Rootwire

Rootwire is a free tower defence game that runs in your browser. Place saplings, mushrooms, vines and crystals along a winding path to stop twenty waves of corrupted data reaching the Heart. It is built for a tablet or desktop-sized screen, and there is no sign-up.

How to play

Rootwire is a tower defense game built around a single hand-tuned path through a hybrid nature/tech grove. Twenty waves of corrupted data fragments march toward the Heart — a glowing core at the end of the path. Place four kinds of sentinels to stop them:

• Sapling — fast, cheap single-target
• Mushroom — splash damage, slow attack
• Vine — slowing beams that pair with everything
• Crystal — high-damage long-range sniper

Earn essence for every kill and a bonus at the end of every wave. Spend it placing new towers or upgrading existing ones (three levels each). Towers can be sold back at 60% of total invested cost when the meta shifts.

Controls

• Mouse / touch — Click a tower in the bottom dock to start placing, then click the map. Click an ability to start targeting, then click the map. Click a placed tower for upgrade, sell, and target-mode options. Use ⏸ to pause and ⏩ to fast-forward.
• Hotkeys — 1–4 select towers, 5–7 select abilities, Space starts a wave or toggles pause, P pauses, U upgrades the selected tower, S sells it, T cycles its target mode, Esc cancels placement or ability, F fast-forwards, M mutes.

Hero abilities

Three abilities sit beside your tower dock, each on its own cooldown — no essence cost. Use them to bend the wave when towers alone aren't enough.

• Heart Pulse (30s) — click anywhere for a radial blast that damages and briefly stuns enemies. Your panic button when leakers approach the Heart.
• Sap Surge (25s) — click on the path to paint a 5-second sap zone that slows everything in it and chews through HP over time. Pairs beautifully with vines.
• Resonance (35s) — click any of your towers. Its next 5 shots fire at 2× rate for 2× damage. Save it for a Crystal at boss time, or unleash it on a Mushroom mid-cluster.

Synergies

The systems feed each other rather than living in separate silos:

• Sap-soaked. Anything hit by a slow (Vine beams or Sap Surge) is soaked for 2 seconds. Soaked enemies take +25% damage from every source — towers, abilities, splash. Slows aren't just slows; they're a damage amp.
• Combo-fueled cooldowns. While your combo is at ×10 or higher, all ability cooldowns tick 50% faster. Chain kills → spam abilities → chain more kills.
• Pulse + Soaked. Cast Heart Pulse on a sap zone where vines have been chewing, and the +25% bonus turns the AOE into a wipe.
• Resonance + Soaked. Drop Sap Surge on a path, then Resonance a Crystal: every empowered shot lands as a 2× × 1.25 = 2.5× damage strike against bunched, slowed enemies.

Mini-bosses & wave events

Tension oscillates across the run instead of cresting once at the end:

• Wave 5 — BULWARK. A shielded mini-boss. Splash damage skips it entirely; you must single-target the shield down before its HP becomes vulnerable.
• Wave 7 — ECHO. Every spawn brings a 1-HP ghost duplicate. Free combo fodder, no leak damage.
• Wave 10 — BREACH. Tanky corruptors break through. (Existing.)
• Wave 12 — STATIC. Towers fire 30% slower for the first 10 seconds. Bridge the gap with abilities.
• Wave 15 — HIVEMIND. Spawns a glitch every 2.5 seconds while alive — burst it down or get swarmed.
• Wave 17 — RUSH. Enemies move 25% faster all wave. Vines and Sap Surge earn their keep.
• Wave 20 — THE CORE. The 4500-HP boss. (Existing.)

Combos & wave bonuses

Chain kills within 1.5 seconds of each other to build a combo. Streaks of 5/10/20 grant bonus essence per kill, and crossing ×20 triggers FRENZY. Combos break on a leak or a 1.5s gap.

At the end of each wave you can earn:

• UNTOUCHED — no leak damage all wave. +50% wave reward.
• PEAK COMBO — peak chain ≥ 15. +30 essence.
• NIMBLE — used at least one ability. +15 essence.

Difficulty

Pick a difficulty on the title screen:

• Easy — 30 hearts, gentler enemies, slightly richer rewards. Great for learning the grove.
• Normal — 20 hearts, balanced economy, the default trial.
• Hard — 12 hearts, tougher waves, tighter rewards. For veteran defenders.
• Infinite — Normal economy, but waves never stop. After wave 20 the grove faces synthesized loops with rising HP and a boss every fifth wave. See how far you can hold the Heart.

Strategy notes

• Targeting modes. Each tower can be set to First (default — furthest along path), Last, Strong (most HP), or Close. Crystals shine on Strong against bosses; mushrooms on Close to hit dense pockets; saplings on First to finish off leakers.
• Vines pair well with everything — slowed enemies eat more shots, effectively boosting every tower's DPS-on-target. Sap Surge stacks with vines for double-source slowing.
• Mushrooms shine on tight bends where enemies cluster — but remember splash skips Bulwark shields, so keep at least one single-target tower in range of wave 5.
• Crystals out-range chokes; put them where their range covers the most path length. Their alpha damage one-shots most grunts and chunks bosses and Bulwarks.
• Save Heart Pulse for the moment Hivemind's swarm crowds your last few hearts away.
• Save essence going into wave 10 (BREACH), 15 (HIVEMIND), and 20 (THE CORE).