Defenses & Upgrades
Tap Manage Castle, the round castle button at the bottom right, to open the castle card. It has two tabs:
- Defenses: the keep and your tower spots.
- Upgrades: castle-wide upgrades.
Use the arrows or the dots to move between pages. A badge marks anything you can afford. The battle is paused while the card is open.
Defenses
There are seven spots. Each one unlocks in order:
| Spot | Unlocks when | Build cost (gold) | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Keep | Built from the start | ||
| North-West Tower | You raise a Wooden Stockade (Castle Walls level 1) | 75 | 10s |
| North-East Tower | The North-West Tower is built | 400 | 30s |
| South-West Tower | The North-East Tower is built | 2,500 | 1m |
| South-East Tower | The South-West Tower is built | 15,000 | 4m |
| West Beach Tower | The South-East Tower is built | 90,000 | 10m |
| East Beach Tower | The West Beach Tower is built | 600,000 | 20m |
The keep fires only when you tap a ship. Towers fire on their own.
Levels
Once a defense is built, Upgrade (or +10 Lv and so on) buys levels straight away, with no build time. Each level adds damage. Use the x1, x10 and Max buttons to buy one level, ten, or as many as you can afford. Bulk buys stop just before the next evolution.
Evolutions
At certain levels a defense evolves into a new weapon. Evolving is a timed build with a puzzle, like a new tower.
| Level | Tower weapon | Keep weapon | Evolve time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crossbow | Bronze Cannon | |
| 10 | Ballista | Iron Cannon | 30s |
| 25 | Catapult | Long Gun | 2m |
| 50 | Trebuchet | Great Cannon | 5m |
| 100 | Royal Cannon | Royal Cannon | 15m |
Each evolution multiplies the defense's damage. Catapults, trebuchets and Royal Cannons also hit every ship near the impact. Levels keep going past 100.
Upgrades
| Upgrade | Each level | Max level |
|---|---|---|
| Castle Walls | More wall health and faster mending. Raises the castle to its next stage at certain levels. | None |
| Black Powder | +10% damage for every defense | None |
| Plunder | +15% gold from every ship | None |
| Vault Guards | Raiders steal 12% less gold | 20 |
| Quartermaster | +6% of your usual gold while you're away, from 40% up to 100% | 10 |
| Treasure Parrot | Trains a parrot to fetch floating chests. The first level fetches after 9 seconds; each level after is faster, down to 1.5 seconds. | 10 |
Every upgrade level is a timed build with a puzzle. Build times grow with the level, from 10 seconds up to 30 minutes.
Castle walls
The Castle Walls level sets how your castle looks and how strong its walls are:
| Castle stage | Castle Walls level |
|---|---|
| Lone Keep | 0 |
| Wooden Stockade | 1 |
| Stone Castle | 3 |
| Royal Castle | 8 |
| Grand Fortress | 15 |
You need the Grand Fortress to set sail for the next island. Your best castle stage also sets your fleet's size in the Harbor.
Carpenters
Your two carpenters work on one build each, so two builds can run at once. The card shows how many are free. The Master Carpenter adds a third.
Builds use real time, so they keep going while the app is closed. Each build in progress shows at the bottom left of the screen with the time left.
To finish every build at once, open the Shop and use Finish all builds. It costs one pearl for every two minutes left, and at least 5 pearls.
Build puzzles
Every timed build opens a puzzle once you've paid for it. The clock starts on your first tap. The faster you solve it, the shorter the build:
| Result | Build time saved |
|---|---|
| 3 stars (under the time shown) | 50% |
| 2 stars | 25% |
| 1 star | 10% |
| Skipped | None (25% with the Master Architect) |
| Puzzle | How to solve it |
|---|---|
| Map Match | Flip cards to find every matching pair |
| Light the Lanterns | Tap the numbered lanterns in order, from 1 upward |
Longer builds get harder puzzles. If the app closes during a puzzle, the build still goes ahead at full time.