Shop, Perks and Cages

B opens the shop (letters buy): Fury, Drums, scrolls, orb, staves, crystal and a mercenary catapult, with stock per player. Items give power, not income. Perks: pick 1 of 3 drawn at random, each with a bonus and a drawback. Buildings can wall off areas (cages); with the spawn flag you can release troops inside them to defend your base.

Buying and using items

With the Castle Shop open, each item's letter buys it, in grid order Q W E R · A S D F · Y X C V, or you can click it. B or Esc closes the shop. Items come in four kinds:

• Instant: takes effect on purchase (Fury, Quad Fury, Legendary Crystal, Mercenary Catapult).
• Permanent: takes one of your 6 inventory slots and works on its own (War Drums, Marching Pipes, Repair Rune, the staves).
• Consumable: waits in a slot until you use it with 1–6 and aim at an area (Scroll of Stone, Scroll of Haste).
• Active: stays in a slot and recharges between uses, aimed at an enemy troop (Thunder Orb).

Each item has a limited stock that refills over time, and some unlock later: Fury and the Mercenary Catapult at 5 minutes, Quad Fury at 10. War Drums and Marching Pipes don't stack, so one of each is the most you can own. The Repair Rune and the staves work around your worker, so where it stands matters.

The big ones: War Drums (650 gold, +33% damage for your whole team), Fury (600, +100% damage for 30s) and Quad Fury (1,400, +300% for 30s). Every item, with prices, is on the items page.

Power, not income

Items never add income: the same gold in troop buildings would pay 2% of their cost every 7 seconds and train troops on top. Buy items when their power matters right now; opening with War Drums is the classic beginner trap (more on the economy).

Perks

Before the match you pick one perk out of three drawn at random, or go without one (no bonus, no drawback). Each perk lasts the whole match. Three of them give you something to press:

• Overdrive: press V (or the button at the end of the resource bar, which shows the current penalty) to give all your troops +30% attack speed. While it's on, income drops 15% plus 5% more every 15s (up to 60%), charged per second; it stays on for at least one income cycle and the penalty recovers at the same pace.
• Production Enchantment: select a production building and press D: its troops gain +15% damage and HP, while all your troops have −3% damage and HP.
• No Towers: you start with a Tower Token (a free small tower), but can't build slot Y buildings.

All the perks are on the perks page. The Perks lesson, in the advanced Training, has you pick one of these three and use it in a short match; the Rally flag and cages lesson practices the cage described below.

Cages

Every castle and every building must stay reachable from the lanes, so you can never wall anything in completely. You can, however, enclose a pocket of empty ground with your buildings: that pocket is a cage. Troops that spawn inside it can't walk out, so they stay home and fight whatever comes within reach; with no enemy in sight, they simply wait. Flyers can't be caged: they fly out.

To fill a cage, select a building next to it, press F (or right-click the ground beside it) and click inside the cage. Two perks play with this: Golden Armor gives caged troops 30% spell resistance and +10% HP, but they give the enemy double bounty when they die; Wild Growth gives troops outside cages +3 HP/s regeneration at the cost of −10% base damage (caged troops are not affected).