How to play

Getting started

1. Open the game in your browser: tardigeddon.com/play. Nothing to download and no account needed.
2. New here? Press 🎓 New? Learn to play in the lobby: a short tutorial walks you through moving, aiming and firing. 🎯 Practice gives you targets to hit with unlimited ammo.
3. Press Play for a match against the computer, or Play online to play people. Change the teams, the game style and the rules in Match setup.

Controls

Your turn

• One tardigrade a turn. Walk, jump, aim and fire before the timer runs out (45 seconds in a standard match).
• After you fire you get 3 seconds to run for cover.
• Pop them all. A tardigrade pops when its health reaches 0, or if it falls in the water or off the map. Big falls hurt too.
• Friendly fire: your own blasts can hurt your team, and you! Don’t stand next to your target. You can switch it off in Match setup → Customise.
• Sudden death: when the round clock runs out, every tardigrade drops to 1 health and the water starts to rise.

Wind

• The bar at the top of the screen is the wind: ◀ blows left, ▶ blows right, and a longer bar is a stronger wind. It changes every turn.
• It pushes: 🚀 Spore Bazooka, 🌰 Mortar Pod, 🌧️ Acid Rain, 💧 Raindrop Strike, 🔬 Microscope Slide Slam.
• It doesn’t push grenades, bombs or anything that bounces or rolls.
• Strikes from the sky land on the spot you pick when there’s no wind, and drift when there is: aim upwind to make up for it.

Kinds of weapon

• Hold Fire, let go: most weapons. Aim, hold Fire to charge, let go to throw. Yellow dots show where the shot will start to fly.
• Grenades and bombs bounce, then go off when their fuse runs out: set it from 1 to 5 seconds.
• Pick a spot: strikes, the Teleport and the Twig Girder. Tap or click the map, then press Fire.
• Silk Rope: fire it at the rock to swing, climb with ▲▼ and let go with Jump. Leaf Parachute: jump off something, then Fire.

Every weapon in the game’s panel has a tag saying how it’s used. See them all on the Weapons page.

Things on the map

• Mines arm when a tardigrade comes close and go off 3 seconds later. Some are duds.
• Brine drums burst when hit hard: a big bang and a spray of salty blobs.
• Crates float down on parachutes. Walk into one: weapon crates give you ammo, health crates heal and cure poison.
• Poison takes a little health every turn, but never pops a tardigrade on its own.
• Armour (the Armoured style) soaks up half of each hit until it cracks.

Maps and weather

Every match is a new map, in one of 7 styles. Pick one in Customise, or leave it on Surprise me.

• Twin Isles: The classic: a couple of big islands over the water.
• Mainland: One long stretch of rolling hills, with caves to hide in.
• Archipelago: Lots of little islands. Mind the gaps.
• 
  Sky Realms: Realms on realms: floating islands stacked over a low shore.
• 
  Caverns: A great hollow hill, riddled with tunnels.
• 
  Canyon: High cliffs either side of a deep valley, with a bridge of rock.
• 
  Spires: Tall rock towers rising from the sea.

Weather (rain, snow, sunshine, fog and storms) is just for looks: it never moves your shots. Except for the very rare tornado, which picks up every tardigrade and drops them somewhere new.

Game styles

Or make your own: Customise changes the turn time, health, mines, crates, wind, armour and more.

Ways to play

• Against the computer: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert. Tougher CPUs read the wind better and miss less.
• Hot-seat: up to 10 teams taking turns on one device.
• Online: Quick play finds you a match with other players, or create a room and send your friends its 5-letter code. You can also watch a room without playing.
• Daily challenges: Target Smash and Rope Race, the same map for everyone, with leaderboards.
• Map editor: draw your own map, play it, and share it with friends as a file.
• Replays: every match is kept in 🎬 Replays, and the results screen can play the winning shot again.