PHYLOCA — player's guide
Everything on one page: what kind of game this is, how each mode works, and the controls. No spoilers you wouldn't want.
What kind of game is this?
Phyloca is a tower defense at heart — the genre where enemies march along paths toward your base and you place defenders to stop them. If you've ever played a tower defense before, the bones will feel familiar: waves, upgrades, an armor chart worth reading, and interest paid on savings.
Then it adds two twists that make it its own thing:
- You are on the field. One of your defenders is a hero — an animal general called an Envoy — that you personally steer, level up, and can even play from an over-the-shoulder action view. Think "tower defense meets a hero unit you command in the thick of it."
- Round survival, optional. Phyloca can also arm your Envoy with real weapons, shops and perks — up to a whole wave-survival mode with no towers at all, where you defend a boarded-up farmhouse round after round.
And one thing almost no game does: an optional GPS mode where walking in the real world moves your general on the map.
The story (10 seconds)
The Rustbug Horde — junk-built robot pests — wants to strip the humans' cottage for parts. The backyard wildlife, secretly equipped with very shiny technology, forms the Phyloca Guard. You lead it.
The five modes
| Mode | What it is | Good first pick? |
|---|---|---|
| 🏡 Story | 12 missions that each teach one idea — this is the natural way in. Earn up to 3 stars per mission; new Envoys join along the way. | ★ Start here |
| 🌊 Endless | Classic open-field defense, waves forever, +13% tougher each round. Chase your best score in the Wildlife World League. | After a few missions |
| 🌻 Full Bloom | The flagship: Endless plus the full weapons economy. Towers and guns share one Scrap purse — spending is the strategy. | Once you know the basics |
| 🌙 Cottage Nights | Pure round survival — no towers. Board the windows, buy guns, hold the Homestead. Going down ends the run. | When you want a thrill |
| 🌞 Outdoors (GPS) | Any of the three modes above, but your real-world steps move your Envoy. Double score in the sunshine. | Any time you're at a park |
Wardens — your towers are animals
Tap a card, then tap a grass hex to deploy. Ten specialists, each with a weapon class; the ▲/▼ chips on every card tell you what it's strong and weak against (armored Beetles shrug off acorns; shielded Orbs melt under crow lightning; flyers sail over everything except owls and bees). Wardens upgrade twice, and at Level 3 you pick one of two permanent specializations. On open maps, your Wardens' bodies block the bugs' path — build mazes, but the game politely refuses to let you seal the route entirely.
Your Envoy — the general is you
Pick one of five before each battle. They auto-fight anything inside their glowing ring, earn XP, and unlock three abilities (keys 1 2 3) as they level. Each is a different job:
- 🦊 Vixen — fast striker; fear roar, blazing dash, solar flare. Fights harder when the cottage is hurting.
- 🐢 Bastion — the wall; shield dome, taunt, quake. Upgrades cost less near him.
- 🦉 Athene — the tactician; recon marks, overclock, orbital starfall. Wardens near her shoot further.
- 🦌 Stagheart — the commander; the whole army fires faster, rally horn, one big heal.
- 🦡 Bruiser — the boss-hunter; duel lock, armor shred, unbreakable.
Two views, one battle
Press V (or the 🎥 button) to swap between:
- Overview — the classic top-down command seat. Build, upgrade, watch the whole field.
- Field view — over your Envoy's shoulder. Aim and fire yourself (manual aim hits harder), and in weapon modes this is where the guns live.
Everything can be done in both views; a minimap keeps you oriented in each. When your Envoy is getting mobbed, the game will suggest you drop in and take command.
The Porch Light 💡 (please read this one)
In weapon modes, press F or tap the lamp. Rustbugs love light: everything nearby stops marching on the cottage and comes for you instead. Why you'd want that:
- Lured bugs make no progress toward the cottage — a walking stall tactic.
- Lured kills pay +50% Scrap.
The catch: they will bite. You have health; hit zero and the light goes out, the pack turns back toward the cottage, and you respawn at home six seconds later (in Cottage Nights, going down ends the run instead). One rule to remember: the Porch Light only burns while you hold it — switching back to Overview dims it after a couple of seconds and releases the crowd.
Weapons & stations (Full Bloom / Cottage Nights)
| Station | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🛒 Supply Racks | Buy the gun displayed on the rack (walk up, press E or tap the prompt). Two weapon slots; Q swaps. |
| 🎰 Lucky Stump | 950 Scrap for a random weapon — the only source of the two wonders: Stormjar (chain lightning) and Sunbeam (splash ray). |
| 🔥 Bloomforge | 5000 Scrap turns your current gun into its Blooming version — much stronger, visibly petal-glowing. |
| 🍯 Nectar Taps | Four one-time perks: Oakhide (+health), Quickpaw (fast reload), Tailwind (fire rate), Cloverstep (speed). |
| 📦 Ammo Cache | Refills everything, bombs included. |
Also yours: a trowel melee bash (X repairs boards; melee is on desktop for now) and Seed Bombs (G) — grenades that leave a flower growing in the crater. Aim for heads: precise hits deal double.
In Cottage Nights, bugs chew through the plank barricades on building windows. Stand close and repair (X) — each board pays you 10 Scrap. A repair with a bug mid-chew earns a "CLUTCH REPAIR!" for good reason.
Outdoors: how GPS play works
- Choose 🌞 Outdoors → pick your mode. Your phone will ask for location permission; positions never leave your device.
- Your Envoy follows your real steps. Score is doubled, and steady walking earns bonus Scrap.
- The map is a loop: walk past one edge and you wrap in on the other side (there's a safety margin, so GPS wobble won't bounce you around).
- Optional: Pace the Perimeter — walk the edge of your park once, and the game scales its map to your space. Or skip it: by default one hex is about four metres.
Controls at a glance
Desktop
| Overview | WASD/edge pan · wheel zoom · Q/E rotate · click = select/build · right-click or double-click = move Envoy · Space call wave early |
|---|---|
| Field view | click to lock the mouse · look with mouse · WASD walk · LMB fire (hold for autos) · R reload · Q swap · G seed bomb · F Porch Light · E buy/upgrade · X repair/melee · B build at crosshair |
| Always | V switch view · 123 abilities · Esc pause |
Touch
| Overview | drag pan · pinch zoom · two-finger twist rotate · tap = select/build · double-tap = move Envoy · tap minimap to jump |
|---|---|
| Field view | left thumb = move stick · right thumb = look · FIRE button (hold for autos) · on-screen ⟳ reload, ⇄ swap, 🌰 bomb, 💡 lamp · tap the yellow prompt to buy/repair |
Celebrations & Legendary Moments 🎬
The game notices good play — kill chains, perfect waves, headshot streaks, clutch repairs — and celebrates on a ladder from NICE to LEGENDARY. A LEGENDARY (flawless missions, deep survival rounds, new records) triggers a slow-motion cinematic and records a real ~10-second video into the Moments gallery on the home screen — rewatch, share, or download your best plays.
Quick tips
- Read the ▲/▼ chips. A wall of one damage type always meets the wave that ignores it.
- Frogs don't kill anything — and they're one of the best Wardens in the game. Slow near your killzone, not near the spawn.
- Call waves early when you're comfortable — the bonus compounds with interest.
- In Full Bloom, an early SMG earns its cost back through lured +50% bounties.
- In Cottage Nights, repairs are income. A tidy house is a rich house.
- Hints are on by default and each appears exactly once — do the thing and it's gone forever. (Settings → Hints to toggle.)
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