Eggmental

Mission briefing

Hatch elemental eggs, raise a crew of Motes and hold the Prism Core against the Blight. Eggmental is a pixel-art defense game about hatching and collecting: strike eggs with your spark pointer to hatch Motes, small elemental creatures that fight on their own. Hold the Core until the end of the day, then spend Insight on the Lattice, an upgrade tree of more than 300 nodes, buy eggs and charms, and fill your Field Guide. Every chapter ends with a Blight Heart; clear them all, ascend, and start again with new powers. 36 Motes across 7 elements, 57 charms, 20 spells, and progress saves automatically.

Field manual

Hold the Prism Core until the end of each day. Mouse: move the pointer over the field to strike the Blight and crack eggs; it hits whatever it touches. Click buttons, shop offers and Lattice nodes; drag or use the arrows to pan the Lattice. Space: show the stats of the creatures under the pointer. P or Esc: pause. Q / E: switch tabs on the upgrade screen. Hold R: give up the current try. Touch: drag your finger over the field (the pointer sits just above it), or tap AUTO and the pointer sweeps by itself. On upgrades, tap once to read, tap again to buy.

Launch orders: press Launch mission above and the game loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first move. It is designed for a landscape (wide) screen and takes its orders from mouse, keyboard or touch, depending on the mission. It is built wide, for a landscape screen — rotate a phone sideways, or give it a tablet or monitor to stretch out on. If it offers a fullscreen control, use it — a fight this size deserves the whole screen.

Field notes for strategy operations

• Economy first, army second. The player who builds one more resource structure in the opening minutes out-produces the player who built one more soldier — arithmetic is the quietest weapon in strategy.
• Scout before you commit. Every strategy game hides a paper to your rock; two minutes of reconnaissance is cheaper than twenty minutes of building the wrong answer.
• Hold a reserve. Committing everything to the first fight leaves nothing for the second, and there is always a second — usually arriving while you are still rebuilding from the first.

Eggmental — questions from the ranks

What does it cost to play Eggmental?

Nothing at all. The mission is free from the first order to the last — no sign-up, no download, no paid tier guarding the good levels. The advertising around this page is what keeps the board free.

What sort of mission is Eggmental?

Eggmental is filed in our Strategy theatre. Like every operation on this board, it is a browser game — read the briefing above for the publisher's own account of what you are deploying into.

Can I run Eggmental on a phone or tablet?

Yes. It plays in the browser on phones and tablets exactly as it does on a computer. It is built wide, for a landscape screen — rotate a phone sideways, or give it a tablet or monitor to stretch out on.

Do I have to install anything before playing?

No installation of any kind. Eggmental is an HTML5 game: press the launch button and it loads on this page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind.

After-action

Mission complete, or still pinned down? The full Strategy theatre is one click away — The thinking soldier's shelf: 115 operations where the decisive weapon is a plan made thirty seconds before it is needed. Build first, then hold what you built.