Defense Grid: The Awakening

Defense Grid: The Awakening

79 ratings
How to Defense Grid (Basic and advanced principles of the game)
By 54x
The basic and advanced principles of how to play Defense Grid, including information about how to use each tower best, what distinguishes the extra modes from one another, and what aliens each tower applies to.
4
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
How is Defense Grid different?
Firstly, if you're absolutely new to defense grid or tower defense, I recommend playing the first couple levels of this game, and/or doing a quick google search about what a tower defense is. This guide will assume you have played either some defense grid or some flash games or mods that will give you the basic principles of a tower defense game.

For those familiar with the genre from mods/maps in other games, or flash tower defense games, Defense Grid is different from other tower defense games in two key ways:

  • Cores.
  • Interest.

How cores make defense grid different

In most tower defense games, you are "hurt" or simply lose when an enemy leaves the playable area or reaches some other destination. In some, you'll have a key structure that enemy waves will attack, and you lose when that structure is destroyed.

Defense Grid has the rarest mechanism for losing: enemies ("aliens") have to carry items ("cores" in Defense Grid) to the exit. This will sometimes be the same location as the entry. If an alien picks up a core and is destroyed, the core will float back to the housing. (With the exception of flying aliens. All cores they swoop away with are lost forever, so they need to be destroyed before they reach the housing)

This means that the aliens will often have to turn around and go through at least some of your previous towers, or they'll continue on to the end of the map, giving you some "slip" room, but also meaning you have to be careful that an alien doesn't escape with a core by picking up one that's still floating back to the housing.

Interest and cores

Not only do you have to avoid losing all your cores to win the map in Defense Grid, and not only do you need to keep every single core to score above a bronze medal, you also lose out on interest while cores are outside the housing.

Unlike most tower defenses, you earn interest on your cash ("resources") if you don't spend it. This means that there will be a bit of adjusting if you play other Tower Defense games without interest- once you can complete a level with all your cores intact, the goal then becomes to score as high as possible by spending the least on towers while also keeping the cores in the housing.

If you're just interested in completing the maps, (ie. achieving a bronze medal) you probably won't need this guide for anything but the most difficult maps. But understanding how to use all the towers most effectively and understanding how to play with interest is often necessary to achieve gold medals, and it's crucial to achieving higher scores.
Every Map is a Special Snowflake
Maps and modes drastically alter how the game is played.

Here's a list of different situations to watch out for in a map:

  • Entrance and exit are the same place, making the map a "loop" for the aliens.
  • The exit is in a different place than the entrance, making at least part of the map "spillage", where only aliens carrying cores will be moving.
  • Some maps are "on rails", with the aliens on a set path and all the buildable areas away from that path. The only way to slow aliens on these maps is to use the temporal tower effectively.
  • Some maps will have flat areas that are partly or entirely buildable, which allows you to shape the aliens' path, ("mazing") or will have buildable areas that can block off certain paths.
  • Some maps will have multiple entrances or exits. I can only think of one map where it's not practical to redirect one of the paths into the other one. This is more hectic/difficult to manage, but it also allows you to use each of your kill areas afterwards for both sets of aliens. (spoiler: Infiltration is the map I'm referring to)
  • Some maps will have paths for flying aliens - press "T" for an outline of these, and a reminder of the entrance(s) and exit(s).
  • Are there multiple core housings? Some maps have two. In some of these the cores are split, in others the cores move.
  • Are all your cores missing at first? You'll need to kill the first wave of aliens for them.

Some more in-depth tips about utilising the map: when you can maze in relatively large areas, create areas where the aliens have to perform u-turns in front of particularly damaging tower formations. This allows you to utilise laser and concussion towers most effectively. Creating areas where you can focus a lot of area damage and single target damage at the same time makes an effective all-around killing zone, especially if you can utilise longer ranged towers in other buildable areas.

When you're making a maze, make sure that there always is one route to each active core housing- the aliens will start walking through your towers if you block it off entirely. Aliens can only walk diagonally on buildable areas where you leave open multiple edges from their last tile, which will make it more easy to block some paths, but it also makes it easier to accidentally block them off entirely. You can safely block off core housings that the cores have moved out of.

Juggling

It's possible to identify a key tower that can be sold and rebuilt to cause the aliens to turn around on a path. Because you lose money by building and selling towers, there's a certain element of strategy to using this method, but there is a measure of debate among some people in the community if it's legitimate. The developer doesn't consider juggling cheating or exploiting and it won't be patched out of the game. That said, I don't use this method, so I can't advise you on how to do it effectively. You'll need to look for a juggling guide if you want to top the score charts on some levels, and you enjoy playing that way.

Modes

Each map will have several modes available to play it in after you complete its default "Story" mode. These are like small developer mods for each map, changing the waves available or the rules of the game slightly. I've listed all of the current gameplay modes in an appendix at the end of the guide. Only some modes are available for each map, and it's possible they could change again, although I think Hidden Path is focusing on Defense Grid 2 now, so I doubt it.
Meet and Kill Lifeforms from the far reaches of the Galaxy
Aliens in Defense Grid come in six essential varieties, although there are some additional variations with stronger aliens or that can share their special abilities. I've listed the alien names after each type, in order of general difficulty.

  • Normal aliens. (Drones, Swarmers, Walkers, Rhinos, Crashers)
  • Fast aliens. (Racer, Rumbler)
  • Shielded and shield-sharing aliens. (Bulwark, Spire, Juggernaut)
  • Cloaked and cloak-sharing aliens. (Lurker, Decoy)
  • Aliens that spawn other aliens. (Seekers and Turtles)
  • Fliers. (Dart, Manta)

Normal aliens are relatively simple to deal with, you place the optimum tower for each spot as necessary and upgrade as necessary, and watch them die. Essentially normal aliens can be subdivided into waves that are effective to kill using AoE towers (early on in a map, that's only the Swarmers) and ones that require single-target damage. With upgrades, Walkers or even Rhinos can be practical to kill en masse using Inferno and Concussion towers, but Crashers will always require a lot of single-target damage.

Fast aliens are best killed using burning damage, so you'll want inferno towers and sometimes laser towers to combat these, and you'll want temporal towers placed in the areas you're applying your burning damage.

Shielded aliens need the opposite approach- they are immune to burning damage until their shields come down. If you have enough space, this means you can just use a lot of impact damage towers before applying your burning damage. Spires share their shields with anything nearby, so concussion towers are especially effective against them if there is a good opportunity to build one.

Towers can only target cloaked aliens from very short range unless the aliens are in the range of a command tower. It's generally a good idea to build one for cloaked aliens, but Inferno and Concussion towers are very effective against cloaked aliens if you place them properly.

Spawning aliens are essentially just a tougher, slower version of a normal alien at first, although they can spawn any ground alien. Seekers will wait some time then start deploying a stream of aliens as a kind of forward shield to distract your defenses from themselves, wheras Turtles are tougher and spawn a set payload on dying. Trickier levels will have these aliens deploying Rumblers, Decoys, Spires, and other nasties, which means the middle or end of your defenses will need to be quite deadly.

Fliers are rather straightforward to dispatch. They can be killed by gun towers or cannon towers if they conveniently fly in range and your towers aren't busy with ground enemies, but generally you'll want to put a missile tower or a few in their path somewhere that isn't needed to kill ground aliens. You'll usually only need one or two level one missile towers to kill darts, but if you get mantas instead or as well, you'll want to have your towers upgraded to second or third level.

Congratulations, you now know the basics of Defense Grid- with a bit of initiative this much will be enough to bronze medal the entire Awakening campaign. But if you want gold medals or to play the harder campaigns, read on.
Gun Tower
To the meaty portion of this guide- I've been referring to "placing towers properly" before. Here I'll go over what each tower is for, how to place it properly, and what purpose each tower serves and any aliens it's especially effective against.

Gun Tower
100 / 200 / 400 resources, 700 total to level 3
Purpose: Mazing (level 1), removing shields or close-ranged damage
Optimal placement: Anywhere where its line of sight isn't blocked by other towers.
Especially effective against: Drones, Walkers.
Bonuses: Can assist with fliers.

Use gun towers either to shape the enemies' path when you can maze, as they are the cheapest tower to use as a wall. Because of this, they do less damage at level 1 than other towers, so upgrade them as soon as practical when you plan to use them to do short-range impact damage, or to remove shields.
Cannon Tower
200 / 400 / 800 resources, 1,400 total to level 3
Purpose: Medium-range damage, removing shields or close-ranged damage, backline tower.
Optimal placement: On the edges of maps, in "islands" or "turrets" too far away from the path for gun towers, or simply overlooking areas that you're mazing.
Especially effective against: Drones, Walkers.
Bonuses: Can assist with fliers, or be used to fill in back-rows of your defense, as its slow rate of fire means it won't be as impacted by blocked line of sight as other towers.

Because of its slow reload time and relatively long range, cannon towers make good "backline" towers, put behind other towers, because they can deal with minor impediments to their line of sight quite well- however if they have a very narrow cone of fire left they might not be worthwhile in a given location. They can also be used well to hurt crashers or juggernauts, or to deplete shields.
Inferno Tower

150 / 300 / 600 resources, 1,050 total to level 3
Purpose: Area of effect burning damage
Optimal placement: Perpendicular to the path, so that its fire stream stays still while enemies walk away from the tower, or where a set path circles away from the tower.
Especially effective against: Racers, Lurkers, Decoys.
Bonuses: Excellent at killing racers, which are fast and usually come in swarms, but also good at killing cloaked packs, or spire packs after their shields have been removed.

Use the inferno tower as your basic, cheap area of effect tower, when you don't need to remove shields from multiple aliens first. As it burns enemies, they'll continue to take a little damage after they leave the range of the tower, which is why it's so good at killing racers, which tend to come in large packs, but it will also help against rumblers a little.

(Pictured: a good placement for an Inferno tower- it has a clear shot at a straight path ahead and behind it. Usually you would have an inferno tower at a corner, or before the exit from a mazable area of the map)
Concussion Tower

275 / 550 / 1100 resources, 1,925 total to level 3
Purpose: Area of effect impact damage and area shield removal
Optimal placement: Areas that aliens turn around. (ie. u-turns, three-quarter turns, or perhaps in a zig-zag turning pattern for two-wide paths)
Especially effective against: Spires, Seekers, Bulwarks, Swarmers, Walkers.
Bonuses: When placed correctly this tower is really good against anything, but it excels at removing shields from groups and killing weak aliens.

The concussion tower is a bit more specialised, but there are more opportunities to use it when you've got a lot of space to maze in than there are for the Inferno tower, and less opportunities when the enemies are on a fixed path. It and the inferno tower are the ideal towers to emphasise for Grinder mode.

(Pictured: the ideal placement for a Concussion tower)
Meteor Tower
250 / 500 / 1000 resources, 1,750 total to level 3
Purpose: Long range area of effect damage, mostly burning but some impact, backline tower.
Optimal placement: Any area that significantly overlaps your maze.
Especially effective against: Swarmers, Seekers, Decoys, Lurkers, Turtles.
Bonuses: This tower will slowly take down shields if it targets shielded enemies, but don't rely on this to remove shields effectively. The tower can be put in a lot of the reject areas that have next to no line of sight, as it fires in an arc and can be effective in most positions.

Because it uses a ballistic trajectory, it is an excellent backline tower.
Missile Tower
225 / 450 / 900 resources, 1,575 total to level 3
Purpose: Long range damage against fliers
Optimal placement: Any area that significantly overlaps their flight path without effecting the rest of your defense
Especially effective against: Mantas, darts
Bonuses: Against most dart waves you won't need to upgrade this tower. The last Awakening map has so many darts in a single wave that you'll need to upgrade a tower or build a second just to deal with all the darts- otherwise I'm pretty sure a single level 1 missile tower will be sufficient unless the air icon goes yellow in your wave indicator.
Temporal Tower
300 / 300 / 300 resources, 900 total to level 3
Purpose: Periodically emits a burst that slows down nearby aliens.
Optimal placement: The centre of particularly deadly parts of your maze, or possible the edge of those areas if there is no good spot in the centre.
Especially effective against: Everything, supports whatever towers are nearby.
Bonuses: Most cost effective around your best towers and areas that the aliens cross multiple times.
Tesla Tower
175 / 350 / 700 resources, 1,225 total to level 3
Purpose: Spillage control, builds up a charge over time for a large burst of damage.
Optimal placement: Near the exit on maps with spillage areas or at the end of your maze.
Especially effective against: Crashers, Juggernauts, Rumblers
Bonuses: Can hold a longer charge as it upgrades as well as improving continuous damage.

This tower should really only be used to mop up stray aliens, if a large number of aliens are passing it, then the Tesla is no longer effective.
Laser Tower
200 / 400 / 800 resources, 1,400 total to level 3
Purpose: Short-range burning damage to a single target
Optimal placement: Front-row positions in your maze or areas that tough, unshielded aliens will be turning around, or where the path is too far away for a concussion tower.
Especially effective against: Crashers, Rumblers, Turtles.
Bonuses: The burning damage applied by multiple towers can stack to some degree, although aliens have a maximum "heat" level. Essentially you'll want to space these so that tough and/or fast aliens are burning a lot.

Laser towers are mostly only necessary when you're having trouble killing rumblers or crashers, but can also very effective against juggernauts when their shields have already been removed.
Command Tower
300 / 300 / 300 resources, 900 total to level 3
Purpose: Reveals cloaked aliens to distant towers, and increases resource gain from aliens killed in range by 35%.
Optimal placement: The centre of particularly deadly parts of your maze, or possible the edge of those areas if there is no good spot in the centre.
Especially effective against: Everything, supports whatever towers are nearby.
Bonuses: Most cost effective around your best towers and areas that the aliens cross multiple times.

The command tower is especially effective on maps with many waves, even if cloaked enemies aren't present, as the 35% resource bonus will mean it will more than pay for itself in the deadliest parts of your defense.
Gameplay mode appendix
(note: Resurgence maps call "Story" mode and its variants "Campaign", but they're the same thing)

10/20k Challenge

You don't gain any new resources or interest, but you start with 10,000 resources. (or 20,000 for some later maps where 10k would be impossible) Plan your optimal defense from the get-go.

10/15/20 Tower Limit

What it sounds like - you can only place 10 (or 15, or 20) towers.

Adrenaline

A very fast-paced mode where the aliens spawn much faster than usual.

Balanced Build

You can't build a second tower of any type until you've built ALL the other towers. If you've not learned how to use all the towers, this is a good way to force yourself.

Frozen Core

The cores don't float back to the housing when dropped - you want to balance you available funds with stopping the aliens reaching the housing at all, as each alien reaching the housing will decrease your interest for the rest of the level.

Reversed Frozen Core

What it sounds like, one of the containment maps gives you a mashup of Story Reversed and Frozen Core.

Fully Loaded

For some of the levels in the campaigns, towers or upgrades are locked. This mode makes all the towers and upgrades available.

Green Towers Only

You can't upgrade towers in this mode- good luck!

Grinder

An endurance mode of 99 waves of swarmers, walkers, and rhinoes, getting progressively tougher. You have to work out an optimal area damage maze.

Out of Bullets

Cannon and Gun towers are disabled.

Poison Core

You only get one core. It slowly kills aliens holding it to help it be harder to pass off, but you don't get any resources if the alien is killed by poison. As you only have one core this mode is very resource-starved already, so you have to try and keep aliens away from the housing to keep what small interest you can get.

Practice

Consider this the "20k Challenge" mode for earlier maps, it has this name on maps where 20k is not as much of a challenge, and this will be a more relaxed mode.

Relaxed

The same as story, but the aliens are weaker and you can't lose.

Shredder

A shorter endurance mode where you don't earn interest. This gives you a bit more freedom in when you build towers, although for leaderboards you'll still want to place towers optimally and not build any towers you don't need to finish the level. This also means that cores leaving the housing isn't a big deal, so long as they make their way back.

Story Challenge

The same as story, but the aliens are tougher.

Story Reversed

For maps with distinct exits and entrances, this simply swaps them. This can make the map a lot more difficult as the spillage areas are generally smaller, and the exits have better line of site than the entrances.

Super Grinder

The other endurance mode, 99 waves of varied enemies, this time including the tougher ones. Still remember what cannon towers are after Grinder? Good, you might actually need them here.
8 Comments
Maudibe Jul 2, 2023 @ 5:09am 
Had this game for years when it was standalone then added it to my Steam collection.Still play it often trying new strategies and trying to beat my previous scores. Tips: Employ Temporals and Command Centers as soon as possible, Shape their path to make them walk longer distances.
Nemesis Enforcer May 31, 2019 @ 12:39pm 
I've had this game forever and never played it - but just started since I got a MS Surface Pro and this is fully touch screen compatible - plus this is one of the tougher tower defense games I've played - thanks for the tips!
Transmodd Sep 22, 2018 @ 1:16pm 
play this now already more than 1jr and love it still, leaarning even more and more how to use Stategic skills .. I just love it <3
Vigilante Dec 6, 2017 @ 7:22pm 
December 2017, just got Defense Grid and read this guide! :steamhappy:
fireshine Sep 8, 2017 @ 8:21am 
thank you very much
:steamhappy:
DogeDev_cl Nov 26, 2014 @ 12:04pm 
thank you, I've already figured out most of this... but the guide must be very helpful for those who are starting to play Defense Grid. Well done.
54x  [author] Sep 3, 2014 @ 1:10am 
No problem, hope it got you started nicely and perhaps has you thinking about how to increase scores.
huffadopolis Aug 31, 2014 @ 5:35pm 
Thanks I found this very helpful