How it works

Your balance is its health. Your payments are the arrows.

Debt Boss is a castle-defense game built on your real numbers. Here is everything that happens on the field, and the math behind it.

The field

One monster for every debt.

SummonAdd a debt with its name, type, balance, APR, minimum payment and due day. Its creature walks onto the field; the biggest debt stands front and center.
Health = balanceThe health bar is the balance you owe, to the cent. No made-up hit points.
StrikeLog a payment you've made and your Sentinel shoots. The monster takes exactly that much damage, and plays its hit.
SlayPay a debt to zero and its monster falls. It moves to your Debts Crossed Off log, and you can share the victory.

Interest

Why your monsters heal.

Interest is the debt fighting back. The game works it out from each debt's APR and adds it continuously, so a monster's health ticks back up while you watch. When interest lands, monsters attack the wall and show how much they gained per day.

A 0% medical bill barely heals. A store card at 25% heals every single day. Seeing the difference is the first step to deciding which one to hit first.

How the game counts it

Daily heal ≈ balance × APR ÷ 365

Monthly heal ≈ balance × APR ÷ 12

Real lenders compound in different ways (daily, monthly, by statement), so your statement can differ by a little. The game is a planning picture, not a statement.

Try it

The Monster Check-up

Put in one debt and see how fast it heals, when it falls at your pace, and what a little extra each month would do. Nothing you type here leaves this page.

—heals per day
—heals this month
—slay date at your payment
—total interest paid
—slay date with the extra
—interest the extra saves
Where it goes

■ balance   ■ interest

Estimate with monthly interest and the same payment every month. Not financial advice.

Battle Tactics

Pick your attack order.

Tell Battle Tactics how much you can put toward debt each month (your War Chest). It runs a month-by-month payoff for every plan below, then stars the one that gets you debt-free soonest, with the least interest as the tie-breaker. You can view any plan to compare.

PlanAttacks firstWhy people pick it
AvalancheHighest interest rateUsually the least total interest paid.
SnowballSmallest balanceSmall debts slain fast, so early wins keep you going.
Cash FlowLowest balance compared to its minimum paymentFrees up a monthly payment fastest.

Every plan pays the minimums on all debts and puts the rest of the War Chest on the target. A plan that never pays off is never starred.

Daily play

Two minutes a day keeps the horde back.

Daily quests

Three quests a day, like landing a strike, holding a no-spend day, cooking at home, scouting your slay dates, cutting one monthly bill or setting a due-date alarm. Each pays 20 Valor, plus 30 for finishing all three.

Deeds

Log the good things you did in real life: a no-spend day, a meal cooked at home, a bill cut, extra income, a stuffed paycheck. Each pays 10 to 30 Valor the first time each day.

Streaks

Show up and do something for your money each day to grow your streak. A 7-day best streak unlocks the Mimic, and it's yours to keep.

Payment alerts

Turn on due-date alerts and your device reminds you before a payment is due. They're made on your device and nothing is sent to us.

Your Sentinel

Levels come from what you've really paid.

Your Sentinel levels up from the total you've paid toward your debts. Every level up also pays 100 Valor. Valor ranks run from Squire to Legend.

LevelTotal paidUnlocks
2$500Choose your monsters: pick the creature for each debt
4$2,086The Flame Arrow, free
6$4,977The Armory: one armor set free

Anything a level gives for free can also be earned with Valor, so a smaller debt never locks you out of the fun.

Launch list

Be on the wall when the gates open.

Debt Boss is in private beta. Leave your email and we'll send one message when it opens to everyone, plus the occasional big update.

Your email is used for Debt Boss news only. It is never sold or shared, and every email has an unsubscribe link.

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