Mossguard A free lane defense game with a merge twist
Roll little garden robots into five lanes and merge them into gold to stop the jelly slimes reaching your shed.
About Mossguard
Mossguard is a cosy lane defence game with a merge twist. Wobbly jelly slimes are sliding down five garden lanes toward your little wooden shed, and the only thing in their way is your crew of tin garden robots. Tap the dewdrops that fall from the sky, spend them on robots, and roll each one onto a tile of the garden. Sprinklers squirt the first slime in their lane, Dew Pumps make more dewdrops, Shell Walls soak up bites, Magnets slow slimes down, Spore Pods puff clouds that hit everything nearby, Bolt Coils zap straight through armour and Gust Fans blow whole lines of slimes back up the lane.
The twist is merging. Drop a robot onto an identical one and the two become a single robot one level up, with a shinier new look and far more power: a level 2 robot is worth almost two and a half of the robots that made it, and a gold level 3 is worth five and a half. Merging also frees a tile and fully repairs the robot, so every lane becomes a small merge puzzle. Do you spread out to cover more lanes, or stack up a golden sprinkler where the pressure is worst?
There are 40 levels across four gardens: Meadow Patch, Rainy Orchard, Moon Greenhouse and Ember Hedge. Each level unlocks a new robot or upgrades one you already have, and each garden ends with a Jelly King boss that sheds blobs as it rolls. New slimes only arrive after you have the robot that answers them: Hoppers jump the first robot they meet, Splitters burst into two droplets, and Pot-heads wear an armoured cooking pot. Before every level you pick six robots for your loadout, with a suggested pick ready if you just want to play. Your shed has three hearts, and every heart you keep is a star. Levels take two to four minutes, your progress saves automatically, and a speed button lets you fast-forward when your garden is under control.
Tips
- Build two or three Dew Pumps in the back row early; they pay for themselves within a minute.
- Merging beats spreading out in a busy lane: a level 2 Sprinkler is worth almost two and a half level 1s.
- Put Magnets in front of your Sprinklers so Hoppers are slowed before they can jump.
- Save up for a Bolt Coil when Pot-heads arrive; other robots only scratch their armour at half strength.
- A Shell Wall in the front rows buys your shooters time to finish off big waves.
How to play
Tap a falling dewdrop to collect it. Tap a robot card at the bottom, then tap a garden tile to place that robot (or drag the card onto the tile). Slimes come down the lanes from the top; robots only defend their own lane, so match each lane's threat. To merge, drop a card onto an identical level 1 robot, or tap a robot on the board and then tap an identical one (or drag one onto the other). On a keyboard, press 1 to 6 to pick a card, move the cursor with the arrow keys or WASD, press Space or Enter to place, C to collect all dewdrops, X to cancel and F to change speed. P or Esc pauses and M mutes.
Controls and devices
- Controls: Touch, Mouse, Keyboard
- Works on: phones, tablets and computers
- Screen: portrait orientation
- Price: free, no download or sign-up
FAQ
- How do I merge robots?
- Two robots of the same type and the same level merge into one robot a level higher. Drop a card onto a matching level 1 robot, or drag one robot on the board onto its twin. Level 3 is the gold maximum.
- What happens if a slime reaches the shed?
- Your shed loses a heart (the Jelly King takes all three). You keep playing while you have a heart left, and the hearts you keep at the end are your stars for the level.
- Which robots should I take into a level?
- The loadout screen suggests six robots for every level, including the robot that counters each new slime type in it. You can swap any of them before you start.
- Does my progress save?
- Yes. Your cleared levels, stars, upgrades and settings save on this device, and to your account when you are signed in.
- Is it hard?
- The first garden is gentle and teaches every robot one at a time. Later gardens mix every slime type, so good merges and the right counters matter. A losing level can be retried at once, with an optional head start.
Credits
- Game design, code, art direction and sound: Playora Games
- Game framework: Phaser (MIT)