time. It's a fighting game, with some time locked energy to continue. It is also fairly laggy on my phone. Your first week starts with a bonus to XP, which I mostly wasted since I didn't notice that until it was almost gone. So, it took me about a month to clear this task.
Once you hit around level 10, you get an autoplay ability. Running through easier sections where you can turn this on and mostly ignore the fights seems to make it go a little faster, and lets you work on this while watching TV or some other light activity.
Very long, active play with some time locks.
* CSR Racing 2 (Classic), paid 57,750 *
The task says you need to log in for 7 days in a row, but I got credit after doing some tutorial missions. Granted, I started the task and didn't have room to download this rather large game. So, I started it probably a week after initiating the task, which might have screwed it up. But, it is pretty easy to complete.
In theory a week, should just need to log in so no real active play.
* World of Navy: Battleship War, paid 6,836 *
I didn't really play enough to comment on the gameplay style. But, it did actually pay after downloading and playing the intro for a couple of minutes. It seemed like a city/army building sort of game from what I could tell in the minute or so I ran it.
Very quick, active download.
* Island Experiment, paid 38,443 *
The goal is to reach player level four, which probably took under an hour to do. It is basically a resource and time based game where you click on things. You need to have food to do actions, which you can grow, but that takes time. Anyhow, it is fairly easy to just run through to level 4. This reminded me a bit of Harvest Land, but without the inventory pains.
Fairly quick, time locked active play.
- Reading -
* The World's Largest Athletes, paid 51,289 *
There are a couple tasks that are to read through a web article, which ends up being a series of web pages with tons of ads. I'm pretty sure these are by the same people that made the Quizzes (noted below). But, you can do these by just clicking and waiting for the pages to load. Takes a good 20 minutes or so to get through it, but it did pay.
Relatively quick, active.
* Immersive Story Experience, paid 92,314 *
A few multimedia stories. The requirements are to read 3 chapters, listen to a couple of songs, and look at two pieces of artwork. It doesn't take too long if you don't read it, but if you like the story you may want to spend more time.
Fairly quick, active.
- Other Apps -
* NFL Gameday Rush, paid 39,694 *
This is a download and start app. I got offered it multiple times, but it only works once, which happened with a few of the new tasks.
Very quick, active download.
* Fibler (Classic), paid 18,750 *
This is a download and start app as best I recall.
Very quick, active download.
- Broken Tasks or Tasks that Didn't Pay -
Puzzle & Dragons (Classic task) - Link is broken.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode (Classic task) - Link is broken.
Skout - Meet, Chat, Go Live (Classic task) - Link is broken.
Meet Me: Chat & Meet (Classic task) - Link is broken.
POP! Slots - Free Vegas Casino Slot Games (Classic task) - Link is broken.
Funny Fishing - Link is broken.
FanDuel: Daily Fantasy Sports - Link is broken.
Words With Friends Classic - Link is broken.
Homescapes - Match 3 game which notes you need to complete the tutorial to get credit. I'm not sure where the tutorial ends, but I played into day 2 and hit a puzzle that you essentially need to pay to beat so abandoned this.
Yahoo Finance - Downloaded and started, but didn't get credit.
Trulia Real Estate - Downloaded and started, but didn't get credit.
LinkedIn - Download and started, but didn't get credit.
Number Painting - This doesn't seem to be a functional application. Not sure if it was because I denied it permissions, or if it is just junk to start.
KO Trivia - This should only take 2 hours to wait for a chest to unlock, but it didn't trigger the reward. I'll probably try to get this manually paid out. This is an interesting application where you can win coins and cash out for USD in theory. I may do another article on this after I check it out more.
- Things I had to manually get paid for -
You can contact support after enough time passes and you fail to finish a task. Classic tasks they credit you 25% of the original offer, which is pretty bad. The new tasks seem to give full credit, though they may be through another company.
* My Vegas Slots - Vegas Casino, eventually got 1,025,764 *
Took a bit over a week, and some luck, to get up to level 23. But, this didn't pay out automatically. After reporting the issue and sending a screenshot I got credited. This wasn't too bad for a slots app. The slots seem a little looser and the free coins every few hours is a decent amount. Their draw is that you can earn prizes from playing, but all of the prizes are for Las Vegas casinos. If you don't live near there, then they probably don't have much value for you.
Several days of active play, then following up with support.
* War Robots (Classic), paid 94,500 *
An active run and gun shooter, that took a few hours to reach the required level for the task. However, this did not trigger for me. After reporting the issue and sending a screenshot I got partial credit.
* Portal Quest (Classic), paid 168,750 *
A squad based mostly passive combat game. It took a couple of days of casual play to reach the required level, however it did not trigger task credit. After reporting the issue and sending a screenshot I got partial credit.
* MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2018, paid 205,157 *
Did a tournament and leveled up to 3, but didn't get task credit. Had to send a couple of screen shots to manually get the task completed. I personally found this game annoying, though it only took a few hours to complete the actual task.
* Tropicats, paid 18,461 *
A match 3 game. I cleared through level 14, but didn't get task credit until following up with support. Fairly quick game to play through the task.
- Things I didn't do -
DomiNations - Required giving it full access to your phone to play, which was a little too sketchy. If you deny any access, the game won't run.
Quizzes - There is some company that puts together quizzes that are chock full of adds. You have to get 100% to get paid and it takes at least about 20 minutes to click through a quiz. For how little they pay, they were not really worth doing.
Crypto Business - This isn't really a game, as much as a copy of Stormplay that doesn't pay real money. It's just a bunch of offers and videos where you can earn game currency, at least from what I can tell.
Follow Finger - Barely a game, basically just trying to get you to click on ads and offers. I suggest avoiding anything from Nemo Game studios.
Bahri Juice Fresh - This is a trashy drag through to match game that is chock full of ads. You have to complete 31 levels to get paid, and each level has a video on entering and exiting. The difficulty scales pretty quickly and then it wants you to buy coins to keep playing.
- Watching Ads -
Every 30 minutes you can watch a 5-30 second add for 500 bolts. This isn't terrible to do, but can get tedious after a while. There was a recent patch where it seems like you may need to login every time now, though I expect they will fix this soon.
- Special Mention -
* Slots - House of Fun, might pay 547,071 *
A slots game where the task is to get up to level 20. I don't recommend this, as the slots are fairly tight and the free coins you get to play with are only a small amount every few hours. They really want you to purchase coins, and I've been slowly dragging through this for about a month now. I'm up to level 18 of 20, but I expect it to take a few more weeks to knock this out. The app also tends to bloat in size as it downloads new slot games, so it ends up with a fairly large footprint in terms of space. There are some other slots games available, but this really put me off picking up more.
- The End -
If you made it this far, thanks for reading the article! This is my first posting on Steemit, and I thought people on here might find this sort of thing interesting. Let me know what you think, as I hope to write up a few future reviews on applications where you can try to earn cash.