Hearts: No Ads

The grown-up Hearts app. Free to play, with one $0.99 unlock and fair AI. No ads, no subscriptions, no accounts. Works offline - even on a plane.

WHY THE NAME

Open the App Store, search for Hearts, and watch the screenshots blur into the same pile of rainbow gradients, sparkle effects, and "REMOVE ADS - $9.99" upsell wheels. The name says it: this one isn't that. No ads, ever. The single $0.99 unlock removes the per-game coin cost forever; that is the entire monetization.

WHAT MAKES THE AI FAIR

• Four AI difficulty tiers - Easy, Normal, and Hard all play fair. They see exactly what you see: the played tricks, the current trick, their own hand. No peeking at hidden hands, no stacked deals, no rubber-banding.

• "Cheater" mode is the fourth tier - and it is an opt-in, not the default. It literally looks at your hand and plays optimally against it. It is how plenty of other Hearts apps play all the time. Here, you decide.

• Symmetric shoot-the-moon. If the AI would attempt it, you can too - and vice versa. The AI never silently blocks a moon shot it would try for itself.

• Hint button anytime. Tap it to see which card the Hard AI would play in your position, with a one-line reason. Hints cost 10 coins each - meaningful but cheap.

• Undo your last card on your own turn, before any opponent play changes hidden information.

HOW THE COIN SYSTEM WORKS

• Start with 500 coins. Each new game costs 50.
• Wins pay back 100 coins. Shoot the moon for 200.
• Get 50 free coins every day, automatically - no daily-bonus modal to dismiss.
• One $0.99 unlock removes the per-game cost forever. Coins keep accumulating after you buy it; they just stop gating play.

That is the entire monetization. No coin packs, no boosters, no "watch an ad to play another hand." A single optional unlock and the daily refresh.

CORE GAMEPLAY

• Standard Hearts and Omnibus (Jack of Diamonds = −10) rule variants.
• Pass rotation: Left → Right → Across → Keep, plus a No-pass toggle.
• Configurable game length: 50 (default), 100, or 150 points.
• Autosave after every card - resume your game after a phone call, a force-quit, or a relaunch. No lost hands.

PRESENTATION

• Seventeen card backs, clean green felt.
• Universal binary for iPhone and iPad. Portrait and landscape. Not a stretched phone UI.
• Dark mode supported.
• Random animal-emoji opponent avatars - different cast every match.
• Haptic feedback on iPhone.

WHAT THIS APP IS NOT

• Not ad-supported. No ads, ever.
• Not subscription-based. No recurring charges.
• No coin packs, no boosters, no second-tier monetization. The Unlimited Play unlock is the only purchase.
• No accounts, no sign-in, no Apple ID prompts, no iCloud prompts, no analytics opt-in modals.
• No multiplayer, no servers. Just you versus three AI opponents.

Free to download. Optional $0.99 unlock removes the 50-coin per-game cost. Family Sharing enabled - one purchase covers the household.