How to play
Invaders Rivals is a turn-based artillery game for 2 to 8 players. Every pixel of the map is matter (rock, sand, water, lava, fire…) that follows simple rules and reacts with what touches it. Aiming matters, but what really matters is the chain of reactions a shot sets off. Every animation on this page is the game itself, playing a short scene.
Be the last team standing
Each player leads a team of invaders. Players take turns, and on your turn one of your invaders acts and fires one shot. An invader dies at 0 HP, or when it falls off the map or drowns. The last player with invaders still alive wins. If the last invaders die from the same blow, the match is a draw.
The last team standing wins
Every invader has 100 HP. Shells, falls, fire, lava and drowning all take them away. Once a player's last invader falls, that player is out.
Every pixel is matter
Sand falls and piles up, water runs and fills holes, lava meets water and turns into obsidian and steam. The world never stops moving, not even between turns.
Death changes the map
A fallen invader bursts into its matter, then leaves a stele whose legacy acts for 3 turns: sand, water, lava, a tree, a wall… An explosion right on the stele cancels it.
The sky sends the weapons
Every team starts with the same arsenal: no heroes. A chest falls every turn, drifting with the wind. Walk into it to open it and get a rarer weapon or a medkit. One chest in ten is a mimic that bites.
The end of the world
After the rounds the host chose (10 by default), the lava rises from the bottom a little more every round, lava bombs fall from the sky and medkits stop coming. Thirty rounds later, the team with the most HP wins.
Four steps, then the next player
Players take turns in order. At the start of the match the invaders are placed, either by the computer (the default) or by the players one at a time, on firm ground at least 48 cells from the enemies.
1Start of the turn
The wind changes (−10 to +10), a chest falls from the sky, and the legacies of the dead fire, then count down.
2Aim30 s
Pick one of your invaders (Tab or a click), then press ACTION (Enter). Walk (← → or A D), jump (Space, and again in the air for a double jump), open chests, choose a weapon (1…9) and fire one shot. Right click cancels. The jetpack and the drill are moves, not shots.
3Retreat3 s
The shot is gone. You can still move to take cover, but you can't shoot any more. F ends the turn early.
4Resolution≤ 10 s
The game waits until shells and thrown invaders have stopped moving. Then whoever touches fire, lava or acid takes its damage, and the next player starts their turn.
Good to know
- Drowning: an invader whose head goes under a liquid (water, lava, oil, acid) dies on the spot, unless it lives in that matter (Fishman in water, Lavaman in lava, Lizardman in acid; Cloudman never drowns).
- Falls: a fall of more than 48 cells hurts. Falling off the sides or the bottom of the map kills.
- Contact: lava 25 HP, fire 10 HP and 5 more the next turn unless the invader gets wet, acid 10 HP. Walking into lava on your own turn burns at once.
- Frozen: a frozen invader can't move and its team skips it on its next turn. If every invader of a team is frozen, the whole turn is skipped.
- Your turn ends as soon as your invader dies, whatever killed it.
- Online options: time per turn, friendly fire, free or hidden placement, ghost turns (an eliminated player still drops a chest or a mine), the weapons allowed, the map.
Weapons that work together
Weapons and matter combine. Most of these combos need two turns, or an ally setting things up first. Click a row to watch it.
| Combination | Name | What happens |
|---|
Reactions of matter
| When… | …it becomes |
|---|
12 invaders, 100 HP each
They all use the same weapons. What sets them apart is how matter hurts or helps them, a passive ability, the way they burst when they die, and their legacy over the next 3 turns. You can take the same invader more than once in a team. Click a row to watch its death and its legacy.
| Invader | Damage taken | Abilities | Death burst · legacy (3 turns) |
|---|
×2 takes twice the damage, ×0.5 half, immune none. Not listed: ×1.
The arsenal and how to use it
The ammunition belongs to the whole team. Base weapons are there from the start, in limited numbers. The others only come from chests. The host can change the starting arsenal of a match. Aim with the mouse, or with a finger on a touch screen and the FIRE button.
| Weapon | Ammo | Damage | How to use it | What it does |
|---|
Damage is the most a hit can do: it drops away from the center of an explosion and depends on the target's sensitivity. Wind: the bazooka, the sandbag, the cocktail and the doll drift a lot; the grenades and the mines a little.