V 1.1 - Jun 24, 2024
Welcome to SOULKEEP
Soulkeep Tower Defense is a fun and engaging Tower Defense game. The launch is built atop the Splinterlands platform. The game will have crossover with Splinterlands non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and use the same main currencies as Splinterlands – Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), Credits, and Splintershards (SPS). The game will have its own NFTs, however.
Thanks to Web 3.0 technology powered by the HIVE blockchain, each Defense (tower, spell, or hero) in Soulkeep is an NFT owned by a player. That means players can do anything they want with their Defenses, including playing the game for rewards, holding them as collectibles, trading them on the peer-to-peer market, renting them out, combining them to level up, or even burning them to obtain Dark Energy Crystals (DEC).
NFT DEFENSES
There are several types of Soulkeep NFTs. The main collectables are unopened Booster Packs which contain random selection of five defense NFTs.
The first Booster Pack will be called the “Nightmare Pack”:
There are two categories of defenses found in booster packs:
Towers - 23 different options
Spells - 24 options
A third category, Heroes, will be minted as a Promo airdrop only. Players who purchased the minimal number of packs during pre-sale will be eligible for this airdrop.
Soulkeep NFTs act a lot like Splinterlands cards. You can use core Splinterlands tools on the main site to handle a lot of the NFT’s blockchain features:
Buy, sell and trade individual Defenses using the Splinterlands Card Market or third-party markets. There will be a special Soulkeep tab to handle this.
Level NFTs up by combining them.
Rent NFTs.
Soulkeep Packs can also be tokenized like any other pack in Splinterlands.
Opening BOOSTER PACKS
Booster Packs can be opened at the usual Mana Well used to open other Splinterlands packs.
When Booster Packs are present in your collection (Displayed in the bottom section of the page), simply drag them into the mana well to open the pack and reveal the NFTs within.
Using potions (the same Alchemy or Legendary potions as with other Splinterlands packs) when opening a pack is beneficial in bettering your chances of receiving Gold Foil or Legendary Defenses.
Rarities
Rarities determine how likely a certain Defense is to be found in a Booster Pack. The rarity, along with the set, determines how many copies need to be combined to level up a Defense to reach its Maximum Potential. Chances of Defense appearing in packs are:
Legendary: .8% (1.6% with Legendary potion)
Epic: 4%
Rare: 20%
Common: 75.2%
Gold FOIL Defenses
All Defense are available in a much more scarce Gold Foil variation that offers bonuses when playing and for which fewer Defenses are required to level up.
Gold Foil variants will have more energy per card and also give all players an increased chance of earning loot at the end of each tournament.
When opening packs, every Defense has a 2% chance of turning gold just after being revealed. Using an Alchemy Potion when opening packs will double your chances (4%) of an NFT turning gold.
Combining Defenses
In Soulkeep, just like in Splinterlands, Defenses are leveled up by combining earlier levels of the same NFT. Here is a quick guide on combining and leveling.
Leveling up any Defense NFT gives it a lot more power in the battle:
Higher base stats such as damage, fire rate, and range.
Unlocks a “tech tree” of abilities it can use in the game as the player upgrades it with Mana. The higher level a Tower is, for example, the more upgrade types it can have in a given battle and also the more upgrade tiers can be used for a given upgrade type – with each tier having incrementally stronger stats.
All Defense NFTs can level to Level 10 at maximum.
Rare Defenses immediately begin as Level 3. Epic as Level 5, and Legendary as Level 7.
You need this many more Defenses (at Level 1 value) to combine to get to next levels:
Gold Foil Defenses require fewer cards to level up:
GAMEPLAY
Glossary of Terms
Leagues: Advanced play leads to reaching higher leagues. Reaching higher leagues leads to greater rewards and share of the tournament reward pool but also more challenging gameplay. Higher leagues generally require higher-level NFTs to succeed.
Fiend Soul Tokens: “Soulbound” tokens that can be earned as rewards for each Fiend you kill, to be used to level up through leagues. There will be Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary tokens.
Health Points: How many Fiends can breach the soul gates at the end of each path before the player loses.
Mana: A currency used during battle and used to purchase towers and spells to put out on the map. Each thing the player wants to place or upgrade will have a mana cost to it. The players will earn more mana for each Fiend they slay.
Heroes: Units that can be dropped anywhere on the battlefield and provide special cool abilities, but may also die when hit points are depleted. Once dead, heroes will not be revived during the current battle.
Towers: These are the Defenses for the game that can be dropped in pre-defined spots on any map. They will have base stats that will be able to level up as the player progresses. Towers can be upgraded during gameplay to hugely boost their stats, depending on their overall level.
Spells: Special abilities that can be dropped on the map. They can be unleashed in battle by the player, on a limited basis, leading to huge defensive or attack advantages. Some towers can only be dropped on paths (those that have allied troops to help you), others can be dropped only on towers (those that buff the tower stats).
Fiends: These are all the enemies that will be attacking the player. Wave after wave of Fiends will advance each level. Fiends will have all sorts of abilities and defenses, and some will even fly and can only be targeted by airborne Defenses.
Fiend Bosses: Big Fiends that are much tougher to take down. Will usually come along during the final wave of a given battle. Often have special dastardly abilities.
Path: this is the route that the Fiends will take across the map to reach the player. Most levels will have several paths.
Wave: A round of Fiends that attacks the player in set difficulty, spawn amount, and via set direction / path.
Gateway Levels: Tower Defense levels tuned in sequence to play ‘normally’ (similar to other premium Tower Defense games). The game will recommend a set of towers and spells that can be used to beat these levels. Gateway levels for a given league must be passed before the player may unlock the next league.
Tournaments: Every day, each league has its own tournament with its own randomly chosen map, fiend attack pattern, and battle rules. Players may enter the tournament of the league they are in, and higher tournaments earn an outsized share of the reward pool. The first entry of a given tournament each day is free, but further entries of the same tournament will cost an incrementally large spend of Tournament Tickets.
Tower Energy: Each spell and tower has a certain amount of games it can be used for before it is taken out of commission for a while to recharge / heal based on its Fatigue time.
Soulkeep Home
From the main page at http://soulkeep.splinterlands.com/ players can manage their Defenses, see battle history, play Gateway levels, unlock new Leagues, or enter Tournaments.
League Info
Hitting the League button in the upper right will show the player which league they are on and how many Fiend Souls are needed to unlock the next league – along with the additional rewards that the next league will grant the player.
Once a player has finished Gateway Levels for a league and collected enough Fiend Souls, they may hit the Unlock button and proceed to a new league.
The “DECK BUILDER”
Upon hitting the Battle or Tournament button, players start a battle based on the league and mode they are at.
As a first step, the player will be able to build their battle deck using Defense NFTs they own.
Any Defense played must have energy.
Can add one Hero: If a player has more than one, can swap it out.
Can sort the NFTs by attributes:
Level: From 1 to 10
Rarity: From Common to Legendary
Mana Cost: From low to high
Alphabetical: From A to Z
Tapping on a NFT selects it and shows its full stats in a popup.
Can then tap on an empty slot at bottom to move that NFT in battle.
NFTs may also be dragged in and out of slots.
Each NFT’s available plays left are shown in a bar beneath its image. If the NFT energy is exhausted out its Fatigue time left is shown, counting down.
The bottom of the Deck Builder holds the number of Tower and Spell slots available based on the current battle parameters.
Free Defenses: Level 0
As a means of learning the game for free, players in League 1 will be given several Level 0 non-NFT “Default Defenses” as they play through early levels. If the player does not own the NFT for the suggested tower / spell, then the Level 0 Default Defense will be ‘pre-loaded’ in the Tower and Spell slots.
Note that these Defenses do not count for any reward earnings and cannot be used in tournaments.
BATTLE DETAILS: ALL MODES
The top of the screen will show info about the upcoming level such as how many waves there are and how many Health Points (hearts) the level has.
Mini Map: The player may tap on the thumbnail of the map or the name of the level to show a fuller screen layout map of the given level. This can be helpful for planning.
Fiend Info: An icon shows the main boss or toughest Fiend on that level. The player may tap to show information about the upcoming waves of Fiends. This can help them think about setting up a deck with proper Defenses.
BATTLE RULES: TOURNAMENTS
If the player is in playing a Tournament, the player is given a clear overview of the random Battle Rules.
Rules of Combat: Different modifiers here make battle more interesting. Some examples:
ENERGY
Towers, spells, and heroes must have energy left to be playable. Each Defense can be played a set number of battles before it must rest and recharge.
Energy regenerates at the Fatigue rate, which differs per Defense.
In the future, some limited energy per day may be purchasable for DEC/DEB-B or Credits. The cost of energy will vary by league.
Locked NFTs
The NFTs a player chooses to use in the game must be locked. When opening a booster pack, NFT Defenses are locked by default. A player must unlock NFTs if they desire to sell them in the market.
Locking and unlocking can be handled in the Items section on Splinterlands.com via the Soulkeep tab.
MAIN Gameplay
The game then begins. There are two main round types during gameplay:
Pre-Wave Setup: Wisely place your Towers and Spells and Heroes and upgrade them accordingly.
The Wave Attacks: Defend! You then survive the attack or lose if you run out of hearts.
Pre-Wave Setup
From here the player can build out and/or upgrade their towers, hero, and lay out their spells:
Health - Starts at a certain level then goes down as the play advances.
Mana- Each level starts with a bit of Mana for the player to use to buy Towers and Spells.
Start Wave - Hit Start to exit the setup mode and start the battle.
Wave Indicator - The number of waves of Fiends that will attack throughout the course of this level.
Settings - Can adjust things like audio volume.
Tower - A tower the player has placed on the field.
Sell Back Button - Can sell the tower back for Mana. Once used a tower can only be sold for half the Mana spent on it.
Upgrade Options - All upgrade paths are shown for this tower. The higher level the tower, the more upgrade types and levels of upgrades there will be. These upgrades cost Mana as shown.
Available Towers for the player to summon
Tap the NFT then place it on any available slot on the map.
The Mana cost per tower will be shown in the bottom center.
Towers will have a limited number of uses per battle, shown in the upper left diamond.
The Hero - Can drag the hero into battle at will.
Available Spells for the player to use.
Drag a spell into the desired location on the battlefield.
Tap on a Deployed spell to bring up its Recall icon. Tap this icon to bring the spell back into the deck if you change your mind about using it.
Some spells are Immediate and will be activated immediately, upon confirmation via a confirmation popup.
Like Towers, Spells have a Mana cost and number of Uses per battle.
This Fiend Warning Icon will indicate where Fiends will begin to enter the map over the course of the next wave.
The BATTLE: Attack & Defend!
Fiends will then begin to stream in. Initial waves will consist of a pre-set ‘swarm’ of Fiends, per the battle parameters. At the later waves a Boss attack may occur and the Fiends will be joined by a leader who is very tough to kill and who may have special abilities such as spawning new Fiends, healing nearby Fiends, freezing nearby towers, etc.
The player can watch the battle unfold in ‘real time’, fast-forward, or even skip it entirely to see the ending.
Health - If a Fiend reaches the end of the path Soul Gate, they will breach the gate and reduce the player’s health. Stronger Fiends cause a greater impact on health. When this goes to zero, the level is lost.
Mana - The player will earn Mana by killing Fiends. Stronger Fiends earn the player more Mana.
Speed Up - A toggle button. The player can speed the battle playback (fast forward) by 2x, 4x or back to 1x.
Skip – The player can opt to skip the battle mode entirely and see the outcome immediately
Wave Indicator
WIN! Post-Wave Retreat or Continue
When all Fiends in an early wave are killed (and the player still has life points left), then the player has achieved WAVE VICTORY. A summary will show the results:
The player has two choices:
If this isn’t the final wave, the player may “RETREAT” with winnings and keep any rewards earned.
LOST! GAME OVER
If the player dies during a Wave (hits zero health), the end game will show a summary of results.
TOURNAMENTS
To enter a tournament, hit the TOURNAMENT button and play. You can play one try each day for free. Further plays will cost Tournament Tickets. Higher level leagues will cost more tickets, and the ticket cost will double with each attempt at replay.
Tournament Rewards
Each day, a given reward pool will be split among the 10 tournaments. Tournaments in higher leagues will receive a greater share of the rewards:
If there are no entries for a given tournament league, then rewards will be distributed among lesser leagues.
The Leaderboard
Within a given league, the reward pot will be split as follows.
The top 10 players will get a percentage:
Further, top players will additionally get more of the prize pot:
The top 10% of players will share 18.86% of the pot.
The top 25% will get their piece of 9.43%
And the top 50% will get a share of 4.71%
TOURNAMENT PLAY AND SCORING
Tournaments act similar to Gateway play, but with some key differences:
Battle rules will make each subsequent wave harder and harder. Don’t worry! You can handle it!
You will earn a score based on a) one point for each Mana you earn by killing fiends. Tougher fiends are worth more points. b) multiple points for each heart you have left at the end of each wave.
If you manage to get past all waves of the first tournament level, you will enter an extreme BONUS level, where you can pick new defenses and play an entirely new level against new fiends, racking up more points.
Additional Loot
At the end of each tournament play, players may also randomly win loot drops of rewards.
Potions
Packs
Soul Boxes – coming soon.
The higher the league, the greater the chance at winning a loot drop.
Gold Foil cards used in battle will result in a 10% loot bonus chance per card and Promo Cards will result in another 10% bonus. This can be stacked, so if playing with 10 Gold Foils in a full deck and a Promo card there can be up to 110% more chance of loot.
GAME MECHANICS
DETERMINISTIC PLAY
To avoid cheating by bots or other potential hacks, the game will be fully server-side authoritative. That is, all gameplay calculations will be calculated on the server, with the math behind all movement, damage, etc. handled via server-side code and then expressed on the front-end in an animated and exciting fashion.
Fiend Levels & Fiend Souls
Each league unlocks new types of Fiends, with fiend families such as Ghosts, Witches, Minions, and Shadowborn. Fiends from previous leagues may also appear, but in a leveled-up state. The level of a Fiend will match the League being played – so a given Fiend may range from Level 1 through Level 10. The health points, speed, attack damage, and other abilities of a Fiend will increase with each level.
When a Fiend is killed a “Fiend Soul Token” will be given out as a potential reward. The number of Soul Tokens earned will depend on the level of the Fiend.
There are Legendary, Epic, Rare, and Common Fiend Soul Tokens, based on the rarity of the Fiend itself.
Towers
Placing: Each level map will have several fixed tower locations. The player selects which tower they want to put into the available slots.
Stats: Towers will have base attack stats and Damage Per Second (DPS) based on their base level & rank. Higher level towers can also be upgraded more and support more spells.
Upgrading: If a tower can be upgraded, an upgrade arrow will appear and light up next to it. Tap on the tower to see available upgrades. A tower can be upgraded based on its predefined abilities (higher level towers have more abilities and options). For example a Gloom Owl tower may have two Upgrade Paths: Tougher Talons (which greatly increases damage) or Hoot Power (which expands the attack range).
Based on the NFT level, there may be up to five levels of upgrade available, each with incrementally better stats.
Selling Back Towers: Players can hit the sell button to sell back their Tower for Mana. If the tower hasn’t been used yet, the player can get a full refund. If already used, this will refund 50% of the Mana spent on the tower to date (including all upgrades).
Spells
Spells are special abilities that may be dropped anywhere on the map during Setup mode.
1. You can bring a limited number of spells into a given battle.
2. During Setup mode, any spells available will be shown on the bottom of the UI, showing their Mana cost (at bottom) and number of spell casts (at top, in the diamond) that are still available:
3. If a spell is active at the bottom, has uses left, and the player has enough Mana to spend on it, the player may tap on a spell to put it into play during the Setup round, or may drag the spell into the right spot on the map.
There are a few classes of spells:
Immediate Spells: Some spells can trigger upon tapping them. For example Heartgiver can be dragged anywhere and immediately give the player more Health. Cheapo can be used to immediately reduce the Mana cost of the next Tower or Spell purchase.
Area Spells: The player may drag the spell icon anywhere on screen, as long as the radius doesn’t go beyond the edge of the map. The spell’s influence radius will be shown via a glowing circle.
Summon Spells: Somespells summon allies or minions. These will only be playable on a path, similar to the Hero.
Buff Spells: These spells can be playable on any current tower. The tower’s stats will be increased giving it more damage, range, or special abilities such as critical hit.
Spell Triggering
Spells can triggered in a few ways based on their base ability:
Buff Spells will enhance the core stats / abilities of any tower or hero within its radius. Usually active for an entire wave.
Area Spells will rain a slew of damaging items in the given radius after being triggered by a Fiend stepping into the given radius.
When an area spell is triggered its influence circle will glow / animate.
Area spells usually can last for a set duration or can affect a set number of Fiends. See each Spell’s description for the details.
Summon Spells will drop troops at the center of the chosen radius area to add any ally to aid your other Defenses. Troops will appear immediately and will guard the path to the best of their ability.
Troops will be targeted by passing Fiends and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Troops will have their own health bars and disappear after being killed.
If a Spell was dragged onto the battlefield and not triggered, it will persist and remain on the battlefield for use during the next wave. A player may drag a spell off the map if they no longer want to use it.
If a spell was triggered, even if it was only partially used up, the spell will be removed when a new wave begins.
HEROES
Hero NFTs are units that can be placed and moved anywhere on the battlefield area paths, not just pre-defined slots. Each game can have one hero in its deck.
Heroes may be moved during the setup phase, and placed anywhere on the ‘road’ where the Fiends march. Heroes can be dragged around during setup to any valid spot.
A deployed Hero may also be dragged back to the bottom of the screen to the ‘hero holder’ to be saved for a later wave, if desired.
Unlike Tower NFTs, Heroes are susceptible to damage and will lose health and can die while fighting off Fiends.
Support
Game support can occur on Double Coconut’s support portal or by writing support@doublecoconut.com.
If you need technical assistance regarding SPS or NFT functions, reach out to Splinterlands Support!
Double Coconut or Splinterlands Support will never initiate contact with you. If you receive a message from someone claiming to be from Double Coconut Support staff or Splinterlands Support, it is almost certainly a scam. Please report the user to the nearest admin and do not click any links.