How to play SECOND STRIKE

The complete guide to the real-time world war on a 3D globe · updated October 3, 2026

SECOND STRIKE is a free real-time strategy game played on a satellite view of the real Earth. You start as a small patch of land, grow by sending troops at your neighbours, capture real cities, make and break pacts with 42 nations led by parody world leaders and with up to 200 other players, and build a modern arsenal. Matches last 15 minutes. Every nuclear detonation moves the shared MIDNIGHT clock, and whoever takes it to zero is wiped out.

On this page: Ways to play · Controls · The first minute · Fighting · Buildings · Strikes · Diplomacy · MIDNIGHT · Gold · Levels and missions · The League · Clans · Friends and avatars · Store · Tips · FAQ

Ways to play

Mode	What it is
▶ PLAY SOLO	You against the 42 nations. Pick Recruit (a long ceasefire, one nation at a time, no nukes at you), Normal or Hard.
📅 DAILY CHALLENGE	The same world for everyone each day: same nations, same leaders, same dice, Normal difficulty. Your best run of the day goes on the daily board. Every run is checked by the server replaying it.
🌐 ONLINE	A public free-for-all with up to 200 human players plus the 42 nations. The lobby counts down 30 seconds, then the war starts.
⚔ TEAMS	Up to 200 players split into 2 to 6 teams of about 8. Clanmates stay together, teammates start in a pact, and a team wins by holding 80% of the land together.

Controls

Action	Computer	Phone or tablet
Send troops at land	Left click	Tap
Open the action wheel (every option)	Right click	Press and hold
Change how many troops each order sends	Scroll on the wheel, the slider, or keys `1` to `0`	The slider or the TROOPS ring
Spin and zoom the globe	Drag, scroll	Drag, pinch
Fly back to your land	`Space`	⌂ button
Arm a nuke	`N`, then click a target	NUKE button, then tap
Chat (online)	`Enter`	💬 CHAT
Troop Surge	⚡ SURGE button	⚡ SURGE button
My forces panel / expand the live board	`F` / `B`	🎖 MY FORCES / tap the board

Change the keys in ⚙ Settings ▸ Controls. Settings also has volumes, the announcer voice (a command-center voice for launches, midnight, streaks, invasions and wins), a low-graphics mode for older phones, screen shake, tips, streamer mode (hides other players' chat) and a button to replay the tutorial. The music follows the war: calm while you expand, crisis when you are attacked, a nuclear winter score after midnight.

The first minute

Spawn. You have 10 seconds to click open land. Spawn near cities (the dots) and away from big nations.
Grab open land fast. Unclaimed land is cheap. Keep clicking the faint land around you while it lasts.
Mind the ceasefire. New players get a ceasefire after spawning (2 minutes on Recruit). Use it to grow, not to fight.
Take cities. Each city raises your troop cap and your income. Taking one from a rival pays a gold bounty on top.

How fighting works

Every click sends your SEND percentage of the troops you have right now. Clicking the same target again reinforces that attack.
Clicking in many directions opens many fronts and splits your army. The FRONTS counter turns orange at three: one big push beats many small ones.
Enemy land costs more where the defender has more troops per cell. Forts double the price of nearby land.
Troops regrow fastest when you are low, so the winning rhythm is: push hard, let it refill, push again.
Changed your mind? Right click the target and choose RETREAT: 90% of the troops still in that front come home.
No land route? A click across water sends a fleet. Enemy warships near their ports can sink it.
City streak. Take rival cities in quick succession and a 🔥 streak counter builds, with a bigger gold total the longer it runs.
When someone invades you, the feed groups your losses (for example "IRAQ took 13 of your cities"). Click the line to fly straight to that front.

Buildings

Right click your own land, then BUILD ▸. Hover any option to see its reach drawn on the ground.

Building	What it does
🚀 Missile Silo	Unlocks missiles, hypersonics, EMPs and nukes. They launch from your silo.
🛡 Missile Shield	A dome about 900 km across that shoots down 3 in 4 missiles and nukes aimed under it (9 in 10 with a satellite in orbit). It covers your partners too.
✈ Airbase	Its fighters shoot down half the drones, bombers and helicopters that come in range. Unlocks bomber runs and air assaults.
🛸 Drone Factory	Launches a drone swarm every 12 seconds at the nearest enemy you are at war with. Your drone strikes cost half.
⚓ Naval Port	Its warship sinks enemy fleets that pass nearby. Your fleets sail faster. Must be on the coast.
🛳 Aircraft Carrier	Launched from a port. A floating airbase: right click the ocean to sail it anywhere. Bombers and air assaults can fly from its deck.
🌊 Submarine	Your second strike. If you are ever nuked, it fires a nuke back at the attacker on its own.
🛰 Space Center	Puts a satellite in orbit: early warning for your shields, and orbital strikes nobody can intercept.
🏰 Fort	Land around it costs twice as much to take.
▣ Data Center	More gold every second. A juicy target.

Strikes, air and space

Weapon	Effect
☢ Nuke	A crater of fallout nobody can hold for a while, heavy losses, and the MIDNIGHT clock moves one minute for everyone. Costs more the closer the clock is to midnight.
🚀 Missile	A small crater. No fallout; the clock does not move.
⚡ Hypersonic	Twice as fast; shields stop only 1 in 4.
🌀 EMP	Every building nearby goes dark for 30 seconds, shields included. Then strike.
✈ Drone strike	Kills 12% of a rival's troops from range.
⌨ Cyber attack	Steals a quarter of their gold and freezes their recruiting.
🛩 Bomber run	Bombers fly from your airbase or carrier and carpet-bomb a wide area. Fighters may shoot them down.
🚁 Air assault	Helicopters drop troops behind enemy lines to push inland from there.
☄ Orbital strike	A tungsten rod from your satellite. It cannot be intercepted.
🎯 ASAT	Shoots down a rival's satellite. Four kills and Kessler syndrome destroys every satellite and moves the MIDNIGHT clock.

Diplomacy, betrayal and talking to leaders

Pacts. Right click a nation, then DEAL ▸ PROPOSE PACT. Partners cannot be attacked without a betrayal.
Betrayal. Attacking a partner breaks the pact: you get a 20-second blitz at half price, then a minute marked TRAITOR, when everyone can hit you cheaply.
Talk. Each of the 20 parody leaders answers in character when you talk to them. They may lie.
Gifts and tribute. Send gold to win friends, or demand tribute from the weak. The proud remember.
The World Coalition. When anyone holds about a quarter of the Earth, the rest close ranks against them. That includes you.

The MIDNIGHT clock

Every match starts at 8 minutes to midnight. Each nuclear detonation and each Kessler cascade moves it closer. Nukes cost more the closer it gets (150K down to 6 minutes, then 1.6 times more each minute). At midnight the player whose strike did it is wiped out, their land turns to wasteland, nobody can launch for 60 seconds of nuclear winter, the clock goes back to 3 minutes, and everyone else fights on. Survive it and you earn the Survived Midnight medal. Nations hold back as it gets close. You might not.

Spending gold: surges and city upgrades

Troop Surge (the SURGE button, or right click your land): instantly adds 30% of your troop cap. It costs gold that grows with your empire and recharges for 45 seconds. Upgrade City (right click one of your cities): makes it bigger, up to level 6, for 700 more troop cap each level. Bigger cities also pay a bigger bounty to whoever takes them from you.

Levels, streaks and missions

Every war earns XP, signed in or not: cities taken, your best city streak, the land you held, nations you wiped out, how long you lasted and whether you won. Your level and title (Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Veteran, Ace, Field Marshal, Warlord, Supreme Commander, Doomsday) show on the start screen. Levels 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 unlock free avatars.

Daily streak. Come back on consecutive days: day 1 pays 25 XP, day 2 pays 50, up to 250 a day.
Daily mission. One mission for everyone each day (for example "Capture 3 capitals in one war" or "Hit a 10-city streak"). It pays 150 XP the moment you finish it.
War highlights. When your war ends you see cities taken, best streak, peak land, nations wiped out, nukes and time survived, the XP you earned, and a SHARE button. If you were wiped out but the war goes on, SPECTATE follows the biggest powers until the end.

The SECOND STRIKE League: seasons, rating, ranks and medals

Sign in with Discord, Google or an email link and every public online war you finish counts in the SECOND STRIKE League. The server replays each war from the moves that were played, so scores cannot be faked. Private wars with friends do not count.

Weekly seasons. Every week is a League season, from Monday 00:00 UTC to the next Monday. Season 1 began on September 28, 2026. You earn season points in each war: where you finished in the field (up to 100), a win (150, or 60 for a shared team win), surviving (20) and cities held (up to 60). Leaving early or striking midnight scores nothing.
Season honours. When a season ends, the top 10 players earn a season honour on their service record (the winner becomes Season Champion), the top 3 clans earn clan honours, and everyone in the top 10 gets a note in the bell. On the official Discord the bot gives the champion the League Champion role and the top 10 the League Top 10 role until the next season ends, and the results are posted every Monday. Then everyone starts the new season at 0.
Hall of fame. Every past season's champion, top 10 and top clans stay on the League page under HALL OF FAME.
Rating. A skill rating among signed-in players, moved after every online war by where you finished against each other. It sets your rank: Recruit, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel and General.
Medals. First Victory, Podium, Megacity, Backstabber, Second Strike, Peacemaker, Brink, Survived Midnight, Kessler, Admiral, Carrier Group, Conqueror and Daily Soldier. Several unlock an avatar.
The League page. This season's standings, rating, clans, the daily challenge and the hall of fame, at secondstrike.io/#/leaderboard (LEAGUE in the menu).
Your service record. Your callsign and #tag, rank, stats, medals and last 20 wars, with a public page anyone can open.

Clans and the war map

Start a clan with a 2 to 5 letter tag, or join one (open, or invite code only). Up to 50 members.

Your [TAG] shows on the globe and in the live board.
Clanmates who land in the same online war start it in a pact, and stay on the same team in team wars.
Every member's season points add up on the clan board, and the top 3 clans of each League season earn clan honours.
The clan war map. When a clan member scores in an online war, the country they mostly held at the end earns those points for their clan. Each country flies the colour of the clan with the most points there this week. See it at secondstrike.io/#/warmap.

Friends, avatars and notifications

Friends. Add anyone by callsign and tag (like COMMANDER#4821) or from their service record. A green dot shows who is in a war right now.
Avatars. Eight free, eight earned with medals, six unlocked by levels, and eight animated ones in the store. Or switch on your Discord or Google picture.
Arsenal. Everything you own from the store, with an EQUIP button for colours, patterns, nuke effects and flair. What you equip shows in every war and on your public page.
Private wars. Press Private war with friends on the start screen, create a free-for-all or team war room, and share its code or link (secondstrike.io/#/war/CODE), or invite friends from your friends list. The host presses START when everyone is in. Private wars are unranked.
Your rank on Discord. Sign in with Discord and your SECOND STRIKE card (callsign, rating, wins, wars, medals) shows on your Discord profile, with your League top 10 finishes and titles, and on the official server you get the role for your rank, from Recruit to General, plus League Champion or League Top 10 after a great season. Everything updates after every League war. On the server, /leaderboard shows the season standings.
Voice on Discord. Every online war with two or more players gets its own voice channel on the official SECOND STRIKE Discord (one per team in team wars). Press the purple VOICE button in the war to join it; the channel closes when the war ends.
Notifications. The 🔔 bell collects friend requests, clan joins, new medals and what is new in the game.

The store

Everything in the store is cosmetic and one-time: territory colours, patterns, nuke effects, Pro emotes, flair badges and animated avatars, from $1.49, plus bundles. Payment is by PayPal, nothing renews, and nothing changes a number in the fight. Signed-in players keep their items on every device; guests get a restore code. Got a creator code from a streamer, a video maker or a friend? Enter it in ⚙ Settings ▸ Account, or just open their link, and part of what you spend goes to them, at no extra cost to you.

Earn 10% by bringing players

Every signed-in player can make a referral link in one click: open your service record (your callsign, top right) and press MAKE MY LINK under Earn with SECOND STRIKE. Share secondstrike.io/r/YOURCODE with friends, your server or your viewers. You earn 10% of everything the players you bring spend in the store; your visits, sales and what you are owed show on the same page. Add a PayPal email there and you are paid monthly once you are owed US$10 or more (adults only: under 18, use a parent or guardian's PayPal with their OK). Your own purchases do not count. Stream it: press LINK MY TWITCH on the same page, and whenever you stream SECOND STRIKE with it in your stream title you appear in LIVE NOW on the start screen for every player and get announced on our Discord. Visitors watch you right on secondstrike.io (player and chat, with a JOIN A WAR button next to it), and everyone who watches there supports your code. Program rules · for creators.

Strategy tips

Fill your borders before you poke out: a compact empire is cheaper to defend.
Build a Missile Silo or a Missile Shield as soon as you have 50,000 gold. Whichever you build, others will notice.
A Submarine is the best deterrent in the game: nobody wants to nuke the player who always fires back.
Keep a pact on your quiet border so you can push everything at one enemy.
Carriers let you hit coasts on the other side of the world; ports and missiles are how you sink them.
Gold piling up? A Troop Surge right before a big push, or upgrading the cities in your heartland, beats sitting on it.
Near midnight, the last nuke is a trap. Let a rival be the one who fires it.

Frequently asked questions

Is SECOND STRIKE free?

Yes. The whole game is free in your browser with no download. Optional one-time cosmetics (territory colours, patterns, nuke effects, emotes, avatars) never change the fight, and nothing renews.

Do I need an account?

No. Guests can play every mode. Signing in (Discord, Google or an email link) adds a callsign, ranked online wars, the leaderboards, clans, friends and keeps your purchases and level on every device.

Can I play with friends?

Press ONLINE to join a public war with up to 200 human players, or TEAMS to be split into 2 to 6 teams (about 8 a side, clanmates kept together, a team wins by holding 80% of the land together). A public team war needs 4 players; with fewer it plays as a free-for-all, and when few people are on, ONLINE and TEAMS share one queue so nobody waits alone. The 42 nations fight too. If nobody else is waiting, the war starts anyway with you against the nations (in a war of one or two humans the nations play gentler, like Recruit; with three or more they fight at full strength), and anyone who presses ONLINE in the next three minutes joins that war in progress, taking command of one of the nations with a short ceasefire to get their bearings. Chat, emotes, pacts and betrayal all work between players. Sign in with Discord or Google and your online wars are ranked: weekly points, a rating, medals and your clan on the war map.

What happens at midnight?

The player whose strike takes the clock to zero is wiped out and their land becomes wasteland. Everyone else lives through a minute of nuclear winter (no launches) and the war goes on with the clock at 3 minutes.

Can I earn money from SECOND STRIKE?

Yes. Sign in, open your service record and press MAKE MY LINK. You get a link like secondstrike.io/r/YOURNAME and earn 10% of what the players you bring spend in the store, paid by PayPal monthly once you are owed US$10 or more. No email or application needed.

Is there a Discord?

Yes, and you can sign in with Discord. The invite link is in the footer of the game page.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes, with touch controls. On Android, Chrome or Edge, use INSTALL THE APP on the start screen. On iPhone or iPad, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.

What do I need to play?

A modern browser with WebGL: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari on a computer, phone or tablet.

How old do I need to be?

13 or older. The game has cartoon war and chat with other players, with a chat filter, and a mute and a REPORT on every name: click a name in the chat. Reports go to a moderator with that player's recent lines.

▶ PLAY SECOND STRIKE FREE

Made by Clouthier Simulation Labs, Ontario, Canada · info@secondstrike.io · X @SecondStrikeIO · Discord · Press and creators · Terms · Privacy