Stream Defense is a Twitch-Plays game which is played by typing commands into Twitch chat. Since the game is streamed over Twitch there is a natural delay of 2 – 20 seconds between when you enter your command and see it reflected on the stream (the delay is typically shorter on desktop)
To join a game of Stream Defense you must pick a class to play. You do this by typing !<classname> (example: type !archer in the chat to join as an archer). There are 6 classes available to everyone, which are shown on the left side of the game.
After a 2 – 20 second delay you will see your unit spawn on the left side of the screen and walk to the barracks.
If the streamer has allowed it, you may bring in multiple units. (See “Playing Multiple Units” below for more details)
Each class has a default specialization, plus several others which can be unlocked. Read the “Essence” section below for information on how to unlock specs and talents.
For detailed information on all the classes and their specializations, visit the classes page.
Stream Defense is all about balancing your time between training and defending. Training in the barracks will increase your level, and therefore increase how effective you are. However, if your team does not have enough players in towers defending the barracks, enemies will get through. As enemies enter the barracks it will lose health. If the barracks’ health reaches 0 the game will end in defeat.
Type !<tower#> into chat to enter a tower and automatically start attacking nearby enemies (Example: type !12 to move to Tower 12). If a tower is full, you will move to the nearest tower with an available slot. As more players join the game, additional tower slots will open up (to a maximum of 6 players per tower).
Type !t into chat to move to the barracks and start earning experience. Every time you level-up, your damage and ability power will increase by 20%, compounding (ability power is used to determine the effectiveness of things like crowd control). If a wave ends early, players in the barracks will receive experience for the wave time remaining (normalizing the amount of experience granted per wave).
Experience is not granted during Boss Waves (More on Boss Waves below)
Power is a resource each unit accumulates over the course of a game. The power bar on your nameplate is the colored background behind your username; it will fill up as you gain power.
Powering Up
Typing !p in chat will cause you to power up (Your power bar will turn yellow to reflect this). While powered up:- While powered-up in a tower, your attacks will be empowered. Each attack will consume some of your power to increase its effectiveness by approximately 200%. Each class has a unique empowered attack which is shown on their class panel (Seen on the classes page).
- While powered-up in the barracks your Power Bar will be quickly consumed (5 power per second). Each power consumed rewards the equivalent of 2 seconds of “Train XP” (the amount of xp rewarded by the barracks each second).
Earning Power
There are several methods for earning power:- Each time an enemy is killed, they have a chance to drop a “Power Potion”, which gives 5 power to every player in the game.
- At the end of each wave, power is granted to the wave MVPs (Read more about Wave MVPs Below)
- Power runes grant power to players inside
- Several less common effects in the game also grant power
A maximum of 72 units can join a game of Stream Defense. By default, the number of allowed units is set dynamically, based on how many players are in the game. However, the streamer can manually set the limit to any number between 1 and 4.
You can see how many units each player is allowed by looking at the top right corner of the HUD:
Typing commands into chat will automatically send the command to all your units. If you want to give a command to a specific unit, include the respective class initial before the command (ex: type a!t to send your archer to train in the barracks)
When playing multiple units, all Essence rewards are split between the respective classes. Gold and Medal rewards are given per player (not per unit)
At the end of each wave, the Wave MVPs board will appear on the left of the screen, showing the players who contributed the most to that wave.
MVP Charge
- The Wave MVPs board will award an MVP Charge granting power to all MVPs
- The total power granted by the MVP Charge is equal to 4 * the number of units in the game
- Example: If there are 6 units in the game, that’s a total of 24 power (6 units * 4 power per unit). If there are 4 MVPs, they would each receive 6 power.
- Boss waves grant 3x power (12 power per unit in the game).
- The more players in the game, the more Wave MVPs there can be
The Blitz Banner
As long as you’re killing enemies before the wave timer expires, you will see this Blitz Banner appearing on the field. Successfully killing all enemies of a wave before they reach this banner will grant you one Blitz Kill and add +2 power to the Wave MVP reward.
Challenge Waves
After earning 5 Blitz Kills, the next wave will be a Challenge Wave. Challenge Wave enemies have more health and one random buff, making them more challenging.
Here is a list of the possible affixes (more may be added in the future):
- Horde (Increases the number of enemies in the wave by 50%)
- Elite (Divides the number of enemies by 3, but multiplies their health by 5, and the damage they deal to the barracks 3)
- Armored (Adds armor to the enemies. If the enemy is already armored, it doubles it)
- Fast (Increases the movement speed of the enemy by 70%. Also reduces their CC Resistance by 15)
- Cloaked (Enemies will become cloaked for 4 seconds after being hit. Similar to shrooms’ burrow effect (can stack with burrow))
Defeating a Challenge Wave increases the base power reward to Wave MVPs by 500%
Challenge Wave enemies do 0 damage to the barracks
Every 10th wave is a boss wave. During the boss wave experience is not granted from the barracks, and players are encouraged to move into the towers to help defend.
Killing bosses reward a treasure chest of items to help players defeat the next round, making bosses very important to kill.
Killing bosses also grants a large amount of Essence and is the only way to earn Medals. These are the only resources which grant permanent upgrades to your characters. (More on Essence and Medals below).
- Supply has a small chance of dropping from any enemy in the game
- After earning 5 Supply, the Barracks will level up, significantly increasing the amount of XP earned per wave
- Killing a boss awards 1 Supply Crate. The Supply Crate adds one level to the Barracks (it’s the equivalent of 5 supply).
- Increases in XP/Wave are larger as the Barracks levels up.
Essence is earned by killing enemies and is awarded at the end of each game. Once you reach the essence required for the next rank, your class will automatically rank up. You can see how much essence is required for each rank on this spreadsheet.
As you rank up a class, you will unlock new specialization and talent option for that class. Class rank carries over when changing talent or spec. You can see more information on the classes page.
Gold is earned from playing Stream Defense, and carries over from game to game. You can spend gold to switch class specs/talents and change factions (More about factions below).
All players earn 20/wave gold after a victory
There are several ways to spend gold:
- Type !spec<specname> to change a class specialization for 5,000 gold. Example: !specsniper to change your archer to the Sniper specialization.
- Type !tal<talentname> to change a class talent for 500 gold. Example: !talvulture to change your Sniper to the Vulture talent.
- (More info on the classes page).
- Type !join<factionname> to change your faction for 2,500 gold. Your medals carry over. (More info on factions below).
All new players are automatically placed in the “Templar” faction. To change to a different faction – for 2,500 gold – type !join<factionname>.
Factions provide a passive stat bonus to all your units. As you gain Medals, you rank up, increasing your passive bonus.
Medals are earned by defeating bosses. Bosses on later rounds drop more medals than bosses on earlier rounds.
(See faction rank bonuses and more info on the factions page).
The spell bar is located at the bottom of the screen.
By default, any viewer can cast a spell by typing the respective command into chat (ex: !frz to time freeze time). However, streamers can choose to limit who can cast spells.
Some spells can be cast on specific towers. (Example: !tam12 would add Templar Ammo to tower 12).
Mana
Spells require mana to cast. Mana is earned slowly throughout the game, and is also granted by mana potions at the beginning of each round.
Stream Defense has 3 game modes:
1. Campaign
Play through a series of levels with increasing difficulty. Great for learning how to play and testing your skill.
2. Adventure
Play through a series of games of increasing difficulty. Before and during each game, unlock perks that provide bonuses for the rest of the run.
3. Endless
Play a single map and try to beat the high score. Current high scores can be seen on the Leaderboard.
There are also several options that relate to these modes:
Viewer Run: This can be enabled by the streamer to allow viewers to continue playing on their own while the streamer is away. Some streamers choose to let their viewers continue playing while they sleep. It can be a great way to keep viewers on the channel while you’re gone. (Campaign mode is not available while viewer run is enabled).
Solo Viewer (Coming soon): Sometimes a single viewer is playing the game by themselves. When the game detects this, it removes the voting delay. On Endless mode, it allows the viewer to set the spells, perks, and choose the level.
- Type <classInitial>!stats to see statistics on your respective unit (type a!stats into chat to see your archer’s stats).
- Type !specs to see the rank and specialization of each of your classes .
- Type!faction to see which faction your belong to, how many medals you have, and what you’re current rank is.
- Type !essence to see the essence and rank of each of your characters. You can see the essence of a specific character by using their class initial (ex: type a!essence to see your archer’s essence and rank).
- To leave the game mid-level, type !leave into chat.
Additional information on game systems can be found on the following pages: