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Cartridge Defense

Cartridge Defense

Cartridge Defense is a tower defense game with over 300 distinct collectible cards that you will use to create your own decks to defend against robots in the cyberpunk inspired future. Play cards (cartridges) to spawn towers, upgrades, special abilities and more in a campaign or rogue-like mode.

Released Sep 3, 2022 Developer Out Gaming Platforms Windows Tower DefenseCard GameDeckbuildingRoguelike DeckbuilderRogue-lite
View on Steam ↗ $11.99 (US · as of 2026-05-15)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28.

92.0%positive100 reviews
Recommended · 27 found this helpful

“Pretty fantastic tower defense game. I also love the deck building aspect. So many different towers. Great ways to build paths. None of that "rush" nonsense, or where you have to be quick with abilities; it's 90% strategy 10% RNG, which is easy to mitigate with items. One of the…”

— a player, Steam review · 25 hrs played
Recommended · 15 found this helpful

“I've played a lot of tower defense games and this one is really compelling. There are difficulty spikes that had me ragequitting, but here's some advice - don't be afraid to spread your towers out, and sponsorship mode is endgame. I love and I hate this game. The number of…”

— a player, Steam review · 98 hrs played
Recommended · 5 found this helpful

“Impressive Tower Defense game. The addition of strategic cards adds a lot of tactical options to each map. It combines old school make your own maze within a variety of map layouts that each have their own obstacles. If you like a more strategic tower defense that allows you to…”

— a player, Steam review · 21 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-28.

14achievements
6.9%median completion
2.3%rarest: Cartridge Completionist
40.2% of players 25.3% of players 20.0% of players 16.2% of players 10.5% of players 7.9% of players 7.5% of players 6.9% of players 6.8% of players 4.1% of players 3.9% of players 3.7% of players 3.6% of players 2.3% of players 40.2% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
40.2%Escape the Idle Tower — Complete Zone 1: Idle Tower
25.3%Journey through the Slums — Complete Zone 2: High Slums
20.0%Sponsored By Guns — Beat a level on Sponsored mode
Rarest badges of honor
2.3%Cartridge Completionist — Unlock the complete Cartridge set
3.6%Alternate Victory — Complete the Rogue-Like mode
3.7%City Traveler — Complete all levels

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

Sep 01, 2023
Cartridge Defense Tutorial Fix

Hey everyone, I just released version 1.0.1.12 of Cartridge Defense that should fix the issue with the tutorial that several players had been running into. I also modified the rules for line of sight

Feb 23, 2023
Cartridge Defense Patch 1.0.1.10 - Boss Nerf

Probably the biggest point of contention with Cartridge Defense since its release is that if a boss makes it through to the end, the run is over. Today that is no longer the case. Instead, you will lo

Oct 03, 2022
Cartridge Defense Minor Patch 1.0.1.6

Hey everyone, just a small patch today to fix a couple issues and hopefully reduce some late game crashes. Fixed issue where adding a cartridge to a deck could add more than it was supposed to under c

Sep 17, 2022
Cartridge Defense Patch 1.0.1.5

Hello everyone, I have a new update today with a few tweaks that most notably should help with crashing issues with later rounds in Endless Mode. I also added a Colorblind mode and nerfed the overpowe

Sep 05, 2022
1.0.1.2 Minor patch notes

Thanks for everyone who has supported the game through launch! I have a small patch today with a few bug fixes: Fixed issue with Junk Removal (and other cartridges that destroy towers on the field) th

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Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-09-28.

GenresCasual, Indie, Strategy
Player tagsTower Defense · Card Game · Deckbuilding · Roguelike Deckbuilder · Rogue-lite · Card Battler · Cyberpunk · Sci-fi · Top-Down · Trading Card Game · Strategy · Singleplayer (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Steam Achievements · Stats · Family Sharing
LanguagesEnglish * *
Achievements14
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i3 6100 / AMD FX-4350 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB) DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 2 GB available space