Keepline guide: how to play, rules and tips

1. Press Play. Your first battle is a short lesson: the game shows you each move as you go.
2. Drag a line from one of your towers (the lime banners) to another tower in reach. Your soldiers start marching along it, one after another, until you cut it.
3. Every soldier that reaches an empty or enemy tower knocks one soldier off it. At 0 the tower raises your banner.
4. Soldiers that reach one of your own towers walk in as help, so you can feed the front from behind.
5. Swipe across a line to cut it. Soldiers already on the way keep walking.
6. Your towers grow new soldiers by themselves. Empty towers never grow, so take the cheap ones first.
7. Take every tower on the map to win the battle, and the next level opens.

• Levels at 15, 35 and 60. A tower levels up as its soldiers grow. Each level grows faster, marches faster and adds a line it can send on: one line at level 1, two at level 2, three at level 3. The dots under a tower's number show its lines.
• FULL at 60. A full tower passes every soldier that marches in straight on along its lines, together with everything it makes. Chains of full towers carry an army across the map.
• A level you reach is yours. At level 1 a tower always keeps a guard of 5 at home (the shield). Once it reaches a level, your own lines never take it below that level's line. Only enemy soldiers can knock it down.
• Knocked down a level? Its newest extra line pauses (drawn dashed) until the tower refills. Draw one line too many and its oldest line makes room.
• Pincer. Hit one tower from two of your towers at the same time and every soldier counts twice. Crossed swords on the tower show it is working.
• Under siege. A tower that enemy soldiers are hitting stops growing until the attack ends.
• Head-on lines cancel. When two tribes stream at each other between the same two towers, the soldiers meet in the middle and knock each other out one for one.
• Reach. A line only goes to a tower close enough, and never through another tower.
• Ending early. A tribe that holds most of the map with far more soldiers than everyone else wins at once. After 6 minutes, the tribe with the most towers wins.

• Open meadow: nothing in the way. Every tower near you is in reach.
• Rivers: lines cross only at the plank fords. Hold the towers next to the fords and you hold the river.
• Ridges: lines cannot climb a ridge. Find the gaps before your rivals do.
• Lakes: lines go around the water, never across it, so the far shore can be a long way off.
• Ridges and a frozen lake: Frostkeep has both, and the ways through are few.

New tower types turn up along the journey. They all start empty: take one to use its power.

• Barracks (a roof, from level 3): grows twice as fast, but its lines only reach the towers near it. A perfect feeder for your front.
• Watchtower (a pointed roof, from level 6): shoots enemy soldiers walking past it. Its range shows as a ring.
• Forge (a chimney, from level 12): its soldiers wear iron, and each one knocks off 2. Send them at the big keeps.
• War Horn (a golden horn, from level 18): its soldiers march half again as fast. Strike before they can feed.

The last battle of every region is a rival's crowned stronghold, bigger than any keep and with a power of its own:

• Ember's Hearth (level 5) grows much faster than any keep.
• Tide's Bastion (level 11) is a great watchtower that shoots further and faster.
• Ember's Iron Hall (level 17) sends soldiers in heavy iron: each knocks off 3.
• Plum's Moon Shrine (level 23) sends soldiers that count twice, as if every hit were a pincer.
• Tide's Frost Citadel (level 30) is armoured in ice: only every second soldier that hits it counts.

In the Far Marches a boss keep comes back every sixth level.

Feed the army route. Your back towers win the battle. Link them to the tower nearest the fighting, and let a full tower pass the soldiers on.

Take the cheap towers first. Empty towers never grow, so a small one nearby pays back fast. Leave the big ones for later.

Crack big keeps with a pincer. Two lines from two towers onto one target count double. One line on its own often just trickles away.

Never fight head on for long. Two lines head to head cancel out. Come in from another side, or pour help into your end first.

Cut lines that go nowhere. A line into a lost cause wastes soldiers. Swipe it and send them where they count.

Keep the pressure on. A tower under attack stops growing, so a steady stream holds a big tower still while you build up elsewhere.

Read the tribe. Ember rushes at anything that looks weak. Tide waits and feeds every tower. Plum strikes from two sides at once, so watch for their pincers.

The journey. One difficulty that grows forever, no settings to pick. Every level is the same map for every player, so a lost battle replays the same map. Maps grow from 10 towers to 20, a second rival tribe joins at level 6 and a third at level 18, and the rivals get smarter and stronger as you climb. Open The journey from the menu to replay any level you have reached.

• Greenmeadow (levels 1 to 5): open meadow, held by Ember, the flame tribe.
• Reed Fords (6 to 11): a river with plank fords, held by Tide, the wave tribe.
• Stonepass (12 to 17): ridges with narrow gaps, Ember again.
• Mirelakes (18 to 23): lakes and islands, where Plum, the moon tribe, hides.
• Frostkeep (24 to 30): ridges and a frozen lake, where all three tribes meet.
• The Far Marches (31 and on): rivers, ridges and lakes in turn, every march bigger than the last. It never ends.

Stars. Every battle has three: one for winning, one for winning within the level's par time, and one for winning without losing a tower you held. Replay a level to earn them all.

The daily battle. From level 3, the menu opens one map for everyone each day: two rival tribes and every tower type, with a new land and a new map tomorrow.

The leaderboard. Pick a garden name (no email, no password) and your wins count. Each new journey level you win earns points, and so does every star in the daily battle. Your highest journey level shows on the all time board. The server replays each battle before it counts.

Duel a friend. Play a friend online, 1 vs 1, on their own phone or computer:

1. Open the menu and tap Duel a friend, then Start a room.
2. Tap Share the link and send it, or read your friend the room code.
3. Your friend opens the link, or types the code under Have a code? and taps Join.
4. The duel starts the moment they join: one open map, mirrored so you both start even, with every tower type and no boss keep.

Duels are just for fun and do not count for the leaderboard.