WAGMI Defense

WAGMI Defense is a mobile strategy game that mixes auto-battler, card collection, and tower defense mechanics. It’s the first game in the WAGMI Games franchise and officially launched on December 12, 2024, on Google Play and the App Store. The game takes a familiar real-time strategy format and gives it a sci-fi twist, with fast-paced matches where players build decks, deploy units, and try to outplay opponents in under three minutes.

The gameplay has a lot of similarities to Clash Royale but adds a complex card system inspired by games like Marvel Snap and Genshin Impact. Players choose between two factions, Humans or Aliens to assemble their deck, and strategize to take down enemy towers while protecting their own. Winning matches improves rankings, while losing can drop players down the ladder. WAGMI Defense also integrates Web3 elements through the Immutable blockchain, allowing players to trade cards on the secondary market. However, its core gameplay is designed to be accessible to traditional gamers, focusing on strategy and deck-building

The game's lore is set in the futuristic year 3022, where Humans have evolved into a race filled with cyborgs. Space travel has opened up a wormhole, allowing aliens to enter the galaxy. This discovery eventually leads to the uncovering of a rare earth metal called 'NiFe' from the planet's core.

Gameplay

Upon starting WAGMI Defense, players choose between the Human or Alien factions (Currently your battle deck is composed of only either pure Human or pure Alien cards). After selecting a side, they receive a basic set of cards to begin playing. The game introduces its mechanics through a tutorial that explains how to deploy units by dragging cards onto the battlefield, how spells work, and how to manage the energy bar. The gameplay structure is reminiscent of Clash Royale, with a sci-fi twist.

The objective is to destroy the opponent’s towers before they destroy yours. Each player has three towers—two in the front and a main tower in the back. Losing the main tower results in defeat. Before each match, players build a deck of six cards, selecting units and spells based on their strategy. Cards can be upgraded using NiFe, the game’s soft currency, to improve stats like health and damage. Additionally, players can fuse five identical cards to increase their rarity.

Winning matches rewards players with chests that contain cards, NiFe, or both. These chests require a waiting period to open, though daily login rewards provide additional incentives to play. The game also features a premium currency, Adallium, which is primarily used for purchasing card packs in the shop, some of which are exclusive to Adallium purchases. It can also be used to speed up chest openings.

WAGMI Defense includes progression systems that reward continued play. The "Galactic Odyssey" system grants chests when players level up their accounts, which happens through playing matches and upgrading cards. The "Emperor’s Conquest" system provides card packs as players reach rank milestones.

In the future, the team plans to update the user interface and user experience, allowing players to combine DNA from Human and Alien characters to create Nephilim characters. These characters will not be sold by the team and can only be created by players.

Review

WAGMI Defense brings the fast-paced, deck-based battles of Clash Royale into the Web3 space, and it does a decent job of it. The deckbuilding and progression systems work well, rewarding players for refining their strategies and upgrading their cards. The tutorial does a solid job of easing new players in, and the core gameplay is fun and competitive. When both players have similar deck resources, skill usually decides the outcome, which is exactly what you’d want in a strategy game. However, like most games in this genre, there’s a pay-to-win element. Free-to-play players can enjoy a decent grind with rank-up rewards and daily chests, but at higher levels, paying players will have an advantage.

Visually, WAGMI Defense has some strong points but also areas that need work. The anime-style trailer is well-made, but the in-game graphics feel a bit rough. Attack animations can be clunky, health bars and mana costs don’t always stand out clearly, and there are occasional frame drops. I also ran into a few game crashes, which hurt the overall experience. The sound design is okay, but it’s not the most polished. The sound effects do their job, but sometimes audio clips overlap in a way that feels off. On the plus side, the controls are smooth, and the interface is easy to navigate, especially for anyone familiar with similar games.

The biggest thing setting WAGMI Defense apart is its Web3 integration. While the core gameplay doesn’t reinvent the genre, the ability to trade evolved and rare cards gives it an interesting twist. As the marketplace grows, it could create a unique dynamic for collectors and competitive players alike. But for now, it’s still early days, and we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Overall, WAGMI Defense has its ups and downs. The core gameplay is solid and enjoyable, but it needs more polish, especially in visuals, animations, and stability. The pay-to-win aspects might frustrate competitive free-to-play players, but the game does offer generous rewards to keep things balanced early on.