Harbor & Invasions
The Harbor is Tide Keep's optional online play. You sail a fleet against other players' castles, and your own castle is defended by its towers while you're away. Battles are never live: you invade a saved copy of another captain's castle, and they see the raid later in their log.
Online play is off until you turn it on. Your island game works the same either way.
Turn on online play
- Open Settings > Online.
- Turn on Play online. If a parent PIN is set, it's asked for first.
- Sign in to Game Center if iOS asks.
The Harbor button (a ship) then appears at the top right of the main screen.
To invade other captains you need:
- Game Center, for who you are, your friends and the leaderboards. Tide Keep has no account of its own.
- iCloud, signed in on the device. Your castle, raids and reports are saved in Tide Keep's shared iCloud database.
Royal Navy practice forts work without either. If Screen Time limits online play on your Game Center account (for example, a child's account), you get the leaderboards and Navy forts only, and your castle isn't shared.
While online play is on, Tide Keep shares a copy of your castle every few minutes when it changes, and when you leave the app. Captains who invade it see it in your colours, with your emblem on its banners. See Privacy & Data for what's shared.
The Harbor
The Harbor has five tabs:
| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| Attack | Your trophies and league, and the buttons to invade |
| Ships | Your fleet, your ships, and building new ones. See Ships & Fleet. |
| Defend | Your shield and your castle's defense plan |
| Log | Every invasion you made and every one made against you, with replays |
| Captain | Your captain's name, Captain level and record |
Your Doubloons show at the top. Tap them to see how to earn more.
Invade a castle
On the Attack tab:
- Find a castle to invade searches for another captain's castle near your trophies.
- Practise on a Royal Navy fort (or Navy fort) sails against a computer castle. Navy forts are always available.
- Visit a friend lists Game Center friends who've shared a castle. See Friendly visits.
Plan your attack
Before you sail, the planning page shows the castle you're about to invade:
- The approaches: the left, centre and right lanes, marked on the water from light to heavy fire, with the weapons that cover each one, splash damage and any boom chain.
- The defender's plan: what their towers aim at.
- A difficulty badge: Easy, Fair, Hard or Brutal, for how your fleet would do with random lanes.
- Your ships, in sailing order: pick a lane for each one. Ships set off one after another.
- Tips for this castle.
Tap Set sail! to start.
The battle
A battle lasts 60 seconds. Your ships sail in, the castle's towers fire on their own, and the keep's cannon reaches every lane.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Full Sail! | Once per battle, every ship sails 60% faster for 5 seconds and shrugs off slowing hits. Calling it as ships come into range works best. |
| Speed | Watch at normal or double speed |
| Skip | Jump to the result |
| Close (the red X) | Retreat. You're asked to confirm, and the rest of the battle is decided as if it played out. |
If the app closes mid-battle, the battle is settled as it would have ended the next time you open Tide Keep.
Stars and rewards
You earn stars for the share of the walls you knock down:
| Stars | Walls down |
|---|---|
| 1 | 30% |
| 2 | 70% |
| 3 | 100% |
| Reward | Against a captain | Against a Navy fort |
|---|---|---|
| Doubloons | 6, 24, 42 or 65 for 0 to 3 stars, plus 40 for your first win of the day | 60% as many |
| Trophies | Won for stars, lost for 0 stars: from −20 to +30, more for beating a stronger castle | Half as many, and none won once you have 1,400 |
| Gold | A few minutes of your own castle's income per star, paid by the game | Half as much |
| Captain XP | 10, plus 15 per star | 60% as much |
Gold from invasions doesn't count toward Renown.
Ships sunk in battle go to refit for a few minutes before they can sail again. See Refits.
Who you're matched with
Find a castle to invade looks for castles within 150 trophies of yours, then 400, then 1,200. It skips castles that are shielded, your own, captains you've blocked, and anyone you invaded in the last 24 hours. If nothing turns up, it offers a Navy fort.
Matchmaking scales every castle's firepower to a fair level, so you can invade anyone. What decides a battle is the castle's layout and plan against your fleet and lanes.
When others invade you
Your towers defend on their own, using your castle as it was when it was last shared. You don't need to be playing.
When you next open the game, a banner tells you how many times you were invaded, and a badge appears on the Harbor button. Each raid shows in the Log with a replay.
| You | Result |
|---|---|
| Held them off (0 stars) | +8 Doubloons and 12 Captain XP, and trophies won |
| Lost (1 to 3 stars) | Trophies lost, a little gold (at most 5% of your gold or five minutes of income, whichever is smaller, scaled by stars), and 4 Captain XP |
An invasion never takes towers, walls, levels, Infamy, Renown, pearls, ships, parts or purchases.
Your game checks each raid against your castle as you really had it before applying it.
Shields
A shield keeps other captains from finding your castle:
| Shield | Length |
|---|---|
| Your first day online | 24 hours |
| After losing 1 star | 4 hours |
| After losing 2 or 3 stars | 12 hours |
Invading another captain drops your own shield. Practising on a Navy fort doesn't. The Defend tab shows how long your shield has left.
Revenge
Each invasion against you can be avenged once. Tap Revenge next to it in the Log. Shields don't block revenge.
Your defense plan
On the Defend tab:
- Towers aim at: Nearest (the default), Toughest (extra damage to tough ships like galleons and ironclads), Fastest (extra damage to fast ships like sloops and fireships) or Walls (extra damage to ships already on the beach).
- Boom chain: slows ships in one lane. It needs a Wooden Stockade. Choose a lane or None.
Attackers see your plan when they scout. Each choice counters some fleets and is weak against others.
Trophies, leagues and seasons
You start with 1,000 trophies.
| League | Trophies |
|---|---|
| Deckhand | 0 |
| Bosun | 1,200 |
| Corsair | 1,500 |
| Captain | 1,900 |
| Commodore | 2,400 |
| Pirate Lord | 3,000 |
Some ship looks and emblems unlock at a league, and stay yours once reached. See Customization.
Seasons run for a calendar month (UTC), the same for everyone. The Attack tab shows when the current one ends. When a season ends:
- If you invaded or defended during it, you get Doubloons for the best league you reached: Deckhand 20, Bosun 60, Corsair 120, Captain 200, Commodore 300, Pirate Lord 450.
- Trophies above 1,200 are halved. For example, 1,800 becomes 1,500.
Friendly visits
Visit a friend lists your Game Center friends who've turned on online play and shared a castle. The first time, iOS asks whether Tide Keep can see your Game Center friends.
A visit is a normal battle with nothing at stake: no trophies, rewards, refits or log entry, and your friend isn't told.
Leaderboards
Open Settings > Online > Leaderboards, or Leaderboards in the Captain's Log or the Harbor's Captain tab. Switch between Worldwide and Friends.
| Board | Ranks captains by |
|---|---|
| Trophies | Best trophies ever |
| Ships Sunk | Ships sunk in the island game |
| Infamy | Highest Infamy reached |
| Level | Captain level |
Scores are posted while online play is on. Each board keeps your best.
Names and safety
There's no chat in Tide Keep. The only things other players type are captain and ship names.
Your captain's name
On the Harbor's Captain tab, type a name or tap Suggest one for a random two-word name, then Use this name.
- Names are 3 to 20 characters (2 is enough in Japanese or Korean): Latin letters, Japanese or Korean characters, numbers (up to 4), spaces, apostrophes and hyphens.
- Names are checked for rude words and for pretending to be staff. Every player's game checks names again before showing them.
- Turn on Hide my name to appear as "A Mysterious Captain" to everyone.
Ship names, up to 24 characters, go through the same check.
Report or block a captain
Tap the flag next to a captain's name in the Log, on the invasion screen, on the leaderboards or in your friends list:
- Report and hide the name hides their name on your device and sends it to Odd Omens.
- Block this captain hides their name too, and you won't be matched against them or offered revenge on them again.
Turn off online play
Turn off Play online in Settings > Online. Tide Keep stops posting scores and sharing your castle, and the Harbor button disappears. Your last shared castle stays online until you delete your online data. See Privacy & Data.
Invasion alerts
In Settings > Online, turn on Invasion alerts to get a notification when another captain invades your castle. iOS asks for permission to send notifications the first time.