Rootfast — Grove Defense

Rootfast is a tower defense roguelike about one decision: which card to take next.

Between waves you draft one card at a time — a building to place, a graft to fuse onto a building you already have, or an instant. Then you place it on a small board and watch the wave play out. There are no timers and nothing to react to. Every input is a tap, and when you lose a run, you can trace it back to the choice that lost it.

GROW OR DEFEND
The board is small, so every building is a trade-off. A Sapling earns Sap each wave to pay for bigger towers later, but it takes a spot that a tower or wall could have used now. Enemies come in from the edges of the board toward your Heart instead of following a fixed path, so you are arranging a grove, not building a maze. Check the forecast, decide how much to invest and how much to defend, and commit. Lean too far either way and the grove falls.

GRAFTS FUSE TO POWER YOUR DEFENSE
Grafts attach to buildings already on the board, and many simply make a building stronger. Unlock more graft slots and two different grafts on the same building fuse into a new effect instead of stacking: 21 fusion rules cover every pair, for 532 distinct buildings in all. 22 combinations have a Legend and transform the card outright. Graft Farsight onto a Thorn Tower and it becomes a Ballistafor a heavy, long-range bolt aimed at thetoughest enemy. Finding the rest is why a tower defense roguelike this small still surprises you on the tenth run.

WHAT'S IN THE GAME
• 28 cards: 16 buildings, 9 grafts and 3 ins
• 19 levels across 3 biomes: the Verdant Grove, Frostmere and Emberwaste
• Boards shaped for each level: islands, cho
• 8 enemies, including a boss guarding the last level of each biome
• 3 stars per level: clear it, then clear it
• Dens that send out creatures to fight beside your buildings, holding enemies in place
• A short tutorial island that teaches the dake, and a practice island that opens laterto show grafts and dens in action

PROGRESS BETWEEN RUNS
Win or lose, you take Heartseeds home. Spendes — Thornline for offense, Deeproot foreconomy, Heartwood for defense and Grovecraft for quality of life — on 36 permanent unlocks, in whatever order you
like. Heartseeds also buy sowings, which chare chosen.

Clear the final level of the Grove or Frostmnfang and Emberkin each play differently from the Verdant Grove. They are a different way to play, not a stronger one.

AFTER THE CAMPAIGN
• Daily Challenge: the same board for every to keep
• Endless: four fixed boards with no final wave
• Ascension: five harder tiers across all 19on the finale earns a blessing, a permanentbonus you pick from five

FREE TO TRY
The tutorial and the first three Grove levels you like, along with the first upgrades ineach tree. One purchase unlocks the rest: the other 16 levels, Endless, the Daily Challenge and Ascension. Everything you earned in the free levels carries over. else to buy.

PLAY IT ANYWHERE
• Plays offline, with no account needed
• No energy, no timers, no waiting to play a
• Portrait or landscape
• Google Play Games: 29 achievements, 5 lead

Rootfast is a tower defense roguelike for plthan react.