Victory: Keep the castle alive through nine waves. You lose when its HP reaches zero.
Movement: Use WASD, arrow keys or click empty ground. Your hero automatically fires at nearby enemies and has no health or respawn penalty.
Hero training: Use the HERO TRAINING panel during planning or combat. Each purchase raises your level and grants either +8 damage or +30 range. The four upgrades cost 40G, 65G, 90G and 115G. Choose any combination, up to level 5. Choices persist across waves and reset on restart. The circle around your hero shows the current attack range. Upgrades affect newly fired bolts; shots already in flight retain their original damage.
Construction: Select any of the nine A1–C3 plots to build a barracks, archer tower or cannon. Select a building to view its stats and upgrade it to level 3. Building, upgrading and repairs are available during combat too.
Barricades: Select G1–G3 to block a junction for 30G between waves. Removing a barricade gives no refund. Every entrance must retain a route to the keep. Arrows preview the changed routes.
Barracks: Allies travel backward along their assigned entrance route. Troop HP is 14 / 20 / 40 and each clash deals 6 / 8 / 10 damage, then briefly stops that enemy. A trooper falls when their HP runs out; the dying rank also checks the enemies just behind them. Late-game elites still cut down level 1 and 2 troopers in one blow. A level-3 trooper survives the first elite blow and falls on the second. Troops do not accumulate between waves.
Projectiles & movement: Hero bolts and tower arrows have travel speed and gravity. Shots lead moving targets and only deal damage on contact, so they can miss. Cannon shells follow an arc and explode on landing. All six mobile unit types have eight-frame movement animations. Reduced effects decrease smoke and shake without changing the rules.
Armor: Tanks resist 20% damage; Warlords resist 50%. Cannons penetrate 65% of armor; allied collisions penetrate 50%. Actual damage = base damage × [1 − armor × (1 − penetration)].
Supplies: The first drop appears after 22 seconds of combat, then every 20–35 seconds. Move close within 12 seconds to collect 25–45G. Gold carries between waves. There is no passive income.
Pause: Press P or use the button. Leaving the window or opening a guide pauses the game. Resume manually after closing a guide. Start the next wave when ready.
Escalation: Waves 1–3 stay on lightly armored troops so you can learn hero training and what each building does. Waves 4–6 add tougher HP and attack, ask you to fold roads with barricades, then introduce tanks and the first Warlord. Waves 7–9 raise HP and attack again: one Warlord, then two, then three. Upgraded towers are meant to hold this last stretch.
