How to Play Paper Stick Figures
The entire war is drawn on a page from a notebook, and both armies are the kind of stick figures you scribble in a margin. The game commits to the joke — the missiles are drawn, the explosions are drawn, and the soldiers marching at your base are drawn too. Mechanically it’s a tower defense: your base sits at one end, waves of enemy figures come at it, and you spend coins deploying your own units to stop them. Stick soldiers are the cheap backbone. Tanks and aircraft cost more and change what a fight looks like. Heavy weapons are the expensive answer to a wave you can’t out-shoot with infantry.
Coins come from stopping enemies, which means your income and your defense are the same thing — a wave you barely survive pays for a defense that will barely survive the next one. Getting ahead means clearing waves faster than you strictly need to, so the surplus goes into upgrading troops and reinforcing the base instead of replacing what you just lost. The escalation is steady and obvious: each wave brings more figures and tougher ones, and a point arrives where infantry alone stops working no matter how much of it you field. Spotting that point one wave early is most of what separates a long run from a short one.
Tips to Survive More Waves
- Spend the gap between waves, not during one. The quiet moment after a wave clears is when coins buy the most, because you can see what just happened and pick the upgrade that answers it.
- Don’t replace losses one for one. If your soldiers died to something specific, buying the same soldiers again gets the same result. Change what you’re fielding, or improve it, before you add more of it.
- Bank for the heavy weapons. Big equipment costs enough that you’ll never afford it by accident. Skip one round of cheap units while you’re comfortable and it’ll be ready when you’re not.
- Keep the base itself upgraded. It’s easy to pour everything into troops and forget the thing you’re defending. A tougher base absorbs the leaks, and something always leaks eventually.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Paper Stick Figures free to play?
Yes. It plays free in the browser on computers and phones, with nothing to install.
What units can I put on the battlefield?
Stick soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and heavier weapons, all drawn in the same doodled style as the rest of the page. Cheap units go down in numbers; expensive ones handle the waves numbers can’t.
How do I earn coins for upgrades?
By stopping enemies. Clearing a wave pays out, and that payout funds better troops, more firepower, and a stronger base for the wave after it.
