Bloom Defender is a tower defense kids game developed by Juicy Beast and released on November 14, 2011. The aim of this game is to defend the Mother Tree, a sacred tree that produces spiritual energy, from evil spirits that are trying to prank her.
Although Flash was discontinued on January 12 2021, Factory Balls is still playable through BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint and the Newgrounds Player.
Controls[]
- Mouse: Select/place trees, cast spell
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: Toggle spells
Gameplay[]
Bloom Defender contains 18 levels across three different worlds. In each level, the goal is to plant trees along the path to ward off enemies as they travel along the path to get to the Mother Tree. To plant a tree, you select the type of sprout you want to plant, drag it over to the desired spot, and then put it down to have it grow into a tree. Doing this costs water, which regenerates over time while enemies are on the attack. It's also possible to spend additional water to upgrade trees you already planted to make them stronger.
During each wave, enemies will spawn at the path's entrance and make their way to the Mother Tree; some enemy types can only walk along the standard path, but others can take shortcuts to reach the Mother Tree more quickly. Additionally, certain enemies have special abilities that can make them trickier to defeat; fortunately, these abilities can be countered using special elemental spells that have various effects on enemies. Most enemies are weak to one particular spell, but immune to one other spell.
Worlds[]
- Sunny Forest: A lush forest with easy track formations. It primarily serves as an introduction to the game's mechanics and each of the special enemy types.
- Snowy Forest: A wintry forest with more difficult track formations.
- Gloomy Forest: A dark forest with very challenging track formations.
Trees[]
- Arboro: Basic tree that shoots one projectile at a time. Costs 1 water to plant.
- Blomb: Shoots explosive projectiles that deal splash damage. Costs 2 water to plant.
- Drillem: Shoots sharp projectiles that pierce through every enemy they hit. Costs 2 water to plant.
- Sappy: Releases bursts of sap that cover every enemy within the Sappy's range, causing them to temporarily move slower. Costs 1 water to plant.
- Snikoya: Shoots projectiles that become more and more powerful as long as it keeps shooting at the same type of enemy. Costs 3 water to plant.
Spells[]
- Ice Spell: Briefly freezes enemies, making them unable to move.
- Wind Spell: Temporarily lowers enemies' defense.
- Fire Spell: Sets enemies on fire, draining their health over time.
- Rock Spell: Makes enemies dizzy, causing them to sometimes stop moving as they walk down the path.
- Light Spell: Deals massive damage to enemies. Has a much longer cooldown than the other spells.
Enemies[]
- Wild Spirit: Basic enemy with no special abilities. It can only walk on the standard path.
- Fire Spirit: Regenerates its health over time. It can walk on lava paths. The Fire Spell doesn't hurt it at all, but it takes extra damage from the Ice Spell and stays frozen for longer.
- Rock Spirit: Has high defense and takes less damage from your trees' attacks than other enemy types. It can walk on stony paths. The Rock Spell has no effect on it, but the Wind Spell lowers its defense even more severely.
- Ice Spirit: Gains a temporary speed boost when attacked. It can walk on icy paths. The Ice Spell can't freeze it, but the Fire Spell drains its health more quickly.
- Air Spirit: Slowly turns invisible when attacked, becoming immune to your trees' attacks once it's completely invisible. It can fly over weathered paths. The Wind Spell just makes it instantly turn invisible, but the Rock Spell gives it a stronger dizzying effect and prevents it from turning invisible.
Bosses[]
- Tomax: The boss of Sunny Forest. Tomax is a small spirit who protects himself with armor in the form of giant totem poles made of wooden chunks that represent the four different elements utilized by the normal enemy spirits. To destroy Tomax's totem, you have to hit each segment of the totem with the spell that is strong against whichever element that segment represents. Once the totem is destroyed, Tomax will be vulnerable for a while before eventually generating a new totem for himself.
- Borer: The boss of Snowy Forest. Borer is a huge mole-like spirit who normally travels underground. While he's underground, smaller mole spirits imbued with one of the four different elements will pop up. To draw Borer out from underground, you have to destroy each of the small mole spirits by hitting them with whichever elemental spell they're weak to based on which element they embody. Once all the moles are gone, Borer will emerge and travel above ground for a while before eventually going back underground.
- Metashell: The boss of Gloomy Forest. Metashell is a giant spirit who has the ability to generate a hard shell around his body. While Metashell is in the play area, elemental eggs will roll across the top of the screen; to destroy Metashell's shell, you have to hit the eggs with whichever elemental spell they're weak to based on which element they embody so they turn into projectiles that fly downward towards Metashell. After getting hit enough times with these projectiles, Metashell's shell will break and he'll be exposed to your trees' attacks for a while before eventually regrowing his shell.
Trivia[]
- In each of the three worlds, the larger Wild Spirits take on a different form.
- In Sunny Woods, they don skull masks.
- In Snowy Woods, they resemble buffaloes.
- In Gloomy Woods, they look like nondescript wild creatures.
- According to the game's credits sequence, each of the three bosses were inspired by various enemies from the Mega Man series, specifically the first Mega Man X game.
- Tomax was inspired by Axe Max, a lumberjack robot who attacks by generating stacks of artificial logs and sending their segments flying.
- Borer was inspired by Mole Borer, a huge mining robot who attacks by charging forward with its spiked roller attachment in an attempt to crush the player.
- Coincidentally, there also exists a similar enemy robot known simply as Borer that appears in Mega Man X7.
- Metashell was inspired by Metall C-15, a variant of the iconic hard hat-wearing robot that has appeared as a common enemy in numerous Mega Man games.