Ravelin · tower defense
How to play Ravelin
Ravelin is a free online tower defense game. You play in the browser — phone or desktop. Creeps walk a stone path toward your keep. You place towers, spend gold, and hold twenty waves. No download. Read pricing, who runs the keep, or play now.
The keep
Hearts are lives. A creep that reaches the keep takes one. Gold comes from kills and from calling the next wave with coin still in hand (interest). Pause freezes the line. Undo (Z) takes back a miss-tap.
The fold
Hold ten waves and the courtyard opens: a longer lane on the spawn side, extra grass for towers, +1 life, and two more slots. It happens again at twenty and thirty. Towers you already placed stay put. Endless keeps growing the ring.
The hand
Tap a tower twice (or V) to take it in hand. During a wave, mash Volley or Q — or tap the yard — to fire it yourself. Focus is the brass bar; it refills on its own. Auto-volley clicks it for you when creeps are in range. Lanterns light; they do not volley.
Towers
Pike is cheap close steel — ground only. Ballista leads bolts, pierces, and hits air; range III also sees camo. Mortar is slow splash for packs. Frost Lens slows (not Slaghide). Lantern (rank 4) is support: an aura that buffs neighbors and reveals Dusk. Sunlance is Keepers Pass — beam, burn, and detect. Upgrade damage, fire rate, and range on a selected tower. Sell returns part of the spend. Snare roots the ground. Arbalest is the long oak. Pitch burns the lane. Hornet stings air only. Locked steel buys out with Aether in the Armory, or unlocks with commander level. Skins sit on the Original Hold and in the locker.
Waves and maps
The line does not end. Twenty authored waves, then the packs keep coming — thicker, faster, more lords. Hold until the keep falls. Best wave is the score. The yards are real French stone: Chambord, Mont-Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, Vincennes, Gaillard, Azay-le-Rideau, Villandry, Saint-Malo. A daily trial twists one rule. Flying wisps ignore Pike and Mortar. Dusk is camo until a Lantern (or Ballista III) sees them. Briar regenerates unless burned. Lords split when they fall.
Commander ranks
Field XP ranks the commander. The first five ranks are free. After that, cheap Aether shards buy the next rank — on purpose, so a skip feels small. Ranks unlock tower slots and higher upgrades. Rank never decays.
Yards and the board
Sign in (Google, X, or email) to add friends, run a duel, or 2v2 as a separate mode. Queue always fills with a ghost keep. The board is only the top 1,000 highest waves — everyone else is unranked.
Questions
Is Ravelin free to play?
Yes. The hold is free. Aether packs and Keepers Pass are optional.
Do I need to download it?
No. Open playravelin.com in a browser and play.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The keep is laid out for a thumb. Add it to your home screen if you want.
What is Keepers Pass?
A monthly retainer: extra gold, extra lives, exclusive towers, cheaper ranks. Cancel any time.