The first 2-3 levels can give you a false sense of optimism that you can handle this game. The basic tutorial of put a grunt here & let him shoot seems easy at first glance. Then you see that there are 3 levels - easy, normal and hard for each map, but wait, there is expert once you finish hard!

You earn credits and the dizzying amount of things you can buy can be overwhelming and the money doesn't seem to buy very much.

OK, first things first - once you get past the first few levels where you actually have 4 different guys to bring into combat - and you're faced with 4-5 or more waves, it's important to note that the first 1-2 waves are the toughest. If you can get through those, it's typically smooth sailing. You can hit the fast forward button and kick back until the level is over. But those first few waves can be brutal.

So, knowing the first few waves are the toughest, you really need to be nimble and come up with some strategies that will work. I will give you some tips later, but this section is really just to reinforce that this TD game is different than others and the difficulty spike is the first few waves. It kind of makes sense if you think about it - if something is going to leak so you don't 3 star it, it's better to have that leak early so you can restart rather than invest 10-15 minutes and fail.

As this game has a lot going on, let's talk about supply.

Supply is the credits you have up in the upper left that you can either:

1. Buy ammo
2. Buy a new guy
3. Upgrade an existing guy

If you already have a guy on the battlefield and he's out of ammo, it's typically better to re-arm or upgrade him than to buy another guy - unless you have leaks where you need to put down a new guy to stop.

Note: Upgrade isn't evident right off the bat, see the upgrade section to understand how it's used.

Automatically reloading:

There are two ways to set guys to auto-reload. In the options and on the battlefield. I strongly recommend AGAINST setting in the options as choosing how and when to spend credits on a reload is a key part of the strategy of winning this game.

Instead, you may have front line guys that you want to reload automatically and back-line guys who you want to manually reload / ugprade.

On the battlefield - look for the little arrow on right right side of the screen. When you select a guy and press this arrow, you will get an option to auto-reload. THIS IS IMPERATIVE to use for your front line guys. There is simply too much going on in a map - and frequently you can't see the entire map and the see that the front line guys need to reload. So use this option right as you place guys down.

You need to pay attention to the rate that you're gaining / losing credits and decide when to set this option for other non-front line guys.

You can upgrade:

1. Guys
2. Guns during gameplay
3. Guys Guns

Upgrading Guys

You can spend credits upgrading guys - most guys have 31 levels to get all the perks and these are escalating in cost. The first few upgrades are definitely worth it, but you might want to buy the extra special crate instead to get better weapons. Upgrading a firing rate or magazine size doesn't help if your guns are crap.

Upgrading guns during gameplay

Over the course of the game you will get new guns for your guys. You need to look at the cost of supply for these and arrange them on each guy in an order of least expensive to most expensive.

This way you can put a guy down for cheap and then upgrade him later to use a more powerful and expensive gun.

You can only have 3, so try to have a range of cheap / moderate / expensive and prioritize legendary (blue) weapons.

Look at the power / supply cost for your weapons to select which to discard (recycle) or keep. When you get a new legendary you might want to re-examine the order in which you have your guns.

Upgrading your guys guns

Over the course of battle, different things will drop which you can click on and these "mats" can be used to ugprade your guns. It's a marginal upgrade, and I would only recommend doing this on legendary guns that you use frequently - so typically the "cheap" and "expensive" versions of the guns you have equipped your guys with.

There are 3 types of consumables. These are not optional. You will need to use these. Be liberal with them. Embrace them and your rounds will go much easier.

You should have a quantity of these on hand for every round. I like to have at least 20 mines, 5 explosive packs and 5 resupply drones at the beginning of each map. These can make things so much easier, you really need to utilize these.

1. Mines
2. Explosive packs
3. Resupply drones

Mines

Mines are awesome early game for weakening groups of enemies so your cheap guys can take them out. Just drag a mine into the group and let go. It will go off. No need to place it in front of them. It's better to drop them into the middle so you do damage to all the ones in it's area of affect. It's a way to save up $$, allowing you to upgrade an existing guy or place another guy without having to worry about leaks.

Mines are a safety net to keep leaks from getting out. I routinely line the exits with 2-3 mines each just as an insurance policy.

Explosive Packs

These are devastating against non-armored creeps. And absolutely necessary to win level 15.

These are a bit tough to time - they have a countdown timer of 5 seconds and timing it so you get everything is a bit touch & go, but with practice you'll get better.

The one thing you'll need to be careful of is they can blow things ahead - and out of range of your guys, so it's better to error on pushing them back instead of forward.

Resupply Drones

Resupply drones are awesome for reloading all your guys and not having to spend supply during the wave. The important thing to remember is that it doesn't matter how many guys you have, one drone will resupply ALL your guys on the battlefield.

To take advantage of this to the maximum, lay down / upgrade guys before deploying it. Because you'll get a free round of ammo, upgrading right before you deploy can give you the extra ammo you need.

Turn on auto-reload for your front line guys

When you first lay down the first few guys, I consider these the damage dealers & everything later is for mopping up. While you are looking over the map, responding to a new route for example, you can't be bothered with manually reloading. Click the arrow & set these guys to auto-reload.

Upgrade guns only when ammo is nearly depleted.

It makes no sense to throw away hard earned cash you paid for ammo. Wait to upgrade until a guy is almost out.

Turn off auto-resupply on guys you're planning on upgrading soon

Again, you're throwing away money because autosupply will reload when they're down to 3-4 ticks of ammo. Way too much.

Use shotguns to push the enemy back

Placements for shogtuns should always be facing the enemy directly so their shot pushes the creeps backwards. If you place shotguns to the side or in a corner, you're not getting all the benefit they can give you.

Lasers are your best friend.

Seriously, these guys are almost OP in how they can just shred not only armor, but health once you upgrade them to also take out health. Put lasers in the frontmost spot to take that armor off.

In later levelss (after level 13-5), you should be thinking of having a laser be the first guy you lay down.

Always upgrade "damage to health" and "damage to armor" first.

When upgrading your guys, most have an ability to do more damage to health and armor. Upgrade these to the maximum.

Only buy the most expensive crate and buy it often

Really, you're going to get kick ass guns, and a good set of consumables and any guns that are weaksauce, you can recycle for mats.

Sometimes you need to put a more powerful gun in the first spot

There are a few levels, particularly on hard / expert, where I needed to put a more expensive gun in the first spot so that I could up my damage on a first deployment. This is counter to the basic strategy I laid out earlier, but is necessary on a few levels.

It makes it more expensive - but you can look at your beginning supply & design a deployment to "just fit" that amount and frequently it is a more expensive gun on one of your guys.

Maximize your winnings by turning off auto-reload on the last wave.

One of the mechanics of the $$ you earn on a level is left over supply - eg, make more by not reloading on the last level.

My first playthrough, I focused on shotguns, slow, plasma and snipers. This works very well. On my 2nd playthough, I used shotguns, lasers, machine gunners and snipers. I actually thought the last was easier because you kill things as they come whereas the first playthrough with the cryo freeze, I would get these huge blobs and just use area damage to whittle down the blob. It took longer & frequently I'd have several waves all congealed together.

I give these examples to say there is probably a lot of combos that will work, it's a matter of finding what works for your playstyle.

Shotgun

Heavy damage dealer to groups, can shred armor on the group if you've upgraded that ability and the best is they actually push the creeps with their blast. You can position these so the blast pushes the creeps backwards!

Position them directly in front of the path - don't put them on the side or corners!

Machine Gun

High damage to a single target. Also great for putting at the end of the maze to catch the little fast maggots.

I typically put machine gunners 3rd down the line - after lasers & shotguns and at the end of the path.

Cryo / Flame-thrower

Cryo slows things down so you can do more damage, Flame thrower can eat through groups of small non-armored enemies.

I like to have cryo in the first position, flame-thrower in the 2nd position and my most powerful cryo in the last position.

Position these at corners to get the most impact.

Lasers

These are my new favorite class. With upgrades to damage health, they are a jack-of all trades that can really own the first 1-2 waves solely by themselves.

Position them at the beginning of the path.

Rockets

To be honest, I have never used these, so I don't have any strategies

Plasma

Huge damage dealers to groups. Particularly useful when paired with a cryo that freezes / slows groups so the plasma can damage more with each shot.

Crates are awesome. You should only buy the most expensive (far right) crate.

Do not bother with the other crates.

You want the legendary guns and the consummables. Recycle weapons that aren't good into mats to upgrade your guns.

Crates are so important that I would put them at the same priority as upgrading your guys. So for example the most expensive crate is $13K, so I like to save up $26K and use $13K to buy a crate and $13K I spread around on upgrading.

On each level there are red crates. They take quite a bit to destroy, but they have unique weapons (not legendary except for the final level) and you can sell them if nothing else.

It's kind of fun just to find them as they are in plain site, but sometimes can be a challenge to locate.