Not sure what im doing wrong

[Riot Lightbulb]

Is the game supposed to be ultra hard? Because i havent managed to complete a map since Tilt.

Tried Tenticle, Cascade, Circuit and flux so far, multiple times on each and... just... i get destroyed!

I even got an "overpowered" artifact from my earlier endless run, but it dont help!

I dunno if im doing something wrong, but i like this genre. I got 406 hours in Dungeon Warfare 2, 217h in Defence Grid, 23h in Defence Grid 2, 127h in Death Trap, 60h in plants vs Zombies, 58h in Infitode 2, 46h in X-morph Defence, 45h in Gem Craft, 32h in Orcs must Die unchained, 27h in Orcs Must Die 2, 15h in OMD1, and 12 hours in Siege on Centauri, and I've never had such a difficult time completing missions. Maybe im just a noob.

The level up rewards are such a tiny increment that it seems leveling up will take hundreds of levels until the bonus actually helps in anyway.

I find a lot of the turrets are very situational so you are mainly limited to only a few decent ones.

Due to the tax system and increasing costs of upgrades you are limited as to what you can do to defend.
Maze with lots of towers, then less income and cant afford the upgrades down the line.
Upgrade a few towers and its a struggle to afford them, you wait longer and longer before you can upgrade. Meanwhile your towers are being overwhelmed and then destroyed.
Brian is then doing his best to hold off the onslaught, but moving away to build new towers results in them leaking.

I will admit that i have yet to try a full Brian strat, which may be viable because he isnt taxed, and although I find him very good, not building seems counter intuitive to a TD game.

Dont get me wrong I prefer my games on the harder side, but this is pushing it.

[Narlak]

Originally posted by Riot Lightbulb:

Is the game supposed to be ultra hard? Because i havent managed to complete a map since Tilt.

Tried Tenticle, Cascade, Circuit and flux so far, multiple times on each and... just... i get destroyed!

I even got an "overpowered" artifact from my earlier endless run, but it dont help!

I dunno if im doing something wrong, but i like this genre. I got 406 hours in Dungeon Warfare 2, 217h in Defence Grid, 23h in Defence Grid 2, 127h in Death Trap, 60h in plants vs Zombies, 58h in Infitode 2, 46h in X-morph Defence, 45h in Gem Craft, 32h in Orcs must Die unchained, 27h in Orcs Must Die 2, 15h in OMD1, and 12 hours in Siege on Centauri, and I've never had such a difficult time completing missions. Maybe im just a noob.

The level up rewards are such a tiny increment that it seems leveling up will take hundreds of levels until the bonus actually helps in anyway.

I find a lot of the turrets are very situational so you are mainly limited to only a few decent ones.

Due to the tax system and increasing costs of upgrades you are limited as to what you can do to defend.
Maze with lots of towers, then less income and cant afford the upgrades down the line.
Upgrade a few towers and its a struggle to afford them, you wait longer and longer before you can upgrade. Meanwhile your towers are being overwhelmed and then destroyed.
Brian is then doing his best to hold off the onslaught, but moving away to build new towers results in them leaking.

I will admit that i have yet to try a full Brian strat, which may be viable because he isnt taxed, and although I find him very good, not building seems counter intuitive to a TD game.

Dont get me wrong I prefer my games on the harder side, but this is pushing it.

It’s hard to give advice without watching you play or seeing a screenshot of your layout, but I’ll try to give a few pointers anyway.

A lot of the turrets are situational, the maps are pretty crazy, and you’ll get a different creep configuration between the 15 creep types. Figuring out what to use where is part of the game. If you mouse-over the maps in the list, it’ll tell you what creeps will show up in that map. Once you get to know these creeps and how the turrets operate, you can make a bit of a plan before you play the map. Having each map be unique and challenging in its own way is a good think I think. I wouldn't expect to be good at No Creeps based on experience playing another TD game.

Brian is crazy powerful, especially if you upgrade his damage as far as it will go. Set him to shoot first if you want him to clean up creeps that get past your maze. Set him to shoot strongest and actively hunt down brutes and other boss creeps that cause you problems. He’s a great fighter, but needs some upgrades and sort tweaks to be really effective.

Striking a balance between upgrades and new turrets is key. Upgrades might feel weak at first, but if you look at the upgrades in the mouse-over tool-tip, the last upgrade in the line gives you a huge boost. Spreading upgrades around evenly might not be the best approach, even though they are cheap. Try to find a good crossing point and build a kill box there, upgrading those turrets as much as you can.

Generally, if Brian is moving to build all the time, you may be building too much stuff at once, vs upgrading it. Still, sometimes you need him to stop building and obey orders, and you can do that by selecting him and turning his build mode off.

At this point in the game, attackers will be pretty common. The early maps have few attackers, but at this point you will need to split some of your credits between attack and defense. Most turrets that operate in close quarters have health upgrades, which will keep them alive longer in the wave. Brian is also a great tank against sweepers or brutes if you upgrade his health or shields. Booster structures can be upgraded to repair near by turrets, which can help quite a bit if you have room for that structure.

Creeps will generally attack the first thing they can see. I find it is pretty effective to build a few cheap sacrificial turrets up front, and upgrade ONLY their health. While the creeps are chewing on that, some other turret can hammer them to death.

It’s also possible the game is simply too hard. I’m currently collecting data to evaluate this. The game is only a few days old, and a lot of changes and tweaks are coming. Let me know if you continue to have frustrations. Keep in mind, you can skip maps you dislike. You won’t miss out on any story. You always have quite a few map options.

Hope this helps.

[ThatGuyKhi]

Im a TD newb but this is what I've learned so far:

My setup utilizes the multishot perk for Blasters. With that I'm able to completely ignore the Shotgun towers and save ALOT of money in a run. Plus that extra money allows me to rush those early levels with upgraded Blasters.

Once enemies start getting past my killbox, I use the extra money to focus on those specialized towers. A Sniper only needs LOS on the tip on the lane and that shot will penetrate the whole thing. Same with Arc towers. Always try to pause before you build mid/lategame and get an idea of when a tower will strike.

Lastly, some maps make it hell for some towers. I dont build the lag field unless three of its sides are exposed. 1 or 2 sides is a waste of money and space imo. Plus with a map that small the CC wont matter much, better to just blast them 24/7.

Edit: Brian with damage maxed out is a beast. It's like 600dps or something crazy lol.

[Riot Lightbulb]

Originally posted by ThatGuyKhi:

Im a TD newb but this is what I've learned so far:

My setup utilizes the multishot perk for Blasters. With that I'm able to completely ignore the Shotgun towers and save ALOT of money in a run. Plus that extra money allows me to rush those early levels with upgraded Blasters.

Once enemies start getting past my killbox, I use the extra money to focus on those specialized towers. A Sniper only needs LOS on the tip on the lane and that shot will penetrate the whole thing. Same with Arc towers. Always try to pause before you build mid/lategame and get an idea of when a tower will strike.

Lastly, some maps make it hell for some towers. I dont build the lag field unless three of its sides are exposed. 1 or 2 sides is a waste of money and space imo. Plus with a map that small the CC wont matter much, better to just blast them 24/7.

Edit: Brian with damage maxed out is a beast. It's like 600dps or something crazy lol.

Which maps have you managed to complete?

I agree about the lag field strats and due to the map designs it means that a lot of maps there is no good place to fit it.

My artifacts have lead me to focus on the splatter cannon, as I have penetrating shot and instant reload chance for it. And making a kill box of those, especially with a lag field can work very well taking out a lot of the 'horde' type creatures.

[Riot Lightbulb]

Originally posted by Narlak:

Generally, if Brian is moving to build all the time, you may be building too much stuff at once, vs upgrading it. Still, sometimes you need him to stop building and obey orders, and you can do that by selecting him and turning his build mode off.

Hes not moving all the time, but hes at the end catching anything that leaks, but if i do construct a new tower he has to leave to do so, and therefore can leave a whole in the defences.
Dropping the vortex bomb provides a good defence while he is away, but later in the game when im out of POW i can't afford it, and therefor brian is required even more to stay at home and defend.

Originally posted by Narlak:

Creeps will generally attack the first thing they can see. I find it is pretty effective to build a few cheap sacrificial turrets up front, and upgrade ONLY their health. While the creeps are chewing on that, some other turret can hammer them to death.

I disagree with this as often there are bosses coming along shooting out 3 beams at a time all on different structures. So they all need health upgrades to keep them alive.
Additionally as mentioned in my other thread about the flank map, those 'sweepers' or somehing all hoard around 1 tower and nuke it down fast and then they switch to the damage towers and its a downfall from there.
I know some towers get more health than others so i try to build something that gets a lot of health as the 'punching bag' but it can still fail and cause a cascade of tower deaths.

And using Brian to cast the nano-fixer also means he has to forgo defending where he was defending.

Originally posted by Narlak:

Striking a balance between upgrades and new turrets is key. Upgrades might feel weak at first, but if you look at the upgrades in the mouse-over tool-tip, the last upgrade in the line gives you a huge boost. Spreading upgrades around evenly might not be the best approach, even though they are cheap. Try to find a good crossing point and build a kill box there, upgrading those turrets as much as you can.

I understand that upgrading towers is almost always better than building new towers as the upgrades are designed to be better than spamming basic towers.
And with your tax mechanic you have clearly put the emphasis on upgrading over expanding.
However I always tend to find myself in a predicament where if I upgrade a tower focusing on damage then along come the damaging creeps and it dies really quick, it dies, and downward spiral.
So then i plan in to boost its health, but that increases the cost of the upgrades making it take longer to reach max dps output and in the mean time I've been leaking because it lacks damage. and hence downward spiral.


I will keep playing and trying different things. I have already been working my way down the map list in a hopes of finding one that is possible.

[ThatGuyKhi]

Same as you, all the medium maps. I still have 2 or 3 I need the third star for and I'm about to unlock the last two towers.

Hmmm, Cascade look fun. Based on the setup I'd try out a pure dps/aoe build. While having Brian focus on the strongest mobs.
Fire, Toxic, Electricity, Brian.

I dont see Blasters or Cannons being too effective in the mainline due to the amount of creeps that'll be in such a tiny lane. However, I'd put a few near both Reactors for any stragglers.

Edit: I also struggle with balancing hp upgrades. I get their purpose but money is tight as hell and it needs a few levels to make a difference lol.

[Riot Lightbulb]

Originally posted by ThatGuyKhi:

Same as you, all the medium maps. I still have 2 or 3 I need the third star for and I'm about to unlock the last two towers.

Hmmm, Cascade look fun. Based on the setup I'd try out a pure dps/aoe build. While having Brian focus on the strongest mobs.
Fire, Toxic, Electricity, Brian.

I dont see Blasters or Cannons being too effective in the mainline due to the amount of creeps that'll be in such a tiny lane. However, I'd put a few near both Reactors for any stragglers.

Edit: I also struggle with balancing hp upgrades. I get their purpose but money is tight as hell and it needs a few levels to make a difference lol.

Keep me updated as to how you find the future levels.

[Ghin]

The lag field is useful if you can set up a maze in a way the creeps have to rotate around it. It has a lot of health and doesn't really require any upgrades. The main advantage over just using walls is that you can shoot through the lag field. If there's no room to set up some semblance of a maze around the lag field, it's just a waste of money.

[Riot Lightbulb]

Originally posted by Ghin:

The lag field is useful if you can set up a maze in a way the creeps have to rotate around it. It has a lot of health and doesn't really require any upgrades. The main advantage over just using walls is that you can shoot through the lag field. If there's no room to set up some semblance of a maze around the lag field, it's just a waste of money.

Yeah and on a lot of the maps there is not enough room to place a lag field, have a path around it, and then a good amount of turrets nearby. So on most maps you just cant use it.

[ThatGuyKhi]

Update: I got to level 26 on Cascade. I went in blind but didnt have trouble until the shield creeps came in.
Arc towers were a perfect choice. Toxic did nothing. Fire was good but the money could be better spent elsewhere.

To redo I'll:
*Add one hp upgrade to all main killbox towers since it doubles hp.
*Use ranger/beam towers to take down the tanky creeps once their shield is down. Rangers can be near reactor and beams near killbox.
*Use Mini Brian for the extra "hand".

[TechRabbit]

Originally posted by ThatGuyKhi:

Update: I got to level 26 on Cascade. I went in blind but didnt have trouble until the shield creeps came in.
Arc towers were a perfect choice. Toxic did nothing. Fire was good but the money could be better spent elsewhere.

To redo I'll:
*Add one hp upgrade to all main killbox towers since it doubles hp.
*Use ranger/beam towers to take down the tanky creeps once their shield is down. Rangers can be near reactor and beams near killbox.
*Use Mini Brian for the extra "hand".

Toxic only reduces health over time up to 75% of the creep's health. It's best set up at the start of the chain