Sunkeep

The goal

Every evening the Gloom, little round shadows with big curious eyes, walk the garden path toward the Sunstone, hoping to put out its light. Plant guards on the soil plots beside the path, grow them, and pop the Gloom back into fireflies. Survive every wave with some light left and dawn breaks: the garden is safe.

The rules

1. Plant. Tap a soil plot: a ring of guards opens around it, each with its price. Tap one to plant it. Between waves, the flower button at the bottom left opens a tray where you can pick a guard first, then tap several plots to plant it on each.
2. Start a wave. Press Start when you are ready. The Gloom come out of their hollow and follow the path. Guards in reach go to work on their own.
3. Coins. Every Gloom popped pays coins. Spend them between waves, or during a wave, to plant more guards or grow the ones you have (each guard grows twice, to level 3).
4. Light. A Gloom that reaches the Sunstone takes light: 1, or 2 for a Lump or a Brood. The King stays and drains 1 light every 2 seconds until defeated. Lose all your light and the garden goes dark.
5. Selling. Selling a guard gives back 70% of what it cost. Whatever you spent on it while waiting for the next wave comes back in full until that wave starts, so a guard planted in the wrong spot can go back for free.
6. Calling early. Once the last Gloom spawns, a 10-second bonus window opens. Calling the next wave earns one coin (and point) per second left, up to 10. The window follows game speed and stops while paused or in a menu. After it expires you can still call early, for no bonus. Enemy count and wave number do not change the reward.
7. The Sunflare. While waves run, the Sunflare button at the bottom left fills up. When it turns gold, tap it (or the Sunstone) to wash the garden in light: every Gloom loses a quarter of its health (the King a tenth) and slows for three seconds.
8. Dawn. Clear the last wave with light left to win. In Midsummer Night, the King must be defeated. You earn three suns for keeping at least 90% of your light, two for half, and one otherwise.

Auto-call is optional: turn on Auto beside Start, or use Settings. After you manually start a wave, the next one starts five seconds after the path clears. The countdown uses real seconds at every game speed. Pause, menus and enemy advice stop it; returning gives you the full five seconds. Switching Auto off cancels it. A new garden or reload waits for Start again. Auto-call never calls early, so early-call bonuses still require your choice.

The bottom-right wave controls stay visible while you plant or grow guards. Tap Scout for enemy traits and counter tips; the garden pauses while you read. During the finale, the King’s health appears in the wave controls. Pause, speed, focus view and Menu sit at the top right. Open Menu for Settings, help or a new garden.

Guards

Hover over a flower, or focus it with the keyboard, to see its name, damage per hit, base DPS, reach and attack interval before planting. Escape dismisses this card. On a planted guard, choose Details in its ring to open the same information with its current level, actual damage dealt, average DPS and Gloom popped. Four bars compare damage per hit, base DPS, reach and attack interval, with exact numbers alongside. A fuller attack bar means faster attacks. Expand Effects & growth for special effects and tradeoffs. The garden pauses while you read. Average DPS counts time in waves, including time without a target; pauses and building are excluded. Damage is measured after armor and excludes overkill and Sunflare. Records are kept at wave checkpoints, stay through upgrades, and reset when a guard is sold. Older saves start tracking from this update.

Tap a planted guard to open its action ring. Open Details for damage, attack speed, reach and performance. The ring grows it, sells it, and sets its aim: Sunflowers, Puffcaps and Sunlenses choose a target, either First (»: furthest along the path), Strong (♥: the most health) or Near (◎: the closest). Tap the single target button (↻) to cycle First → Strong → Near. The action menu keeps Grow at the upper left, Details at the upper right, Target at the lower left and Sell at the lower right, even when the garden rotates. Guards without targeting leave that space empty. New guards open as you clear gardens.

Grow and Evolve turn gray until you can afford them. Hold the upgrade arrow to preview stat changes, including both choices when a flower can evolve. Release to close the preview without spending; a short tap buys an upgrade or opens the evolution choices. With the keyboard, focus the arrow and hold Space to preview.

The Gloom

Every ordinary hit still deals at least 1 damage through a shell. The Sunflare bypasses armor too.

Pausing and speed

Pause the Gloom at any time with the pause button (or P). Planting, growing and selling still work while paused, so nothing ever needs quick fingers. The speed button switches between ½×, 1×, 2× and 3×. The game menu pauses everything, and so does leaving the page. In Settings you can show every guard’s reach, and health bars on every Gloom.

Keyboard

Tab to the garden. Arrow keys move between plots and the Sunstone; Enter or Space picks one, and Tab moves into the ring of choices around it. 1–5 plant a Sunflower, Bramble, Bluebell, Puffcap or Sunlens on the picked plot. U grows it, S sells it (press twice), A changes its aim. N starts the next wave, P pauses, F releases the Sunflare, and Escape puts the selection away.

Gardens

Eight gardens open one after another; clearing one opens the next. Choose Gentle (30 light, more coins, softer Gloom), Normal (20 light) or Fierce (15 light, 20% more Gloom health, 5% smaller bounties) when you start a garden. Your best suns and score are kept for each garden and difficulty.

Level-3 evolutions

When any flower reaches level 2, its Evolve button offers two level-3 roles once you have enough coins. You can hold the arrow to preview both roles while saving up. Choosing costs the usual final upgrade price: 90 coins for Sunflower or Bluebell, 110 for Bramble, 130 for Puffcap or 170 for Sunlens. You can close the choices and decide later. The garden pauses while you choose. A previously saved level-3 guard can choose its role for free.

• Quickseed: rapid single-target fire, with shorter reach and weaker individual hits.

• Sunlance: slower piercing seeds that hit up to two Gloom behind the target for 70% damage. Hits deal 50% extra damage to slowed enemies; shell armor still applies.

• Thornburst: wider, heavier pulses, with a longer pause between attacks.

• Briarhold: lower damage, but slows a crowd by 40% for 1.6 seconds. Flits ignore this slow.

• Deepchime: slows by 65% over a smaller 1.9-tile area, with slower chimes and lighter damage. Best at tight bends where damage flowers cover the same enemies.

• Brightchorus: a weaker 30% slow over 2.7 tiles. When enemies trigger its chime, other flowers in reach fire 15% faster for 1.6 seconds. Chorus boosts refresh without stacking; they help attack Flits, but never boost Sunflare. The bell does not boost itself.

• Sporebloom: a wide 1.45-tile spore burst for packed crowds, with lighter hits and slower firing.

• Shellcap: a small 0.65-tile blast that halves armor blocking for four seconds, including its own hit. This helps nearby damage guards against Shellbacks, but covers fewer enemies and has lower raw DPS. Aim Strong to pick out armored targets. Cracks refresh without stacking. Sunlens and Sunflare already bypass armor.

• Prism: beams hit a primary target for 90 damage, plus up to two nearby Gloom for 45% damage each. Secondary targets must be within 1.25 tiles of the primary and inside the lens’s 3.8-tile reach. Every beam bypasses armor. Better for crowds than a lone heavy enemy.

• Daystar: consecutive hits on the same target deal 110, 132, 154, then 176 damage, staying at 176 while focus holds. Switching targets, losing reach, or the target dying resets focus. All hits bypass armor. Aim Strong at tough Gloom or the King; slows and Brightchorus help it build focus.

Pair Sunlance with Bluebell or Briarhold and aim along a straight path for Slow + Pierce. Slows do not stack; only the strongest slow applies. Bluebell remains the stronger specialist. Your branch lasts until you sell that guard. Spending between waves is refunded in full if you sell before starting the next wave; earlier spending returns 70% as usual.

Garden boons

After two waves clear in a new garden, choose one free boon for the rest of that garden. It applies to flowers already planted and those you plant later:

• Windborne seeds: Sunflowers reach 0.6 tiles farther, but their attack interval is 15% longer.
• Thornheart: Brambles gain 35% base damage, but lose 20% of their reach.
• Kindled stone: Sunflare needs 35% less charge, but every flower’s attack interval is 10% longer.

You can Continue without a boon, or close the window to inspect your garden before choosing. Auto-call waits for your decision. Early-called waves must all clear first. Your choice is saved and ends when you start another garden. Previously saved gardens continue with their original rules.

Between waves, open the flower tray at the bottom left, then its boon badge to see which planted flowers are affected and compare their original stats with the boon’s stats. Before the choice is earned, it previews the options. The garden pauses while you read. Flower Details also explains the effect; its displayed numbers already include the boon. Scout also includes your active boon and its effects.

Support effects

Shellcap marks weakened armor with a steady amber seam. In Details, Armor weakenings counts armored targets that survived the blast, including refreshes. The defense report shows this contribution too. Its damage includes its own boosted hits; allies keep credit for the damage they deal. The mark expires after four seconds of wave time; pausing freezes it.

Flowers boosted by Brightchorus get a steady gold ring. Their Details say when a chorus is active; the attack interval and base DPS describe their ordinary rate, including their boon, before temporary chorus boosts. Flower boosts counts chorus applications to other flowers, including refreshes. It does not count extra shots or damage; allies keep credit for their own attacks. Pause freezes the effect, and clearing the field removes it.

Daystar gains three small lights as its repeated-hit damage builds. Details shows its full-focus hit and next hit if it stays on the same target. Its damage-per-hit/base DPS figures describe the initial hit before focus. Reloading restores the evolution and saved performance, but begins with fresh focus; pauses preserve it while the target survives.

Plan the next wave

Tap Scout at the bottom right for the next wave’s main threat, enemy counts, health, potential coin rewards and preparation advice. Potential bounty assumes you pop every Gloom, including the three Skitters inside each Brood. It is not an extra clear bonus; escaping enemies pay nothing. You can read the plan during a wave—the garden pauses.

The branches have different jobs: Quickseed wears down lone heavy Gloom; Sunlance rewards lined-up packs and slows. Thornburst clears packs with heavy pulses; Briarhold gives your other guards longer to attack. Sporebloom catches a wider crowd; Shellcap helps a physical damage formation overcome armor. Use direct damage against slow-resistant Flits.

In Scout, open Arrival order to see when each group enters at 1×. A rush followed by heavy Gloom needs fast crowd coverage and a second line of focused damage. A spaced column puts more value on repeated hits; clustered Broods reward area damage and control. With two entrances, enemies alternate between both routes. Entrance times are not the time to clear the wave: the last enemy must still be defeated or escape.

Learn from a defense

After combat, open Scout and expand the last defense report. It highlights the flower that removed the most health, a control flower’s slows, and successful Slow + Pierce hits. Expand Every flower’s contribution to compare damage, pops and average DPS in scorecards. Gold bars show each flower’s damage relative to the strongest contributor in that combat. Slows and armor weakenings include refreshes; combo damage is part of the flower’s damage, not an extra total.

If Gloom reached the Sunstone, the report names them and suggests a counter. Waves called early share one report until the field clears. Sold flowers keep their own entry; a new flower on the same plot starts separately. Growing during combat combines both stages. The result screen also offers Defense report, including after a loss. Reports cover the latest combat in this visit; a reload restores your saved garden and starts fresh reporting.

Flower mastery

Your flower families keep growing across gardens. Each family that helps clear a wave earns 10 XP, through damage, effective slows, armor weakening or flower boosts. Last hits and extra copies give no extra XP; a sold flower still counts if it contributed. Waves called early share contribution credit when the whole group clears. An unfinished or lost combat earns no XP, but XP from earlier clears stays when you lose or leave a garden.

Open Options → Statistics for the flower journal: progress toward Rooted at 30 XP (copper crest), Blooming at 100 XP (silver crest), and Radiant at 250 XP (gold crest). The journal includes tactics for each family. Earned crests also appear in that family’s Details. These are cosmetic milestones: damage, prices and evolution choices stay the same. Wave reports in Scout show new XP and any crest earned. Reloading a cleared wave does not award XP again. Old saves start earning from their next clear.

Family trials

Each of the ten evolutions has a family trial: a role-specific goal for one flower during one cleared wave. Read it before evolving, or expand Family trials in the flower journal under Options → Statistics. Quickseed and area damage roles have damage goals; control roles count effective slows; Sunlance needs Slow + Pierce hits, Prism needs secondary beams, and Daystar needs full-focus hits. Brightchorus must boost flowers while three other families deal damage. Applications include refreshes; boosts do not claim extra damage or shots.

Evolve before starting the wave. Early-called groups earn ordinary wave XP but do not qualify for trial stamps; unfinished or lost combat earns none. Extra flowers cannot combine their contributions to reach one goal. A sold flower can still finish its trial if it was already in its chosen role at the start and contributed enough.

Each first completion earns a permanent stamp and 40 bonus family XP, included in that wave’s XP reward. A stamp pays only once across gardens and difficulties. The defense report shows completed trials and how close you came, using the best single flower for each role. These rewards change your mastery record and crests, never combat strength.

Tips

• Plant where the path bends around a plot: the Gloom stay in reach for longer.
• A Bluebell next to a Bramble or a Puffcap makes both far stronger.
• Keep a Sunlens or two for Shellbacks and the Gloom King, aimed at Strong.
• Save the Sunflare for a crowd, or for the moment something big slips past.

Questions

What happens if I close the page mid-wave? Your garden is saved between waves. When you come back, the wave you were playing starts again from the top, with your guards and coins as they were before it.