Rogue Defenders: Co-op Tower Defense in Your Browser

Rogue Defenders is a co-op tower defense browser game where you and up to three friends stand back to back around a crystal while 20 waves of monsters crash in, with a boss every fifth wave. Nothing to download, free to try, and when you'd rather beat each other, Crystal Clash turns it into a lane battle.

Picture it: the Warrior holds the bridge, the Mage drops a meteor shower on the crowd, the Cleric pulls a fallen friend back to their feet, and someone yells "Surge, now!" as an ogre reaches the crystal. That's a normal Tuesday in Rogue Defenders. This guide covers how a run plays, the heroes, what you keep, Crystal Clash and how to get your friends in. Want to skip the reading? Open Rogue Defenders and pick a free hero.

What is Rogue Defenders?

It's a co-op roguelite wave defense game in pixel art, and one of the games on Pixaplay, the home for browser games you play with friends. Roguelite means every run is different and you always bring something home, win or lose. Here the run changes with the powers you pick and the maps, which reshuffle every time. What you bring home is gold, shards, gear and hero levels.

The twist on tower defense: you are the defense. There's no grid of towers to fill. Each of you plays a hero who fights on the map, monsters pour out of portals toward the crystal, and the run ends if the crystal falls or every hero is down at once. It's loud, it's frantic, and it rewards friends who stick together.

It looks and sounds the part too: animated pixel heroes, glowing spells and soft lighting, sound that comes from where the action is, nine music tracks, and announcer and hero voice lines for the big moments.

How does a run of Rogue Defenders play?

A full run is 20 waves across 4 realms. Waves 5, 10, 15 and 20 are boss fights. The waves in between each realm's opener and its boss come with a team objective, and the wave doesn't end until you've done it, so the objective is the job and the kills are the fun on the side.

The crystal glows, and its light is your best friend. Stand in it and you heal. Revives inside it go faster. Fall inside it and you slowly get back up by yourself. Between waves you get a short breather (longer after a boss) where everyone patches up, and anyone can skip it when the team is itching for more.

Kills give the whole team experience. Every team level-up, each hero picks one of three power cards, with 15 seconds to choose before the game picks for you. There are 74 powers in four rarities, from Common to a shiny Legendary, plus rerolls when the hand is bad. This is the moment runs are made: the Mage whose Fireball suddenly splits into three, the Archer whose arrows start bouncing. By wave 20 your hero plays nothing like they did on wave 1, and next run it'll go another way.

The six team objectives keep every wave from feeling the same:

• Seal the Rifts: smash the rifts that keep spitting out monsters.
• Channel the Pylons: stand in each circle; together it's quick, alone it drags, and enemies hit harder until they're lit.
• Harvest Essence: carry essence from kills back into the crystal's light.
• Recover the Shards: bring three shards in from the far edges while every monster chases the carrier.
• Twin Seals: hold two seals at once, so it needs at least two heroes.
• Guard the Lightwells: keep three lightwells alive until the timer runs out.

Over each wave the crystal also charges a Crystal Surge. When it's full, a hero in the light sets it off: every monster nearby is blasted back and stunned, heroes are healed and cleansed, and anyone down in the light jumps back up. It's the best "we're about to lose" button in the game. The beginner guide shows when to press it, and everything else your first run needs.

Realms and bosses

Each realm has its own map and its own boss, and the ground is part of the fight. Walls block, shallow water slows everyone, and a normal monster knocked into water, lava or the void is gone for good. There's no better sound than a whole pack splashing into a river. Elites dig in at the edge, and bosses and flyers never fall, so save the knockback for the crowd around them.

Each boss is tougher than the last, and the Abyssal Golem has about three times the Skeleton Warlord's health. Bosses telegraph their attacks, so watch for the wind-up, and they enrage at half health. Kill one and every monster it summoned drops with it. The first wave of realms 2, 3 and 4 also rolls a surprise: Ambush (every portal at once), Elite Hunt, Swarm or Siege.

Between bosses you meet 13 kinds of monsters. Most go for the crystal: Slimes that split, Bombers that sprint at it and explode, Wraiths that fly straight over the fight. Three kinds hunt heroes instead. Hounds chase whoever is weakest, Stalkers pin anyone who wanders off, and Hexers stick a Doom mark on a hero that blows up unless a friend runs over to help. Elites add twists of their own, like the Shielded one you have to hit from behind.

The six heroes

Every hero has a basic attack, two skills, a dash, a passive and an ultimate that charges as you fight.

The Warrior is the toughest and the easiest to learn. The Mage hits hardest but goes down fast, so keep someone in front. The Archer's Ballista Shot crosses the whole arena, perfect for a boss lined up behind its minions. The Cleric revives twice as fast as anyone, and the Cleric's ultimate brings every fallen friend back at once: keep the Cleric alive and the Cleric will save the run. The Engineer is the tower builder of the group, and the Assassin is the hero for players who like risky, flashy plays.

Bots on Auto fill the gaps in a set order: a tank, then a healer, then damage. That's a great rule for a group of friends too. The heroes guide compares all six and helps you choose your first.

What do you keep after a run?

This is what pulls you back for one more. Three kinds of progress stay with you:

1. Hero levels and the skill tree. Each hero levels up on their own, up to level 75, with a skill point every level for a huge tree with six arms. You can't fill it all, so two players with the same hero can play them completely differently. Respec is free, so try wild builds.
2. Gear. Six slots, four grades from Common to Legendary, a different weapon set for each hero and 20 legendary powers that change how a hero plays. Every drop rolls a little differently, so there's always a better one out there.
3. The Armory. Upgrade your favourite pieces, reroll stats, raise an item a grade, salvage the rest, and buy forge crates with the gold you earned. Crates cost in-game gold only, never real money.

The best part: you keep the gold, shards and gear you found even when a run is lost, and a win pays a big bonus on top. A bad night still moves you forward.

How hard does Rogue Defenders get?

Beat Normal and Tier 1 opens. Win a tier and the next one opens, all the way to Tier 10. Each tier keeps the rules below it and adds a new one: more elites, a smaller crystal light, heroes who stay down if no one reaches them in time, a crystal that stops healing between waves, and at the top, a random curse every realm. Monsters get tougher at every step, and the rewards grow with them: Tier 10 pays two and a half times as much.

Endless mode keeps going after wave 20, looping the realms with bigger waves and a new curse every few waves, for groups who want to see how far they can go. And once a run, after a boss, the void offers a Void Pact: take a nasty curse until the next boss, and if you survive, everyone gets an epic-or-better crate. It only counts if every living player stands on the sigil to accept, so expect a lot of "are we doing this?" in your group.

What is Crystal Clash in Rogue Defenders?

Crystal Clash is the game's PvP mode: a 1v1 battle on one lane or a 2v2 on two lanes, from the same title screen, with the same account and rooms. It isn't the separate Steam game of the same name by Crunchy Leaf Games.

Each side has a Crystal behind two towers per lane, and the Crystal shoots back. You earn gold every second and spend it sending units down the lanes. Your hero is your commander, whose perks shape your whole army, and also a free fighter you can send in yourself. Break their towers, then shatter their Crystal. If it drags on, buildings start to crumble faster, and at ten minutes the healthier Crystal wins, so there's always a finish.

Everyone starts equal. No gear comes over from co-op, and every player has all 28 unit cards from the start. You bring a War Band of 8, which opens slot by slot as you level up during the match, so the big stuff arrives mid-fight. The fun is in outsmarting your friend: you both see each other's bands at the start, and every card says what beats it. The Crystal Clash deck guide covers building a band, and the 2v2 lane battle strategy covers teaming up. Coming from Clash Royale? See our honest list of Clash Royale alternatives on PC and in the browser.

Practise against bots on Easy, Normal or Hard, hop into a quick match that starts within seconds and fills empty seats with bots, or open a room with a code for your friends. There's no ranked ladder: it's quick matches and rooms, played for bragging rights.

What is free, and what does Pixaplay Pass add?

Rogue Defenders is free to try, and the free part isn't a demo. You get the full 20-wave run, online and couch co-op, and all of Crystal Clash.

The room's host sets the tier, so if one friend has the Pass, everyone in their room plays at that tier. Heroes stay each player's own. One Pass opens every Pixaplay game in full, and the Pixaplay Pass guide has the details.

How do you play Rogue Defenders with friends?

Three ways to get the squad together:

• Online: one of you makes a room and shares its 4-letter code. You can also browse public rooms by mode and tier, or invite friends from the Pixaplay panel and follow them into their rooms. Our guide to joining a friend's game walks through it.
• On one screen: up to four of you on one computer, with keyboard and mouse, a second arrow-key layout and gamepads. Press Enter, Num Enter or A to join, pick a hero, and go.
• With bots: any empty seat can be a bot. Bots answer quick messages like Help!, Defend the crystal! and Go to the objective!, and follow your map pings.

If your connection drops, a bot plays your hero until you're back, and your rewards are safe. There's no voice chat in the game, so most groups hop on a call; Pixaplay's overlay adds text chat with your friends and your party.

How does it compare with other co-op games?

Rogue Defenders sits close to hero-led defense games like Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die, and to co-op roguelites like Risk of Rain 2. The big difference is that it opens in a browser tab, so the friend on a Chromebook can play too. Our lists of games like Dungeon Defenders and co-op roguelite games to play with friends say honestly where each of the others is the better pick.

Want something slower, where you build a village by day and hold its walls at night? Try Hearthfall, Pixaplay's co-op village defense game, in early-access beta for Pixaplay Pass members. For more games to play together, see Pixaplay's list of co-op browser games.

Where to start

1. Open Rogue Defenders in your browser.
2. Pick the Warrior or the Cleric for your first run: both forgive mistakes.
3. Turn bots on if you're short of friends.
4. Read the beginner guide before the first boss, then try Crystal Clash against Easy bots.