Draft a new defense every run.
Coreshatter is a free-to-play idle tower-defense roguelite for Android and iOS, developed by Idle Flow Games. Your Core fires on its own. You draft its weapons, hold off the waves, and choose when to Shatter. Every run banks its Scrap and Data, however it ends.
Free to play · Rewarded ads are 100% opt-in · Play at your pace
- 32 Glyphs
- 451 named fusions
- 8 linked Cores
- 7 ranked leagues
- 15 languages
Defend. Draft. Shatter. Converge.
Build your weapons during the run. Bank what you earn, then spend it on the next one.
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01
Defend
Your Core fights enemies from every direction. Watch HEAT climb and the Front close in. Spend run-Scrap on REPAIR to restore integrity or HOLD to push the Front back. Shatter when you want to end the run.
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02
Draft
Draft Glyphs for weapons and Chips for stat upgrades. Place matching Chips together to form Circuits. Each Draft has one free re-roll. Further re-rolls cost Heat, unless you own an extra free re-roll.
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03
Shatter
Shatter to bank your Scrap and Data. In standard runs, choosing to Shatter adds up to 25% bonus Scrap. A breach or Heat peak still banks the run’s earnings. Gambit stakes have their own rules.
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04
Converge
Converge to reset run progression and earn Shards for the Lattice. Your Convergence count unlocks more Cores, Strain, and later Reformat. Each layer has its own upgrades and reset rules.
Socket eight Glyphs. Fire them all at once.
Fill up to eight Glyph slots with weapons that fire on their own. Combine projectile fans, beams, orbits, and drones, then use Chips and Circuits to change the build.
32 Glyphs 36 Chips 451 named fusions 31 foes
Fuse compatible Glyphs during a Draft to make a named hybrid. Both parents count toward sets, while the secondary weapon fires when its fusion rules allow. See how Glyph fusion works.
Strain, crafting, and the endgame.
Strain opens after your first Convergence. Clear harder rules on each Core to earn parts for crafting your own Glyphs later. Core Laws add an effect with a trade-off. Buying every Axiom rule opens the Vestige layer.
- Vestiges
- Hunt Fragments, forge collectible relics, and equip their passive bonuses. Forge a Vestige again to raise its rarity toward Apex, then attune it through ten tiers.
- Deep Hunts
- Hunt a Vestige to earn its Fragments from boss kills starting at wave 16 and from runs that reach wave 100.
- Research
- A 46-node tree of permanent Core upgrades that runs on real time. Commit Scrap and Data to a node, come back, claim it.
- Gambit
- Stake earned Axioms on a live run. Hold past the floor wave and Shatter by hand for a bigger payout. End the run any other way and the stake is gone.
- Ultrabosses
- Fight an Ultraboss from wave 50, with another arriving every 25 waves. Collect their trophies in the Codex.
- Core network
- Unlock up to 8 Cores, play one per run, and link them on the Core Map for more away income. Garrison Vestiges on them for further bonuses.
Ranked challenges and timed events.
Daily Ranked challenges, monthly Grid Seasons, and timed Anomalies give you different goals between Convergences.
Anomalies
Timed Anomalies change enemy spawns and run rules. Complete their objectives to earn rewards such as Flux, Vestige Fragments, and Axioms. Check Events in the game for the current window.
Grid Season
A monthly reward track advanced by clearing waves. It has free and premium rewards. A cosmetic reward you already own pays Flux instead.
Climb to Grandmaster.
Two Ranked modes use daily challenges and Elo ratings across seven leagues, from Bronze to Grandmaster.
- Aegis Trials
- Play with the same daily Glyphs, Fusions, and Chips as the other players in your challenge.
- Ascendant Ladder
- Bring your own upgrades into the daily challenge.
Complete three placement matches on each ladder. After placement, play up to 3 matches per day on each. Ranked seasons last 42 days and soft-reset ratings toward the starting rating. Read the Ranked rules.
Away rewards and purchases.
See what earns rewards while the app is closed and what the optional purchases change.
- Rewards while away
- Bank one run to start earning Auto-Run Scrap while away. Buy Data Mining in the Mainframe to earn Data too. Rewards use calculated rates and separate time caps. The Welcome Back screen lists the payout when you return.
- Progress between runs
- Spend banked currency on the Foundry, Mainframe, and Research. Convergence pays Shards for the Lattice. Reformat clears Shards and the Lattice and pays Axioms for another layer of upgrades.
- Builds to collect
- Try 451 compatible Glyph fusion pairs, match Chips into Circuits, and adapt to run modifiers. Later, craft Glyphs from parts earned through Strain.
- What money buys
- Flux packs buy currency for the Exchange, including cosmetics, boosts, and time skips. The Starter Cache includes Flux, a Yield Surge, and the Ember Foundry theme. Grid Season’s premium track includes cosmetics, Flux, extra Auto-Run capacity, and two early Glyph unlocks. The Mainframe subscription adds daily Flux, one Research slot, and more away capacity. Remove-Ads Boost replaces ads with their rewards and adds a permanent 50% to Scrap and Data. Rewarded ads are opt-in.
Scrap Data Shards Flux Axioms
Platforms, saves, and accessibility.
Available on Android and iOS, with settings for color, motion, and controls.
- Languages
- Playable in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
- Colorblind
- Every state reads by shape and label as well as hue.
- Motion
- A reduced-motion setting that the whole interface honors.
- Contrast
- Flat, high-contrast chrome. The light and motion live in the arena.
- Controller
- A connected gamepad navigates every screen.
- Interrupted
- A valid saved standard run can resume regardless of its age. Ranked runs expire after 30 minutes away. Already-banked, incompatible, or invalid saves cannot resume.
- Cloud save
- Android uses Google Play Games cloud saves. iOS uses iCloud. Use the same platform account when moving devices.
- Achievements
- Earn achievements through Google Play Games on Android.
Coreshatter questions
Is Coreshatter free, and where can I play it?
Coreshatter is free to download on Android through Google Play and on iPhone and iPad through the App Store. It has optional in-app purchases and a Mainframe subscription.
Do I have to watch ads?
Rewarded ads are opt-in. You can choose them for bonuses such as doubled bank or away rewards. Remove-Ads Boost is a one-time purchase that grants those rewards without an ad and adds a permanent Scrap and Data bonus.
What happens while the app is closed?
After you bank your first run, Auto-Run earns Scrap while away. Data Mining in the Mainframe unlocks away Data. The two have separate limits, affected by upgrades and purchases. Away rewards are calculated when you return.
Can I come back to an interrupted run?
A valid saved standard run has no age limit for resuming. Ranked runs expire after 30 minutes away. A run that was already banked, or whose save is invalid or incompatible, cannot resume.
How do cloud saves work?
Android uses Google Play Games and iOS uses iCloud. Sign in to the same platform account on your new device.
Which languages can I select?
English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Indonesian, Russian, Vietnamese, Polish, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Coreshatter guides
- Your first runs
Learn Drafts, Heat, the Front, and what you keep when a run ends.
- Glyph fusion
Combine compatible Glyphs and learn which effects a fusion inherits.
- Ranked rules
Compare the two ladders, daily matches, leagues, and season resets.
Build it with us.
Share runs and builds on the subreddit, or join Discord for game discussion and feedback.