What is Sozo – Tower Defense? Explained in plain English

Maybe you’ve seen the name Sozo somewhere and you’re wondering what’s behind it. In this article we’ll explain it all calmly. You’ll find out what kind of game it is, which device you need, and what you actually do in it. At the end we’ll also tell you honestly what isn’t known yet.

What is Sozo, in short?

Sozo – Tower Defense is a game for a VR headset (a pair of goggles you put on like a diving mask, which shows images right in front of your eyes). More precisely, it’s a mixed reality game (mixed reality: you see your real room, and the game places characters and objects into it).

The game belongs to the “tower defense” genre. You build small towers, and those towers hold off onrushing monsters. You don’t shoot anything yourself. The towers do that for you.

According to the studio, the name “Sozo” comes from Greek and means “to save” or “to preserve”.

What happens in the game?

What’s special about Sozo is that your real room is the playing field. Here’s how the studio’s game guide describes it:

• A glowing rift opens in your real wall. Small monsters come out of this rift.
• The monsters walk along a glowing path across your real floor.
• At the end of the path stands the Core Crystal. You have to protect it.
• Beside the path there are hexagonal building spots on the floor. That’s where you build your towers.
• Flying monsters attack your towers. You can swipe these away with your hand.

A little hologram figure called ECHO (a friendly, glowing helper) explains everything to you. ECHO guides you through the first steps.

The game pieces are small. A tower is about 7 centimetres wide. So you’ll sometimes bend down a little and point at the floor.

What you need

• A Meta Quest 3 or Meta Quest 3S headset. The studio doesn’t name any other models. So don’t count on the older Quest 2 working.
• A room scan. The headset has to scan your room once. In doing so it memorises walls, floor and furniture. We explain how that works in a separate article.
• Some clear floor space. The game builds the path around your furniture. But it needs clear floor space for it.
• Your hands or the controllers (the two handgrips with buttons that come with the headset). Both work.

What it costs

We don’t know yet. The price hasn’t been announced so far. We’re not giving a figure here because we don’t want to make anything up.

According to the studio’s privacy policy (as of 6 October 2026), the game shows no adverts and collects no data. Purchases with real money in the game aren’t mentioned in the game guide. There are two kinds of in-game currency: gold and gems. You earn both just by playing.

How a game plays out, step by step

This is how the studio describes the flow:

1. You confirm your room. At the start, the game shows your scanned room. You press DEFEND.
2. The first time, you see a short intro. It lasts about 60 seconds and takes place in your room.
3. Then comes a practice round. ECHO shows you how to build a tower.
4. You choose a level. There are 8 worlds with 20 levels each, so 160 levels.
5. You build the first tower. Nothing starts until it’s standing. No clock runs before that.
6. The monsters come in waves. A wave is a group of monsters that arrive one shortly after another.
7. You win when the last wave is defeated. You lose when the crystal has no health points left.

For a win you get up to 3 stars. You get the full 3 stars if the crystal hasn’t taken any damage.

The worlds and towers in numbers

• 8 worlds, for example a forest, a volcanic landscape, an ice realm and an underwater world.
• 8 tower types, for example the ballista (a big crossbow), the cannon and the frost tower.
• Each tower type has 3 levels. So you can upgrade a tower twice.
• 4 special powers, for example a meteor that falls to the floor.
• 5 difficulty levels, from “Casual” (relaxed) to “Ultra” (very hard).

Good to know

• No horror. Sozo is a fantasy game with colourful worlds. The age rating isn’t known yet, though.
• Playing slowly is allowed. There’s a half-speed option. That helps a lot at the beginning.
• You can get stuck and still move on. After 6 defeats in a row in one level, you’re allowed to skip it. You don’t get any stars for that.
• Your room can stay hidden if you want. There’s a VR mode. Then, instead of your room, you see a fantasy world on a floating island. The game itself stays the same.
• 14 languages. German and English are among them.
• Play alone. Two-player or online play isn’t described.
• Standing up. You stand, bend down and point at the floor. The studio doesn’t describe a seated mode.

What isn’t known yet

These points are open as of October 2026. We’ll add to them as soon as there’s confirmed information:

• Price: unknown.
• Release date: unknown.
• Age rating: unknown.
• Comfort level (Meta’s rating of how easy it is to feel sick in a game): unknown.
• Download size: unknown.

If something goes wrong

Because the game hasn’t been released yet, there isn’t much to solve here yet. But there are two things you can prepare right now:

• Is your headset a Quest 2? Then wait for an official statement. Don’t buy anything on the off-chance.
• Not sure about the room scan? Practise it now in your headset’s settings. Lots of mixed reality games need it.

Our glossary answers questions about individual terms. You can send questions about the game itself to [email protected].