Merge Battalion
Drag two identical stick soldiers together to merge them into a bigger troop, then tap to send the merged squad storming the flag.
Pair-match identical units on a grid to upgrade them (soldier → archer → tank), then tap the deploy button to charge the strongest squad.
One thumb: drag a soldier onto its match to merge, then tap the deploy button to launch the wave.
War Master's barracks-and-rank-up fantasy reshaped around the viral Suika/merge-core loop.
The source's 'use gold coins to rank up and unlock tanks and helicopters' progression maps cleanly onto a merge ladder.
Clear drag-to-merge + tap-to-charge visual payoff; same EasyCats studio already ships the exact constituent pieces (Merge Arena, War Master) so the 'merge ladder → deploy wave' concept is essentially their existing IP recombined rather than a fresh hook.War Master by EasyCats: 'use gold coins to rank up and unlock tanks and helicopters' — same dev, same progression ↗
War Master pulled 229.4K likes and 273,999 votes (4.3 rating) on Poki, showing strong engagement for stickman-war format; however merge-game TikTok virality has plateaued and the specific 'merge stick soldiers' visual is already a meme format (Stick Merge listed alongside).229.4K likes / 273,999 votes on War Master page indicates strong share/stream pull for the stickman-war visual ↗
One-thumb drag + tap is as simple as it gets; merge ladder + deploy button is a well-trodden, trivially buildable pattern with no novel input design needed.
Merge is a top-grossing casual genre (Sensor Tower publishes quarterly 'Top 5 Merge Games' revenue reports), and the war/upgrade ladder maps cleanly to rewarded ads (skip timers) + IAP gem packs; Poki version confirms ads as the established monetization path.Sensor Tower Q2 2024 top merge games report — merge is a tracked top-grossing category ↗War Master confirms ad-supported free-to-play is the default model for this template ↗
Very crowded: EasyCats already publishes Merge Arena (merge-battle), Stick Merge / Stickman Merge appear in War Master's 'related games' on Poki, and the broader merge-army niche (Merge Army, Stick War: Legacy legacy clones) is well-served; same publisher owns the exact two source IPs being merged.Related games sidebar lists Stick Merge, Stickman Merge, Merge Arena, Merge Planet, Merge Like a King, Merge Penguins — six direct merge competitors adjacent to one listing ↗