CRYSTAL WARD: build a defence that brings stolen cores home

Protect the journey home

Each core remains recoverable while its carrier is on the map. Defeat that enemy and the core drops; after a brief interval it returns to the sanctuary. Another raider can pick it up before the return starts, so the rescue area still needs protection.

Spread damage along the approach and retreat. A rear tower set to carrier priority is often worth more than another tower firing into an already safe entrance. Recovered cores still count toward a three-star result.

Give every tower a job

Windstring tracks individual targets. Emberforge punishes packed ground enemies, Frostmirror slows or pierces shields, and Stormchime interrupts support casters. A long road favours repeated coverage; a short approach may require immediate burst and control.

At tier III, choose a specialisation rather than buying every ability. Armour shred helps physical towers, slowing keeps enemies in burning ground, and long-range targeting can reach a healer behind its escort. Check the wave-intel panel before committing the last gold.

Change the plan, not only the numbers

Shielded escorts, fast thieves, split-on-death enemies and gliders challenge different parts of a defence. Tactical difficulty changes formation and timing, so a formation that was comfortable on Standard may need a new target priority or a reserved spell.

Three global spells share energy. Use Starfall to break a dangerous group, Binding Field to catch a carrier, and True Sight to expose concealed threats. Save enough energy for a problem your towers cannot solve alone.

After the first clear

• Basic victory opens the next campaign frontier; you do not need three stars everywhere.
• Cleared maps unlock individual contracts, with separate results. Four freely chosen runes change the next defence and include trade-offs.
• Completing the campaign opens seeded survival arenas, with a choice of a boon every four waves. You can save and leave rather than finishing a long session at once.

Progress & backups

Campaign progress, records and the current defence stay in this browser. Refresh and background return pause the battle. Save & settings exports an encrypted JSON backup and previews imports before replacement; another tab must explicitly take over to write. No cloud or offline progression.

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