Nine worlds of Norse myth, one road — and everything marching down it. Place towers freely instead of on a grid, counter armour, frost, fire and poison, and carry your progress from one run into the next.
Wardspire is deliberately lean: a few systems that interlock deeply. Every world teaches a new lesson — and demands an answer to it.
A real counter system
Five damage types meet resistances, armour and immunities. Spam a single tower and you hit a wall by world 4.
Free placement, no grid
No build slots: put your towers wherever there is room. The road itself stays clear — the rest of the field is yours.
Two paths per tower
From level 3 you choose: volley or precision, shrapnel or siege, frost or fire. Every choice changes the tower's role.
Several roads, one goal
Portals open one after another and merge. Each new road adds another stream — your coverage has to grow with it.
Glory, forge, armoury
Victories pay glory. In the forge you unlock towers and upgrade them permanently — every run feeds the next.
Endless, when 20 isn't enough
Endless mode never caps the wave count. A boss arrives every ten rounds, and your best wave is saved.
Arsenal
Eight towers, eight roles
None of them is an all-rounder. Pick one — the card beside it shows what it is meant for.
Scout of the palisade
Watchtower
Fast standard fire, cheap to build, available from the start. One of only two towers that hit fliers — and it mows down the rank and file everything else ignores.
Damage type
Physical
Targets
Ground & air
Unlock
From the start
Specialisations from level 3
Volley — fires at several targets at once.
Marksman — longer range, brutal critical hits.
Siege engine
Ballista
A heavy bolt with splash damage. Against dense hordes the most efficient thing in the arsenal — but it only hits what stays on the ground.
Damage type
Physical (area)
Targets
Ground only
Unlock
From the start
Specialisations from level 3
Shrapnel — wider blast radius against packs.
Siege — punches through armour, narrower radius.
Rune magic
Runestone
The only tower whose element you switch mid-game: frost or fire. That choice decides whether you stack burn damage or sidestep resistances.
Damage type
Frost or fire
Targets
Ground only
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Cryomancer — rapid frost fire, constant pressure.
Pyromancer — locked to fire, but it burns far hotter.
Anti-armour
Harpoon Thrower
One hard single shot that cracks armour open. The clean answer to huskarls, trolls and golems — and a complete waste against hordes.
Damage type
Physical, armour break
Targets
Ground & air
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Barbs — makes the target bleed, damage over time.
Penetration — ignores armour completely.
Control
Rime Totem
It doesn't attack a single target, it pulses in a radius. The only tower in the game that slows — and therefore hands every other tower more time to shoot.
Damage type
Frost (pulse)
Targets
Ground only
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Permafrost — stronger, longer-lasting slow.
Frostburn — shorter grip, but noticeable damage.
Chain lightning
Storm Pillar
The bolt jumps from the target to the next one and loses force along the way. The tighter the pack runs, the more it gets out of them.
Damage type
Lightning
Targets
Ground only
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Tempest — more jumps per shot.
Thunderclap — fewer jumps, far heavier impact.
Poison over time
Blight Totem
It stacks poison instead of killing outright. Superb against tough targets — and utterly useless against anything immune to poison.
Damage type
Poison
Targets
Ground only
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Plague cloud — hits several targets at once.
Virulence — higher stacks, enemies rot faster.
Support
War Horn
It doesn't shoot at all. It raises the damage of every tower in range — and turns a good position into a great one.
Damage type
No damage of its own
Targets
—
Unlock
In the forge
Specialisations from level 3
Battle cry — stronger damage bonus in the radius.
Marching beat — adds a faster rate of fire on top.
From difficulty Hard on, every upgraded tower also gains a rune socket.
From difficulty Hard
Runes
A tower at level 3 takes one rune and changes the way it fights. Socketing is free, swapping costs 25 gold.
Fire Rune
Hits set the target ablaze (35% chance).
Chain Rune
Shots arc to one more target. Marksman towers only.
Splinter Rune
Impacts shatter and catch the bystanders too.
Gold Rune
Kills by this tower grant 25% more gold.
Might Rune
25% more damage, 10% slower fire rate.
planned
Eagle Rune
Considerably more range at slightly lower damage.
planned
Haste Rune
Faster rate of fire at slightly lower damage.
planned
Crit Rune
More frequent critical hits.
planned
Blood Rune
Hits may leave the target bleeding.
planned
Poison Rune
Hits may poison the target.
planned
Headsman's Rune
Badly wounded enemies drop at once. Bosses do not.
planned
Soul Rune
The first hit on a boss returns one life.
Five runes are in the game. Seven more are planned and not included yet — their exact effect is settled during balancing.
Runes are unlocked in the forge. They only apply from difficulty Hard upwards.
Normal stays deliberately rune-free.
Replay value
Three difficulties
The campaign is built around Normal and fully playable there. The harder grades unlock once you have beaten Asgard.
I
Normal
The calibrated campaign: nine worlds, each asking more of you than the last. No runes.
plannedII
Hard
Tougher enemies, more randomness in the waves — and runes enter the game.
plannedIII
Nightmare
Announced wave mutators and a boss escort from the very first world.
Hard and Nightmare are still in the works and locked in the demo. An endless mode comes on top, on every map.
Campaign
Nine worlds on Yggdrasil
Every world has its own biome, its own danger, and at the end of the twentieth wave a boss that punishes exactly what you neglected on the way there.
I
Midgard
Green meadow · realm of men
The lesson: hordes, one road, armour only late on.
Boss Jarl
II
Alfheim
Bright elven forest
A second road opens — and the first ravens come in over it.
Boss Elf Lord
III
Vanaheim
Marshes & fertile water
Few enemies, but heavy ones. Build for numbers and you stall here.
Boss Vanir Guardian
IV
Nidavellir
Dwarven mines · underground
Stone and ore. Turn up with the starter pair and you only scratch the plating.
Boss ???
V
Jötunheim
Mountains & rock
Giants, tight ledges, little space to build. Every position counts double.
Boss ???
VI
Niflheim
Ice, mist, frost
Ice trolls — and somewhere behind them, someone keeps patching them up.
Boss ???
VII
Muspelheim
Fire, lava, basalt
Nothing burns here any more. Build on flames and you watch them fizzle.
Boss ???
VIII
Helheim
Realm of the dead
Draugr split when they die. And what worked elsewhere leaves them cold.
Boss ???
IX
Asgard
Golden god-fortress · finale
Everything at once. Standing here means you learned every lesson of the eight worlds before.
Boss ???
What comes at you
Bestiary
Eight base types — plus elite ranks and random traits that make the same wave look different every time.
Raider
The backbone of every wave. Fast enough to hurt in numbers.
Berserker
Runs at the front, dies fast — if you catch him first.
Huskarl
Shield bearer. Without armour break half your field chews on him.
Völva
Heals the most wounded around her. Rare, but she decides waves.
Draugr
Breaks into two draugling when killed. A kill is never just a kill.
Raven
Flies straight over the switchbacks. Only two towers can reach it.
Ice Gryphon
The heavy flier. Anti-air stops being an afterthought here.
Ice Troll
Slow, armoured, unpleasantly tough. The reason the harpoon exists.
Then there is rank — the same creature, three steps harder:
Elite
Veteran
Einherjar
+ random traits: swift, armoured, regenerating, giant, frenzied
Wave 20
Nine final bosses
Every world ends on wave 20 with a boss of its own — and it has to fall. Let it through and the run is lost, no matter how many lives are left.
?
Midgard
Jarl
?
Alfheim
Elf Lord
?
Vanaheim
Vanir Guardian
?
Nidavellir
???
?
Jötunheim
???
?
Niflheim
???
?
Muspelheim
???
?
Helheim
???
?
Asgard
???
Who waits there is not for this page to tell. The archive in the game, too, reveals a boss only once you have faced it.
Take a look
Gallery
Six shots from the game as it plays — click one for the full view. The trailer follows.
Trailer · placeholder — the video goes here later.
Screenshot 1/6 · Midgard · the first watchtower
Screenshot 2/6 · Niflheim · rime totem on ice
Screenshot 3/6 · Helheim · watchtowers in battle
Screenshot 4/6 · Muspelheim · tower stats in view
Screenshot 5/6 · Archive · look up your foes
Screenshot 6/6 · Forge · spending glory
Development
Where the game stands
Wardspire is a solo project. The content for 1.0 is complete — what's left is polish, balance and the road to Steam.
Done
Content is in
8 towers, 17 enemies and all 9 worlds are built, animated and playable — including the roguelite meta layer and endless mode.
Now · v0.9.3
Demo & balance
Playable demo for Windows and Linux. Alongside it, the difficulty curve is being tuned — world by world, on real playthroughs.
October 2026
Steam Next Fest
A public demo week with a Steam page, a trailer and plenty of outside feedback.
November 2026
Release 1.0
Full version with all nine worlds, higher difficulties and the rune branch of the forge.
News from the workshop
Placeholder · July 2026
The bosses grew teeth
All nine world bosses were too soft — now they bring a bodyguard and march at the pace of their horde.
Post coming
Placeholder · July 2026
Why there is no build grid
Free placement feels better but costs rules: road clearance, base footprint and a hand-painted build mask per map.
Post coming
Placeholder · June 2026
Glory, rethought
Progress now only comes from runs you win — farming waves no longer pays.
Post coming
Demo · Steam Next Fest, October 2026
Play the first worlds
The demo includes the early worlds along with the forge and endless mode.
Feedback reaches me straight from the pause menu via “Report a bug”.
