Classic version 1.0.5. This page includes the original restoration and subsequent Classic updates, and defines exactly which rules and mechanics are active when you Play Classic.

Classic uses the original fixed Gem TD rules, including the corrections released on and after April 15 that are listed below. Its elemental matchup table is shared with Season 2; other seasonal mechanics are not enabled.

Run access and lifecycle

• No account is required. Login status does not change Classic gameplay; it only controls whether a submitted score is linked to an account.
• No save or resume. Classic never occupies an account save slot. Reloading or closing the page ends the run, and returning starts a new one.
• Surrender remains available. During an active run, Surrender offers Submit Score, Restart, and Cancel. Submit Score ends the run and opens the High Score Text prompt.
• 1×, 2×, and 4× speed. The game uses the same fixed simulation at each setting and automatically steps down from 4× to 2× or from 2× to 1× if the device cannot keep up accurately.

Classic difficulties

All five original difficulty buttons belong to Classic. The armor adjustment is added to each enemy's armor value, and the score multiplier applies to the level-completion score.

For the Extreme, Survival, and Legendary aided start, the first three gems are drawn without replacement from either Diamond/Sapphire/Topaz or Aquamarine/Emerald/Opal, chosen by the run seed.

Legendary

Classic 1.0.6 unlocks Legendary for logged-in players with an account-linked record of reaching level 201 in Classic or any season. Archived scores, saved games, and retained competitive run progress count. The menu shows the unlock requirement. Legendary keeps Survival's 10 lives, 10 enemies per wave, aided start, health, gold economy, and 16× wave-completion score. There is no save or resume.

• Armor: +17 difficulty armor, one more than Survival from the opening wave onward. After level 40 this gives 20 total armor before reductions.
• Movement: walking speed and minimum slowed speed grow by 0.03% of their base value per level after 100, with no initial jump. Ordinary waves near levels 200, 400, and 700 are approximately 3%, 9%, and 18% faster.
• Shorter stuns: resistance grows smoothly from zero after level 100. Flying enemies approach 20% near level 200, 40% near 300, and 55% near 400, then a 75% ceiling. Ground enemies approach 30%, 60%, and 80% at those milestones, then a 90% ceiling. These percentages reduce stun duration. Stun chances and refreshing remain unchanged; there is no recovery-immunity period.
• Existing stun-immune waves: every 50th level after level 40 still ignores stuns entirely, overriding the ordinary-wave duration curve. These waves keep their original speed and minimum speed.
• Leak costs: 1 life through level 200, 2 at 201–300, 3 at 301–400, and 4 at 401–500, increasing by 1 every 100 levels afterward. Levels 300 and 400 retain a one-life allowance, costing 1 and 2 respectively.
• Enemy details: show the current stun reduction or immunity and the number of lives lost per leak. Legendary scores have their own difficulty filter.
• Games already running: keep the rules and version they started with, including the earlier Legendary preview.

Rounds, waves, and resources

• Starting resources: 10 gold and 10 lives. Lives are capped at 50.
• Placement: place five 2×2 rocks each level without blocking the required ground path. Each rock reveals one of the eight original gem types and a quality from Chipped through Perfect according to the current gem chances.
• Round choice: keep one revealed gem, make a valid same-gem combine, or make a valid original special tower. Unkept candidates become rocks.
• Waves: 10 enemies spawn per level, one per second at 1× speed. Every fourth level is flying; all other levels use the ground maze.
• Leaks: on Easy through Survival, each enemy that reaches the exit costs exactly 1 life. Legendary uses the escalating costs below. Classic has no milestone bosses, fatal boss leaks, fragments, or reinforcements.
• Wave rewards: each ordinary kill adds 1 score. Completing a wave adds the completed level multiplied by the selected difficulty multiplier, then awards 5 + (2 × the new level) gold.
• Enemy gold: enemies through level 40 pay (level ÷ 4) + 1 gold when killed. Enemies after level 40 pay 25 gold.
• Late-game rules: after level 40, Classic Survival uses Pink armor with 3 base armor plus the +16 difficulty adjustment, for 19 armor before reductions. Its armor does not rise with later wave tiers. Health, speed, minimum-speed, and every-50-level stun-immunity rules are unchanged. Easy through Extreme retain their separate level 41–50 armor tables and stop after level 50; Classic Survival has no level cap. Season 1 and Season 2 boss rules do not apply.

Combining, building, and economy

• Same-gem combines: two or three matching gems of the same type and quality increase the selected gem by one quality. Four or five matching gems increase it by two qualities. Four or more matching Perfect gems create an Uber Stone. Season 2's three-gem double-upgrade shortcut is not active.
• Original special recipes: a valid recipe can be activated by selecting any ingredient, and only the exact matched recipe gems are consumed. Classic includes the 13 original special families and their original upgrades: Black Opal, Blood Stone, Dark Emerald, Gold, Jade, Malachite, Paraiba Tourmaline, Pink Diamond, Red Crystal, Silver, Star Ruby, Uranium-235, and Yellow Sapphire.
• Repick: available while choosing five untouched gems. Click to place five new gems manually, or hold Shift and click to replace them in the same positions. Quick repick has a brief delay before another repick can be purchased. Both use the same price: 25 × (repicks already purchased + 1).
• Buy Life: available during combat. The price is 10 + (lives already purchased²) gold, up to the 50-life cap.
• Upgrade Chances: costs 20 + (30 × the current chance level) gold, up to chance level 8.
• Original combat-time building: eligible special combines, special upgrades, a downgrade of the eligible current-round gem, rock removal, life purchases, and gem-chance upgrades remain available during a wave. Season 2's safe-build-boundary restriction is not active.

Gem quality chances

Classic combat balance

• Except for the Malachite attack intervals and Uber Stone adjustments below, the eight original standard gems, 13 original special families, and their upgrades retain their existing damage, cooldowns, ranges, projectile speeds, abilities, and costs. Their attacks and tower burns now use the Season 2 elemental matchup table, including bonuses and resistances, without importing the Great gem stat rebalance.
• Malachite attack intervals: Malachite and Vivid Malachite attack every 0.40 seconds; Mighty Malachite attacks every 0.45 seconds, before speed auras. Damage, target counts, ranges, and costs are unchanged. Other game modes retain their existing intervals.
• Uber Stone: in Classic 1.0.6, its base damage roll is 251–1,250, its attack interval is 0.75 seconds, and each 10 kills adds 5% of base damage. Range, 25% chance of 4× critical damage, and the recipe are unchanged. This applies to all Classic difficulties; seasonal rules are unchanged.
• Star Yellow Sapphire uses the restored 180 damage, 0.8-second cooldown, and 121 in-game range.
• Mystic Black Opal and Star Yellow Sapphire damage auras apply together instead of one replacing the other.
• Lucky Asian Jade retains its 5% on-hit bonus-gold roll. A successful roll awards floor(level ÷ 2 + 5) gold. It does not use Season 2's level-201 kill-only restriction.
• Armor-reduction auras: the strongest overlapping aura applies before attacks and burns; weaker auras cannot overwrite it. Two identical auras do not add together. Existing on-hit armor reduction remains separate.
• Slows and minimum speed: slows cannot take an enemy below its level-defined minimum movement speed unless the enemy is stunned. The corrected minimum-speed scaling and display are active.
• Floating critical-hit and bonus-gold text remains hidden from level 100 onward to avoid the original memory leak; the damage and gold effects still occur.

Classic elemental damage and armor

Every standard gem quality and special tower uses its assigned damage type. Tower damage is colored by element. Hover, tap, or keyboard-focus the Damage line for its type; Aquamarine and Opal both use Water. Select an enemy to see its numerical armor reduction separately from its armor type, weaknesses, and resistances. The table shows damage before numerical armor reduction: 150% means 50% more damage; 20% means 80% less.

Armor value and armor type are independent multipliers. Armor value sets the general reduction to attack damage; armor type sets the elemental bonus or resistance. For example, an Emerald attack worth 100 against Pink armor and 19 armor deals 100 × 1.50 × 0.467 = 70.05 damage. The displayed 53.3% reduction comes from the actual armor multiplier, including armor-reduction effects. Negative armor increases attack damage.

After level 40 in Survival, Pink armor takes 175% Amethyst, 150% Emerald, 120% Topaz, 80% Ruby, and 20% Diamond damage. Aquamarine, Opal, and Sapphire deal 100%. Gold and Uber Stone use Amethyst; Malachite uses Emerald; Pink Diamond uses Diamond; Uranium uses Topaz.

These matchups apply once to attacks and tower burns, with attack splash carrying the primary target's calculated damage. Poison ticks and fixed spell damage keep their existing calculations. Damage type does not change whether a tower can attack ground or flying enemies. Other game modes retain their existing mechanics.

Classic high scores

• Classic leaderboard submission does not require an account. Legendary requires an account with level-201 progress to start, and the same account to submit. For the other difficulties, if you are logged in when you submit, the score is also linked to your account and appears on your player profile.
• High Score Text is free-form, required for submission, and limited to 80 characters.
• A score can be submitted when the run ends or through Surrender. Classic Survival also prompts for its first late-game checkpoint on reaching level 501, then updates that run's checkpoint after later completed levels.
• Scores from the original site are included on the Classic Scores page.

What Classic kept from April 15 through July 28

Mechanics not included in Classic

• Save/resume and account ownership: no local or account run save, deterministic resume, stale-tab save locking, or account-owned score identity.
• Survival Season 1: no level-250 Splitter, level-500 Sky Warlord, fragments, fatal boss leaks, boss life rewards, or Boss Relic charge/fracture mechanic.
• Season 2 Slates: no slate recipes, stored-slate combinations, kill inheritance, slate movement, or slate anti-stacking.
• Season 2 crafting/economy: no Combine Three double upgrade, Extra Chance, safe build boundaries, tier-scaled repicks/lives, Prismatic Forge, or Season 2 late-game gold rules.
• Season 2 combat: no Great gem rebalance, Season 2 projectile-speed changes, wave reinforcements, faster tier spawning, multi-life leaks, milestone bosses, or level-201 Lucky Asian Jade restriction.