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Defense The Drone
Drone swarms close in from every side: survive 10 minutes until reinforcements arrive. Level up mid-fight, build and modify 11 towers, break shields with the right damage type and bring down giant bosses in this neon roguelite tower defense.

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Features
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔
Japanese ✔
Korean ✔
Simplified Chinese ✔

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Defense The Drone already plays from start to finish: a complete ten-minute hold-out loop, three maps, eleven towers, six bases, three bosses and a progression that runs from your very first run to Threat Tier II.

What it needs now is many players playing many runs. A roguelite lives or dies by its balance (which builds are too strong, which towers feel weak, where a run feels unfair), and that is best found together with the people playing it. Early Access lets us tune the game with you and add content in the directions players care about most.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect roughly 6 to 12 months. We will leave Early Access when the planned content below is in and the balance feels right, not on a fixed date. If that estimate changes, we will say so in our update notes.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“These are our current plans. They may change based on player feedback.

In progress now:
- More perks and augments for more build variety
- Achievement rewards you can claim in the game
- Terrain art for every map
- Polished translations in all four languages

Planned for later:
- More maps, bosses and enemy types
- Steam Cloud saves
- More quality-of-life and accessibility options

Everything in the Early Access version stays in the full version.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Fully playable. The current version includes:
- A first-time tutorial
- 3 maps and Threat Tier II
- 11 towers, each with 2 modification branches and a signature Lv5 attack
- 30 augments and 6 bonus cards
- 6 bases (2 of them secret), each with its own main weapon and active skill
- 5 drone types, elite wings with 4 special drones, Golden Drones and 3 bosses
- Research, unlocks and 4 equippable perks between runs
- A global Steam leaderboard and 23 Steam achievements
- English, Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese

Still rough: balance is being tuned with player feedback, the maps use simple flat backgrounds and some translations still need polish.

Your progress is saved on your PC and carried over between updates. We do not plan any progress resets.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. We plan to raise the price when Defense The Drone leaves Early Access, as the game grows. Everyone who buys during Early Access gets all updates, including the full release, at no extra cost.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Through the Steam Community hub. Post bug reports and ideas in the Discussions, and leave a review: we read them. Every update comes with notes that list what changed and why, and balance changes are driven by what players report. When we have to choose what to build next, we will ask the community and let your answers set the order of the roadmap.”
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This game is not yet available on Steam

Planned Release Date: November 2026

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About This Game

Ten minutes. One base. Endless drones.

Your base is the last relay still broadcasting. Drone swarms close in from every side and get tougher by the minute. Hold out for 10:00 and the reinforcements arrive to clear the field. Let the base fall and the signal goes dark.

  • Level up in the middle of the fight: every drone you shoot down drops scrap that flies back to your base and fills your level bar. Each level-up freezes the battle and deals you three cards: install a tower, upgrade a tower type, add an augment or take a bonus.
  • No two runs alike: opening rushes, card offers and buff pads change from run to run. Reroll a bad hand, or skip it to patch up your base.
  • Your call, your pace: play at 1x or 2x speed and pause whenever you need to think.

11 towers, 22 ways to modify them

  • Autocannon, Pulse Tower, Vulcan, Railgun, Tesla Coil, Drone Pod, Rocket Battery, Laser, Amplifier, Ion Emitter and Satellite Uplink, each with its own range, targeting and job.
  • An upgrade card levels up every tower of that type at once, including the ones you build later.
  • At Lv3 each tower type commits to one of two modifications that change how it fights: Twin Barrels or Long Barrel, Heavy Warhead or Multi-Launch, Precision Strike or Scatter Strike, and more.
  • 30 augments, plus a signature attack for every tower at Lv5.
  • Buff pads (damage, range, fire rate) and high ground reward smart placement.

Shields, armor, hull: bring the right damage

Physical, Energy and Explosive damage hit Shields, Armor and Hull differently. Regenerating shields show up more and more as the clock runs down. Energy weapons and the Ion Emitter crack shields, explosives punch through armor and physical rounds tear up bare hulls. Every card and tooltip shows the matchups at a glance.

Bosses that change the fight

  • Carrier: keeps launching swarms from its bays.
  • Overmind: hides behind shield-feeding link nodes, tethers your hardest-hitting tower to shut it down and whips nearby drones into a frenzy.
  • Colossus: fires seeker missiles at your towers, raises an energy barrier, then lunges at your base.
  • Elite wings bring special drones: Aegis domes, Splitters, Medics and Hackers.
  • Golden Drones drop rare supplies: a Supply Cache, a Repair Kit, a Reroll Token, Overdrive, or the Jackpot.

Six bases, six skills

Every base has its own HP, main weapon and an active skill on Space: Signal Burst, Bulwark, Blackout and Fire Mission. Two secret bases, unlocked through hidden achievements, bring Orbital Bombardment and Solar Flare.

Chase the combo

Chain kills through five combo tiers for bonus scrap, rack up Multi, Mega and Ultra Kills all the way to Annihilation, and feel the big hits through hit-stop, debris and screen shake (adjustable, or off).

Grow stronger between runs

  • Spend scrap on research, new towers, modifications, bases and perks. Equip 2 perks per run (3 once you unlock the third slot).
  • Clear the Outpost Relay to open the Canyon Transmitter, then the Ruined Observatory, then Threat Tier II.
  • One global Steam leaderboard and 23 Steam achievements, two of them hidden.

Easy to read, hard to master

  • Flat neon shapes and light on a dark field keep the action readable even when the screen is full.
  • A short first-time tutorial, detailed tooltips and UI scale up to 145%.
  • English, Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese.
  • Made for mouse and keyboard.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

AI tools were used during development to help write the game's code, in-game text and translations (English, Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese) and this store page text. The music and sound effects are human-made CC0 assets, and the visuals are simple shapes drawn in code. The game does not generate any content with AI while you play and does not connect to any AI service.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    • Processor: Dual-core 64-bit CPU, 2.0 GHz
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 compatible GPU (integrated graphics supported)
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Internet connection optional (global leaderboard only). On integrated graphics, set Effects to Light.
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
    • Processor: Quad-core 64-bit CPU, 3.0 GHz
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 compatible dedicated GPU or recent integrated GPU
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Internet connection optional (global leaderboard only).
    Minimum:
    • OS: macOS 12 Monterey
    • Processor: Apple Silicon (M1) or Intel Core i5 (universal build)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Any GPU supported by macOS 12
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Internet connection optional (global leaderboard only). On Intel graphics, set Effects to Light.
    Recommended:
    • OS: macOS 13 Ventura or later
    • Processor: Apple M1 or later
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Apple Silicon GPU
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
    • Additional Notes: Internet connection optional (global leaderboard only).