Everspring › Guides › Everspring: Immortal Defense
How to play Everspring: Immortal Defense
Everspring is a free fantasy tower-defense game. The elves of the Sylvan Reach are immortal only while the Everspring flows, and Warlord Gorrak wants to drink from it: an orc army that cannot die would wage war forever. As the Warden of the Grove, you build towers along the roads his horde marches down, command the elf warden Aelith, call down spells, and keep the Spring safe wave after wave.
Updated 19 October 2026 · every number on this page is read from the game's own balance file, web version 0.3.28. The iPhone and iPad app is built from the same code and can trail the web by a release.
The goal: keep the Spring's Light
Every road ends at the Everspring. The Spring holds a store of Light — 20 on the normal Warden difficulty — and every enemy that reaches it drains some. Most orcs and goblins cost 1 Light. A Wyvern costs 2, a Cave Troll or Gorrak's Champion 3, and Warlord Gorrak himself 5. When the Light runs out, the road is lost. Survive the last wave and the road is won.
How much Light you keep decides your grade. Finish with at least 90% of the Spring's Light and the road is yours with three stars; at least 50% earns two stars; anything less is a one-star win. Stars matter more than they look: each new star pays a one-time Essence bounty, and three stars on Warden or Ancient opens that road's Heroic version.
Your first road, step by step
- Read the wave preview. The strip above the tower bar shows the next wave's enemies and how many of each. Plan for what is coming, not what is on screen.
- Spend your starting gold before wave 1. You get 30 seconds before the first wave and 20 seconds between waves after that. On the Wellspring Glade you start with 220 gold: enough for three Ranger's Perches, or one Ranger and one Moonfire Altar with 50 gold left over.
- Build on the inside of bends. A tower beside a corner can reach the road on two sides, so it fires far longer at each enemy that walks past. Ranges are measured in tiles; a level-1 Ranger reaches 2.7 tiles.
- Upgrade before you spread out. One level-3 Ranger's Perch (230 gold in all) deals about 73 damage a second and reaches 3.1 tiles. Three level-1 Rangers (210 gold) deal about 50 between them and reach 2.7. Strong towers on good spots beat many weak ones.
- Call waves early when you are ready. Tapping the wave flag (or pressing Space) starts the next wave at once and pays one gold for every second left on the countdown. It also takes half of those seconds off your spells' cooldowns.
- Sell without fear. Selling returns 70% of everything spent on a tower, so moving a tower to a better spot costs less than leaking Light.
- Specialize at level 3. Every tower line forks into one of two specializations. That choice is the strongest single purchase in a run, so make it where the road is busiest.
Controls
Everspring is played the same way on a phone, a tablet or a computer; a keyboard just makes it faster.
| Action | Touch or mouse | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Build a tower | Tap a tower in the bar, tap a grass tile, tap Build | 1–6, then click a tile |
| Upgrade, specialize, sell, change targeting | Tap the tower | U upgrades the selected tower |
| Move Aelith | Tap Aelith, then tap the ground | H selects her |
| Aelith's ability | Tap the ability button | R |
| Cast a spell | Tap the spell, then the map | Q W E |
| Call the next wave / pause | Tap the wave flag / the pause button | Space |
| Game speed (up to 3×) | Tap the speed button | F |
| Cancel or open the menu | Tap the menu button | Esc |
Each shooting tower picks its target by one of five rules — First, Last, Strongest, Weakest or Nearest — and you can change it from the tower's panel. First (the enemy closest to the Spring) is the safe default; Strongest is the right call for a Sunpiercer or Siegebreaker that should spend its huge shots on brutes and bosses.
The four roads
The roads open in order: win one to unlock the next. Later roads give you more starting gold and multiply enemy health on top of the normal wave-by-wave growth.
| Road | Waves | Enemy health | Starting gold | How it opens | What makes it different |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Wellspring Glade | 20 | Base | 220 | Open from the start | Where the Spring rises. One road, many bends. |
| 2. Ashen Crossing | 25 | ×1.15 | 260 | Win Wellspring Glade | Two war-roads meet at a burnt river. Hold the crossing. 2 lanes. |
| 3. Root Halls | 30 | ×1.3 | 300 | Win Ashen Crossing | The Horde has dug beneath the Grove. The spiral is long — and every tower covers three roads. |
| 4. Moonwell Terraces | 25 | ×1.3 | 340 | Win Root Halls | The road forks, meets at the moonwell, and forks again. Moonfire reaches further under the moon. Moonfire Altars get +15% range here. Gorrak's Champion replaces the Cave Troll as the mini-boss. 2 lanes. |
On the Ashen Crossing two war-roads meet at a burnt river, so you split your defense early and merge it later. The Root Halls is a single spiral: the road is long, but every tower near the middle sees it three times. Moonwell Terraces is a night road that forks, meets again at the moonwell and forks a second time; towers at the meeting point see the whole horde, and Moonfire Altars reach 15% further in the moonlight.
Difficulty
Every road can be played at three difficulties. Warden is the game as designed; Sapling is gentler for learning a road, and Ancient is for players who already own most of the Armory. Higher difficulties also pay more Essence (see the Armory), and some relics are only sold after a win on Warden or Ancient.
| Difficulty | Enemy health | Light (lives) | Gold | Essence earned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sapling | 80% | 30 | Normal | ×0.7 |
| Warden | 100% | 20 | Normal | Normal |
| Ancient | 130% | 15 | ×0.9 | ×1.5 |
Towers in one minute
There are 6 tower lines, each with 3 levels and 2 specializations: 12 endgame towers, 6 of them with an automatic ability. Three lines are yours from the first game; the other three are bought with Essence in the Armory.
- Ranger's Perch (70 gold) — cheap, fast physical arrows that hit flying enemies. Weak against heavy armor.
- Moonfire Altar (100) — slower magic bolts that ignore armor and hit flying enemies. Weak against shamans, who resist magic.
- Grove Warden (90) — summons treants that stand on the road and stop enemies in their tracks while your towers shoot.
- Frost Well (85) — low damage, but its bolts slow everything they hit; more time in range means more damage from every other tower.
- Dawn Ballista (120) — heavy bolts that burst on impact and wreck groups. Cannot hit flying enemies.
- Spirit Beacon (110) — does not attack; boosts the damage of every tower within 2 tiles.
Full stats for every level and every specialization are in the tower and specialization guide. The enemy guide covers what each orc is weak to.
Aelith, the hero
Aelith Dawnwarden, Warden of the Grove, fights on the road with you. She attacks on her own, moves where you send her, and earns experience during a run, up to level 20. Each level multiplies her damage by 1.12 and her health by 1.07, so a level-20 Aelith hits more than eight times as hard as a level-1 one. If she falls, she returns 12 seconds later. Her weapon gives her an ability on a 20-second cooldown.
| Level | Health (no armor relic) | Base damage | XP needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 320 | 24 | 0 |
| Level 5 | 419 | 38 | 700 |
| Level 10 | 588 | 67 | 3,200 |
| Level 15 | 825 | 117 | 9,800 |
| Level 20 | 1157 | 207 | 23,900 |
Her relics change how she fights. The Ashwood Bow keeps her at range; the Moonsilver Blade turns her into a blocker who holds the road like a treant. Relics climb in order — rare, then epic, then legendary — and the epic and legendary ones are sold only after a deed is done.
| Relic | Rarity | Stats | Ability | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashwood Bow | Common | Ranged · 2.2 tiles · Damage ×1.0 · 1.2 shots/s | Arrow Storm: Ten arrows fall on the target area. | From the start |
| Moonsilver Blade | Rare | Melee · blocks the road · Damage ×1.6 · 1.4 strikes/s · Cleaves 50% to neighbours | Whirlwind: A spinning cut that hits everything around her. | Armory, 300 Essence |
| Stormcaller Staff | Epic | Magic · ignores armor · Damage ×1.25 · chains to 3 · Range 2.4 tiles | Chain Storm: Lightning leaps across five enemies. | Armory, 650 Essence after the deed “Cross the ashes” |
| Sunlance | Legendary | Pierces every enemy in a line · Damage ×1.9 · ignores 50% armor · Range 2.6 tiles | Solar Charge: Dash three tiles through the horde, burning everything on the way. | Armory, 1500 Essence after the deed “Hold every road” |
| Leaf Mail | Common | Armor 10% | — | From the start |
| Bark Plate | Rare | +120 HP · Armor 35% | — | Armory, 300 Essence |
| Starweave Cloak | Epic | +60 HP · Armor 10% · Dodges 25% of hits · Ability cooldown −25% | — | Armory, 650 Essence after the deed “Beyond the last wave” |
| Everspring Aegis | Legendary | +100 HP · Armor 25% · Shield of Light: 100, regenerates 3/s | — | Armory, 1500 Essence after the deed “The Root Halls, Ancient” |
The deeds that open the higher relics:
- Cross the ashes — Win the Ashen Crossing on Warden or Ancient. Opens: Stormcaller Staff.
- Beyond the last wave — Hold 10 Endless waves past any road's final wave. Opens: Starweave Cloak.
- Hold every road — Win all three roads of the Grove on Warden or Ancient. Opens: Sunlance.
- The Root Halls, Ancient — Win the Root Halls on Ancient. Opens: Everspring Aegis.
Spells
Spells cost nothing but time. Each has its own cooldown, and calling a wave early shortens all of them.
| Spell | Cooldown | What it does | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunfire | 60 s | Call a shard of the sun down: 140 true damage in 1.3 tiles and burning. | From the start |
| Elven Reinforcements | 25 s | Two elven spearmen hold the road for 15 s. | Armory, 180 Essence |
| Time Bloom | 90 s | Every enemy on the map is frozen for 3 s. | Armory, 400 Essence |
Sunfire's damage is true damage: armor and magic resistance do not reduce it, and it burns. That makes it the answer to a Cave Troll, whose regeneration stops while it burns, and to Gorrak's Champion, whose shield wall does not stop burns. Time Bloom is your emergency brake: three seconds with the whole horde frozen is often enough to finish a boss in the last bend.
Essence and the Armory
Essence is the currency you keep between runs. Unlocks are paid for mostly by accomplishments rather than by grinding:
- Your first victory on each road at each difficulty pays a one-time bounty of 200 Essence × the road's number, halved on Sapling and doubled on Ancient. Winning Moonwell Terraces on Ancient for the first time pays 1,600.
- Every new star pays 40 × the road's number, with the same difficulty scaling.
- Endless records pay 75 × the road's number, again scaled by difficulty, each time you pass a new 10-wave mark.
- Kills and cleared waves pay a little, and repeat victories pay a fifth of the first-win bounty, so a stuck player still moves forward.
The Armory sells 42 items for 13,930 Essence in all: 3 towers, 6 second specializations, 2 spells, 25 permanent Wardenship upgrades and 6 hero relics. Wardenship upgrades are permanent and apply to every road:
| Upgrade | Essence | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Keen Edges I | 100 | All towers +5% damage. |
| Keen Edges II | 220 | All towers +5% damage (10% total). |
| Keen Edges III | 450 | All towers +5% damage (15% total). |
| Far Sight I | 100 | All towers +4% range. |
| Far Sight II | 220 | All towers +4% range (8% total). |
| Far Sight III | 450 | All towers +4% range (12% total). |
| War Chest I | 80 | +50 starting gold. |
| War Chest II | 180 | +50 starting gold (100 total). |
| War Chest III | 360 | +60 starting gold (160 total). |
| Deeper Waters I | 100 | The Everspring holds +3 Light. |
| Deeper Waters II | 220 | +3 Light (6 total). |
| Deeper Waters III | 450 | +4 Light (10 total). |
| Quickened Rites I | 150 | Spell cooldowns −10%. |
| Quickened Rites II | 300 | Spell cooldowns −10% (20% total). |
| Quickened Rites III | 550 | Spell cooldowns −10% (30% total). |
| Salvage I | 120 | Selling refunds 80%. |
| Salvage II | 260 | Selling refunds 90%. |
| Bold Warden I | 150 | Calling a wave early pays ×1.5 gold. |
| Bold Warden II | 320 | Calling a wave early pays ×2 gold. |
| Deep Roots I | 120 | Treants and reinforcements +20% HP. |
| Deep Roots II | 260 | Treants and reinforcements +25% HP (45% total). |
| Spoils of War I | 200 | +8% gold from kills. |
| Spoils of War II | 420 | +8% gold from kills (16% total). |
| Warden's Vigor I | 150 | Aelith +15% HP. |
| Warden's Vigor II | 320 | Aelith +15% HP (30% total). |
Endless, Heroic and the Daily Trial
Endless
Win a road and you can keep going. Endless waves keep growing, Warlord Gorrak returns every 10 waves past the road's final wave, and every new 10-wave record pays Essence. Before an Endless run you may take on up to three curses; each one multiplies what Endless pays (up to ×2.5 in total), and your best wave is kept separately for every combination of curses.
| Curse | Effect | Endless reward multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Swift Horde | Enemies move 25% faster. | ×1.2 |
| Hardy Horde | Enemies have 25% more health. | ×1.25 |
| Iron Skin | Every enemy gains +20% armor. | ×1.3 |
| Dear Timber | Towers, upgrades and specializations cost 25% more. | ×1.2 |
| No Warden | Aelith leaves the field. The towers hold alone. | ×1.25 |
| Silent Grove | No spells. | ×1.15 |
Heroic roads
Three stars on a road at Warden or Ancient opens its Heroic version: twelve hard late-game waves that end with Warlord Gorrak, only 5 Light, no second chance, and the road's signature enemy joining the waves, on three of the four roads as a tougher elite. You start with 560 extra gold, because the battle opens mid-war. The first Heroic clear of each road pays 300 Essence × the road's number.
- Wellspring Glade: Warg packs run with every wave.
- Ashen Crossing: Shamans march with every wave, healing the horde.
- Root Halls: A Cave Troll leads every third wave.
- Moonwell Terraces: Berserkers storm both terraces in every wave.
The Daily Trial
After your first win on the Wellspring Glade, a new Trial opens every day — the same one for every player. Each Trial picks a road, one twist and one barred tower line (Ranger's Perch, Moonfire Altar or Grove Warden, so it always bites), then runs twelve waves that open mid-fight and end with Warlord Gorrak. The Trial day turns over at 08:00 UTC.
Your score is 100 points for each wave held, 20 for each point of Light kept, and 300 more for holding all twelve. The first win each day pays 150 Essence, plus 15 for each day of your streak after the first, up to 240 at a full week. Finishing a Trial, win or lose, keeps the streak alive; missing a day resets it.
| Twist | Effect |
|---|---|
| Swift Horde | Enemies move 20% faster. |
| Iron Skin | Every enemy gains +20% armor. |
| Hardy Horde | Enemies have 25% more health. |
| Thin Light | The Spring holds only 10 Light. |
| Lean Purse | You start with 30% less gold. |
| Silent Grove | No spells in this Trial. |
| Fog of War | No preview of the next wave. |
Twelve tips that win more roads
- Kill shamans first. An Orc Shaman heals every wounded enemy within 1.6 tiles by 10 health each second. It resists 60% of magic, so let arrows or Sunfire do it.
- Answer armor with magic. An Orc Brute shrugs off 65% of arrow damage but takes every point of a Moonfire bolt.
- Answer the air before wave 5. Bat Swarms arrive on wave 5 and fly over treants. Among towers, only the Ranger's Perch, Moonfire Altar, Frost Well and the Siegebreaker reach them; a Dawn Ballista and its Sunburst Engine cannot.
- Slow before you hit. A Frost Well in front of your damage towers keeps enemies in their range longer. It matters most from wave 10, when Warg Riders arrive at almost twice an orc's speed.
- Keep sappers off your treants. Goblin Sappers explode for 60 damage when they die. Kill them with range before they reach your Grove.
- Burn the troll. A Cave Troll regenerates 12 health a second, except while it is burning or poisoned: hit it with Sunfire, a Sunburst Engine or Thornguard treants.
- Do not over-hit berserkers. An Orc Berserker runs faster as it loses health, so finish it in one place rather than chipping at it along the road.
- Put beacons in the middle. A Spirit Beacon buffs everything within 2 tiles; surrounded by four towers it is worth more than a fifth tower.
- Specialize where the road is busiest. A level-3 tower is a commitment; the specialization is where the gold pays off.
- Call early in easy waves. The gold from early calls adds up, and the cooldown cut means your spells are ready for the boss wave.
- Use Aelith as a plug. Send her to the bend where enemies leak. With the Moonsilver Blade she blocks the road herself.
- Replay for stars, not just wins. Every new star pays Essence, and three stars on Warden opens Heroic.
Rewarded ads (always optional)
Everspring is free and is paid for by advertising. Wherever ads are available, the game offers three rewards for watching a short video, and they only ever play when you choose them — at most 5 a day:
- Warden's Boon — +100 starting gold for your next road.
- Double Essence — doubles what a finished run paid.
- Restore the Wellspring — once per run, a lost road comes back: the wave that broke you recoils, the Spring returns to 8 Light, and you replay that wave. It is not offered on Heroic roads or in the Daily Trial.
The iPhone and iPad app also shows a small banner below the board. Nothing in the game can be bought, and no account is ever needed; your progress stays on your device. Details are in the Everspring privacy policy.