Sticky Castle Defender

This is a 2D archery defense game. Pull back your bow, aim and release, and stop every attacker before the wall's health runs out.

Headshots kill normal enemies in one hit, pay extra gold and briefly slow down time. Between waves you pick upgrade cards for the current battle, and between battles you spend gold on permanent upgrades for your bow, your walls and a squad of allied archers. The campaign has 30 levels across 3 worlds, and an endless mode lets you see how many waves you can survive.

• 2D stickman archery defense with arcing arrows and a visible aiming line.
• One-hit headshots, Headshot Streaks and slow motion on headshot kills.
• Stickman ragdolls that fly and fall when hit.
• 30 campaign levels in 3 worlds, with a boss at the end of each world.
• Endless mode with a saved best wave.
• 7 enemy types, each requiring a different approach.
• 15 upgrade cards between waves and 9 permanent upgrades.
• Up to 4 allied archers on your tower and walls.
• A castle that grows from wood to stone to a fortress as you upgrade it.
• Arrow Rain special attack.
• Progress saved automatically.
• Works with mouse, touch and keyboard on desktop, phones and tablets.

• Always aim for the head. One headshot does the work of several body hits and pays more gold.
• Shoot the enemy closest to the wall first. Every enemy at the wall keeps damaging it until it dies.
• Keep your Headshot Streak going. Take a moment to aim instead of firing fast and missing.
• Against shield bearers, lob the arrow high so it falls on them from above, or go straight for the head.
• Kick climbers off as soon as they start climbing. Once they reach the top they hit much harder.
• Enemy archers stay far away and never stop shooting. Take them out early with a long, high shot.
• Battering rams cannot be headshot. Focus several shots on them early, or set them on fire with Fire Arrows.
• Save Arrow Rain for big groups, battering rams and bosses rather than single soldiers.
• Release your next shot while the bow is still reloading. It fires the moment the bow is ready.
• Take Masons when your wall is badly damaged. It can save a battle and your stars.
• Split Shot and Piercing are strong against crowds. Fire Arrows and Blast Tips are strong against rams and bosses.
• Pick Bounty early in a long battle to earn more gold from every wave after it.
• If a level is too hard, replay an earlier one for gold and stars, buy upgrades and come back.
• Replay levels for 3 stars. Stars are what unlock Sunset Plains and Frost Peaks.

• Early game: Bow Power and Stone Walls give the biggest improvement for the lowest price. A few levels of Quick Hands make aiming less stressful.
• Middle game: save up for the first allied archer from Archer Squad. Allies aim and shoot on their own and help most when climbers and shield bearers start to appear. Masons keeps your wall healthy across long levels.
• Late game: enemies have several times more health, so keep raising Bow Power. Archer Drill keeps your allies useful, and Eagle Eye and Arrow Storm help against bosses and big waves.
• Endless mode: the further you get, the more permanent upgrades matter. Use Endless as a way to farm gold once the campaign gets tough.

Your castle wall has a health bar in the top left corner. Every enemy that reaches the wall hits it until it is destroyed or the wall falls. A campaign level is won when you clear every wave, and lost when the wall's health reaches zero. The wave counter at the top of the screen shows how many waves are left. The last wave of each level is announced as the Final Wave.

When you win, you get 1 to 3 stars depending on how much of the wall is still standing:

• 3 stars: at least 80% of the wall's health left.
• 2 stars: at least 45% left.
• 1 star: you survived with less than that.

Your archer stands on the edge of the wall. Arrows fly in a real arc and fall under gravity, so distant targets need a higher angle or more power. When you aim steeply down at enemies right below the wall, your archer leans over the edge so the arrows clear the battlements.

After every shot the bow needs a moment to reload. A small circle above your archer shows the reload progress. If you release while the bow is still reloading, the shot is not lost: the arrow fires as soon as the bow is ready, with the aim you released.

Headshots are the most important skill in the game:

• A headshot kills any normal enemy in one hit, no matter how much health it has.
• Battering rams and bosses cannot be killed instantly, but headshots deal triple damage to bosses.
• Every headshot kill pays 50% more gold.
• Consecutive headshots build a Headshot Streak. Each headshot in the streak adds 10% more gold, up to +50%. A body hit or a missed arrow ends the streak.
• A headshot kill briefly slows down time, which gives you a moment to line up the next shot.

Campaign. 30 levels across 3 worlds, each with its own look: Green Valley in daylight, Sunset Plains under an orange evening sky and Frost Peaks at night in falling snow. Levels unlock one by one. A level has 3 to 8 waves, and later levels have more. The 10th level of every world is a boss fight. To enter a new world you need to beat the last level of the previous one and collect enough stars:

• Sunset Plains: 18 stars.
• Frost Peaks: 45 stars.

Endless. Unlocks after you complete level 1-5. Waves never stop and every wave is stronger than the one before. Every 10th wave brings a boss, and the world changes every 10 waves. Your best wave is saved and shown in the main menu.

New enemy types appear gradually. The first time you meet one, a banner introduces it and the wave includes a few of them so you can learn how they work.

• Soldier: the basic attacker with a sword. Walks to the wall and keeps hitting it.
• Runner: wears a red headband and moves about twice as fast as a soldier, but has less health. Shoot runners early, before they reach the wall.
• Shield Bearer: slow and tough, with twice a soldier's health. His shield blocks arrows that fly in flat. Arrows falling steeply from above get past the shield, and the head is always exposed.
• Climber: carries a ladder, leans it against your wall and climbs up. On top of the wall he deals 50% more damage. Click or tap him to kick him off, either on the ladder or on top of the wall.
• Archer: stops far away from the castle and shoots arrows at your wall. He never comes closer, so you have to go after him.
• Battering Ram: a log carried by three soldiers. It has a lot of health, moves slowly and hits the wall very hard. It has no head to aim for, so only raw damage and fire work against it.
• Warlord: a giant boss with a horned helmet and a club. Every hit he lands shakes the screen. Headshots deal triple damage to him.

Soldiers and runners appear from the first levels. Shield bearers, climbers and archers join during Green Valley, battering rams arrive in Sunset Plains, and a Warlord waits at the end of every world.

Difficulty is tied to the level you play, not to how many upgrades you buy, so every upgrade really makes you stronger.

• Enemy health: grows by 14% with every campaign level, so enemies in the last level have about 5 times the health of the first. Within a level, each wave adds another 4%.
• Enemy damage: grows by 7% with every level.
• Number of enemies: grows from 4 in the first wave of level 1 up to 32 in a single wave, and every wave in a level adds 2 more.
• Spawn speed: enemies arrive closer together in later levels and later waves, and sometimes in groups.
• Waves per level: rise from 3 to 8.
• Enemy mix: more types appear, and later waves combine them.
• Bosses: the Warlord gets 50% more health in each new world.
• Endless mode: enemy health grows by 9% and damage by 4% with every wave. Waves grow up to 45 enemies, and each boss is stronger than the last.

After every cleared wave you choose one of three random cards. Cards last until the end of the current battle, so every run plays a little differently. Cards come in three rarities: Common (grey), Rare (blue) and Epic (purple). Most cards can be picked more than once to stack their effect, and the card shows its current level.

• Sharp Tips (Common): +25% arrow damage. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Quick Draw (Common): reload 15% faster. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Masons (Common): repairs 30% of your wall immediately. Appears more often when your wall is below half health.
• Fortify (Common): +25% maximum wall health, and the extra health is added right away. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Bounty (Common): +30% gold for this battle. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Heavy Bow (Common): +15% arrow speed and +10% damage. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Split Shot (Rare): fire one extra arrow with every shot, in a slight spread. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Piercing (Rare): arrows pass through one more enemy. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Fire Arrows (Rare): hits set enemies on fire for 3 seconds of extra damage. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Frost Arrows (Rare): hits slow enemies to half speed. Stacks up to 3 times for a longer slow.
• Wall Spikes (Rare): enemies take damage every time they hit your wall. Stacks up to 3 times.
• War Drums (Rare): allied archers shoot 40% faster. Only offered once you own allied archers.
• Storm Call (Rare): Arrow Rain recharges 30% faster.
• Headhunter (Epic): every headshot kill repairs 2% of your wall and gives 50% more gold.
• Blast Tips (Epic): arrows explode on impact and damage nearby enemies.

Gold you collect in battle is saved and spent in the Upgrades menu. These upgrades stay forever. Each level costs more than the one before, so you have to choose what to improve first. A red badge on the Upgrades button shows how many upgrades you can afford right now.

• Bow Power (25 levels): +15% arrow damage per level.
• Quick Hands (15 levels): faster reload with every level.
• Stone Walls (25 levels): more wall health, starting at 100 and adding 35 per level. Your castle also changes as you upgrade: a wooden palisade becomes a stone castle with torches at level 5 and a fortress with banners at level 12.
• Masons (10 levels): repairs 4% of your wall per level after every cleared wave.
• Archer Squad (4 levels): adds allied archers who aim and shoot on their own. The first two stand on the tower, the next two on the wall. This is the most expensive upgrade, starting at 800 gold.
• Archer Drill (15 levels): allied archers deal 12% more damage and shoot 12% faster per level.
• Eagle Eye (10 levels): +3% chance per level that your arrow lands a critical hit for double damage.
• Arrow Storm (10 levels): Arrow Rain fires more arrows (20 at the start, +4 per level) and recharges faster.
• Treasury (10 levels): +10% gold per level.

Arrow Rain is a special attack that sends a volley of arrows down from the sky over the battlefield. Most of the arrows fall on top of the enemies that are currently on the field. After you use it, the button shows a countdown until it is ready again. It starts with 20 arrows and a 28 second recharge, and both improve with the Arrow Storm upgrade and the Storm Call card.

• Every enemy drops gold. Tougher enemies drop more, and gold rewards grow in later levels.
• Headshot kills pay 50% more, and a Headshot Streak adds up to another 50%.
• Perfect Wave: clear a wave without your wall taking any damage for a bonus.
• Clear bonus: winning a level pays a bonus that grows with the level and with your stars. The first time you clear a level, the bonus is doubled.
• If you lose a campaign level, you still keep 60% of the gold you collected.
• In Endless mode you keep all the gold you collected, plus a bonus for every wave you reached.