Tower Testing
Tower Testing is the core loop of the game. This is where you test the strength of your tower against a variety of enemies.
You'll only be able to say that you created the perfect tower if it can withstand any attacking force in any scenario imaginable.
Therefore, you have to test your tower in different regions against waves of different enemy types.
The tower gains experience by destroying attackers, with which modules installed inside the tower can be upgraded.
The tower used for the test will be replaced by a new one at the end of the test (round), and all experience won will be lost. But don't worry!
Testing also provides resources to unlock and upgrade modules in your town.
As soon as you build a workshop you will also have the option to change the blueprint for your tower and the installed modules.
Contents
Gameplay Loop
When you start a new round enemies will start approaching and attacking you from fixed locations.
Your tower will automatically retaliate against the attackers based on the modules installed in it.
Each time you destroy an enemy they will reward town resources and xp.
It is important to invest your xp to upgrade modules on the left side of the screen.
Eventually your tower will break and the round will be lost. (Nobody can start out perfect.)
Losing is part of the process of getting stronger. Now that you have gained some town resource you can upgrade the your modules inside the workshop.
For each round played you also gain some town xp.
When you reach a certain amount of xp your town will level up and you get a skillpoint which you can use to purchase skills that improve building's functionality and can be used for other upgrades after you progress farther into the game.
Upgrading Modules
There are two ways of upgrading your modules:
In Game
You gain xp for destroying enemies that can be used to improve your modules during that round. After a round is completed all modules reset back to the state they were in before the round was started.
In Workshop
Modules can be permanently upgraded inside the workshop.
This means that they start with a higher level when you start a new round.
Regions
Your tower needs to work in any environment and that's why you need to test the strength of your tower in different regions.
When you select a region, you will see a infographic displayed like the one above.
The percentage in the top left represents the amount of enemy hp at wave 100 compared to forest easy (2x hp at wave 100 being 200%). The square in the top right represents your highest wave.
Lastly the bar on the bottom represents the elements the enemies can be.
The region can be changed by clicking on the map preview seen below or by clicking the arrows to go to next/previous region:
Notice it says Region 1, there are 15 regions in total for you to unlock and test your tower in.
Beating a region on Easy Difficulty Normal Mode will unlock easy difficulty on the next region, medium difficulty on the current region, and unlock 3 new town assets
Each region has a variable amount of paths (in the above picture, there are 4 paths) and enemy types, and in the future there may be special rules and effects, secrets and more assets for your town.
Most notably, each region has a random chance to drop modules and a few modules that drop at set waves. The amount of modules that remain uncollected is represented by the module icon in the top left of the map preview. With the treasure map exotic skill from workshop you can click on the module icon to see chances as well
An effort should be made to collect these as they will increase your power and give you options for making better Blueprints.
Unlocking regions, collecting and upgrading modules will allow you to soft prestige. Soft prestige is done in the Military tab inside of the headquarters building.
Modes
Normal
The normal mode allows you to test your tower against the environment in the given region.
Once you complete 100 waves in this mode, you unlock the Challenge, Endless and Idle Mode for the given area as well as the normal mode for the next region. You also unlock the next Difficulty for the given region.
Endless
Same rules as the normal mode except there is no wave cap.
Challenge
Each region has 6 challenge levels, each having a special set of rules/restrictions that makes a round harder to beat. Each level requires the player to reach a certain wave. Upon completing the Level, rewards are given to the player. There is also a hardmode for challenges that has a doubled wave cap and disables all town boosts, if you beat it you get a skill point.
(In the game's current state, challenge mode is playable in the first two regions. You can unlock this mode in any other region but there will have no challenges available, until a future update.)
Idle
Measure your tower against 100 waves of enemies in Normal Mode or 60 seconds in Endless Mode to calculate your idle factor. Your idle factor is equal to the highest average resources/s from any run you have done on that region and difficulty.
While in Idle Mode, you gain resources/s equal to your idle factor, without having to test the tower against enemies. You cannot do anything else while doing this.
Sandbox
Sandbox can currently be unlocked on any region by beating the Impossible Difficulty in Normal Mode.
Currently sandbox mode has 2 customizable game-play options.
- The HP/damage scaling can be changed.
- Clicking on the elements will toggle which elements enemies can spawn as, if no elements are selected then by default every element will be enabled.
- You can change which enemy types spawn.
- You can limit the towers modules and change its stats.
- You can set a wave cap.
Sandbox mode has many more planned features that will be added in future versions of the game.
Difficulty
The difficulties control the rewards, and the strength of enemies.
Each difficulty has to be unlocked by beating the previous tier of difficulty, difficulty options have to be separately unlocked for each region.
Elemental resistances are increased in the higher difficulties.
On impossible, every element spawns regardless of what normally spawns in the region and every element has equal chance of showing up. This makes some regions easier on impossible since less enemies will be universal.
In the future, the difficulty might also influence certain rules regarding the gameplay or the environmental effects and bonuses.