A game by Chaotic Phoenix
Tap Wars
Germs swarm down your artery towards the heart. Tap them before they get there, and train your immune system to hit harder every run.
A tap-defence game for Android phones. Free, and it plays offline.
See it
Inside your own body
Tap Wars is a tap-defence game. Germs swarm down your artery towards the heart, a wave at a time, and every one that gets through costs a life. Tap them before they get there. Their ATP buys upgrades named after the real immune system, and every run you finish pays antigens that make the next one start stronger.
Build your immune system
- 16 upgrades named after the real thing: Killer T cells, antibodies, fever, macrophages, NK cells, interferon, memory cells, phagocytosis and more.
- The immune codex tells you the real biology behind every one.
- Three abilities on their own cooldowns: Cytokine storm, Mucus trap and Sugar rush.
- Send weakened germs down your own artery as vaccines: they raise your income and teach your immune system to hit that germ harder.
Get stronger every run
- Every run pays antigens. Spend them on training (sleep, a balanced diet, exercise, vitamins and hydration), so every new run starts stronger.
- Fill in the germ codex as you meet each germ.
- 17 achievements, five of them unlocking a new look.
- Leave a run any time: it's kept, and picks up exactly where you left off.
Play your way
- One-handed, portrait, and it plays offline. No account needed.
- The germs wait while you shop, so you can read every upgrade in peace.
- Set it up your way: music and sound effects apart, bigger text, high contrast, and a left-handed layout.
- Your progress goes with your phone's own backup, when that's on, so it comes back after a reinstall or on a new phone.
- A heartbeat that quickens as your lives run out, and a buzz when a germ gets through (both can be turned off).
- Free, with only two ads, and only if you want them: a second wind when your lives run out, or a run's antigens doubled.
Meet the germs
Eleven germs and a boss, each a cartoon of a real microbe, and each with a trick. A new one arrives every wave.
Sniffle
Virus · based on influenza
Comes in big packs of weak germs, close together. Hits that spread out clear them fast.
Phagey
Virus · based on the bacteriophage
A tap it survives makes it hop far ahead. Hit it hard, or let your Macrophage wear it down: its bites don't make it hop.
Achoo
Virus · based on the rhinovirus (common cold)
Sneezes out a copy just ahead of itself when it's down to 2/3 and 1/3 of its health.
Rabby
Virus · based on the bullet-shaped rabies virus
Fast, and every hit it shrugs off makes it charge. Finish it quickly.
Staph Bunch
Bacterium · based on Staphylococcus grape clusters
Pops into three little ones when it dies.
Wiggles
Bacterium · based on E. coli and its whip tails
Zips along fast, then stops to tumble. Catch it when it stops.
Strep Train
Bacterium · based on Streptococcus chains
Comes in chains. Each link barely feels a hit while the germ in front of it lives, so tap the head first.
Twisty
Bacterium · based on corkscrew spirochetes
Dodges about a third of your taps. Fever, blasts and bolts still land.
Giardi
Parasite · based on Giardia, which really has a face
Slow, but tough, and worth more for it.
Buddy
Parasite · based on Toxoplasma, which buds new cells from itself
Grows a bud that breaks off as a new germ. Twice, if you let it.
Blobba
Parasite · based on the amoeba
Once it's hurt, swallows a germ next to it to heal. You get nothing for the one it ate.
Scolex Rex
The boss · based on a tapeworm's hooked head
Every 10th wave. Every few seconds it latches its hooks in: it stops, but takes far less damage. Save your big hits for when it lets go.
Looks
Pick what a tap looks and sounds like, and the colours of your artery. The classic ones are everyone's, five come with achievements, and eight with the Booster Shot Pack. Looks and sound only: none of them makes you stronger.
Tap effects
Classic
Everyone's
Antibody Burst
Booster Shot Pack
Golden Touch
Booster Shot Pack
Soap Bubbles
Booster Shot Pack
Zap
Booster Shot Pack
Ripple
Earn Not a Scratch
Confetti
Earn Plague Breaker
Hearts
Earn Tapped Out
Artery themes
Classic
Everyone's
X-ray
Booster Shot Pack
Fever
Booster Shot Pack
Night Shift
Booster Shot Pack
Golden
Booster Shot Pack
Lymph
Earn Holding the Line
Frostbite
Earn Iron Constitution
Achievements
Seventeen to earn, each a medal: bronze, silver or gold. Once Tap Wars is on Google Play they become Google Play Games achievements too.
First Response
Finish your first run.
Know Your Enemy
Meet every germ in the codex.
Off With Its Head
Bring down Scolex Rex.
In Training
Buy your first training.
Holding the Line
Reach wave 25.
Not a Scratch
Reach wave 20 without losing a life.
Germ Buster
Destroy 2,500 germs.
Herd Immunity
Send 250 vaccines.
Fighting Fit
Buy 25 levels of training.
Storm Chaser
Fire 250 abilities.
Iron Constitution
Reach wave 40.
Plague Breaker
Destroy 10,000 germs.
Tapeworm Tamer
Bring down Scolex Rex 25 times.
Tapped Out
Tap 50,000 times.
Clean Bill of Health
Reach wave 60.
Untouchable
Reach wave 40 without losing a life.
Peak Condition
Buy 50 levels of training.
The Booster Shot Pack
One optional purchase, yours for good.
- No ads: every run's antigens doubled, and a second wind once a run, without watching an ad. Offline too.
- Four tap effects, each with its own sound: Antibody Burst, Golden Touch, Soap Bubbles and Zap.
- Four artery themes: X-ray, Fever, Night Shift and Golden.
- Looks and sound only: never stronger than a player who watches the ads. Every achievement's look stays free for everyone.
What's new
27 October 2026: set it up your way
- Music and sound effects each have their own switch and volume, and vibration its own. The heartbeat is the music.
- Bigger text, high contrast, a left-handed layout (pause and Call wave on the left), and Back at the bottom of every screen, in reach of your thumb.
- The pause card has quick switches for music, sounds and vibration.
- Nothing hides under a notch or a camera hole, whichever way up you hold your phone.
- Your progress goes with your phone's own backup, when that's on, and comes back after a reinstall or on a new phone.
- A double tap on Restart or Main menu only asks now: tap again to mean it.
24 October 2026: after the first playtest
- The germs wait while you shop. Tap Upgrades, Vaccines or Abilities under the artery: the shop opens over the game, so you can read and buy in peace, then tap Back to the run.
- Each of those three shows how many things you can afford behind it.
- Your abilities stay under your thumb, in the bar under the artery.
- Every list scrolls the way a phone's should: drag anywhere on it, buttons and all, and flick it to glide.