Hivetide

Hivetide is an incremental tower defense game. You have one extraction rig, and a hive that moves like water wants it gone.

We came to this planet for biomass. The insects under the crust live on the same stuff, and they noticed us. Each stage is a shift at the extractor. You keep it standing until it can be pulled out, spend what you harvested, and go back down.

The horde flows

There is no fixed path. The insects pour toward the extractor through every tunnel they can find, and when one corridor jams, the ones at the back go around. There can be thousands on screen. You choose where that flood gets squeezed and what it runs into there.

Towers on the rock, aimed by hand

Towers only go on high ground, on solid rock beside a tunnel, looking down into it. Drag the edges of a tower's firing arc to narrow what it covers. Rock blocks line of sight, so a good gun in a bad spot does nothing. You can pick a tower up in the middle of a fight and put it somewhere else. It takes a few seconds to set up again, and it doesn't shoot while it does. Tell each gun who to shoot: the insect closest to the extractor, the strongest, or the nearest.

Eight towers, and weather that picks favorites

Machine Gun, Cannon, Mortar, Tesla, Flamethrower, Cryostat, Railgun and Missile Launcher. Every world has weather that is kind to some weapons and rough on others. On the Surface the wind bends your grenades. In the Colony the damp soaks the powder but carries lightning further. The Royal Chamber is hot, which suits fire, and the Core's magnetic field throws guided shots off course. Each attempt also draws a weather event, and the weather can turn again halfway through a fight. A build that lost five minutes ago sometimes wins on the retry.

The ground changes under you

The Colony is dark. You see only what your towers see. In the Royal Chamber the horde runs faster along the veins of the nest, and Diggers bore through the rock and leave a tunnel for everyone behind them. In the Core, cracked rock caves in during the stage and opens shortcuts around the defense you built.

Four worlds and 40 stages, each on its own map

Surface, Colony, Royal Chamber and Core. Each world adds insects and towers, puts a mini-boss in the middle, and ends on a boss that has to die before the stage will end. Those are the Millipede, the Acid Slug, the Drill Worm and the Wasp Empress.

One stage in each world throws out the usual rules:

Two extractors to defend, and losing either one loses the stage. A blackout that leaves your towers nearly blind until the next flare drifts down. A swarm flight, where almost the whole horde flies over the walls. A collapse that keeps going for the entire stage.

Many of the others have a smaller twist of their own, like a stampede of runners or abilities that stay jammed until the halfway mark. From stage 3 on there is also a bonus mission, such as winning without the nuke or leaving a tower slot empty. Clearing it pays extra biomass once and puts a star on the stage.

Four abilities for when it goes wrong

Missile, Airstrike, Orbital Laser, and one Nuke per stage that hits the whole map. You can pause whenever you like to aim them, move towers, or just look at the mess.

You get paid even when you lose

Every run pays biomass, win or lose, and so does retreating from a fight you know is gone. It all goes into a big upgrade tree with damage, fire rate and range for each tower, more tower slots, extractor armor, better harvesting, and the abilities themselves. After a defeat, the report shows which insect did the damage, which tower sat idle and how much the weather took from your best gun.

Bring a friend

The whole campaign can be played in two-player online co-op through Steam. One of you creates a room and passes along a four-letter code. Each player places half the towers and handles only their own, and the fight uses the better level of every upgrade between the two of you. Biomass, stages and bonus missions count for each player who already has that stage unlocked in their own campaign. The room stays open between fights, so you can both spend what you earned before the next one.

Rooms have three more modes:

Half Sight is the co-op campaign, except each of you sees and builds on only your half of the map. Two Extractors gives each player one to defend on the same map, and the horde drifts away from wherever it is dying fastest. Duel puts you against each other on the same stage with the same upgrade tree. Kill the horde far from your extractor and reinforcements turn up on your opponent's map.

Siege

Build your own tide on a campaign map. You decide how many insects come, how tough they are, which kinds, and whether a mini-boss shows up, all inside a fixed budget. Beat it yourself and you get a code to share. Everyone who takes it on fights the exact same battle with the same upgrade tree.

After the campaign

Endless mode for each world you have freed. Modifiers that make cleared stages harder, with a medal for how many you stack. A Daily Challenge, the same stage and rules for everyone that day. A Veteran campaign that runs all 40 stages again, much tougher.

Features

Easy, Normal and Hard for the campaign. Online co-op and duels for two players, plus Siege challenges you share by code. Three colorblind modes (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia) that recolor the insects. Controller support, with an on-screen cursor and button prompts. Speed 1×, 2× and 3×, plus pause. A bestiary that fills in as you meet each insect and unlock each tower. Everything on screen is drawn by code.

Discord

Talk strategy, report bugs and get patch notes straight from the developer on Discord: