TIDEGUARD: ARCHIPELAGO DEFENSE
Your first defense
Play as a guest. All twenty maps and ten heroes are open during the current playtest. Choose the map, difficulty and hero before starting. New campaign runs have fifteen waves; the three Chapter One stages have six waves each.
Build with a drag
On a phone, tap an empty + site and a tower card to preview its range and remaining gold. Select Build here to begin 1.1-second construction. You can also drag a card onto the site. Six core towers and two regional towers are available in each current full campaign. Selecting a site alone spends nothing.
Select a completed tower to find Upgrade, Sell and Relocate. Level-three core towers can choose a specialization. Regional towers can reach level three with balanced upgrades. Selling completed towers asks for confirmation; unfinished construction refunds its full cost.
Plan the next wave
Open Wave plan during preparation. It shows enemy counts, threats and a two-tower opening suggestion with its cost. Previewing a suggestion is free; drag to build. The opening clock is sixty seconds. Regular preparation lasts forty, thirty-five or thirty seconds on Standard, Veteran or Nightmare. The boss preparation lasts sixty seconds.
Send wave starts immediately, or the countdown starts it automatically. From wave two, an early manual launch gives one gold for each five seconds left, capped at four. Pause freezes preparation and combat.
On landscape phones, the countdown and launch action stay at the bottom of the right panel while you choose and inspect towers. Skill cooldown completion, gold changes and target locks have brief visual feedback.
Aim and cast
Tap an enemy to mark it for towers in range. Tap a skill, then tap the target to cast immediately. Hold and move on the map to aim, then release to cast. You can also drag a skill button onto the map. Drag outside the map or use Cancel aim to leave without spending.
On a landscape phone, the dashed route shows where a boss is expected to be when your attack lands, including a charge it is winding up. Tap Lead the boss to move an out-of-range aim, then tap the map or release a drag to cast.
The active skill uses its displayed cooldown or charges. Each hero also has a different gold skill. After 12 combat seconds, you can cast it again if you have enough gold. The button shows the price and time left, or the amount of gold you still need. With sound enabled, a short cue plays when the skill becomes available again. The large character entrance gathers a hero-specific aura and sends an energy trail toward the aimed battlefield effect. The portrait moves aside before impact so the target stays visible.
On landscape phones, the boss charge bar marks the last point to interrupt. When its shield breaks, a short countdown shows how long the focus prompt stays available. Use Focus boss to mark it. Only towers in range can fire at it.
Keep the phone battlefield clear
Use Hide interface to clear the command panels and Show interface to bring them back. Tap an empty site or a built tower to open its actions. Fullscreen requests landscape where supported; compatibility landscape rotates the view when the browser cannot rotate the device. On iPhone, browser controls may remain.
Hear the action
Use More → Sound to enable or mute audio. Each hero has separate charge, release, impact and recovery cues; gold skills have their own sounds. Spell sounds take priority over tower fire. Pause and leaving the game stop combat audio.
Leave and continue later
Campaign checkpoints stay in this browser. The continue dialog has a close button and Play later; neither deletes the checkpoint. Restoring begins paused and replays an interrupted wave. Old checkpoints keep their original twelve-wave rules and route.
Learn from each wave
At the end of a wave or run, review escaped enemies, damage and skill use. Result actions let you retry, change your map or return home. You can inspect the wave plan again before committing more gold.
Keyboard shortcuts
1–6: core towers; 7–8: regional towers. T: active skill; X: gold item; G: road snare; U: upgrade; M: relocate; R: cycle targets; Space: pause; F: fullscreen; Escape: cancel aim.