Stacklands is a village-building survival game played with cards, where you drag them onto each other to gather, craft and grow a settlement. The base game cards are the original set of villagers, resources, food, structures, ideas, creatures, equipment, locations and rumors that make all of that work, along with the cards added in the free Order & Structure update.
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Structures
Villagers
Resources
Ideas
Food
Mobs
Locations
Rumors
Equipment
How Card Stacking Works in Stacklands
Everything in Stacklands is a card, and things happen when you drop one card onto another. A villager placed on a berry bush slowly picks its berries, and a villager on a tree or rock gathers wood or stone. Villagers do the work, and most buildings and crafts need one to get done. Dogs can do anything a villager can, just slower, which helps when you're short on people.
How Ideas Work as Recipes for New Cards
Ideas are recipe cards that list what you need to make something new, like a house that takes two wood, a stone and a villager. Stack those ingredients together and the finished card appears. Some items are needed but not used up, such as the villager doing the building or a campfire, so they stay on the board. Knowing the recipes early keeps you from gathering the wrong things.
Feeding Villagers With Food Cards
Food is what keeps your villagers alive. When a moon ends, villagers need to eat, and any who don't get enough food starve and leave a corpse behind. Berry bushes are an early source of food, and cooking combines ingredients into meals such as omelettes, stews, fruit salads and milkshakes. Keeping food stocked is what keeps your villagers free to build, work and fight instead of falling to hunger.
Coins and Card Packs
You earn coins by selling cards, either by dragging them onto the sell area at the top of the screen or through a Market. Coins buy card packs, each with a fixed list of possible cards and its own theme, such as cooking, farming or building. That theme helps when you're filling gaps, and Humble Beginnings is a cheap place to start at 3 coins. Quests and buying packs both open up new packs as you go.
Exploring Locations and the Catacombs
Location cards each have their own set of drops, so where you explore decides what you find. The Forest yields trees, sticks and apples, while the Old Village offers coins, wood and villagers. The Old Village is also where Old Tomes turn up, and those tomes unlock new ideas, so it's worth exploring early.
The Catacombs can be found while exploring the Old Village, Mountain, Graveyard or Forest. Inside, you'll find enemies, treasure chests and the Golden Goblet, which the game's main goal depends on. Treasure chests need a key, and the Humble Beginnings pack is one place to get one. Two corpses stacked together make a Graveyard location, which is worth exploring too.
Enemies, Combat and Equipment
Enemies come through portals, which can open at the end of a moon, and some are hidden inside packs. Once a villager reaches an enemy, the fight starts on its own, and villagers can die in battle. Defeated enemies often leave loot behind, so fights can pay off.
Weapons are the main way to make fighters stronger, and teaming villagers up against an enemy helps too. A spear is a good early weapon, made from wood and two sticks, and giving one to a villager trains them as militia. A sword needs an iron bar and two sticks, so it takes a little more work to make.
Rumors and What They Tell You
Rumors are hint cards that come out of card packs, and each one points you toward something you might otherwise miss. One explains that some attack types are stronger against others, and another hints at a hidden world behind the Strange Portal. They're worth reading as soon as they show up, because they often explain the next system you'll run into.
Which Base Game Cards Matter Most
Early on, villagers matter most, because most buildings and crafts need one, so food sources such as berry bushes and farms come next. Later, the cards tied to the main goal matter most. You build a Temple and place the Golden Goblet on it, which calls up a strong demon. Defeating that demon is the game's main goal, so it helps to bring a few militia and swordsmen.
FAQ
What happens if all your villagers die in Stacklands?
The game is lost once every villager is gone, so a single starvation or bad fight can be a serious setback. Keeping food stocked and a few armed fighters around is the simplest way to protect your settlement.
How do you get a baby in Stacklands?
Stack two villagers on a house and a Baby appears after a short wait. Leave the Baby on a house and it grows into a new villager, which is the main way to add more people to your village.
How do you grow a berry bush in Stacklands?
Add a berry to soil, a garden or a farm, and it grows into a berry bush. That gives you a food source close to home, instead of depending only on bushes you come across while exploring.