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.
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.
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 will increase by 20%, compounding. 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, you will automatically cast your ability. Abilities are powerful attacks, separate from your weapon. Each class has a unique ability 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. Each power consumed rewards the equivalent of 2 seconds of training.
Type !pd to power down, conserving your remaining power
Type !pl to enable power lock. While power lock is enabled, you will automatically power up whenever you earn power.
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 2 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)
- All Guilds reward power by unique means (Read more about Guilds below)
- Several less common effects in the game also grant power
A maximum of 300 units can join a game of Stream Defense. The streamer can set the unit limit per viewer to any number between 1 and 4.
If the streamer enables auto-kick, you can immediately join with your maximum allowed units. If the game reaches capacity, the system will automatically remove units from players who have multiple units (starting with the most recently joined players) to make room for new players.
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).
Tower System
As more players join the game, additional tower slots will open up (one new slot for every 6 units in the game). Each tower has two types of slots:
- Active Slots: The first 6 slots in a tower are “active” slots. Units in these slots can attack enemies normally.
- Support Slots: Any slots beyond the first 6 are “support” slots. Units in these slots don’t attack directly, but instead provide a damage buff to the active units.
Support System
When in a support slot:
- Your unit provides a damage buff to all active units in the tower
- The buff strength is based on your level compared to the active units:
- Equal level: ~17% damage buff
- Higher level: +20% additional buff per level difference
- Lower level: -20% reduced buff per level difference
- You still receive contribution credit and can earn MVP rewards
- Your Guild passive bonus still applies to active units
- Power priority: Powered units and higher-level units get priority for active slots
This system creates interesting strategic choices between being an active attacker or supporting role, especially at higher levels.
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
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- In a 5-unit game, 2 units can receive MVP
- In a 300-unit game, up to 120 units can receive MVPThe game awards MVP to the smallest number of units that equals at least 40% of participants. For example:The total power granted by the MVP Charge is equal to 2 * the number of units in the game. This power is split evenly between all MVP recipients. Boss waves grant 3x power (6 power per unit in the game).
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).
- Each wave, one random enemy will hold a supply. Killing this enemy grants 1 supply.
- If the barracks is damaged, the supply will restore 5 HP.
- If the barracks is a at full health, the supply will be stored.
- After storing 5 Supply, the Barracks will level up, significantly increasing the amount of XP earned per wave
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:
- [COMING SOON] Type !spec<specname> to change a class specialization for 5,000 gold. Example: !specsniper to change your archer to the Sniper specialization.
- [COMING SOON] 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).
Guilds provide bonus XP and Power. Each guild rewards this in a different way, so you should choose the guild that rewards your preferred playstyle. Your guild choice applies to all your units.
All new players are automatically placed in the “Templar” guild. To change to a different guild – for 2,500 gold – type !join<guildname>.
Each guild also provides a passive buff to all units in their tower. These buffs do not stack, so whenever possible, you want to get units from multiple guilds in the same tower.
As you gain Medals, you rank up, increasing the passive bonus you provide to the units in your tower.
Medals are earned by defeating bosses. Bosses on later rounds drop more medals than bosses on earlier rounds.
(See guild bonuses and more info on the Guilds 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: !amm12 would add Ammo to tower 12).
Mana Orbs
Spells require 1 Mana Orb to cast. Each wave, one enemy will drop a mana orb, upon death.
You can only hold 4 Mana Orbs. Once full, additional orbs will instead grant XP to all units. This is a legitimate option if you don’t want to cast any spells at that moment.
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 (COMING SOON)
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:
AFK Mode: 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 AFK Mode is enabled).
Solo Viewer: 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 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 !guild to see which guild you belong to, how many medals you have, and what your 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: