How to play

What is bam.li?

Two games on one site: a country-vs-country tap race, and a throne anyone can steal. No app, no sign-up needed to play.

bam.li is two games sharing one world.

BAM Brawl is the homepage: one button, every country on earth fighting over it one week at a time. Every tap counts for your country.

Steal the Throne is a king-of-the-hill. One player holds the throne at any moment; anyone can take it, and when they do their name and message go in front of every visitor.

You can play both without an account. An account adds the War Room, an Army, tap upgrades, seasons, and a recovery code that carries your progress between devices.

BAMs — the currency

Every tap earns BAMs. Spend them in the Shop and on your Army. You can never buy them with money.

BAMs are what tapping earns you. One tap is worth your tap value in BAMs — 1 to start, more once you buy tap upgrades.

Three numbers matter:

• Lifetime — everything you've ever earned. It never goes down, even when you spend. It's also what your country's standings and the Hall of Fame look at.
• Spent — everything you've bought.
• Balance — lifetime minus spent. This is what you can spend.

There's no way to buy BAMs. The only route is playing.

Your country

Detected from your connection the first time you play. Every tap you make counts for it in the weekly race.

Your country is picked up automatically the first time you visit — no permission prompt, no form. Every tap you make adds one to your country's weekly count, and that count is what the leaderboards rank.

Weekly counts reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC, and the brawl starts again. The end-of-week standings are kept forever.

Daily bonus and streaks

Play on consecutive days and each day pays a bigger bonus — 500 BAMs times your streak, capped at 5,000.

Come back every day and the game pays you for it. The first time you play on a new day you get 500 BAMs × your current streak — day 1 is 500, day 2 is 1,000, and so on, capped at 5,000 from day 10.

Miss a day and the streak starts again. It's claimed automatically when you play; you'll see it land as a notice.

BAM Brawl — the tap race

Tap the button. Your country climbs the weekly board. Every Monday it resets and the fight starts over.

The homepage is the brawl. Tap the big button and your country's weekly count goes up by one; the global counter ticks; the live globe lights up where people are tapping right now.

Two boards matter: Today · top 5 (resets daily) and Top countries · weekly (resets Monday 00:00 UTC). Your country's row is highlighted.

There's no idle income and no auto-tapper — the count is people, tapping.

Tap value

How many BAMs one tap earns you. 1 to start; tap upgrades raise it step by step, up to 60.

Your tap value is what one tap is worth to you, in BAMs. Everyone starts at 1. Each tap upgrade raises it: 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 20, 35 and finally 60 BAMs per tap. Ascending adds +25% on top, permanently, per level.

One thing tap value never does: it does not add extra to your country's count. Your country gets one per tap from everyone, always. Tap upgrades make you richer, not your flag — otherwise a single spender could outweigh a whole nation.

Combos

Tap fast and a combo builds — Warming up, On fire, Smokin', Unstoppable, Godmode. It's the feel of the game, not a multiplier.

Keep tapping without a gap and a combo counter climbs. At 25 you're warming up, 100 on fire, 250 smokin', 500 unstoppable and 1,000 is godmode — each with its own noise and smoke.

Combos don't multiply BAMs or your country's count. They're the part that feels good.

The globe and the heat legend

The globe shows live taps. Country halos are colored by this week's rank: #1, top 3, top 6, top 12, top 25.

The globe shows where taps are landing right now — brighter bursts mean more activity. Each country's halo is colored by its weekly rank: a distinct color for #1, then bands for the top 3, top 6, top 12 and top 25. Everyone else stays muted.

You can drag the globe around with mouse or touch.

Shields

A shield protects a country from invades and army attacks for one hour. 1,000 BAMs; at most five per country per day.

A shield makes a country untouchable — invades and army attacks both bounce off — for one hour.

• Cost: 1,000 BAMs
• One active shield per country at a time
• At most 5 raised over any single country in a rolling 24 hours, across all players

Shielded countries show a shield mark on the board and the map. You raise one from the shop or the action strip on the homepage.

Invades

Spend BAMs to knock BAMs off a rival country. 100 BAMs removes 50 from their weekly count — within strict daily limits.

An invade spends your BAMs to drain a rival's weekly count: 100 BAMs = −50 from the target.

The limits keep it from wiping anyone out:

• No country can lose more than 25% of its weekly count in any 24 hours, from all attackers combined
• Countries under 1,000 weekly can't be invaded at all
• You can spend at most 5,000 BAMs on one target and 15,000 in total per 24 hours
• 30 seconds between invades

Invading a country triggers a rally for everyone in it. Invades and army attacks draw from the same daily damage budget.

Rally

When your country gets invaded, everyone in it earns double BAMs per tap for 60 seconds. Not to be confused with a siege.

A rally is the defenders' comeback: the moment your country is invaded, every citizen's taps are worth 2× for 60 seconds. You'll see the action strip light up with a countdown.

It's the answer to being hit — tap back, together. (A rally is different from a siege, which is attackers ganging up.)

The action strip

Your country's status at a glance: shield state, rally state, shields up sitewide, and hits on you in the last hour.

The strip above the globe is your country's status line:

• Shield / rally state — whether a shield is up over you, or a rally is running
• Shields up · sitewide — how many countries are shielded right now
• Hits on you · last hour — invades and attacks that landed on your country
• Quick buttons to raise a shield or invade

Steal the Throne

One throne, one holder, visible to everyone. Anyone can steal it at any moment — your name and message replace theirs.

The throne page shows who holds it right now, their message, and how long they've held it. Anyone can steal it, at any moment. When you do, your name and a short message go up, the reign timer restarts, and the previous holder drops into the list below with the time they lasted.

Holding it pays: the throne earns the holder 7 BAMs a minute, banked the moment they lose it.

There's no end state. The throne flips constantly — that's the game.

What a steal costs

Usually nothing. Steal again within 60 seconds of your last and it costs 500 BAMs; within 5 minutes, 200. Patient players play free.

Stealing is free — unless you're spamming it.

• Steal again within 60 seconds of your last steal: 500 BAMs
• Within 5 minutes: 200 BAMs
• Otherwise: free

The tax only ever applies to your repeat steals. Wait five minutes and it's free again. There's also a hard cap of 200 throne attempts per connection per day.

The 30-second lockout

After any throne attempt, your connection waits 30 seconds before another. The holder gets no protection — the throne is always stealable.

When you steal (or try to), the button shows LOCKED with a countdown. That's your 30-second wait between attempts — one attempt per connection per 30 seconds.

It is not protection for the new holder. Someone else can take the throne from you straight away. If you want to hold it, you hold it by being hard to out-wait, not by a grace period.

Your name and message

Up to 14 characters for the name (@handles welcome), 30 for the message — 100 once you unlock long messages. A name you claim is yours for seven days.

Your name can be up to 14 characters — letters, numbers, spaces, underscores, hyphens or an @handle. It's shown uppercase. Once you claim it, it locks to you for seven days — nobody else can pretend to be you in the meantime.

Your message can be up to 30 characters, or 100 once you've bought the long messages unlock in the shop.

Both go through a word filter before they land. Slurs, abuse and impersonation are rejected; if yours bounces, try a kinder word.

Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame

The longest reigns ever, and the shortest. Every reign is archived in the history — filter by country, sort by length.

Every reign is recorded the moment it ends. The Hall of Fame ranks the longest reigns of all time; the Hall of Shame collects the shortest — under 15 seconds.

The full archive lives on the History page: every flip, filterable by country, sortable by reign length, with milestones and invades on their own tabs.

Previous holders

The last 100 reigns, newest first — who held it, from where, for how long. Tap a row to read the message they left.

The list beside the throne is the last 100 reigns, newest first: the name, the country, and how long they lasted. Rows with a chevron have a message — tap to read it.

Name color

A 25,000-BAM cosmetic: your name shows in your color in the throne history, the Hall of Fame and the takeover ticker.

For 25,000 BAMs you unlock a color picker for your throne name. Pick from eight; switch any time for free after that. Your name then shows in that color in the previous-holders list, the Hall of Fame and the takeover ticker.

Pure cosmetic — it changes nothing about play.

Ascension

Own all eight tiers and you can Ascend: burn your BAMs and your upgrades for a permanent +25% tap value. Then buy them again.

Once you own every tap upgrade, Ascend becomes available. Ascending burns all your BAMs and every tier you own — and in return your tap value gets a permanent +25%, per ascension, forever. Then you buy them again from the first one, faster.

Your lifetime total is never touched by ascending. That number is your country's history and your Hall of Fame standing.

Balance vs lifetime

Balance = lifetime − spent. Lifetime never drops; it's your contribution to your country and what the records use.

The Shop and the Army spend from your balance — lifetime earned minus everything spent.

Your lifetime total never goes down. It's what your country's standings count, what badges look at, and what the Hall of Fame ranks. Spending is a separate ledger.

Long messages

A permanent unlock: your throne message can run to 100 characters instead of 30. 100,000 BAMs.

Throne messages are 30 characters. For 100,000 BAMs you unlock 100 characters, permanently — the single biggest purchase in the game.

Your Army

Recruit units with BAMs, split them between attacking and defending home, and attack other countries. The result is shown before you commit.

The Army is the strategy layer. You recruit units with BAMs, decide how many go out to attack and how many stay home to defend, and attack other countries.

There's no luck in a battle: the attack screen shows you the exact result before you attack. The skill is in the planning.

Attack vs defend

Split each unit type: some attack, the rest stay home to defend. Your country's defense is everyone's defenders added together.

For each unit type you set how many go out to attack; the rest stay home to defend.

A country's defense is every citizen's defenders added together. That means your country is defended while you're asleep, and nobody has to coordinate — leave troops home and you're helping. Wounded units can't be moved until they've healed (30 minutes).

Morale

Attacking a country ranked above you: full strength. Attacking one far below you: morale drops, as low as 45%. Punching down is penalised.

Morale scales your attack by rank gap. Attack up the board — a country ranked above yours — and you fight at 100%. Attack down, at a country ranked below you, and morale falls with the gap, bottoming out at 45% against the weakest.

It's an anti-bully curve: hitting someone much smaller than you gets less than half your strength.

Counter

Every unit beats one other. The bigger the share of your force whose counter is defending, the bigger the bonus — up to ×1.5.

Counter rewards bringing the right unit. Grunts beat Rockets, Rockets beat Tanks, Tanks beat Grunts. The bonus is continuous: it's the share of your attacking force whose countered unit is actually defending. Bring all Grunts against defending Rockets and you get the full ×1.5; bring them against Tanks and you get nothing.

Your strength, their strength

Your strength = unit attack × count × morale × counter. Theirs = their defenders' defense, blended against your mix. Higher wins.

Your strength is your attackers' total attack, multiplied by morale and the counter bonus.

Their strength is the defenders' power — and it's blended: each unit has a defense against infantry and a defense against armor, weighted by what you actually sent. A defense built against Grunts folds to Tanks.

If your strength is higher, you win. Both sides take losses either way, in proportion to how close it was.

Losses and wounded

Both sides lose units in proportion to the other's power. 60% of what you lose attacking is only wounded — back in 30 minutes.

Damage is simultaneous, so even a clear win costs something. Each side loses a share of its force proportional to the other side's power — a narrow fight hurts both.

Of what you lose attacking, 60% are wounded, not dead — they're back after 30 minutes. Attacking is a risk, never a wipe.

BAMs destroyed

Win and your survivors knock BAMs off the target — each unit's haul, capped at 5% of what the target has above 1,000 weekly.

If you win, your surviving attackers knock BAMs off the target's weekly count — each unit has a haul (Grunts 25, Rockets 10, Tanks 5). Two caps apply: you can never take more than 5% of what the target holds above 1,000 weekly, and attacks share the same 25%-per-day damage budget as invades.

Those BAMs are destroyed, not given to your country — the same as invades.

Why an attack can't go ahead

Shielded countries, countries under 1,000 weekly, and your own 30-second cooldown all block an attack — the same rules as invades.

Army attacks honor the same protections as invades, so nobody can use one to dodge the other:

• The target is behind a shield
• The target is too small — under 1,000 weekly
• You attacked within the last 30 seconds
• The target has already taken its daily limit of damage

Blocked attempts are recorded; they just don't land.

Sieges

Several players attack one country together within a 15-minute window. Everyone's troops count; haul and losses are shared by strength committed.

A strong country's defense is unbeatable alone — and easy for three people who show up together. A siege is that. One player opens it on a target; anyone can join within 15 minutes; then it resolves as one battle.

Contributions are additive — every unit fights — and the haul and the losses are shared in proportion to the attack power each player committed. Nobody's help is wasted. Morale is taken from the opener's rank.

Battle reports

Every attack you make or receive is written up — forces, morale, counter, losses, BAMs destroyed. Army → Recent battles.

Every battle is recorded with the full breakdown — both forces, morale, counter, each side's losses, and the BAMs destroyed. Find them under Army → Recent battles; each report links to the country you fought.

Seasons

A weekly country board ranked per active player, not raw total — so a small country can win. The best rank you hold counts.

A season is a week. Countries are ranked by score per active player, not raw total — otherwise it's a population contest and Korea wins by headcount. One player can contribute at most 25,000 to their country's season score, so a whale can't decide a nation.

Rewards use the peak rank a country held during the week, not where it finished — nobody has to stop playing to protect a lead. Winners are listed forever under Past winners.

The War Room

Your dashboard: lifetime BAMs, thrones taken, longest reign, invades, recent activity, rivals and badges.

The War Room is your home base — who's on the throne, your country's standing, your headline numbers (lifetime BAMs, thrones taken, longest reign, invades), your recent activity, head-to-head rivals, and your badges.

Badges

43 badges across seven groups — volume, throne, combo, war, standing, habit, rare. Earned by doing; none can be bought.

There are 43 badges in seven groups: volume, throne, combo, war, standing, habit and rare. Every one is earned by playing — a 10,000 combo, a 30-day streak, a reign that lasts. None are for sale. Unearned badges stay visible so you can see what to go and do.

Activity

Everything you've done — every throne, invade and shield, newest first.

Activity is your complete log: every throne you've taken and how long you held it, every invade with what it cost and did, every shield you've raised. The War Room shows the latest few; this is all of it.

Your recovery code

BAM-XXXX-XXXX. It loads your game on another device without signing in. Anyone with it can load it — treat it like a password.

Your recovery code (BAM-XXXX-XXXX) is the key to your game — your BAMs, badges and throne name. On a new phone or browser it carries everything across without signing in.

That also means anyone with the code can load your profile. Keep it somewhere safe; never put it in a throne message or a screenshot.

Accounts

You can play with no account. An account saves your game and unlocks the War Room, Army and tap upgrades.

Playing needs no account — tap, steal, done. An account saves your game and adds the parts that need to remember you: the War Room, your Army, tap upgrades, seasons, and email for when your throne gets stolen.