Kingdom Rush 1 & 2-4 Complete Overview, Strategy, And Tips

This is an in-depth guide for Kingdom Rush 1 and its three TD sequels.

General Game Strategy: Level Opening

The start of a level is often the most important and strategic point in Kingdom Rush. How you’ll want to start and place/upgrade towers will often depend on the level itself, where the natural chokepoints are, what enemies you have to deal with in the first wave and level as a whole, etc. As a general rule it’s often a good idea to go for a number of nonupgraded Melee Towers covering a strategic chokepoint to start, and then sell most of them later for room/money. Be sure to upgrade the Melee Towers that you actually intend to keep as soon as the soldiers start dying and the enemies start to push through, as this immediately respawns the soldiers. Artillery Towers often go great with Melee Towers, as the latter will bunch up enemies so the former can get max Area of Effect (AoE) damage on all of them. The nonupgraded Melee Towers combined with Artillery will be capable of holding off the enemies on most levels until you’re able to afford a Tesla Coil with Overcharge or a Big Bertha.


An example of a solid early game tower setup on the 'Glacial Heights' Elite Stage on Veteran.

General Game Strategy: Upgrading And Combining Towers

Tesla Coils with Overcharge and the Smart Targeting Star Upgrade plus Paladins with Holy Light and Shield of Valour positioned at a chokepoint are often the best first upgraded towers to get in KR1. Then you can either get some more Tesla Coils and Paladins at other strategic chokepoint(s) in the level, or start spamming Sorcerer Mages with a single point in their Earth Elemental summon ability; waiting to upgrade this more until the Earth Elemental is near death, since they get full health every time you upgrade this ability. Putting one point in the Polymorph ability is also useful if you have to deal with a lot of extremely tough enemies, though keep in mind you will have to spam-click the sheep to death quickly, as they cannot be blocked by ground units and are relatively fast. Placing a single Rangers Hideout with Wrath of the Forest vines fully upgraded near your stalling and offensive towers is also very powerful for crowd control, and Poison Arrows is a strong damaging ability for the cost, especially since poison Damage Over Time ignores armour and can be spread to lots of small enemies at once for huge Damage Per Second potential. Both of these abilities also disable the health regeneration of all trolls, werewolves, Lycans, and Swamp Thing. Note, however, that any given enemy can only be vine ensnared up to 3 times, and poison does not stack with itself, and thus you generally don't want more than one upgraded Rangers Hideout at a time.


My mid-game setup on 'The Dark Tower' Veteran.


My late-game setup on 'The Dark Tower' Veteran.


My late-game strategy on the 'Ruins of Acaroth' Elite Stage's Heroic Challenge on Veteran.


My late-game strategy on the 'Rotwick' Elite Stage on Veteran.


My late-game pre-boss strategy on the 'Blackburn Castle' Elite Stage on Veteran.


My late-game post-boss strategy on the 'Blackburn Castle' Elite Stage on Veteran.

Towers Strategy And Info #1

-Melee Tower General Info. Melee Towers will be the bread and butter of most defenses, being great for blocking up chokepoints and increasing the exposure of the creeps to all of your other towers, especially AoE towers such as Artillery. It's not uncommon for a good defense to be able to get by with just one or two nonupgraded Melee Towers per lane, depending on the level. That said, Level 2 Melee Towers are a lot better than level 1 for just a little higher price. Level 3 is a pretty good upgrade from 2, but not as cost effective as Level 1-2 overall. Level 4 Paladins with Holy Light and Shield of Valor are the best for the price in most scenarios, as they're practically unkillable by most things. Up until Level 4, upgrading a Melee Tower respawns any dead troops and fully restores the health of living ones. When your Melee units start taking fire from ranged enemies, be sure to move them somewhere out of range (if possible), and then back on top of the ranged enemies when they come within range of your Melee and other Towers. Never let ranged enemies stack up and shred your Melee units’ health, and remember that most ranged enemies are weaker in melee combat.

-Artillery Towers General Info. Artillery Towers cannot attack flying enemies directly in any way until Level 4, but they can still damage flying enemies with incidental splash damage. Level 2 Artillery Towers are the most cost effective in terms of gold to damage, but higher level Artillery Towers gain increased damage radius, making them better overall at dealing damage to groups of slightly spread out enemies.

-Mage and Archer Tower General Info. Nonupgraded Mage and Archer Towers have the highest gold-to-DPS ratio, and with upgrades, the nonupgraded Mage Towers can also slow enemies and permanently destroy 3% of an enemy's armour with every shot. They can also attack flying enemies. That said, spamming weak towers will never be as cost effective as concentrating high-level area-damaging towers at a chokepoint, combined with ground units for blocking. Also note that lots of spread-out weak towers are not useful against enemies with health regeneration, AKA all trolls, werewolves, Lycans, and Swamp Thing.

-The Holy Order. Once you get your Melee Towers up to Paladins, you'll want to invest in 2-3 Holy Light upgrades before you bother with Shield of Valor, as they need the former for sustainment in combat. Holy Strike is generally seen as a waste of money, unless you have an excess of cash, limited tower space at a strategic chokepoint, or are dealing with Demon Lords; whose infernal shields block damage instances rather than raw damage, thus making Holy Strike a good choice (note that Spiked Armour is also a very good Star Upgrade against Demon Lord shields). Also note that Paladins are the only Level 4 tower that is completely useless against flying enemies.

-The Barbarian Mead Hall. Barbarians are pretty mediocre in KR1 (IMO), and a waste of money compared to other towers. I seldom ever use them, outside of the niche Icewind Pass Iron Challenge where you need them to target flying enemies with throwing axes.

-The Tesla x104. Tesla Coils are best for their Overcharge ability, which provides true Area of Effect explosive damage (which ignores half of an enemy’s physical armour) and makes them one of the best towers in the game. Definitely focus on maxing this upgrade first before bothering with Supercharged Bolt (especially if you don't have Smart Targeting), which is a good upgrade overall, but isn't true AoE. Oftentimes you may want to forego Supercharged Bolt in favour of making more Teslas with Overcharge, and then later on go for Supercharged Bolt; when you have a good defense built up and lack real estate at the chokepoints, rather than money. All attacks from the Tesla Coil can damage flying enemies, making them a naturally great choice against flying enemies.

-The 500mm Big Bertha. The Big Bertha is generally not as good as the Tesla Coil overall, but it is the best tower for dealing with massive amounts of trash enemy spam for the money. Its extra range compared to the Tesla can sometimes give it an edge in certain placement locations, and you should definitely consider this fact. The Big Bertha is also good for bosses when other towers would be out of range and you have extra money to spend, as their Dragonbreath missile has very long range (appears to be about double that of the tower itself) and will always aim for the enemy closest to the exit. The Dragonbreath missile can also target flying enemies, whilst the rest of Big Bertha's attacks can only incidentally damage flying enemies with splash damage.

-The Sorcerer Mage. The Sorcerer Mage is one of the best and most spammable towers in KR1, overall. Its main attack deals magic damage and Curses any enemy it hits. The Curse deals True Damage as Damage Over Time (which isn’t reflected in the damage listing for the tower), and halves the enemy’s physical armour rating for its duration; thus greatly increasing the damage all physical/explosive attacks deal to armoured enemies. Its Polymorph ability permanently turns an enemy into a sheep, which can’t be blocked by friendly ground units, but can be rapidly clicked to death for an Instant Kill. This also comes at a cheaper price than the Arcane Wizard’s Death Ray, for a very similar overall effect, as long as you’re attentive. Like Death Ray, don’t bother upgrading Polymorph above level 1 in most scenarios, as it’s cost ineffective. The Sorcerer Mage’s Earth Elemental summon is great to spam at Level 1, as when an Elemental is near death, you can just upgrade the ability in order to fully restore the Elemental’s health (a necessary tactic later in the game, especially in the Burning Torment mini-campaign). Earth Elementals have significant health and armour, and deal good amounts of physical damage to up to 4 enemies at once. With max Star Upgrades, each of the Sorcerer’s primary attacks will also slow enemies and permanently destroy 3% of their physical armour rating (though note that Sorcerers will prioritize spreading Curse to non-afflicted enemies rather than shooting the farthest along creep, which has both pros and cons). In short, this tower is almost universally good and is quite cost effective; with good single target damage, good crowd control attack prioritization, temporary physical armour halving from Curse, some True Damage from Curse, slowing and permanent physical armour breaking per shot, an Instant Kill ability, and stalling and physical area damage from its Earth Elemental. The Sorcerer Mage can attack flying enemies with all of its abilities, but its Earth Elemental cannot block or damage them.

-The Arcane Wizard. The Arcane Wizard is great for having near the back of the track with the Teleport and Death Ray to counter tough big/armoured enemies. This can be more or less useful, depending on the level and the enemies. Be sure not to rely on Arcane Wizards alone, however, as they're terrible against groups of enemies relative to their cost. The Arcane Wizard can attack flying enemies with all of its abilities.

Towers Strategy And Info #2

-The Rangers Hideout. The Rangers Hideout is a very strong all around tower, although its special abilities’ effects on enemies are mutually exclusive with itself and thus redundant if you have more than one Rangers Hideout. Vines and poison both disable health regeneration for all trolls, werewolves, Lycans, and Swamp Thing; making this tower a hard counter to those enemies. The poison Damage Over Time also ignores armour, and can outright kill some lesser enemies with one poison arrow at Level 3. The Rangers Hideout can attack flying enemies with its basic attack and spread poison on them, but cannot attack them with vines.

-The Musketeer Garrison. The Musketeer Garrison with Shrapnel Shot 3 and the Smart Targeting Star Upgrade is the best tower for dealing massive explosive damage to bosses and large/armoured enemy spam. Shrapnel Shot 3 is amazing if you have Smart Targeting unlocked, as it has the best DPS and some AoE. Note that Shrapnel Shot has 0.5x range compared to the tower itself, however, making its range misleading. Also note that Sniper Shot (1.5x range) does not target or affect bosses in any way. The Musketeer Garrison can attack flying enemies with all of its abilities.

The Best Heroes Ranked

Note that this ranking is subjective and a generalization. There are no bad heroes in KR1, and all of them have niches/levels that they'll be the 'best' at.

1) Ten'shi. Ten’shi is a very strong melee Hero, and the best support Hero, tied with Elora Wintersong. Ten’shi is a great all-around melee Hero with True Damage primary attacks, meteors, and earthquakes, invincibility to all damage and effects during Iron Time, the ability to stun non-boss enemies with his earthquake attack during Iron Time, and the ability to teleport around the map instantly when not in Iron Time. This all combined gives him exceptional support utility, maneuverability, healing ability, sustainment, and precision-targeted enemy stalling/killing capability. His ability to teleport effectively allows him to be everywhere on the level at once and micromanage many tasks simultaneously. He can also teleport to and bully some dangerous melee-vulnerable enemies such as Shamans, Spider Matriarchs, Shadow Archers, Demon Lords, Necromancers, Goblin Sappers, Raiders, Abominations, etc. You can also strategically teleport him to an enemy/group of enemies right before he casts his Firerush! meteor ability (which will make an oriental bell ringing sound just before he casts it) to great effect; being directly comparable in damage to your own Meteor ability at hero level 10. Ten’shi can level up exceptionally fast if you micromanage him, focusing on always teleporting him to the least-armoured/lowest damaging enemy onscreen, and keeping an eye on his health total to prevent him from dying to them over time.

2) Elora Wintersong. Elora is the best ranged Hero, and the best support Hero, tied with Ten’shi. Elora has good range, speed, health and armour (for a ranged Hero) (allows her to still tank deadly enemies for a while), DPS, AoE, crowd control, can target flying enemies, a 20% chance to freeze enemies solid with her basic attack (preventing them from moving, attacking, or using abilities), and she gets benefit from the Mage Tower’s Arcane Shatter Star Upgrade for her basic attack. She’s also the only thing in KR1 that can slow bosses via debuffs, making her excellent against all minibosses/bosses; especially ones with Instant Kill abilities that would render melee Heroes almost negligible. Due to being a ranged Hero, she's also one of the best heroes against Demons, Abominations, Goblin Sappers, and other enemies with an explosive on-death effect. This also means she's one of the best heroes overall for the Burning Torment mini-campaign (Pit of Fire + Pandaemonium). Elora can level up exceptionally fast if you micromanage her, keeping her within range to attack magic damage-vulnerable enemies, without them being able to attack her back. Note that micromanagement is necessary to do with Elora, as her melee damage is weak compared to her ranged damage, and thus you want to keep her out of enemy range whenever possible. Although she can still block and tank fairly effectively when needed, continuing to cast her abilities periodically.

3) Ignus. Ignus/Chonk is the best melee Hero for DPS, to the point that some people considered him to be overpowered before his (doubled) damage per tick glitch was fixed on the Steam version. His DPS and AoE damage are great, all of his attacks deal True Damage (unaffected by any enemy resistances), he's fast, he’s fairly tanky, he heals in combat, and he respawns faster than most Heroes. However, he also is very unreliable for stalling enemies (the primary job of most melee Heroes), as he tends to erratically jump from enemy to enemy with his Surge of Flames dash. This will force you to do a lot of micromanagement to keep him where you want him. Ignus can level up exceptionally fast by sheer virtue of the fact that he deals a lot of True Damage, although keeping him attacking an enemy(ies) may be an issue.

4) Oni. Oni is a great all-around melee Hero. He deals great damage and AoE, is fast, and is immune to Demon explosions; making him one of the best Heroes on levels with lots of Demons, such as the Burning Torment mini-campaign.

5) Sir Gerald Lightseeker. Sir Gerald is the best tank melee Hero in the game, period. He’s highly damage resistant, reflects (non-AoE) melee damage back at enemies as True Damage (100% to 200% depending on level) with Shield of Retribution, and has good support capability by buffing other ground units with Courage when 2 or more are nearby and are engaging in melee combat; granting them increased damage, additional armour (+5-15% depending on level), and healing 15% of their max health. On the Burning Torment mini-campaign, Gerald can also oddly reflect Cerberus' AoE damage back at it with Shield of Retribution; which is the only exception to the no-AoE reflection rule. This oversight makes him exceptional at blocking Cerberus minibosses.

Early Game Star Upgrades And Considerations

Early on you should focus on maxing the Star Upgrade trees of Magic/Bomb Towers (switching them out depending on the level and what tower upgrades you have unlocked) and Reinforcements (free extra blocking and ranged damage = OP). Level 2-4 Meteors are also extremely powerful relative to their Star cost. Smart Targeting is one of the most powerful Star Upgrades in the game and should be prioritized as soon as you have Big Bertha/Tesla available, as it makes all Bomb Towers and the Musketeer Garrison amazingly powerful (even without any Archer Tower Star Upgrades). Generally I prioritize fully upgrading the Star paths in the following order: Bombs, Reinforcements, Meteors/Mage, Melee, and then Archery. It’s also worth mentioning that when you have finished the main Campaign, you should go back and begin 3-starring the older levels and doing the Heroic and Iron Challenges on them before wasting your time attempting the extra challenging Elite Stages. Ignore the Elite Stages until you have all of the Star Upgrades unlocked. This will save you a lot of unnecessary headache, especially on certain insane Elite Stages on Veteran difficulty.

An example of a strong mid-game Star Upgrade build.

More info on why Smart Targeting is the best Star Upgrade in the game.

Kingdom Rush Hotkeys

This is simply the list of hotkeys in Kingdom Rush, because for some reason not all of these are made super obvious in-game.

1 - Rain Of Fire ability.
2 - Reinforcements ability.
4 or Spacebar - Select Hero.
Escape - Pause Menu/Cancel/Deselect.
Right Mouse Button - Cancel/Deselect.
W or Enter - Send next wave.

Kingdom Rush 2/Frontiers Summary Part 1

Whilst this guide is primarily focused on Kingdom Rush 1, after completing the rest of the Kingdom Rush Tower Defense series, I decided to also add these sections dedicated to summarizing KR1's TD sequels. In general, they all play very similarly to the original, minus some key balance changes, mechanical changes, and some other niche differences introduced in each one.

Kingdom Rush 2/Frontiers Changes Compared To KR1: 1) Melee Tower Indirect Nerfs. One of the main changes in KR2 compared to KR1 is that Melee Towers are much less useful overall. This is primarily due to KR2 being very anti-melee by design; as Ironhide attempted to shake up the meta from KR1, and because the Necromancer level 4 upgrade for the Mage Tower passively creates hordes of skeletons that can block more enemies and respawn faster after being killed en masse. Almost every level in the game past the first few will have some combination of flying enemies, ranged enemies, instakilling ranged enemies, area attacking enemies, death explosion enemies, cannibals (enemies that heal after killing your ground units), parasites (enemies that reproduce after killing your ground units), cloakers/teleporters (can bypass ground units until they're close to the exit), swarms of weak enemies that can overwhelm your Melee Towers' 3 soldiers, and unique stage hazards that specifically target your ground units (some are static and others more dynamic). Later sequels would buff the Melee Tower(s) directly and indirectly.

2) Tower Changes. All eight level 4 towers are changed compared to KR1. KR3/Origins takes this a step further and reworks the first three levels of towers too, whilst KR4/Vengeance changes the formula completely by giving you 20 tower options and letting you choose up to 5 of them at a time.

3) Star Upgrade Changes. Star Upgrades are changed. Later sequels also each change up the star upgrades with every different version.

4) Permanent Hero Levels. Heroes now gain permanent levels rather than per-stage levels; effectively meaning that the early game of most levels ramp up in difficulty and intensity more quickly than in KR1. Later sequels all retain this gameplay change.

5) More Hero Abilities. Heroes now have five abilities (versus two in KR1) that you can unlock and upgrade with Hero Points as they level up.

6) Flying Heroes. Flying heroes were introduced in KR2. These dragons and other flying heroes don't have to stay on the path, can fly over water and other obstacles that ground heroes cannot, can't block ground enemies directly, and can't be damaged by ground enemies or most of their abilities. Most flying heroes in the series can only attack enemies that are horizontal relative to themselves, either cardinally or diagonally. Later sequels all contain flying heroes which largely work the same way.

7) Secondary Heroes. KR2 introduces secondary heroes. Secondary heroes have two unique abilities each (like KR1 heroes), and can be controlled using the '5' hotkey. KR3 also features secondary heroes, whilst KR4 does not.

8) Gem Shop. KR2 on Steam features the gem Shop from the iOS version of KR2 for some odd reason. None of the other KR TD games on Steam feature their respective iOS version Shops. I personally recommend ignoring the Shop, as its paid spells are basically cheating IMO; though this is up to your discretion.

9) Dynamic Stage Paths. KR2 is the first KR game to feature dynamic stage paths (outside of certain bosses in KR1), whereby some levels will have additional paths that open up as the level progresses in order to keep you on your toes and mess up your chokepoints. Some of these are obvious, and some of these are not-so obvious. Be ready for anything. Later sequels all retain this stage mechanic.

Kingdom Rush 2/Frontiers Summary Part 2

Kingdom Rush 2/Frontiers Strategy And Info: KR2 General And Towers Strategy: In KR2, you generally want to keep the money you spend on Melee Towers at a minimum. This is because as previously mentioned, KR2 itself is designed to break up the meta from KR1 by being very anti-melee. If you do get Melee Towers, they should be located as close to the exit(s) as possible, so that cloaking/teleporting enemies can't cloak/teleport past them and so that they're well protected from the game's many deadly ranged, area attacking, cannibalistic, parasitic, instakilling, etc enemies. In most cases the Assassin's Guild is better than the Knights Templar or lower level Melee Towers, as they have a passive Cloak ability to protect themselves from ranged enemies, more Effective Hit Points (EHP) when their Counterattack dodge ability is fully upgraded, and a significant instakill chance on every attack from their Sneak Attack upgrade. All this said, Melee Towers are still very useful for blocking bosses using their instant-respawn trick where you upgrade the tower, sell it when the last soldiers die, and repeat.

Mage Towers in KR2 are arguably the most powerful, because they have very consistently powerful upgrades with each level, strong level 4 passive abilities and upgrades, and they benefit massively from the 'Brilliance' Star Upgrade (arguably the strongest Star Upgrade in KR2). The Brilliance Star Upgrade causes each Mage Tower built to buff the attack damage of all other Mage Towers built, up to a maximum of +30% damage when 9 or more Mage Towers are constructed. As a result, the general strategy in KR2 is to immediately build 9 Mage Towers, and then gradually upgrade them all to Necromancers and/or Archmages. You can easily win most levels on max (Veteran) difficulty on KR2 by just spamming Mage Towers in this way. Another thing that makes Mage Towers top tier in KR2 are that Necromancer towers get a passive ability to turn humanoid enemies that die within their attack range into friendly skeleton ground units (up to a max of 8 skeletons per tower or 30 skeletons globally). Considering that Necromancer towers are relatively cheap to get with no extra upgrades, you can essentially cover the entire path with them by the mid-game of later levels; ensuring that almost every humanoid enemy that dies turns into a skeleton. Additionally, any larger humanoid enemies that die in their radius will turn into a stronger skeleton knight, and skeletons and death riders are also immune to all poison, parasitism, and lifedrain effects. Necromancers can also further buff the skeletons' and knights' damage and armour with the Summon Death Rider upgrade, which is a pretty good upgrade in its own right, especially at level 3 when the death rider becomes significantly tankier. The Necromancer's other upgrade Pestilence is alright, although it's cost inefficient compared to Artillery and Archmages with Critical Mass. Archmages with Critical Mass are very powerful, especially when their already-high damage is buffed by Brilliance. Putting one point into the Archmage's Twister upgrade is also useful if you're dealing with a lot of large enemies, acting similar to the Arcane Wizard's Teleport upgrade from KR1.

Archer Towers are quite strong in KR2, especially the level 4 Crossbow Fort and its notoriously powerful Barrage upgrade, which you should always max out ASAP. The Crossbow Fort's Falconer upgrade is also quite useful, especially when it's buffing several other towers' range and granting them all a significant map coverage boost (IE the ability to see and shoot into another part of the track); although always prioritize maxing Barrage first. The Tribal Axethrowers are a very useful support tower; although it has significant diminishing returns past the first one you get, meaning that you should have at most one per chokepoint.

The Artillery Towers are also quite strong in KR2, especially the Battle-Mecha T200 and its strong Wasp Missiles upgrade; which you should prioritize first over Waste Disposal, as it gives the tower additional DPS and global map coverage. The DWAARP behaves similarly to the Tesla Coil with Overcharge from KR1, except it can't attack flying enemies in any way. The DWAARP's Furnace Blast upgrade is powerful for the cost and compliments the tower's basic attack pattern, whilst synergizing with the tower's natural slowdown effect. The DWAARP's Core Drill upgrade is very pricey, and thus I wouldn't suggest upgrading it past level 1 in general, if you bother with it at all. DWAARP's should primarily be placed on C-junctions to maximize their AoE coverage, whilst Battle-Mechas should primarily be placed in the middle of your chokepoints/intersections to slow and bombard enemies.

Most of the Special Towers found in levels throughout KR2 are also quite useful and powerful for their cost. Mercenary Camps' Genies are very strong for their cost; just be sure to protect them from the Sand Worm and enemy Desert Archers. The SCUMM Bar's Buccaneers (and later on Boatswains) are quite strong for their cost, as long as you protect the Buccaneers from ranged threats. The Spear Maiden Hut's Spear Maidens are strong for their low cost, and should survive the entire level as long as you protect them from Jungle Matriarchs. The Dwarven Bastion's Full Mithril Jacket upgrade is strong for the cost, giving the tower the highest DPS of any tower in the game at level 3. The Explosive Keg, on the other hand, is cost inefficient and generally not worth upgrading compared to other, stronger AoE options. It's also not affected by the Shock and Awe Star Upgrade. The Dwarf Hall is okay overall, behaving similarly to the Holy Order from KR1. They're completely useless and a waste of money to upgrade on Darklight Depths, though; as Saurian Deathcoils will ravage them at range. The Pirate Watchtower has good upgrades for the cheap cost, overall. The Shrine Of Regnos is very good on the levels in which it appears, as it deals True Damage and lots of powerful individual enemies appear on these levels. The Dark Forge has strong upgrades relative to their cost overall, and at level 3 Frankie gains a powerful area attack ability; which is very useful against the large swarms of zombies and ghouls on the levels in which it appears.

KR2 early-game strategy.

KR2 mid-game strategy.

KR2 Best Heroes Info: KR2 introduces some of the strongest heroes in the entire KR series. It's generally agreed upon that Bonehart is the best overall hero in KR2, with him being able to fly, spawn allied ground units, and having some of the strongest True Damage AoE abilities in the game. Bruxa is a close second for the best hero in the game, being one of the strongest ranged ground-based heroes in the entire KR series. Especially since her Skulls can attack whilst she's moving. Alric himself is also a very strong and consistent jack-of-all-trades hero capable of carrying you through just about any level on Veteran difficulty at max level. Captain Blackbeard and Kahz are two other noteworthy heroes, as the former has an ability that causes enemies killed around him to generate +30% gold (even whilst he's moving), and the latter has the ability to buff all towers on the map temporarily; causing them to deal +75% damage for 4 seconds on a 30 second cooldown.

Kingdom Rush 3/Origins Summary Part 1

Kingdom Rush 3/Origins Changes Compared To KR2: 1) Level 4 Towers Nerfs. In KR3/Origins, Level 4 Towers are much weaker on average than they were in previous games, with levels 2-3 generally being more cost efficient; thus encouraging tower spam and then gradual upgrading in the early-mid game until you run out of space.

2) Melee Tower Direct And Indirect Buffs. Melee Towers were directly buffed in KR3, with levels 2-3 and the level 4 Forest Keepers featuring a ranged attack. Level 3 also has good health and damage for the cost. The level 4 Bladesinger Hall has some very strong upgrades, whilst the level 4 Forest Keepers have some very strong support upgrades. The Star Upgrade 'Blessing of Elynie' is also very strong, giving all Melee Tower units a 10% chance to resurrect with full health after dying. KR3 itself is also less anti-melee by design compared to KR2, overall.

3) Tower Changes. Towers in KR3 have been changed, but still function similarly until level 4, when they function completely differently compared to the level 4 tower options in the previous two games.

4) Star Upgrade Changes. Like all sequels, the Star Upgrades have been changed again.

5) Primary Spell Change. The Rain Of Fire Spell is changed to Thunderbolt in KR3. The maximum power Thunderbolt is the strongest primary spell in the KR series.

6) Hero Spells. KR3 introduces upgradeable Hero Spells, which function similarly to the spells from the first two games, but with unique effects depending on your chosen hero. As a side effect, heroes in KR3 only have 4 upgradeable passive hero skills. Hero Spells are selected with the hotkey '3'.

7) Flying Heroes Vulnerable To Area Damage. Strangely, KR3 is the only game in the series where flying heroes can be damaged by ground-based enemies' area attacks. Keep this in mind when using flying heroes in KR3.

8) Impossible Difficulty. The Steam version of KR3 introduces Impossible difficulty, which can only be selected after you complete the Campaign once on any difficulty. KR4 retains this difficulty and its unlock method.

Kingdom Rush 3/Origins Summary Part 2

Kingdom Rush 3/Origins Strategy And Info: KR3 General And Towers Strategy: Due to level 4 towers being nerfed and lower level towers being buffed compared to other KR games, you generally want to fill the level with low level towers, and then gradually upgrade each of them to level 2, then 3, and then 4.

Archer Towers tend to be the most spammable and overall best tower on KR3 because they have very consistently powerful upgrades with each level, strong level 4 passive abilities and upgrades, good range, good DPS for their cost, and very strong Star Upgrades. The level 4 Arcane Archers passively fire two arrows per shot and each arrow can permanently destroy 3% of an enemy's magic resistance, until they have none left. This makes them synergize very well with Mage Towers when placed at the start of the track, as well as with their own Burst Arrows ability; which is quite powerful and deals AoE magic damage, nicely complimenting their physical damaging arsenal. Burst Arrows should be prioritized first over Slumber Arrows. You should generally only put 1 level into Slumber Arrows at max due to its significant diminishing returns on investment. The level 4 Golden Longbows are good around the middle of the stage as they have extremely long range, a small chance to crit their enemy for 2x damage (dealt as True Damage), the very powerful Crimson Sentence upgrade that gives each of their shots an increasingly large chance to instakill, and the powerful Hunter's Mark upgrade; which causes enemies to take 2x damage for 5/10/15 seconds.

Mage Towers in KR3 tend to be much less spammable overall compared to KR1 and KR2, primarily due to their Star Upgrades not supporting spam strategies as well. That said, they still have consistently strong upgrades with each level, and the level 4 Wild Magus is one of the best level 4 towers in the game. The Wild Magus' basic attack fires magical bolts at a very fast rate, with this attack increasing in damage the longer it's focused on the same enemy. This trait makes the Wild Magus the highest damage dealing tower in KR3, especially against bosses. Both of the Wild Magus' upgrades are also quite powerful, especially Eldritch Doom. Eldritch Doom is an instakill that also causes the enemy to explode; dealing significant AoE magic damage in a small radius around the target. In general, getting Eldritch Doom up to at least level 2 should be a priority before getting Ward Of Disruption, which can silence 1/3/6 targeted enemy spellcasters (see the KR wiki here[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]to see which enemies this affects). The level 4 High Elven Mage is perfectly alright for the cost, but isn't as strong as the Wild Magus, especially since it tends to often overkill weak targets; wasting its large damage potential.

The Melee Towers in KR3 are the strongest in the entire KR TD series. This is due to a combination of them having consistently strong upgrades with each level, very strong level 4 upgrades, very strong Star Upgrades, and KR3 being designed to be much less anti-melee overall compared to KR2. The level 4 Bladesingers are extremely strong (borderline overpowered when spammed in a chokepoint), primarily because their Perfect Parry upgrade gives them a 10/20/30% chance after taking damage (from any source) to become completely invincible for 2 seconds, whilst also spinning and dealing AoE True Damage to all enemies nearby. Their Blade Dance upgrade also gives them some decent crowd control damage. And their Edge Mastery upgrade makes them deal around double their base single-target DPS. The level 4 Forest Keepers are a strong support tower for the more durable and numerous Bladesingers, with their Circle Of Life upgrade allowing them to heal nearby allied ground units for a considerable amount of health (this should generally be prioritized first), their Eerie Gardener upgrade allowing them to summon vines that slow and damage groups of enemies, and their Ancient Oak Spear upgrade allowing them to throw spears at range that deal large amounts of True Damage. One of the best ways to block bosses indefinitely with Melee Towers in KR3 is to stack multiple groups of Bladesingers with Perfect Parry level 3 at a chokepoint and support them with Forest Keepers with Circle Of Life level 3. This makes the Bladesingers almost unkillable (except against The Beheader's instakill attack).

The Artillery/Druid Towers in KR3 are very underwhelming and are largely unnecessary to bother with on most levels. This is because their DPS is very limited, they have some of the smallest AoE in the entire series, their abilities take a long time to come off cooldown, their Star Upgrades are weak, and the Arcane Archers and Wild Magus towers both have decent competing AoE abilities of their own. That said, level 4 Weirdwood with the Clobber upgrade maxed is decent to get at a chokepoint, dealing good amounts of AoE True Damage every 14 seconds. On the flip side, its Fiery Nut (teehee) upgrade is very expensive and quite weak relative to its cost. The Arch-Druid Henge was probably my least-used level 4 tower in the entire game.

Most of the Special Towers in KR3 are strong for their price. One of the notable exceptions to this rule is the Awok Hut, which is usually a waste of money compared to the buffed Melee Towers in KR3 (except on the Iron Challenge on this level, where you pretty much need their ranged attack for the Hyenas). The faery dragons from the Faery Dragon Aerie are strong. You should immediately get two of them, and then later on upgrade their Harder Crystal ability. The Gnome Garden is good overall, you should immediately get 3 gnomes and then later upgrade their Total Mischief ability. The Dragon Nest/Ashbite is extremely powerful, and should be maxed ASAP. Ashbite essentially acts as a de facto secondary hero, with his rally range being massive and all of his upgrades being very strong. The Renegade Post on the final level is pretty weak compared to the buffed Melee Towers in KR3. I'd only upgrade it in the mid-late game when you have extra money, if at all. Their best ability is Life Stealer Strike, which you should prioritize getting to level 3 before investing in Blade Mail. Don't bother with their Double Daggers upgrade; their ranged attack deals next to no damage, and so doubling it is moot. The Bastion tower's Razor Stars upgrade is good for the price overall, especially if you block up the end of its path with Melee Tower units.

KR3 typical early-game strategy.

KR3 typical mid/late-game strategy.

KR3 Best Heroes Info: Wilbur is generally considered to be the best hero in KR3, with him being able to fly, deal very consistent True Damage at high speed with his basic attack, having some strong True Damage AoE abilities, and he has a very strong Hero Spell that deals True Damage. Most people consider Phoenix to be the second best hero in the game, as she can fly, deal lots of AoE True Damage with her abilities, all of her attacks deal True Damage, and she's immune to fire and poison damage. Catha is a surprisingly strong ground-based support hero, and likely the third best hero in KR3 overall. All of her attacks have a 20% chance to stun enemies for 0.5/1/1.5 seconds, she can spawn 2/3/4 clones of herself that can each block and stun enemies, she can heal allied ground units, and her Hero Spell has a massive AoE and puts all enemies to sleep for 3/4.5/6 seconds (including bosses, which are put to sleep for half as long). Vez'nan is a very strong all-around ground-based hero with strong abilities, a powerful Hero Spell, and he can even teleport around the map. Reg'son is a strong ground-based all-around hero with a very powerful instakilling Hero Spell (cannot target bosses) on a 50 second cooldown at max.

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance Summary Part 1

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance Changes Compared To KR3: 1) Reworked Tower Selection And Upgrade Mechanics. In KR4/Vengeance, instead of there being four towers with two level 4 upgrade path choices and two upgradeable abilities each, there are now 20 towers with one level 4 upgrade and three upgradeable abilities each, and you can choose up to 5 of these towers to equip to your 'Tower Deck'. You'll still only get 2-3 pre-selected towers in the Iron Challenges at max.

2) Tower Design Changes. Several towers no longer conform to a specific category. Some appear as standard Melee, Ranged, Artillery, or Magic; whereas some share attributes or have attributes previously never seen before.

3) Star Upgrade Changes. In KR4, Star Upgrades are now called Soul Upgrades, the upgrade paths are reworked (with one path featuring a split choice), and the upgrades themselves are changed again. The tower upgrade paths have been simplified due to the addition of many more towers; some of which don't fit into existing tower archetypes. And an all-new hero-specific upgrade path has been introduced.

4) Primary Spell Change. The Primary Spell has been changed to Soul Impact in KR4. It's overall notably much weaker than the Primary Spells featured in the previous three KR games, although it is better against large groups of weak enemies; due to the fact that it cools down faster for each successive enemy that it kills.

5) Hero Passive Skills. KR4 introduces passive skills for each hero. These can't be upgraded directly, although some heroes' passive skills improve as they level up.

6) Higher Tower Sell Value. Towers in KR4 return 70% of their value when sold, rather than 60% (+16.5% compared to KR 1-3). It's worth noting, however, that a glitch exists on the Steam version whereby any level 4 tower abilities purchased will not return any of their value when the tower is sold, even if the first wave hasn't yet been called.

7) Enemy Route Previews. In KR4, in addition to the wave preview icons showing the amount and type of each enemy that will attack from a given entrance, it also displays the route that those enemies will take. This is especially useful on linked multi-track levels, where on previous games you'd have to guess which paths the enemies would take.

8) Simplified Heroic And Iron Challenge Upgrades. In KR4, Heroic and Iron Challenges do not feature Soul Upgrade restrictions. They also do not reward Souls for completion, unlike the Stars in previous games. Due to these changes, these extra Challenges should optimally be saved until after you have maxed out your Soul Upgrades and have maxed some of the stronger heroes.

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance Summary Part 2

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance Strategy And Info: KR4 General And Towers Strategy: In KR4, there are a wide variety of different ways to build your Tower Deck. A lot of the towers in KR4 are strong and versatile. That said, the general rule that you should follow is to have at least one Melee/stalling-type Tower, one Ranged-type Tower, one Artillery/AoE-type Tower, and one Mage-type Tower. Your fifth tower selection can then be a more niche tower that compliments your build, such as a dedicated boss killer, for example. You want to ensure that you have a versatile selection of towers that can deal with both enemies with a high physical resistance and a high magical resistance effectively, as well as the many different flying enemies and high-health enemies in KR4. KR4 also notably continues the pro-Melee game design trend from KR3, with Melee not only being particularly strong in KR4, but a lot of offensive towers also additionally offer level 4 upgrades or passive abilities that give them stalling ground units; making them far more flexible.

Personally, my preferred KR4 towers are the ones that additionally feature bonus ground units in some capacity. For this reason, my favourite towers in KR4 are the Grim Cemetery/Orc Warriors Den (Melee Towers), Bone Flingers (versatile Ranged Tower with lots of ground unit-spawning upgrades at level 4), Melting Furnace (a true AoE Artillery Tower with a passive stunning effect on every regular attack, which can also directly buff the damage of nearby towers by 15/30% with one of its level 4 upgrades), Specters Mausoleum (a versatile Mage Tower that at level 4 has upgrades that spawn one/two tanky ground units and a possession ability that counters many of the large, powerful enemies in KR4), and the Blazing Gem/Orc Shaman/Wicked Sisters (Mage Towers with very high raw DPS and some very high-damage/instakilling abilities).

After doing a lot of testing, I found the best strategy in KR4 to be immediately filling all of the available Strategic Points on the map with level 1 Grim Cemeteries/Orc Warriors Dens, and then gradually selling and replacing them with damaging towers; which I'd then fully/mostly finish upgrading before placing down another and upgrading it fully. Filling the map with Grim Cemeteries/Orc Warriors Dens is particularly effective in KR4, as the game tends to be less spammy and anti-melee than KR1/KR2; and the massed low level Melee troops have a surprisingly high amount of combined health coupled with rapid respawn times (especially for the Grim Cemetery, which like the Necromancers in KR2 has a passive ability that causes humanoid enemies that die within their radius to immediately resurrect as regular/strong zombies (depending on the max health of the enemy), up to a maximum of 5 zombies per Cemetery). It also helps significantly that selling towers in KR4 is 16.5% more effective than it was in previous KR games. After filling the map with low level Melee Towers, I'll then often save up money and actively react to whatever the game throws at me. IE a Melting Furnace if the game sends massed enemies, a Bone Flingers/Specters Mausoleum if the game sends flying enemies or general ground enemies, a high-DPS Blazing Gem/Orc Shaman/Wicked Sisters Mage Tower if the game sends large enemies early on, etc. This KR4 strategy is very effective, as your low level Melee Towers will buy you lots of time to see what enemies the game is throwing at you, and then you can react accordingly in real-time with the right tower(s), whilst also managing your hero, spells, etc.

As a general rule, I'd try to put the Bone Flingers and/or Melting Furnace as close to the entrance of each track as possible, the high-DPS Blazing Gems/Orc Shamans/Wicked Sisters somewhere in the middle of the track, and then the Specters Mausoleums at the very end of each track to catch and clean up any stragglers that manage to make it through everything else.

In terms of level 4 tower upgrade priority, I'd usually prioritize Got Milk? for the Bone Flingers if I needed DPS for them ASAP, (IE if flying enemies/spellcasting enemies were coming), The Walking Dead for the Bone Flingers for more general stalling power, and then Summon Bonem last for some extra stalling power. For the Melting Furnace I'd usually prioritize Burning Fuel and then Red Hot Coal level 1/2 to increase its general AoE damage and/or stunning capabilities. Sometimes I would rush out Abrasive Heat level 2 for it first though, if it was buffing a high level high-DPS tower(s) and I needed the bonus single-target DPS over extra crowd control at the time. For Blazing Gem, I would prioritize Gem of Amplification if I needed more straight up DPS, or sometimes Unstable Power level 1/2 if I needed some extra AoE magic damage from the tower at the time. I'd get Destructo-Ray last and would only put 1 level into it in order to save money. For the Orc Shaman, I'd always prioritize Static Shock first and then Meteor Shower. Healing Roots is a pretty niche ability that you'd only get under certain circumstances, if at all. For the Wicked Sisters, I'd usually prioritize Froggification first, and only put one point into it in order to save money. If I was dealing with a lot of enemy spellcasters, I'd prioritize Hex Totem to shut down their casting ability. And if I needed extra reach for the Wicked Sisters to reach a chokepoint or another track, I'd get level 1/2 Nimbus 4000. And last but not least, for the Specters Mausoleum, I'd typically focus on getting Guardian Gargoyles up to level 2, and then get Possession. I'd usually leave Possession at level 1 in order to save money. Spectral Communion is a pretty niche and very expensive ability that is usually best left nonupgraded, as it doesn't affect the Mausoleum's general sustained DPS, and it often overkills the first weak enemy that enters the tower's range; wasting the effect of the upgrade.

There are also three special towers in KR4. The Troll Mercenaries is a special Melee Tower whose Troll Axe Hunters are strong and typically worth the price (especially in the Frozen Nightmare mini-campaign, where they're half price), having good damage, high health, high passive health regeneration, and a good ranged attack. The Spider Nest is a special tower that acts as a hybrid Melee/stalling tower. The spiders it creates will block enemies and respawn indefinitely when killed, and they even will oddly give you 4 gold when they're killed. You should max all of the Spider Nest's upgrades immediately, as they're cheap and quite useful. The third special tower is the Caravan, a manually-controlled tower that acts similar to Summon Goonies spell; spawning friendly Bandits, Raiders, and/or Marauders to block enemies on the track for 18 seconds. This special tower is best used in emergencies only, as the costs add up quickly. Its cheaper 'Small Pack' of thugs is also oddly more cost efficient than its more expensive 'Large Pack', despite the fact that there's seemingly no reason for this, as the Caravan has no cooldown on its summons.

KR4 typical early-game strategy.

KR4 typical late-game strategy.

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance Summary Part 3

KR4 Best Heroes Info: In KR4, Eiskalt is by far the strongest hero in the game, as well as the strongest hero in the entire Kingdom Rush TD series as a whole. With him being able to fly, move quickly, dealing large amounts of AoE True Damage with a passive slowing effect of 30% on most of his attacks, and his Ice Peaks ability summoning a number of icicles along the track that remove 30% of a non-boss enemy's max health each. Thus making him one of the best tanky enemy killing heroes, in addition to being one of the best crowd controlling heroes. However, Eiskalt's full potential is only unlocked when you keep his 'Permafrost' ability nonupgraded, as seen in the image below. This is because Permafrost deals no damage itself and only slows enemies slightly more than Eiskalt's basic attack. Yet it locks Eiskalt into a lengthy animation when it activates, during which he's not dealing massive Area of Effect damage to enemies with his regular attacks or using his other, much stronger abilities. Being a dragon hero, Eiskalt won't fire at enemies at all when those enemies are vertically above or below him. Thus in order to use him properly, you must position him slightly to the left or right of enemies that you want him to attack, either cardinally or diagonally. Used correctly, Eiskalt can single-handedly solo paths on Impossible difficulty all on his own.

Murglun is another extremely strong dragon hero in KR4, being comparable to Eiskalt in most regards. Beresad is another dragon hero in KR4, the third strongest hero overall. Dianyun, Doom Tank, and Mortemis are all roughly tied for the fourth best hero in KR4; each serving slightly different roles.

The strongest hero in the entire Kingdom Rush series. Note that Permafrost is intentionally left nonupgraded.

Helpful Links

In this section I'll provide you with some useful links of various kinds, as well as giving you a quick description of them.

Useful Informative Links

Kingdom Rush 1's page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. This wiki is updated regularly and has loads of info on every tower, level, enemy boss, etc, etc that you could ever need. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

The Towers page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Click on a tower to see more in-depth info on it. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

The Heroes page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Click on a hero to see more in-depth info on them. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

The Tower Damage Per Second (DPS) and gold per DPS efficiency page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki (note that these stats are only one part of a tower's capabilities and usefulness, with most benefits coming from a tower's level 4 upgrades and passive abilities). Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

The True Damage sources page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

The Afflictions page on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

Basic 'sequence strategy' guide for Kingdom Rush 1 on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

Generalist 'enemy mix strategy' guide for Kingdom Rush 1 on the Kingdom Rush Series community wiki. Find it here.[kingdomrushtd.fandom.com]

SpingPlays' video playlists page on Youtube (has very good max-difficulty video walkthroughs for the entire KR TD series). Find it here.

Voduke's exceptionally thorough Kingdom Rush TD series hero tier list and analysis video on Youtube. Find it here.

Kingdom Rush 1 helpful Steam achievement guide. Find it here.

Kingdom Rush 2/Frontiers helpful Steam achievement guide. Includes level-specific achievements being ordered by level number. Find it here.

Kingdom Rush 3/Origins helpful Steam achievement guide. Find it here.

Kingdom Rush 4/Vengeance helpful Steam achievement guide. Includes level-specific achievements being ordered by level number. Find it here.

Guide Conclusion

My Kingdom Rush 1 map, showing 100% completion of the game on Veteran Difficulty. Follow this guide and you'll get here too, soon enough.

Hopefully you found this guide useful! If I made any mistakes in this guide, or if you just want to tell me something, feel free to do so in the comments. If you enjoyed the guide and want to show your support, leave a rating and a favourite. If you want to check out other guides, workshop items, etc by me then check out my official Steam group here: \/\/ar Hawks

[QQMorePlease]

Sheesh dude, looks like you have put some solid effort into it, BIG +1!
and @Fat Cat marry me!

[WhiteCrow]

Amazing guide! Well written and executed. Favorited and awarded!

[Sooper]

very nice

[Fat Cat]

Great in depth guide. Links are useful and convenient, appreciate the effort!

[woodsWorld]

A very in-depth analysis, as expected from the Hawk

[Warhawk]

Hopefully you found this guide useful or interesting! If you did, feel free to leave a like, favourite, comment, etc. I put a lot of time and effort into this guide for the Steam Community.