Intro:
Section One: The Game Itself.
Section Two: The Games... "Unique" player base.
Section Three: Strategies.
Conclusion.
If you're familiar with my forum account (following or not), then you'll know I enjoyed the old tower defence and old paintball/arcade as a whole. You'll also know I dislike the new paintball, however, I don't believe I've ever made a post on the new tower defence and if I did it is way out of date now, my gameplan etc has all changed as well as my opinion. So here it is; The Unofficial New Tower Defence Review: One Year Late.
In this post, I'll talk about my thoughts on the game after I've had a year to play, my thoughts on the people that play the game, and my thoughts on the game strategies etc. In each section there will be a few suggestions, to make it clearer, they will be underlined.
Each section will be indicated by a new spoiler, and the text will be a different colour. I will be using dark colours to be more dyslexic friendly. However, I cannot change the colour of the background so it may still be hard to read for those with the condition. Thank you.
In this post, I'll talk about my thoughts on the game after I've had a year to play, my thoughts on the people that play the game, and my thoughts on the game strategies etc. In each section there will be a few suggestions, to make it clearer, they will be underlined.
Each section will be indicated by a new spoiler, and the text will be a different colour. I will be using dark colours to be more dyslexic friendly. However, I cannot change the colour of the background so it may still be hard to read for those with the condition. Thank you.
Section One: The Game Itself.
The game itself is pretty neat. I'm not familiar with survival mode and hardcore mode so I will just be talking about the main game. In the game for those of you who don't know, you place towers with have upgrade paths. These can be unlocked with points, but in the game, you use coins to place them, not points. Each tower path (There are usually two paths, but sometimes one) grants the tower a different ability, but still true to the tower's main functions. At the same time, you send mobs for EXP which can be used to buy new mobs (which can then be sent for coins, not exp) or to buy potions etc. You can also use EXP to increase your Gold Mine. This will increase the number of coins you get per second. The gold mines are;
Level I: 5 (DEFAULT)
Level II: 10 (125 EXP)
Level III: 15 (350 EXP)
Level IV: 25 (1000 EXP)
Level V: 50 (2500 EXP)
Level VI: 100 (6000 EXP)
If playing in Double Income mode, the gold mine prices remain the same but the number of coins you get doubles. The amount of EXP from mobs also doubles.
As well as gold mines, you can also get coins from power-ups and your tower killing mobs. Power-Ups are nether stars "rarely" dropped by mobs and picking them up can do anything from giving you 28 EXP to sending a level V magma cube at your opponent free (and you get the EXP from that too). And there you go, that's the basics of Tower Defence 2.0
SUGGESTION:
More variations of Power Up: I think we should have different types of power-ups. These could be the following;
Random: This could be the nether star, just a power-up that randomly gives you some money, exp, sends mobs, upgrades towers etc.
Money Power-Up: This could be a gold ingot/nugget, and when picked up could give you more money than your average nether star, ranging from 250-1000 coins.
Mob Power-Up: This could be an empty spawner, It would be similar to the Nether Star's mobs, but this time you're guaranteed to actually send a mob. This time, however, it can send anything. It could send 1 giant (rarest) or it could send 1 zombie (uncommon and admittingly unlucky). Anything is possible. (accept 12 giants etc that's too OP).
Barrack Power-Up: This could be a brick block, once again it would be similar to the Nether Star's power-ups, but this time your guaranteed a potion or a gold mine upgrade. This also has higher chances upgrading the gold mine (25-35%) upgrade, therefore making it the rarest power-up.
Most of these aren't needed but it would be nice therefore its in. Also, I need a way to make this a suggestion post as it is more in my style of writing.
Level I: 5 (DEFAULT)
Level II: 10 (125 EXP)
Level III: 15 (350 EXP)
Level IV: 25 (1000 EXP)
Level V: 50 (2500 EXP)
Level VI: 100 (6000 EXP)
If playing in Double Income mode, the gold mine prices remain the same but the number of coins you get doubles. The amount of EXP from mobs also doubles.
As well as gold mines, you can also get coins from power-ups and your tower killing mobs. Power-Ups are nether stars "rarely" dropped by mobs and picking them up can do anything from giving you 28 EXP to sending a level V magma cube at your opponent free (and you get the EXP from that too). And there you go, that's the basics of Tower Defence 2.0
SUGGESTION:
More variations of Power Up: I think we should have different types of power-ups. These could be the following;
Random: This could be the nether star, just a power-up that randomly gives you some money, exp, sends mobs, upgrades towers etc.
Money Power-Up: This could be a gold ingot/nugget, and when picked up could give you more money than your average nether star, ranging from 250-1000 coins.
Mob Power-Up: This could be an empty spawner, It would be similar to the Nether Star's mobs, but this time you're guaranteed to actually send a mob. This time, however, it can send anything. It could send 1 giant (rarest) or it could send 1 zombie (uncommon and admittingly unlucky). Anything is possible. (accept 12 giants etc that's too OP).
Barrack Power-Up: This could be a brick block, once again it would be similar to the Nether Star's power-ups, but this time your guaranteed a potion or a gold mine upgrade. This also has higher chances upgrading the gold mine (25-35%) upgrade, therefore making it the rarest power-up.
Most of these aren't needed but it would be nice therefore its in. Also, I need a way to make this a suggestion post as it is more in my style of writing.
Section Two: The Games... "Unique" player base.
Although the game isn't complicated (Despite me just going on a massive rant on how the game works), for some reason, whilst some players are indeed good, most players tend to have some flaws. So here are some suggestions to flawed players as well as a summary of the types of players you tend to see in the game.
Flaw No.1: Lack of communication:
Although it may seem scary at first questioning someone else who may have a better win ratio or skin or whatever you care about than you, communication is a teams main offence. By communicating, you can easily select which mobs each member should send, when to commit bombardment, what towers to place, where to place them, who is offence and who is defence, how much gold everyone has if any towers are placed wrong... I could go on and on about the advantages of communication with a team but despite this, most players for some reason seem to be apprehensive to talk at all. Remember, by communicating your work as a team, if you're not talking you might as well just be playing with bots, which is no fun. Trust me, you can make some great allies in this game. (Due to me being a stone rank) I have a selection of 10 friends who are all pretty damn good at the game, and now we chat on discord and have a laugh. Good things can happen by talking.
Flaw No.2: Tower Misplacement:
Ah yes, the misplacer, everybody knows at least one of them. Instead of going to much on a personal attack on people, I'll just tell you in a very calm way what to do. Stop ------- placing your ------ 3x3 level I archer on the god damn 5x5 spaces. Let me explain how the damn game works:
3x3 spaces: FOR 3X3 TOWERS.
5x5 spaces: FOR 5X5 TOWERS
6x6 Spaces (4 3x3 spaces grouped up): FOR FOUR 3X3 TOWERS.
IT IS NOT HARD: IF YOU SEE A 3X3 SPACE OF THE SAME COLOURED WOOD, PUT A 3X3 TOWER THERE. IF YOU SEE A 5X5 CHECKERBOARD, PUT 5X5 TOWER THERE... HOW IS THIS COMPLICATED?
Also, as another addition, can we PLEASE stop placing a 3x3 tower in the MIDDLE of a 6x6 square. They are meant to fit perfectly on each 3x3 space, not take up another space because you're bad at placing, don't be so ------- lazy, remove the tower, and replace in the right position so we can have some god damn fun. BTW Cubecraft there's no need to ban me the innocent kids don't know what a bunch of dashes (-) means.
Flaw No.3: Mage Spam:
This could be classed as tower misplacement, but Jesus Christ it is on a WHOLE other level of annoyance. I understand archer spam. Archers stack to do more damage. But MAGE spam... Mages don't stack! How many times must I say MAGES. DON'T. STACK. (Unless they are Level IV but I would rather have a whole new tower adding even more damage to mobs, than just some worthless meteors that do less damage than the whole new tower anyway. I would rather have a level IV mage and a level IV Zeus tower (path 2) than two Level IV mages).
Oh and this problem isn't new: FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS ALL I'VE EXPERIENCED WAS MAGE SPAM. Before the update, mage spam was even worse, so my suggestion increases the range of the "Cannot place another tower of the same type nearby) range even further.
So, communicate with your team, don't mage spam and use squares wisely, and you should be fine if you follow section three...
Flaw No.1: Lack of communication:
Although it may seem scary at first questioning someone else who may have a better win ratio or skin or whatever you care about than you, communication is a teams main offence. By communicating, you can easily select which mobs each member should send, when to commit bombardment, what towers to place, where to place them, who is offence and who is defence, how much gold everyone has if any towers are placed wrong... I could go on and on about the advantages of communication with a team but despite this, most players for some reason seem to be apprehensive to talk at all. Remember, by communicating your work as a team, if you're not talking you might as well just be playing with bots, which is no fun. Trust me, you can make some great allies in this game. (Due to me being a stone rank) I have a selection of 10 friends who are all pretty damn good at the game, and now we chat on discord and have a laugh. Good things can happen by talking.
Flaw No.2: Tower Misplacement:
Ah yes, the misplacer, everybody knows at least one of them. Instead of going to much on a personal attack on people, I'll just tell you in a very calm way what to do. Stop ------- placing your ------ 3x3 level I archer on the god damn 5x5 spaces. Let me explain how the damn game works:
3x3 spaces: FOR 3X3 TOWERS.
5x5 spaces: FOR 5X5 TOWERS
6x6 Spaces (4 3x3 spaces grouped up): FOR FOUR 3X3 TOWERS.
IT IS NOT HARD: IF YOU SEE A 3X3 SPACE OF THE SAME COLOURED WOOD, PUT A 3X3 TOWER THERE. IF YOU SEE A 5X5 CHECKERBOARD, PUT 5X5 TOWER THERE... HOW IS THIS COMPLICATED?
Also, as another addition, can we PLEASE stop placing a 3x3 tower in the MIDDLE of a 6x6 square. They are meant to fit perfectly on each 3x3 space, not take up another space because you're bad at placing, don't be so ------- lazy, remove the tower, and replace in the right position so we can have some god damn fun. BTW Cubecraft there's no need to ban me the innocent kids don't know what a bunch of dashes (-) means.
Flaw No.3: Mage Spam:
This could be classed as tower misplacement, but Jesus Christ it is on a WHOLE other level of annoyance. I understand archer spam. Archers stack to do more damage. But MAGE spam... Mages don't stack! How many times must I say MAGES. DON'T. STACK. (Unless they are Level IV but I would rather have a whole new tower adding even more damage to mobs, than just some worthless meteors that do less damage than the whole new tower anyway. I would rather have a level IV mage and a level IV Zeus tower (path 2) than two Level IV mages).
Oh and this problem isn't new: FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS ALL I'VE EXPERIENCED WAS MAGE SPAM. Before the update, mage spam was even worse, so my suggestion increases the range of the "Cannot place another tower of the same type nearby) range even further.
So, communicate with your team, don't mage spam and use squares wisely, and you should be fine if you follow section three...
Section Three: Strategies.
Warning: This section is very specific in placement etc. Don't screw anything up because if you do it may not work, although you may be able to build your own strategies from messing up anyway.
My Strategy Guide:
WARNING: THIS STRATEGY IS RISKY. LOTS OF THINGS CAN GO WRONG AND THE TIME YOU NEED TO PULL IT OFF IN IS VERY SHORT. I RECOMMEND YOU USE A DIFFERENT STRATEGY UNLESS YOUR USE TO SHORT TIMES AND HAVE A LOT OF LUCK.
Step One: Go to where the monsters spawn and place a level III mage. Make sure you're there first. This mage should kill the first mobs to come and thus give you a lot of coin boost.
Step Two: Using the extra coins, send 24 zombies and then unlock Gold Mine II. This will give you 10 coins per second as well as the coin boost from all the mobs your killing.
Step Three: Place a quake next to your mage. I don't know why this works, but it always gives me more coins. Oh and, remember to upgrade it to level II eventually (or III)
Step Four: As coins build up providing the other team is spamming, place another mage in the next position from the first mage. For example, if on a twenty-fourty block lane like in the map "nature", place a level III mage 13 blocks down from the original mage.
Step Five: After coins start building up rapidly from the other teams spam, you can do lots of things. You can build more towers to secure your place in killing the most mobs, you can unlock spider's instead of zombies for more EXP per send, you can upgrade your gold mine to level III or level IV. You can watch out for power-ups etc. Please note this strategy requires a lot of multi-tasking like the most of tower defence.
Step Six: However, after unlocking spiders, your main goal is to get 1850 EXP. With this, you can get level IV gold mine and unlock Blaze.
Step Seven: After getting Level IV gold mine and unlocking blaze, you now play the waiting game until 6000 coins.
Step Eight: Send 12 blazes and repeat over and over until your enemy is dead.
Now. This strategy is quite easy to pull off game wise, however, your main enemy is three things:
Time.
Your Team.
Your Enemies.
Time: Although it may seem hard to believe, my "high score" if you will is sending 12 level I blazes, 12 level II blazes, 12 level III blazes and 12 Level IV blazes in the first 5-7mins of playing. This was on double income so on normal it may be 12 level I blazes and 12 Level II blazes in the first 5-7mins. The reason for this success is timing, although it can commonly lead to failure. If your timing is off, the enemy may have already built a strong defence by the time you get a chance to send blazes. Make sure you do this strategy as quickly and efficiently as possible for the best results with NO mistakes. It's hard at first, but once you get it down, you can win easy.
Your Team: Despite your team typically being classed as allies, there are a few things your team can do to completely destroy your chances of this working. The first thing is "stealing" or "grabbing" the spot. What I mean by this is if they place the mage III at the start before you, its game over. If you place the mage first then they place a mage because they just decided to randomly mage spam today, and they don't remove it despite you placing it first, its game over. If they have more towers than you after the start even with the mages (let's say they magically get coins from a power-up and then place artillery everywhere), unless you can find a way to get the mobs killed by your towers, its game over. Your team are your allies remember, so don't act aggressive towards them, but make sure that YOU yourself have the best locations for victory. If you do this strat right, your team will be thankful in the end.
Your Enemies: Well, obviously your enemies are your enemies, but they are your enemies in more than one way. For a start, and possibly the riskiest part of this strategy, if they do not spam mobs, you have no hope of using this strategy in the allowed time it takes. If they build a good anti-blaze defence before you get the chance to send 12 blazes (which doesn't usually happen if you pull this off in 5-7 mins but with pros, it can), once again, you have no hope of killing them with blazes. If this is the case, then try to see if they do not have a mage. If they don't have a mage, spam level IV or V spiders. If they see you watching them, they may take precaution so be sneaky. Eventually, they will build mages to beat your spiders but, it may just give you time to plan whilst they are panicked, also, you might get a couple cheeky hits on their castle, so that's a bonus.
Now, this strategy obviously has its pros and cons. A pro is that if everything goes perfect, you pretty much instantly win, and a con is that there are a million ways it can go wrong, some reasons simply out of your control. However, even if this strategy isn't to your tasting, practising it can increase your ability to multi-task so why not give it a try?
You do not have to do this strategy. There are hundreds of strategy guides out there, this is just my strategy. However, if you feel like you want to try it, go ahead! It will take a fair amount of games to master it, however.
My Strategy Guide:
WARNING: THIS STRATEGY IS RISKY. LOTS OF THINGS CAN GO WRONG AND THE TIME YOU NEED TO PULL IT OFF IN IS VERY SHORT. I RECOMMEND YOU USE A DIFFERENT STRATEGY UNLESS YOUR USE TO SHORT TIMES AND HAVE A LOT OF LUCK.
Step One: Go to where the monsters spawn and place a level III mage. Make sure you're there first. This mage should kill the first mobs to come and thus give you a lot of coin boost.
Step Two: Using the extra coins, send 24 zombies and then unlock Gold Mine II. This will give you 10 coins per second as well as the coin boost from all the mobs your killing.
Step Three: Place a quake next to your mage. I don't know why this works, but it always gives me more coins. Oh and, remember to upgrade it to level II eventually (or III)
Step Four: As coins build up providing the other team is spamming, place another mage in the next position from the first mage. For example, if on a twenty-fourty block lane like in the map "nature", place a level III mage 13 blocks down from the original mage.
Step Five: After coins start building up rapidly from the other teams spam, you can do lots of things. You can build more towers to secure your place in killing the most mobs, you can unlock spider's instead of zombies for more EXP per send, you can upgrade your gold mine to level III or level IV. You can watch out for power-ups etc. Please note this strategy requires a lot of multi-tasking like the most of tower defence.
Step Six: However, after unlocking spiders, your main goal is to get 1850 EXP. With this, you can get level IV gold mine and unlock Blaze.
Step Seven: After getting Level IV gold mine and unlocking blaze, you now play the waiting game until 6000 coins.
Step Eight: Send 12 blazes and repeat over and over until your enemy is dead.
Now. This strategy is quite easy to pull off game wise, however, your main enemy is three things:
Time.
Your Team.
Your Enemies.
Time: Although it may seem hard to believe, my "high score" if you will is sending 12 level I blazes, 12 level II blazes, 12 level III blazes and 12 Level IV blazes in the first 5-7mins of playing. This was on double income so on normal it may be 12 level I blazes and 12 Level II blazes in the first 5-7mins. The reason for this success is timing, although it can commonly lead to failure. If your timing is off, the enemy may have already built a strong defence by the time you get a chance to send blazes. Make sure you do this strategy as quickly and efficiently as possible for the best results with NO mistakes. It's hard at first, but once you get it down, you can win easy.
Your Team: Despite your team typically being classed as allies, there are a few things your team can do to completely destroy your chances of this working. The first thing is "stealing" or "grabbing" the spot. What I mean by this is if they place the mage III at the start before you, its game over. If you place the mage first then they place a mage because they just decided to randomly mage spam today, and they don't remove it despite you placing it first, its game over. If they have more towers than you after the start even with the mages (let's say they magically get coins from a power-up and then place artillery everywhere), unless you can find a way to get the mobs killed by your towers, its game over. Your team are your allies remember, so don't act aggressive towards them, but make sure that YOU yourself have the best locations for victory. If you do this strat right, your team will be thankful in the end.
Your Enemies: Well, obviously your enemies are your enemies, but they are your enemies in more than one way. For a start, and possibly the riskiest part of this strategy, if they do not spam mobs, you have no hope of using this strategy in the allowed time it takes. If they build a good anti-blaze defence before you get the chance to send 12 blazes (which doesn't usually happen if you pull this off in 5-7 mins but with pros, it can), once again, you have no hope of killing them with blazes. If this is the case, then try to see if they do not have a mage. If they don't have a mage, spam level IV or V spiders. If they see you watching them, they may take precaution so be sneaky. Eventually, they will build mages to beat your spiders but, it may just give you time to plan whilst they are panicked, also, you might get a couple cheeky hits on their castle, so that's a bonus.
Now, this strategy obviously has its pros and cons. A pro is that if everything goes perfect, you pretty much instantly win, and a con is that there are a million ways it can go wrong, some reasons simply out of your control. However, even if this strategy isn't to your tasting, practising it can increase your ability to multi-task so why not give it a try?
You do not have to do this strategy. There are hundreds of strategy guides out there, this is just my strategy. However, if you feel like you want to try it, go ahead! It will take a fair amount of games to master it, however.
Conclusion.
All in all, you do not have to follow any of the things on the post, although I highly recommend new players take advice from the 1st and 2nd categories. Like I said before, You do not need to follow category 3, I just wanted to inform you about my strategy and how I manage to pull it off successfully. So, do what you want! Learn, laugh and enjoy yourself in this wonderful game! Do anything you like! (except mage spamming or tower misplacement because If you do I will flip the ---- out).
PS: My IGN if you cant see my signature: Awesomex_Gaming. Sometimes I play casual (In other words I don't care If I lose or not) and sometimes I play competitively (In other words I do care If I lose or not). I should probably stop playing casual if I want to increase my terrible win ratio... ;P
I'm close to 200 wins now, Maybe when I get there I'll make a sequel to types of players I dislike about TD or something. And if there's already a sequel I'll make another. Bye-bye <3 (Or maybe I'll finally finish that Island Games kit suggestion post ;D)
FINAL NOTE INSTALL THE GRAMMARLY IT GUD.
PS: My IGN if you cant see my signature: Awesomex_Gaming. Sometimes I play casual (In other words I don't care If I lose or not) and sometimes I play competitively (In other words I do care If I lose or not). I should probably stop playing casual if I want to increase my terrible win ratio... ;P
I'm close to 200 wins now, Maybe when I get there I'll make a sequel to types of players I dislike about TD or something. And if there's already a sequel I'll make another. Bye-bye <3 (Or maybe I'll finally finish that Island Games kit suggestion post ;D)
FINAL NOTE INSTALL THE GRAMMARLY IT GUD.
