How To Play: Backpacker Guardians

Prepare Fight Loop

Each stage is cleared wave by wave. Between waves you rebuild your loadout, then fight again with stronger monsters.

1. Prepare: receive three random weapons. Place the best ones into your backpack, merge matches, and optionally reroll.
2. Fight: press Fight to start the wave. Weapons inside the backpack attack automatically.
3. Improve: defeat every monster, collect gems, then return to Prepare for the next wave.

Backpack Placement & Discard

Only weapons placed inside the backpack grid are equipped. Shape-fitting is the core puzzle of each prepare phase.

• Drag weapons from the offer tray into backpack cells.
• Weapons left outside the backpack are discarded when Fight begins.
• Rerolling also clears unplaced offers and spawns a new set of three weapons.
• Each stage can use a different backpack shape, so packing plans change as you progress.
• During battle the backpack is locked and cannot be edited.

Inventory Bonus

• Inventory Full: every valid backpack cell filled grants Damage +5%
• Perfect Inventory: full backpack and every equipped weapon at max merge grants Damage +10%

Merge & Stats

Drop the same weapon with the same merge level onto another copy to upgrade it. An item can be merged up to two times.

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Attack speed does not change when merging.

Weapon Stats

• Damage: added to your Guardian's attack when that weapon fires.
• Attack Speed: delay between that weapon's attacks. Lower is faster.
• Defense: all equipped defense is summed and reduces incoming damage.
• Healing: restores HP whenever that weapon attacks.

All Weapons

These are all weapon items defined in the game. Available weapons may vary by stage.

Axe

High damage with some defense and healing

DMG 12 / Heal 2 / DEF 2 / Speed 1.2

Ball

Small, fast 1x1 attacker

DMG 3 / Speed 0.5

Crossbow

Strong damage, awkward shape

DMG 20 / Heal 1 / Speed 1.5

Knife

Balanced damage and speed

DMG 8 / Speed 0.8

Shuriken

Compact and quick

DMG 5 / Speed 0.6

Spear

Long shape with solid damage

DMG 15 / Speed 1.0

Boomerang

Fast returns and easy placement

DMG 7 / Speed 0.7

Bow

Long shape with steady ranged shots

DMG 12 / Speed 1.1

Hammer

Heavy strikes that hit hard

DMG 18 / DEF 1 / Speed 1.4

Mace

Crushing blows with light defense

DMG 14 / DEF 1 / Speed 1.1

Scythe

Wide cuts with an awkward shape

DMG 16 / Speed 1.3

Shield

Strong defense and sustain

DMG 4 / Heal 3 / DEF 5 / Speed 1.5

Staff

Healing-focused with moderate damage

DMG 9 / Heal 2 / Speed 1.0

Sword

Reliable blade with solid damage

DMG 10 / Speed 0.9

Reroll, Shield & Battle Speed

Reroll

During Prepare, spend gems to replace your current weapon offers.

• Only one reroll per wave
• Cost is based on how many times you have rerolled in the current run
• Sequence: Free, then 10, 20, 40, 80, and so on

Shield

In battle, activate Shield for 3 seconds of invincibility. It can be used once per wave.

Battle Speed

Cycle battle speed with the accelerate button: x1, x2, x3, then back to x1.

Stages, Waves & Difficulty

There are many destinations to conquer. Early stages have 15 waves; later stages climb to 20, 25, 30, 35, and eventually 40 waves.

• Examples of early destinations: Calm Steam, Burning Earth, Frozen Earth, Lost Temple, Sky Island
• Monster count grows with stage number and current wave
• Monster HP, damage, and move speed also scale as you progress
• Clearing a stage unlocks the next destination and awards coins

Wave Spawn Count

3 + stage x 2 + wave

Clear Coin Reward

(stage + 1) x 10

Resume a Run

After each successful wave, your progress is saved: backpack contents, merge levels, earned gems, reroll count, stage, and wave.

• Return to the lobby and choose Resume to continue from the next prepare phase.
• Decline resume to clear the saved session and start fresh later.
• Quitting from pause ends the run and claims earned gems (no clear-coin bonus).

Character Purchase, Upgrade & Skins

Open the Guardians tab in the lobby to unlock, select, upgrade, and dress your fighters.

Cally

ATK 5 / HP 30

Default free

Ruby

ATK 6 / HP 26

1000 Coins

Silver

ATK 6 / HP 32

1200 Coins

Bloom

ATK 7 / HP 28

2000 Coins

Upgrades

• Upgrade cost: 50 x current level Coins
• Success chance starts at 90% and decreases with level (minimum 25%)
• Each level: +3 Attack and +5 HP
• Failed upgrades still spend coins, but the level does not rise

Skins

Each Guardian has cosmetic skins. Original is free. Combat and Swimsuit skins can be purchased with coins after the Guardian is unlocked.

Original

Free

Combat

500 Coins

Swimsuit

750-1000 Coins

Currency, Revival & Charge

• Gems: earned by defeating monsters during a run. Used for rerolls, then claimed to your account when the run ends.
• Coins: earned from stage clears and MDDC charge. Used for Guardians, upgrades, skins, and revival.
• Revival: when your Guardian falls, spend 10 Coins once per run to restore full HP and retry the current wave.
• MDDC Charge: from the lobby coin button, enter the coin amount, review required MDDC, copy the deposit address, and confirm after sending.