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Guide

The Crystal Plague is attacking: since the impact, the Scar has split the land – a bottomless crystal chasm. Above it, the Atlas holds the wound together; if it falls, the Scar tears open. The heart of the plague drives its power underground and bursts out in geodes, from which bigger, tougher crystal creatures crawl wave after wave. Build towers, sandbags and barbed wire, reroute them and hold the Atlas – alone or as a team.

Basics

The game view: lives, gold, radio and the current wave at the top, orders and the build bar at the bottom.
The game view: lives, gold, radio and the current wave at the top, orders and the build bar at the bottom.

Power & Power Pylons

Extends the power area: towers and Electric Fences only work there. The Atlas itself powers 8 tiles around it.

Pylons extend the power area – while building, the preview shows which tiles get newly powered.
Pylons extend the power area – while building, the preview shows which tiles get newly powered.

Sandbags, wire, oil & power

Rows of sandbags in front of the Atlas, barbed wire and oil in the gap, electric fences and flamethrowers beside it.
Rows of sandbags in front of the Atlas, barbed wire and oil in the gap, electric fences and flamethrowers beside it.

Sandbag 10 gold

Blocks open tiles – use it to reroute enemies. The path must never be fully blocked.

Barbed Wire 30 gold

Slows ground enemies and wounds them. Never wears out. Open ground only – not on sand.

Oil 40 gold

Accelerant: doesn't slow, but makes fire devastating. Open ground only – not on sand.

Electric Fence 90 gold

Electric shock: brief standstill (no damage), the bolt jumps to neighbors. Open ground only – not on sand.

Terrain

Water puddles (blue) and oil fields (black) are fixed parts of the map.
Water puddles (blue) and oil fields (black) are fixed parts of the map.

Puddle

Natural terrain. Enemies walk through normally – but water conducts electricity.

Oil Field

Natural terrain. Enemies walk through normally and get oiled.

Crystal ground, splinters & crystal weapons

Crystal weapons on the violet crystal ground at the edge of the Scar.
Crystal weapons on the violet crystal ground at the edge of the Scar.

Crystal ground lies along the Scar, around the geodes and at crystal spires. You can build anything there (except in the geodes' exclusion zone). Towers on it show a purple glowing rim at their base. Ground enemies on crystal ground are armored: 20 % less damage (not against crystal weapons) – route paths over crystal or over grass? Enemies that fall on crystal ground also drop splinters (10 % of their kill gold); kills by a crystal weapon give another 10 % anywhere. With splinters, a specialized tower on crystal ground becomes a crystal weapon: 1.8× damage, crystal skin and crystal armor have no effect, plus its own effect per tower type. Every further crystal weapon you pay for yourself costs you 10 % more – your teammates' crystal weapons don't raise your price.

Waves, Bosses & Special Waves

A boss wave with flyers advances on the Atlas from every gate.
A boss wave with flyers advances on the Atlas from every gate.

Every 10th wave is a boss wave; exactly halfway between (5, then every 10 waves) comes a special wave with its own rule. The game never ends – waves keep getting bigger and tougher.

Special waveTypeEffect
Air RaidPure waveFlyers only (Mica) – ground elements have no effect.
Sprinter FloodPure waveNeedle only: they sprint every 4 s at 250% speed.
Armored ColumnPure waveArmored crystals only (Garnet and Quartz).
Mirror RampartPure waveCrystal skin only (Mirror and Bulwark): only 20 or 30% area damage.
Shard RainPure waveAgate only: each shatters into 3 × Shard on death.
Shield WedgeFormationTight groups, one per gate: Garnet and Quartz up front, shields (Diamond) behind, healers (Healstone) at the rear.
Medic ConvoyFormationColumns of 4 × Pyrite or Garnet with a healer (Healstone) right behind.
Air CoverFormationGround columns with flying Mica right above them.
Storm AssaultSpecial ruleAll enemies in this wave move at 130% speed.
BreakthroughSpecial ruleThe entire wave comes through a single gate (the front).
Reinforced ShieldsSpecial ruleTwice as many shield bearers (Diamond); their shields block 60% instead of 40% of area damage.
Field HospitalSpecial ruleTwice as many healers (Healstone), and each counts double: 16% instead of 8% of max HP per heal pulse (cap as usual at 24%).
Dense WaveSpecial ruleAll enemies arrive in 50% of the usual time.

Orders & Radio

Two orders as zones in front of the defenses: the blue one slows enemies, in the red one they take more damage.
Two orders as zones in front of the defenses: the blue one slows enemies, in the red one they take more damage.

Charged by kills and combo hits (for the whole team up to 36 per minute, unused cap stores up to 60) and +80 per boss defeated.

Electroshock 80 radio · [Z]

Power surge across the whole field: all enemies freeze for 4 s (bosses shorter). Burning and all other effects keep running.

Target Marking 60 radio · [X]

Marks a zone: enemies in it take 50 % more damage from everything – for 2 s after leaving it.

Smoke/EMP Field 50 radio · [C]

Enemies in the zone move at only 40% speed; shields and healing don't work inside it.

Supply Drop 70 radio · [V]

Towers in the zone fire 100% faster and don't overheat.

Atlas Upgrades

Upgrades are paid for together: anyone can pay any amount into the fund. Once it's full, the level takes effect immediately. Gold paid in stays in the fund.

The Atlas window: every upgrade with its levels, paid for together in partial amounts.
The Atlas window: every upgrade with its levels, paid for together in partial amounts.

Substation 300 gold · 600 gold · 1,200 gold · 2,500 gold · 5,000 gold · 10,000 gold

+3 pylons per level – more area to build on.

Atlas Guns 60 gold · 100 gold · 200 gold · 1,500 gold · 4,000 gold · 10,000 gold · 25,000 gold

From the start one MG in each of the Atlas's two gateways (10 shots/s, ground and air, targets whoever is closest to the Atlas first, overheats under sustained fire). From level 5 they become autocannons: armor piercing (AP), each level 2.2 times the damage. Level 8: crystal laser – a continuous beam without overheating hits every enemy on its line (up to 12) for 2,500 damage per second plus 10% of their full HP (bosses 2%), armor doesn't count. Range per level: 4.5 / 4.95 / 5.45 / 5.45 / 6.2 / 6.95 / 7.7 / 8.45 tiles.

Armored Gate 400 gold · 1,000 gold · 2,500 gold · 6,000 gold · 15,000 gold

+5 max lives per level (filled immediately). From level two the workshop repairs the gate after every wave without lost lives: 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 lives.

Searchlight 600 gold · 2,000 gold · 7,000 gold · 20,000 gold

Lights up a circle around the Atlas (radius 7 / 9 / 11 / 13 tiles per level; the searchlights on the pylons sweep across both banks). These tiles count as observed for the artillery, and enemies on them take +10 / 20 / 30 / 40% damage from all towers.

Command Center 800 gold · 2,500 gold · 8,000 gold

Orders last longer (125 / 150 / 175%) and recharge faster (85 / 70 / 55% cooldown); radio cap per minute 125 / 150 / 175%, radio maximum +50 / 100 / 150.

Protocol Zero 50,000 gold

A nuke beneath the Atlas. If lives drop to zero, it detonates instead of Game Over: all enemies within 28 tiles die (no gold/radio), bosses lose 50% of their full HP (a remainder stays). Afterwards lives are refilled to 50%; all upgrades and towers remain, and every further bomb costs 3 times as much as the previous one.

Co-op

How playing together works – invites, shared gold, pausing, being away: Co-op Tower Defense with Friends.

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Atlas Defense: co-op and controls

Create a room and share its eight-character code. Up to four players build on one authoritative map with separate wallets. The room creator can remove teammates. Chat opens with Enter or a click. On desktop it stays transparent and can be dragged. Teammates have small colored cursors; team markers last eight seconds.

Double-click an owned tower to select all owned towers of that type and level. Upgrade, specialize, change priorities or sell the selection together. Specialization shows total gold and the amount missing. On touch devices, choose a building and position, then confirm. The lower Build, Orders and More tabs can be collapsed.

Atlas, pylons and bridges

Pylon range comes first in the Atlas menu; Protocol Zero is last. Each pylon range level adds 3% of its original six-tile range, up to ten levels. Existing pylons and connections update immediately. The Atlas power radius remains eight tiles. The pylon limit starts at six and increases by three every 25 waves. Each pylon costs 100 gold.

A defence bridge costs 10,000 gold with shared funding. Choose a valid position on the crystal scar and north or south as the defence side. Ground enemies cross to that side; flying enemies are unaffected. A faint planning preview appears before building. Demolition gives no refund and waits for enemies to leave safely.

Difficulty, waves and gold help

Choose before starting: Relaxed (80% enemy HP), Standard (100%), Hard (125% and 15% extra combat/wave gold), or Ultra (150%, no extra gold). Relaxed and Standard use original Atlas prices; Hard and Ultra keep increased prices. Difficulty is locked during play and leaderboards have separate filters.

Every 25th wave adds another 15% HP. Clearing a milestone awards 250 gold per active player and repairs up to 10% of maximum Atlas health, rounded up. The reward is paid once. Hard's bonus does not multiply starting gold, transfers, refunds, casino wins or fixed milestone rewards.

Each connected player approves 0–25 early waves. The lowest approval applies; up to 25 waves may be active. Gold help transfers 50, 100, 250 or 500 gold to an active teammate without fees. Restart and quit need approval from all connected teammates.

Planning, daily maps and the crystal slot machine

The optional daily map uses the current date in Europe/Berlin as DDMMYYYY (13 October 2026: 13102026). Random maps and manual seeds remain available. Running maps never change at midnight. The wave preview highlights flying enemies, armor and swarms. The tower overview shows counts, levels, specializations, damage, kills and investment.

The crystal slot machine can run in a compact background window while you build. Automatic paid spins must be explicitly enabled and can be stopped. Free spins continue in the background. FPS appears at the upper left.

Rooms and chat stay in server memory and end on server restart. Game saves are disabled. Server leaderboards persist separately.

Compact controls

Click the Atlas in the center to open its upgrades. Wave approval is in the top bar; Space starts or calls waves early with the existing team approval. The lower action bar contains Bridge, Mark, Tower overview and Crystals & radio. Gold help and Leave room are in the co-op settings.

Crystal weapons, shards and radio

Build an owned tower on crystal ground, upgrade it to level 3 and choose a specialization (J/K). Then select Crystal upgrade in the tower menu or press L. Pay with shards. Each additional owned crystal weapon increases the price by 10% of the base cost.

Kills on crystal ground or in a Resonator field add shards worth 10% of the kill reward. Crystal weapon kills add another 10%. Fractions accumulate; active teammates share whole units.

Radio: kills contribute 0.25 and combos 0.1, limited by a shared budget. The budget refills at 36 radio per simulation minute and stores 60; waiting alone does not credit radio. Bosses grant 80 extra radio. The base player limit is 600. The Atlas radio upgrade increases capacity and budget. Radio pays for support orders, which also have cooldowns.

Solo: north only or both sides

Choose your solo defence sides before starting. North only routes future spawns through northern entries. Enemy count, HP and rewards stay the same. With two connected players both sides are enabled. If only one remains connected, the chosen solo rule applies to enemies that have not spawned yet. Living enemies are never moved.

Text chat, emojis and voice chat

In co-op, press Enter or click the room chat. Use ☺ to insert an emoji at the cursor and send it with your message. On desktop, chat stays visible with a transparent background and can be dragged by its title; on mobile, you can collapse it.

Each participant clicks “Join voice” and grants microphone permission to speak. “Mute” switches off your microphone; the volume slider controls the other voices. The participant list shows who joined, is muted or connected. If your browser blocks playback, click “Enable audio playback”.

Voice is optional and limited to participants in the same room. The microphone stops when you leave voice, leave the room or lose the game-server connection. After reconnecting, join voice again. There is no recording. Use the HTTPS game address and preferably headphones. If voices do not connect despite microphone permission, the operator may need to configure a TURN server.