Real places instead of creatures
RLQuest hands you a few outdoor quests every morning, some to real castles and viewpoints, and checks that you got there. For iPhone and Android.
Pokémon GO got a great many people to walk around their neighborhoods staring at a map. Whatever else you think of it, that's a remarkable thing for a phone app to have done. If you're searching for an alternative, it's worth being clear about which part you want to keep.
If it's the creatures, RLQuest is not for you, and this page will say so plainly. If it's the walking, the map and the excuse to go somewhere, read on.
Pokémon GO is a location-based collecting game played on a map of the real world. You walk to find and catch creatures, visit PokéStops, take on Gyms and join Raids with other players. It's free to download with in-app purchases, on iOS and Android. Originally developed by Niantic, it is now published by Scopely Explore, Inc., after Scopely's purchase of Niantic's games business closed in May 2025.
What it does well is turn a walk into a game with other people in it. Its map is dense with things to do, and Raids and Gyms give strangers in the same park a reason to talk to each other. That is still hard to match.
RLQuest is not a monster game. There is nothing to catch, no battles, no trading, no creatures wandering a virtual layer over your street. If that layer is what you love about Pokémon GO, you won't find it here and there's no point pretending otherwise.
RLQuest also has no in-game currency and no loot boxes, so there is nothing to buy that you could otherwise earn. Playing gives you more of the game, not a shortcut through it. For some people that's a relief; for others it removes half the fun. Only you know which.
Every morning RLQuest hands you three to ten quests from a library of more than 2,700, picked to fit your age, interests, the weather, the season and how long you've said you have. Some are walks: cover four kilometers, end up somewhere else, follow the water. Some are photo quests the app checks by looking at the photo. Some are tied to the time of day. And some send you to a real place: a castle, a lighthouse, a viewpoint, an old city gate, drawn from OpenStreetMap, more than 1.5 million of them across Europe and North America. Be the first RLQuest player to complete a quest at one and it's recorded as your first find.
The app checks what it can, the recorded route, the new tiles, your step count, the photo, and tells you when it can't. Every walk fills in a hexagon map of where you've been, which works offline. Progress comes as XP, levels, streaks and 213 achievements across 69 series, and quests carry a rarity from common to legendary.
| Pokémon GO | RLQuest | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A location-based creature-collecting game with a large community | A daily quest app built around real places and a map that fills in |
| How you play | Walk to catch creatures, spin stops, battle at Gyms, join Raids | Get 3 to 10 quests each morning, go and do them, the app checks |
| What it asks of you | Time on the map, ideally with other players nearby | Actually completing the quest: route, photo, steps or clock have to match |
| What's on the map | Creatures, PokéStops and Gyms | Castles, lighthouses, viewpoints and ruins from OpenStreetMap; your uncovered tiles |
| Playing with others | Central: Gyms and Raids are built for it | Mostly solo; first finds are the one place you compete |
| Platforms | iOS, Android | iPhone, Android |
Pokémon GO suits people who want a game first and a walk second, who enjoy collecting and competing, and who like the social side: Raids, Gyms, the shared map. It is, by a wide margin, the more game-like of the two.
RLQuest suits people who liked that Pokémon GO got them outside but never much cared what they were catching, who'd rather visit a real ruin than a virtual gym, and who want a short list of things to do today rather than an endless one. It is free to download for iPhone and Android, and a Premium subscription adds more quests per day.
Prices and the stores' privacy labels are deliberately not compared here; both change and both are best read on the current store pages.
Sources: Pokémon GO on the App Store (US), PocketGamer.biz on Scopely's acquisition of Niantic's games business (as of 2026-09-30)
RLQuest hands you a few outdoor quests every morning, some to real castles and viewpoints, and checks that you got there. For iPhone and Android.