Hello all. I have seen several questions asking on the easiest way to gain experience to get all of the later goodies, but none have been answered satisfactorily. This is what I have discovered and decided to share what I worked out.

When I first played this level I discovered that it gives a rather large amount of experience for a very easy play-through, I decided to refine my method until I came up with this.

It is almost entirely effortless and hands-off, as well as very simple to setup. There is no maze making because this map has a prebuilt maze that can't be changed, the only things you can add are the towers next to the maze for damage.

It takes 15-20 minutes to run and only 1 wave that needs the player to kill a Super Heavy Armor Boss and 1 potential wave where a few Bobbleheads might slip through that will require the player to kill them manually.

It is ideal if you need to eat while gaining Exp, read a few chapters of a book while the hands-off waves are running, or just don't feel like having to do a difficult mission to get those next few levels for that tower/weapon/perk that you really want for your next story mission. This is not a setup built for excitement or being impressive to watch or play, it is built to run itself with minimal player interaction while granting a large amount of experience for a very small effort.

When done correctly and the player has taken no damage, the total experience gain is 8263. By not interacting and ensuring the no damage it taken, each wave you will gain Core Guardian(+5 xp), Immortal(+2 xp), and Untouchable(+5 xp) for a total of 120 bonus xp for 9 waves of hiding behind your towers and 1 wave of bombarding a Boss for an additional 10 xp before going right back behind your towers.

First things first, you MUST be at least level 15 to use this setup as that is the level that gives the Focus tower and that is the core of this setup. If you are only a few levels off, the map can be done without it but requires far more player interaction to complete. I personally used Scatter Lasers(lvl 13) in the center section on my first play through at level 14 and the map gave enough to bump me up to level 15 and this was also my first map that I used the Focus tower on.

Anyway, enough with getting distracted. On with the setup!

As a notice, this setup has been designed and tested by me in Solo play. I do not know how it will play with multiple players.

The first thing you will need to do is go into the map options and set the Game Mode to Easy Mode. This cuts the Lume HP in half and is what makes the setup work.

The map is in the Giant Trees, the third section of the game.

Select Train Station, the first map in Giant Trees.

For your character select Sweet Autumn. The REX and the burn DoT Sweet causes when she deals damage is ideal for the Boss you need to personally kill.

For your secondary weapon, choose the Battle Rifle. The high damage and high accuracy makes dealing with any Bobbleheads that slip past the Drone towers fairly easy to do, as well as making the Super Heavy Armor Boss very easy when combined with the REX.

For Towers choose the Amp, Focus, and Drone. You will have a 4th slot by this point but it is unneeded for this setup.

For Perks choose Engineer(+25% Tower damage when you are within 2 squares), Exposure Bullets(Target takes +15% damage from all sources when you damage it) and Hip Fire(You deal +40% damage, disables weakspot bonus)

This is what it should look like.


The Engineer perk is what makes it hands off. You just park yourself behind your towers while they get the 25% damage bonus for you being near them, which for a Focus tower is quite a large bonus.

To know if a tower is being boosted, look for the hexagonal blue highlight it gains when affected by the Engineer perk, as seen below.

Not Boosted


Boosted



Some Perks can be exchanged for others if you are higher level, this guide is setup for someone starting right at level 15.

Tinkerer(last 3 damage towers deal +30% damage) at lvl 22 looks like it could be a better bonus over Engineer's 25%, but it can only boost the last 3 towers where Engineer will boost 4 in my setup, as well as requiring you to sell and replace Focus towers when placing the Drone towers to ensure the boost stays on the towers that need it. Stick with Engineer for boosting your tower damage.

Exposure rounds should be exchanged for Fast Hands(Switching weapon while reloading gives you a 35% damage boost for 5 seconds. 3 seconds cooldown.) at level 24 and for Armor Shredder(Your shots ignore enemy armor.) at level 35. Steady Aim(Standing still increases damage by 5% every second while standing still. Max 50% damage increase.) at level 38 could also work, but will be less effective in this situation than Armor Shredder.

Place two Focus towers as seen below


Set the tower closest to the Lume spawn to target Lowest Health and the one near the bridge to target Largest Health. This is to ensure that at least one tower will target Runners and Brood Mothers by default.

Stand between the towers and start the wave. The Hoverer might get close enough to the 3 Explorers to damage them once but the Focus laser will kill it as it passes by.

Place one Focus tower between the two already placed and one more next to the 3 explorers underneath the bridge.



Leave the one below the bridge on default targetting and change the one in the middle to target Largest Health. Pump your remaining 100 resources into the middle Focus that you just placed. It won't upgrade it entirely, but it will increase the damage it deals greatly.

The explorers on the Northern path and on the bridge will be killed while taking out most of the Lumes from the North-East spawn, with North being up on the map. This is not a problem and is accounted for.

Place one more Focus tower on the corner of the ledge as seen below.



Set this newest Focus to target Closest. Pump the rest of your resources into the middle Focus, upgrading it to lvl 2 and partway to lvl 3.

This wave has the North-Eastern spawn 5 Rhinos after all the rest have spawned. If you wish to speed up the map time by a minute or two you can head up onto the bridge and run back along their path to kill them faster than they can make it to the towers. It is completely unneeded as they will make it and die to the towers on their own, but it's a decent amount of time just waiting for them to reach the towers themselves and since Rhino's never target the player you won't risk your bonus xp for finishing the wave unhurt.

Place 2 Drone towers as seen below to handle the Bobbleheads that spawn this wave and the next.



The lower Drone tower placement doesn't show as usable on the overhead map, but is able to be placed as shown. Just ensure they are on the corners of the two platforms to give complete coverage of the pathway.



These will take care of the Bobbleheads without any player involvement as in Easy Mode a level 1 Drone will kill a Bobblehead with a single drone. In this wave the Bobbleheads will come far enough apart that I haven't seen one slip past the Drones, so there is no need to pay extra attention to them.

Pump the remaining resources into the middle Focus tower. They won't be enough to bring it to level 3, but the damage boost will still help.

Finish upgrading the middle Focus to level 3 and then pump the remaining resources into the Focus closest to the bridge.


This wave has Bobbleheads spawn with Rhinos and I have seen up to 3 Bobbleheads slip past with bad timing allowing the Drones to target a Rhino or another Bobblehead right before one passes through their targeting area.

If this happens, jump down and stand below the bridge next to the three explorers. The Bobbleheads will come around and walk directly towards you, making for easy targetting with your Battle Rifle as well keeping you safe from the standard Lumes to preserve your Untouchable xp bonus.

There are no more Bobbleheads that will spawn in the map and it's time to face the Super Heavy Armor Boss. Sell the 2 Drones and use the resources to upgrades the Focus closest to the bridge to lvl 3 and the one set to Target Closest to lvl 2, as well as pumping the remaining resources into the lvl 2 Focus.

After that is finished, jump down and wait in the path as far from the North-East spawn as you can while still having Line-Of-Sight to the spawn itself, as shown below.



This where you will use the perks Exposure Bullets and Hip Fire. The Super Heavy Armor Boss has, as expected, very heavy armor(each hit is reduced by 450 damage) and its weak spots are very difficult to hit since they are on the inside of its forelegs. Hip Fire removes the bonus, and thus the need, for hitting the weak spot while giving a large damage bonus to help overcome the armor. The Exposure Bullets are just that much more damage after the first shot hits. If you are at least level 24 and wish to use this setup, exchange Exposure Bullets for Fast Hands for an even better bonus as you will be changing weapons quite often at this point and at level 35 exchange the perk for Armor Shredder to REALLY tear this Boss apart.

You might think that you would want to leave the Drone towers to help due to their ability to ignore armor, but they aren't needed to kill the boss and the resources are better used to upgrade your Focus towers which will lose their 25% boost because you are no longer near them.

As soon as you start the wave, move your reticle over the spawn to find where the boss is before you can even see it. This can allow for 3 extra rockets to hit it before it can even leave the spawn area itself. Killing this boss is very simple. Fire your 3 rockets into it, switch to the Battle Rifle and fire all of its ammo into it, switch back to the REX when you need to reload, and repeat until the Boss dies. If it begins to target its laser on you, just move out of the way while continuing to fire at it.

If you managed to get those first 3 rockets onto it before it left the spawn area, you will likely kill it before it can even fire a single shot. Sometimes one of the surviving Explorers will stun the boss which will make killing it before it can fire very easy.

Once the Boss goes down, wait for the Wave to finish and move back behind your towers, collecting an easy 10 bonus xp for dealing with the boss yourself.

From now on it's completely hands-off.

Upgrade the Target Closest Focus to level 3 and pump the remaining resources into the Target Lowest Health Focus.


Start the wave and watch the lasers reap them like wheat.

Upgrade the Target Lowest Health Focus to lvl 2 and almost lvl 3 with your remaining resources.


Watch the swarm fall and feel satisfaction with your efficient setup after getting a drink.

Upgrade the Target Lowest Health Focus to level 3 and place an Amp in the middle where it will boost all 4 Focus towers and pump your remaining resources into it. Pressing up close to the corner of the wall between the middle Focus and the Amp will allow you to keep boosting all 4 Focus towers with your Engineer perk.


The Amp allows the Focus towers to kill the swarm that much faster as the reason this map gives such high Experience is because it has a couple waves of massive swarms of Runners and Brood Mothers, both of which the Focus towers slaughter rapidly when boosted by both the Engineer perk and the Amp tower.

You may notice we have completely ignored the lower Focus tower as it is there to catch any Lumes that slip past due to bad timing.

Sometimes a Brood Mother or Runner will slip past even that, but the Explorers on the path will take care of them well before they reach the Core.

Upgrade the Amp to level 3 and pump your last 50 resources into it for another 1% boost.


Watch the lasers fly and enjoy your easy 8263 Experience. Repeat as many times as desired.

I hope this will help you as I know that sometimes you just want those next few levels for that nifty new thing and don't feel like working for it.

Or possibly you just want all of the things before advancing just to play around with everything and/or to follow other guides which tell you things you really won't have by that time like telling you to use the Drone Launcher on level 2-1 and then finding out that it is a level 29 weapon *grumblecomplainwhine*

Anyway, that's my Guide, I hope you enjoyed it!

Don't forget to rate if you liked the guide.