Herder

Herder is a third-person herding and tower-defense game about protecting a flock of sheep and goats while moving through procedurally generated alpine pastures. You use items and weapons to defend your livestock from wild animals, manage its food and health, and sell animals, milk and wool to passing trade caravans.

Manage your flock

You begin with enough cash to start a small flock. Your sheep and goats graze on grass and wildflowers until they have eaten everything in an area, so you must then move to another pasture. At the start of each new pasture, you can set up defensive items before opening the gate and letting your livestock out.

Each pasture takes you farther into the wild, where encounters with wild animals increase and trade caravans become less frequent. Caravans let you sell livestock, milk and wool produced over the seasons, and buy items or animals for your flock. Keep your animals happy and healthy so they can breed, produce milk and grow wool.

Survive the seasons

The seasons bring different needs and dangers: watch for bears in autumn, feed your flock hay in winter and look after newborn lambs in spring. You can cash out at any time and save your earnings, or keep migrating until predators, starvation or disease wipe out your flock. Selling the whole flock or losing it saves your final cash as your high score, after which you can begin again in a fresh meadow with a new flock and strategy.

Game modes

The action-focused mode combines resource-management strategy with third-person action and tower defense. A friendly herding dog accompanies you. Alternatively, casual mode lets your flock graze peacefully while you take your sheep out to pasture and enjoy the quieter pace.