October 23, 2026

How to Play Midgard Wardens: A Free Co-op Game for 2–4 Players

Play now Free · 2–4 players · no download, no sign-up

Midgard Wardens is the second game on the site, and it plays the opposite way to a race: everyone wins together or loses together. You and one to three friends are the Wardens of Midgard, a land under attack by monsters called cubbits. This guide covers the goal, the four roles, how a turn works, and the two things that go wrong in every game: swarm bursts and blood moons.

What is the goal of Midgard Wardens?

Four tribes of cubbits — Lava, Sand, Tide and Shade — are invading. The map has 40 towns in 4 provinces, one tribe per province, and the whole team starts in the same town, which already has a warp tower.

You win by sealing the nest of all four tribes. You lose if any of these happens:

swarm bursts reach 8;
a tribe runs out of cubbits to place (each tribe has 18);
the card deck runs out when someone has to draw.

The Midgard Wardens continent, wrapped round an inland sea and split into four coloured provinces, towns joined by roads, cubbits standing in some of them; towns with a dashed red ring hold three and are about to burst — The map: 40 towns in 4 provinces, one tribe of cubbits for each. A dashed red ring marks a town on the edge of a swarm burst.

It is a game for 2 to 4 players, free in the browser, with no sign-up. If you would rather race each other, read the beginner's guide to Midgard Roads instead.

Which role should I pick?

Everyone picks a role in the waiting room, and no two players can share one. Anyone who does not pick gets a random role.

Role	What it is good at
Cleric	Defeats a whole tribe in a town with one action; a tribe whose nest is sealed cannot stay in her town
Alchemist	Seals a nest with only 3 cards instead of 4
Builder	Builds warp towers without discarding a card, and can use the builder's warp
Guardian	Cubbits cannot land in her town or the towns next to it

What happens on my turn?

You have 4 actions, in any mix, and you may repeat them:

Travel — walk to a neighbouring town for free, fly by airship (discard the card of the town you are flying to), call a griffin (discard the card of the town you stand in and go anywhere), or warp between two warp towers for free.
Defeat — remove one cubbit of a tribe from your town.
Build a warp tower — discard your town's card. You can have at most 6 towers.
Give or take a card — only the card of the town you both stand in.
Seal a nest — at a warp tower, discard 4 cards of that tribe's colour (the Alchemist needs 3).
End turn — skip any actions you have left.

When your actions are used up, the game does three things in order. You draw 2 cards and discard down to 7 if you hold more; then monsters appear, as many as the current spawn rate says; then it is the next player's turn. If fewer than 2 cards are left when someone must draw, the team loses on the spot, so make each turn count.

Why can everyone see my cards?

Because hands are open, and that is on purpose. Cards are both your travel tickets and the material for sealing nests, so the team has to talk about who should carry which colour. In a 2, 3 or 4-player game everyone starts with 4, 3 or 2 cards, and you can hold up to 7.

The Party window with two players, their roles, and the town cards in their hands, the second player's cards listed by town name — The Party window: every hand is open, so the whole team can plan who carries which colour.

Open the Party window and tap a teammate's row to see the town names. Anyone holding enough cards of one colour to seal a nest gets a “Can seal…” mark.

What is a swarm burst?

A town can hold at most 3 cubbits of one tribe. If a fourth lands, the swarm bursts into every neighbouring town (one cubbit each, same tribe) and can chain onwards — a town can burst only once per chain. Every burst fills one box of the burst bar, and at 8 you lose.

A red Swarm burst banner over the map, with the Swarm bursts bar at 1 of 8 and the list of towns coming back first beside it — A swarm burst. Each one fills the burst bar, and at 8 the team loses.

So a town with three cubbits is a time bomb: defeat them before the next one lands.

What is a blood moon?

Blood moons hide in the card deck: 4 on easy, 5 on normal, 6 on hard. The host chooses the difficulty before the game starts. When a blood moon is drawn:

the spawn rate steps up (it climbs through 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 and 4 monsters per turn);
one town is hit by 3 cubbits at once;
the towns hit so far are shuffled back on top of the monster deck — you know which towns come back first, though not in which order.

A blood moon never goes into anyone's hand.

How does a game end?

Seal all four nests and you win. Otherwise it ends the way described above: too many swarm bursts, a tribe out of cubbits, or no cards left to draw.

The defeat window over the board: Midgard has fallen, You lost, The monsters overran the land, with Look at the board and Play again buttons — A lost game: here the monsters overran the land. You can look at the board, or start another game.

Tips for your first game

Seal early, but remember that four cards of one colour must reach someone standing at a warp tower.
Spread warp towers across the provinces so you can cross the map without spending cards.
There is no turn timer, because co-op needs talking. Use the chat and emotes freely.
If a friend has been disconnected for more than 60 seconds, anyone else can play that seat for them, and the friend can carry on the moment they return.

Ready? Open Midgard Wardens and start a room from the game picker on the home page.