Everything in one place: the basics, every tower and its specializations, all enemy types, both campaign acts and their twelve bosses, Ascension progression, Endless mode, and the strategy that separates a quick loss from a high-score run.
Enemies walk a fixed road toward your gate. Every one that reaches it costs a life. Your job is to turn that road into a killing field.
Place towers on empty ground beside the road. Each costs gold and starts covering its radius immediately.
Kill enemies to earn gold, then spend it on more towers or upgrades. Gold is the only resource during a run.
Click a tower to upgrade it or choose a specialization once it reaches the required level.
Cast spells when a wave breaks through — they are your recovery tools, not your opening move.
Cover both roads in Act II — Stages 8 and 10 split once, while Stage 12 splits and reunites twice.
Prepare for attrition — after every cleared campaign stage, deployed towers return to reserve one level lower. Level-1 towers are lost completely, even when aura-bound.
Survive the wave, then the boss at the end of each stage. Stage 6 unlocks Act II and Endless; clear all twelve stages to finish the campaign.
Pausing freezes the field — you can inspect towers, but you can't place new ones until you resume.
Kill combos — the hidden score multiplier
Every kill within 2.6 seconds of the last one extends your streak. The multiplier climbs as it grows: ×5 kills multiply score by 1.25, ×10 by 1.5, and ×20 by 2. Finishing a ×10 or longer streak grants bonus score on top.
A single enemy reaching the gate breaks the combo with no reward. Protecting your lives protects your score twice over.
Towers & upgrades
Five towers, each with two specializations that fork its role. Costs shown are the base build price before Ascension discounts.
Archer
90 gold · cheap starter
DMG 30RNG 1220.72sSingle
Fast, affordable, reliable. Your opening pick and the backbone of any early layout.
Rapid ShotMuch faster fire, slightly less damage — melts fast swarms.
Heavy Arrows+38% damage, a bit slower — punches through tanks.
Hunter
190 gold · long range
DMG 76RNG 1861.24sSingle
Longest reach in the game. Covers long lanes and picks off priority targets early.
Sniper+20% range, +25% damage — an elite killer for bosses.
TrackerFaster projectiles, +35% vs fast enemies — never misses runners.
Mage
235 gold · splash
DMG 54RNG 1561.08sSplash 52
Area damage that softens groups. Excellent against clustered waves and splitters.
Frost MageSlows enemies on hit — adds control to its splash.
Arc MageChains to a nearby target — more coverage per shot.
Bomb Tower
305 gold · heavy AoE
DMG 104RNG 1451.70sSplash 68
Slow but devastating burst. The strongest single hit and the best wave-clearer when placed on a choke.
DemolitionBigger splash and damage — clears dense packs.
Shock BombChance to stun on hit — control plus burst.
❄
Cryo
160 gold · unlock: 150 Crystals
DMG 22RNG 150Chill fieldBrittle
Low damage, huge value. Its chill field slows everything nearby and stacks Brittle, amplifying every other tower's damage.
GlacierDeeper chill, wider field — maximum slow.
ShatterMore Brittle per hit, +damage — amplifies your whole defense.
Upgrade values: each gold upgrade multiplies damage by ×1.40 (Bomb ×1.50), range by ×1.10, and attack speed by ×0.95 (faster), with the cost rising ×1.65 per level. Upgrades stay strong but no longer let a single maxed tower dominate — so keep expanding your coverage.
Adjacency bonuses — towers buff their neighbours
Towers placed next to each other grant passive bonuses. Clustering is not just about coverage — the right neighbour makes every tower in the pocket stronger.
Cast with Q, W and E, or click the buttons above the map, then click the target area.
Frost Nova — best for slowing a dense pack as it enters a kill zone.
Meteor Strike — strongest when enemies overlap, or a boss arrives with minions.
Chain Lightning — instant cleanup when several enemies are bunched together.
Holding spells for danger moments is almost always stronger than casting them on cooldown. Treat them as tools to prevent leaks and stabilize bad waves, not as damage you spend the moment it's available.
Enemy types
Every wave mixes enemies with readable combat traits. Break formations, prioritize support units, and keep hard control for dangerous phase changes.
Skeleton
Baseline HPMedium+20 gold
The standard foot soldier. Balanced and predictable — the yardstick every other enemy is measured against.
Runner
Low HPVery fast+16 gold
Pack Hunter: gains 16% speed near another Runner. Frost Nova and Cryo split the formation so tracking towers can finish it.
Tank
2× HPSlow+28 gold
Last Stand: below 40% HP it accelerates and resists slows. Stuns and freezes still stop it completely.
Armored
~1.5× HPSteady+26 gold
Bulwark: nearby allies take 18% less damage. Destroy the armored carrier first with magic, bombs, and Brittle.
Splitter
~1.3× HPMediumSplits
Appears from stage 3. Bursts into smaller enemies when killed — splash towers handle the fragments cleanly.
Cinder Skirmisher
Act IIFast+26 gold
Cinder Leap: below 55% HP it vaults ahead once, then keeps a 12% speed boost. Burst it down before the threshold or save hard control for the leap.
Hollow Binder
Act IISupport+30 gold
Tower Hex: disables a nearby tower for 2.2 seconds every seven seconds. Prioritize it before it reaches the center of your formation.
Ley Revenant
Act IIHeavy+34 gold
Ley Ward: enters with an 18% shield and restores a 24% ward once below 45% HP. Hunter focus and sustained damage prevent it from stalling the line.
In Endless, every non-boss enemy has double health, and health also climbs with each wave. Control tools — slows and Brittle — scale better than raw damage over a long run.
Bosses & their abilities
Every boss now fights through three phases. Phase changes are telegraphed for 1.2 seconds, giving you time to cast, reposition Varyn, or change target priority. In Endless, both bosses keep their own phase state.
Stage 1
Ancient Treant Skull
Forest · difficulty ×1.0
Root Grasp → Ancient Overgrowth — first snares one tower, then two. Keep overlapping kill zones.
Stage 2
Ruin Warden
Ruins · difficulty ×1.35
Warden Rage → Ruin Frenzy — two escalating speed surges. Hard control is strongest during the telegraph.
Stage 3
Grave Necromancer
Graveyard · difficulty ×1.7
Grave Call → Legion Rising — summons increasingly large Runner packs. Save splash damage for the adds.
Stage 4
Iron Castellan
Castle · difficulty ×2.15
Iron Bulwark → Last Bastion — gains two real damage-absorbing shields. Do not waste cooldowns into the telegraph.
Stage 5
Catacomb Devourer
Catacombs · difficulty ×2.55
Devourer's Hunger → Blood Feast — heals and accelerates twice. Layered control is essential.
Stage 6
Dark Portal Overlord
Dark Portal · difficulty ×3.0
Void Shell → Portal Breach — shields first, then opens the portal for a large Runner pack.
Stage 7
Commander Oren
The Broken Gate · difficulty ×3.35
Gatekeeper's Guard → The Last Command — breaks your burst with a shield, then accelerates for the final push.
Stage 8
Ash Shepherd
The Ashen Road · difficulty ×3.65
Ash Flock → Cinder Stampede — floods the road with reinforcements before entering a late rage.
Stage 9
Hollow Saint
The Hollow Village · difficulty ×3.95
Hollow Grasp → Lost Congregation — disables tower coverage, then summons a dense final congregation.
Stage 10
Iron Procession
The Sunken Crossing · difficulty ×4.25
Iron Screen → Forced March — absorbs the opening barrage and rushes the crossing at low health.
Stage 11
Leybound Titan
The First Flame · difficulty ×4.65
Ley Snare → Primordial Ward — locks key towers before raising its strongest damage-absorbing shell.
Stage 12
Lord Marshal Vael
The Field of Dawn · difficulty ×5.10
Marshal's Guard → The Final Order — demands shield discipline first and full control for the final rage.
Boss loot: every defeated boss secures one deterministic equipment item in your persistent Loot Cache. Open Inventory & Equipment with the Bag button or I, claim the reward, then equip it to Varyn. Equipment changes combat stats immediately, persists after reload, and can be removed without losing the item. Separate Campaign, Endless, and Daily pity counters guarantee a Rare after a short dry streak and an Epic after a longer one; duplicate rewards never advance the counters.
Ascension & Crystals
Every run — win or lose — earns Crystals. Spend them on permanent upgrades that carry into every future run, so you grow stronger the more you play. Progress saves locally and syncs to your account when signed in.
🔆 Radiance — raw firepower: more tower damage, faster attacks, extra range, empowered ley stones.
🛡 Bastion — economy and survival: bonus starting gold and lives, more gold per kill, stronger stage-clear healing.
🔮 Arcana — spells and drafts: shorter spell cooldowns, aura rerolls, more Crystals earned, wider boss aura choices.
❄ Special Towers — unlock Cryo (150 Crystals), then its four upgrades: Deep Frost (stronger chill), Glacial Reach (range & field), Frostbite (damage), Shatterpoint (extra Brittle) — each with four ranks at 300 / 600 / 1000 / 1600.
Node costs rise with each rank, so early attunements are cheap catch-up power, while the deepest upgrades — especially the Cryo tree — are long-term goals worth grinding toward.
Hero Skill Tree: Varyn earns one skill point for every level after Level 1. Open it with the Skills button or K, then build into Warden's Blade for attacks, Riftcaller for Rift Pulse, or Last Bastion for survival and mobility. Skill bonuses combine with equipment immediately. Respec requires a second confirmation and refunds every spent point without resetting hero XP or gear.
Endless mode
Endless unlocks after Act I at Stage 6 and remains available while you advance through Act II. It pits you against unlimited waves that scale forever.
Doubled enemy health — every non-boss mob has 2× HP, and health keeps rising each wave.
Boss pairs with a horde — every tenth wave sends two bosses, preceded by a full wave of mobs, not just the pair alone.
Rotating soundtrack — after each boss pair falls, the music rerolls to a random stage theme.
Fewer Crystals than campaign — Endless rewards are deliberately leaner, so it's about the score, not the farm.
Rankings runs — reach as high a wave as you can; your bonus score is submitted globally at game over.
Advanced strategy
Four habits separate a quick loss from a Rankings run.
Positioning — use route geometry, not random placement
The strongest layouts are built around repeated exposure. Place towers where enemies stay in range longest — around turns, along long lanes, and in overlapping coverage pockets. A mediocre tower in the right place usually beats a better tower placed badly. Let splash towers soften groups while longer-range towers finish priority targets before they cross the final third of the map.
Boss prep — plan waves before they start
Save gold before boss waves instead of making weak filler buys.
Favor high single-target uptime for bosses (Hunter → Sniper, upgraded Bomb).
Keep at least one spell ready as insurance against a surge or shield drop.
Upgrade proven towers instead of panic-building new ones.
Protect lives to preserve bonus score and future momentum.
Economy — upgrade efficiency wins long runs
Overspending on new towers too early is the classic mistake. Upgrades often create more value because they add damage to positions that already work. Expand only when coverage breaks down or a new route segment matters. In Endless, efficient gold conversion matters even more: stable waves create safer score submissions, better bonus accumulation, and room to exploit aura synergies later.
Endless — how to survive longer
Long runs are about discipline: keep a clean frontline, avoid unnecessary leaks, and treat every spell as a recovery tool for pressure spikes. If your layout only works while spells are up, it's too fragile. The simplest endless plan wins: stack reliable damage first, add splash for control, layer in Cryo's Brittle to amplify everything, and reinforce boss answers before greed takes over.
