Collect coins, buy relics, bank them at your base -- and raid a rival's vault once their shield breaks.
Doodle Loot is a hand-drawn 4-way arena that turns simple coin collecting into a bank-or-get-robbed decision every few seconds. You gather coins scattered around the map and can spend them at pedestals to buy relics, but none of it is safe until it's banked at your own base -- anything sitting unbanked in your inventory is fair game for a rival.
The combat layer is what gives it teeth: each player has a shield protecting their base, and breaking a rival's shield doesn't just deal damage -- it lets you raid their base and steal their entire unbanked vault in one go. That turns every round into a constant push-pull between staying out collecting more loot and rushing home to lock in what you've already got before someone breaks through your own defenses.
Never let your unbanked total grow much larger than what you're willing to lose -- the moment you're carrying more loot than a rival's vault, you become the obvious raid target. It's usually worth peeling off from collecting a little early to bank a medium haul rather than pushing for one more relic and risking losing everything if your shield breaks on the way home.
Once your shield breaks, a rival can raid your base and steal your entire unbanked vault -- coins and relics you've collected but haven't banked yet. Anything already banked is safe, which is why banking often beats holding out for more.
Relics are bought from pedestals around the arena using coins you've collected, and they add extra value to your haul -- but like coins, they're only secured once you get back to your base and bank them.
Both -- it's a hybrid. You spend most of a round gathering coins and relics, but the shield-break-and-raid mechanic means combat and positioning matter just as much as how efficiently you loot, especially in the final stretch of a match.