LONGTHROWWAVE DEFENCE FROM ONE TOWER

A bomb takes two
seconds to get there.

Hold the centre tower of three and throw cooked bombs at things walking for the thing you are protecting. The bomb is slow. They do not wait. Throw where they will be.

A bomb arcing out over open grass, the ground reticle on the field with a group of walkers beside it rather than on it

THE RETICLE IS ON THE GRASS. THE GROUP IS NOT STANDING ON IT.

THE WHOLE SKILL

Throw where they will be.

Hold the button and take as long as you like — nothing about lining a shot up is timed. But the bomb is in the air for up to 2 seconds, the blast is only 2.6 metres across, and a walker covers over 4 metres while it flies. Throw at where something is standing and you miss it at every range. Throw at where it is going and you don’t.

AND THE RETICLE NEVER LIES

The arc you see while aiming and the bomb that actually flies are the same solver at the same time step, and bombs go off on contact — so the blast happens exactly where the ring is drawn. When you miss, you missed. Nothing in this game is a coin flip.

TWO THINGS TO THROW

One magazine, two answers.

The bomb

One round, one tight blast 2.6 metres across, the shortest flight in the game. It goes off on contact, so it detonates exactly where the ring was drawn. Costs one pip of a shared magazine.

The lead is the whole of it. There is nothing else to learn and it never stops mattering.

The canister

A violet shell that cracks open ten metres up and lays nine bursts down in a solid disc four metres wide. Twice the footprint of a bomb, twice the magazine, and half again the flight — a harder lead for a wider answer.

You can carry one of each and never two canisters. So you hold it, and you watch for three of them to line up.

HOW TO READ IT

Colour is grammar out here.

Every colour in this game means exactly one thing and never means anything else. That is why a field with forty things on it stays readable at arm’s length.

AMBER
Yours to throw. Ammo pips, the reload sweep, the fire button, and the arc itself. Nothing you do not control is this colour.
CYAN
You. Your health bar, and the sigil painted on the back of your own shell so you can find yourself on a crowded deck.
RED
Harm, incoming and loss. A shot in the air, a bar draining, a run ending.
GREEN
The objective — the thing in the grass you are standing on a tower to protect. It is the only green on the field.

SIX FRAMES

A bomb arcing out over open grass, the ground reticle on the field with a group of walkers beside it rather than on it
01 — THE BOMB TAKES TWO SECONDS. THROW WHERE THEY'LL BE.
A violet canister's nine bursts going off together across a disc of grass
02 — OR CRACK A CANISTER OPEN AND ANSWER NINE AT ONCE.
Five pale husks walking in a staggered rank with the dark line of a wave behind them
03 — SOME OF THEM TAKE THREE BOMBS AND DO NOT SLOW DOWN.
The armoury screen showing BOMB at MK III with its mark ladder and two buy rows
04 — EVERY RUN PAYS. SALVAGE BUYS THE NEXT MARK OF THE SHELL.
The OBJECTIVE HELD card, graded on remaining objective health, with kills per bomb
05 — HOLD IT, AND THE GRADE IS WHATEVER YOU HAD LEFT.
The wide establishing view: three towers on a green field against a treeline
06 — THREE TOWERS, ONE TREELINE, AND WHATEVER WALKS OUT OF IT.

IT KEEPS SCORE HONESTLY

There is a number, and it is the real one.

KILLS PER BOMB

0.46NEVER LEADING
0.73PERFECT LEAD
0.61

Not stars, and not a percentage of nothing. The end card reports the real number — the same one this game’s own test bots are measured against. A bot that throws at where things are standing scores about 0.46. A bot that solves the intercept perfectly scores about 0.73. You will find out where you sit.

STRAIGHT ANSWERS

Is this tower defense?

No, and it is worth saying plainly because the tower in the name suggests otherwise. You do not place anything, build anything or plan a layout. You are standing on a tower with a real-time aiming and dodging problem: bombs in one hand, a movement stick under the other thumb, and things walking at the thing you are protecting.

Is aiming timed?

No. Hold the button and take as long as you like — nothing about lining a shot up is under a clock. The FLIGHT is the clock. The bomb is in the air for up to two seconds and a walker covers more than four metres while it flies, so the pressure is entirely in what happens after you let go.

Does the arc lie to me?

It cannot. The arc you see while aiming and the bomb that actually flies are the same solver at the same time step, and bombs go off on contact — so the blast happens exactly where the ring is drawn. When you miss, you missed. Nothing in this game is a coin flip.

What happens when I lose?

You get paid. Every run banks salvage, win or lose — more for clearing more, more again for holding on — and it is spent in the armoury on heavier charges and faster hands. The upgrade is not a number in a menu either: the shell in your hand visibly changes, mark by mark.

Is there an end?

Hold the seven-wave assault and a nine-wave siege unlocks. Hold that and there is an eleven. Above all of them sits an endless one with no win condition at all — only a record.

Does it need a connection?

No. There are no accounts and no sign-in, and the game plays fully offline. Anonymous analytics are optional and there is a switch for them in settings.

Why does the explosion arrive late?

Because sound takes time to cross a field. Your bomb goes off forty metres away and you see it before you hear it. That is not a flourish — it is the game teaching you distance through your ears, and it is why this one is worth playing with the sound on.