Stickman Archers: Waves — Play Free Online

What Stickman Archers: Waves is

Stickman Archers: Waves is a bow duel from Vanorium, released on Poki in October 2024. Your archer stands on a small platform on one side of the screen, a stick-figure enemy stands on the other, and the two of you trade arrows until one runs out of health. Each health bar is printed above the fighter's head, so you always know how close a kill is.

Levels are split into rounds. Clear every enemy in a round and the next group appears; clear the last round and a progress bar at the top of the screen moves you on to the next level. Each kill is worth coins, which pay for new bows and new hats.

How to play

Everything is done with the mouse. The opening tip reads "Hold wherever to aim": press the button anywhere on the screen, drag to set the angle and pull of the shot, and let go to fire. A dotted line shows the flight path while you hold. On a phone or tablet you do the same with a finger.

Arrows drop as they fly, so a far target needs a higher arc. Enemy archers try for your head, and a head hit gets its own headshot marker on screen, which is why so many of the hats below are helmets.

Enemies and bosses

The early levels send plain archers. Soon tougher ones arrive wearing wooden helmets, buckets and iron helmets, and some carry better bows than yours. Later groups shoot burning or freezing arrows. The tutorial also points out that you can knock incoming arrows out of the air with your own.

Every tenth level is a boss fight, and the screen warns you with "A boss is near!" before it starts. The build holds five bosses, each built around one idea: a fast one, a heavy one, one with fire, one with explosives and one with ice. The final level puts all five on the field at once.

Bows and hats

The shop sells eight bows, starting with the plain one you begin with:

• Steel: more damage and a faster reload than the starter.
• Triple: fires a small spread of three arrows per shot.
• Burning: sets the target on fire for damage over time.
• Fivehold: five arrows in a fan.
• Exploding: each shot blows up a moment after it lands, hurting anything close by.
• Freezing: a fan of five shots that freezes what it hits for a short time.
• Magnetic: the most expensive bow. Its arrows fly without dropping and steer toward a nearby target.

Hats are your armour. Most of them add health and a chance to block a hit, going from a cheap cap that also shortens your reload, through wooden, bucket and iron helmets up to a dark helmet that is the priciest item in the shop.

Tips

• Go after the bonus pickups that show up mid-fight. The tutorial tells you to catch them, and they hand you extra health or a shield.
• Spend early coins on a hat before a second bow. Extra health keeps a run going while you learn the arcs.
• Try to upgrade before levels that end in zero, since those are the boss fights.