And so it begins...

I created this guide primarily because I wanted an easily searchable collection of game information that I could reference. Hope it helps others as well!

If you've already played through the game and just want to 100% the remaining content. I would recommend that you check out the 🏆 Achievements section as well as the 🧙‍♂️ Spell and 🆙 Skill Tier Lists to complement your goal.

The guide covers:

• 👟 How to Speedrun Ascension 0 to 10
  
• 🏆 Achievements
  
• ♜ The Rook
  
• 👤 Heroes
  
• 🛠️ Contraptions
  
• 🏯 Battle Towers
  
• 🧙‍♂️ Spell Tier List
  
• 🆙 Skill Tier List
  
• 📚 Bookshelf Upgrades
  
• 📖 Glossary

If you found the guide the useful, feel free to give it a like!

If you're looking for tips & tricks to speed through every ascension level, please check out my other guide here:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3390325496

Currently, there are 18 achievements in Defend the Rook. I've listed all 18 below by order of complexity as well as split them into 2 groups (individual achievements that have their own section and "🏆 Straightfoward Achievements", which are grouped together).

Specifically, the more conditions or preparation needed to achieve a certain achievement, the higher I've placed them. The assumption is that you've likely already obtained the straightforward achievements that occur through natural play and would like to see how to obtain the more conditional ones.

Feel free to use Ctrl+F to find the specific achievement that you're looking for.

Defeat Azasz and Jezebel in the final battle.

This achievement requires you to complete Ascension 10, which also means completing Ascensions 0 through 9 as well. While the completion condition is fairly straightforward, the method to do so does require a specific set-up.

You can read about it in detail here.

Cast 10 spells in the same round.

I would highly recommend that you complete Ascension 9 before attempting this achievement as it unlocks the ability to manually select your spell loadout.

1. Select the Sanctuary as your Rook unit.
   
2. Choose any of the following spells for each category tier. These spells are selected because they don't require specific requirements to activate (i.e. can only be used on an enemy or hero must be missing health) and are relatively useful.
   
   • Low Tier Spell
     
     • Stone Shield
       
     • Bolt of Speed
       
     • Sight Tracker
   • Mid Tier Spell
     
     • Invigorate
       
     • Weighty Blows
       
     • Static Shield
   • High Tier Spell
     
     • Shadow Clone
       
     • Duplication
       
     • Bloodlust
3. At this point you will be able to cast 9 spells (4 low tier, 3 mid tier, 1 high tier, and 1 free cast of any spell from the Sanctuary Rook). The last component you need is to obtain the sorcerer-only skill, "Recharger", which allows you to "Once per round, when the [Sorcerer] kills an enemy, refresh 1 charge of your Low Tier Spell." Getting this to drop for your chosen sorcerer class is purely RNG.
   
4. Once you obtain all the components needed, ensure that your sorcerer class has an enemy in range that they can kill, then cast all of your available spells in any order.
   
5. Then kill the enemy with your sorcerer class to gain a charge for your low tier spell.
   
6. Cast the chosen low tier spell to complete the achievement.

Have a Tower deal over 25 damage with a single attack.

You will need to first unlock the Sniper Tower and Hero's Banner contraptions. The Sniper Tower has base 15 Power and paired with 2 Hero's Banners will have a total of 21 Power. All we need to do is find a way to increase the power by +4 more.

This can be achieved with any of the following methods:

• At the start of every run, you get a random selection of possible Shop Upgrades for your towers. Common upgrades like "Charging Spells - For each turn the [Artillery Tower] doesn't shoot, gain +3 Temp Power to it's next attack." or "Consistent Spells - If the [Artillery Tower] destroys an enemy, it gains +5 Power and +1 Range on the next turn."
  
• Some of the lootable Hero Skills will provide power buffs to your towers, like "Start Up (warrior-only) - At the end of your turn, if you didn't attack, give adjacent towers +1 Damage Radius and +4 Temp Power at the start of the next turn."

I would recommend using the Shop Upgrade method as it's easier to check at the start of your run. Rather than hoping for specific Hero Skills to drop.

Defeat a boss with two of your heroes dead.

Not sure if this achievement had different conditional requirements in the past. But I can confirm that as of this guide creation the following simple method works.

1. Select your choice of unit loadouts but I would recommend picking up the Hero's Banner as your tool contraption.
   
2. Start an Ascension 0 run.
   
3. Place your Hero's Banners but no towers as we don't want to accidentally kill the boss.
   
4. Play the level as normal, keeping your units alive until the boss fight.
   
5. Once Azasz spawns, clear out his minions asap and leave him alive.
   
6. Use your heroes to whittle down his health until he can be oneshot by either your Rook or the hero you wish to survive.
   
7. Let Azasz kill two of your heroes (you can just skip turns, while he powers up and slaps your units) then finish him off for the achievement.

Destroy 8 or more enemies with a single attack or spell.

Simply, ensure that you have the high tier spell, "Static Storm", in your spell loadout. Then just fight a battle, which will spawn numerous low health enemies at once (higher Ascension levels will include Gem Touched buffs, which may push enemy health above 10, so go for lower Ascensions).

Map locations with enemies such as this include:

• The Mountains - Wolf
  
• Mushroom Glade - Sporeling
  
• Coral Pools - Anemone Leech

Remember you can also whittle down the health of some enemies to ensure they are within the damage range of Static Storm.

The sorcerer archetypes have access to many multi-hit skills, like "Blast Wave" or "Unlimited Power". If you decide to invest your loot rolls into this hero, you'll likely end up in a situation where the hero can clear an entire map by herself. However, this method is much more RNG dependent.

Destroy a boss on the first round they appear.

I would recommend attempting this on a Ascension 0 run against the first boss. Ensure that all of the spells you bring will increase your damage output. For example:

• Low Tier Spell
  
  • Zap
• Mid Tier Spell
  
  • Invigorate
    
  • Rockspear
    
  • Weighty Blows
    
  • Boulder Toss
• High Tier Spell
  
  • Shadow Clone
    
  • Bloodlust
    
  • Static Storm

Additionally, ensure that you bring both the Hero's Banner and Proximity Mine as your contraptions. This will further boost your overall damage.

Once the Azasz spawns, you can just traumatically unload everything onto him.

Have a unit have 25+ armor at the end of their turn.

You'll likely obtain this achievement through normal play as the warrior archetype has many ways to increase armor (both skills and exp. upgrades).

That said, you can be easily complete on Turn 1 of a run by taking advantage of temporary armor.

1. Select the Warrior class.
   
2. Select the Stone Shield (low tier) and Weighty Blows / Static Shield (mid tier) as your spells.
   
3. On turn 1 of your first battle, simple spend all the spell charges on the Warrior. This will result in the following armor calculation: Warrior base armor (8) + 4 Stone Shields (16) + 3 Weighty Blows (15) or 3 Static Shields (18). Putting you well above 25 armor.
   
4. Since Temp Armor expires at the start of your next turn, you'll be able to end your turn with 25+ armor.

The achievements grouped under this section are relatively self-explanatory and you'll have likely already obtained them through normal play.



Beat a run in under 20 minutes.

This achievement sounds harder than it actually is. Assuming that you're building your heroes correctly, you should be able to clear enemy waves on the turn they spawn or the next turn. Additionally, time spent between combat (i.e. navigating the shop, selecting the next map, etc.) counts as well. So try to be efficient when selecting your next steps.

If you are still having trouble obtaining this achievement. I recommend checking out my other guide asdfsafdsadfsadfs and use the meta build listed there.




Complete a run with 12 or more Rare upgrades.

Rare upgrades are denoted by orange/brown text and, funnily enough, they are indeed "rarer' than the higher rarity epic loot. There's a good chance that you won't get enough rare loot drops to complete this achievement in a single run. As such, we'll want to maximize the chances of getting rare loot by expanding the loot pool. This can be done by:

• Playing on at least Ascensions 8 as this will unlock the last of the loot modifiers.
  
• Purchasing the bookshelf upgrades to at least "Upgrade Heroes 8" and "Upgrade Contraptions 2". This will fully unlock all rare loot drops and introduce the Loot Courier mob in your runs.

Complete a run while only getting loot upgrades for one of your heroes.

Easily done on Ascension 0, just stack the loot drops on a single hero (I would recommend the sorcerer archetype as you'll be able to scale into map-wide clears) and finish the run.

Note that the hero Level Up upgrades (those that you spend XP on) must also be constrained to the chosen hero as well. Otherwise, the achievement will be voided.




Complete a run while ONLY taking Common upgrades when offered.

Common upgrades are denoted by blue text and makes up the vast majority of skills. Simply, pick the blue skills when offered, obtain the required epic (yellow) skills from boss defeats, and you'll be fine.

Note that, "common upgrades" only refers to the lootable hero skills you get from killing enemy waves and Loot Couriers. They do not include the Shop Upgrades for towers/contraptions nor Hero Level Ups, even though those upgrades have associated rarities.




Stun the same enemy with freeze traps twice.

Enemy behaviour is predictable as they will always make a beeline towards an available target. As such, all you need to do is place a single freeze trap on an enemy spawn, ensure that you have a single hero within the enemy's attack range, and place the remaining 2 traps around that hero.

Alternatively, it is possible to complete this achievement in the very first battle. Since, Round 1 enemy spawns are immediate, we cannot place a freeze trap on the usual telegraphed spawn point. As such, we need to be a bit creative.

1. Ensure that you have the low tier spell "Reposition - Teleport a hero or enemy next to the Rook" in your loadout.
   
2. Load up an Ascension 0 run.
   
3. Start the first battle on the Mountains map.
   
4. The Round 1 enemy spawns will likely be wolves (if its goblins, just make sure there are melee goblins).
   
5. Select the Reposition spell and hover (don't trigger the spell yet) over any wolf to see where the enemy will be repositioned to.
   
6. Place a freeze trap on the reposition location.
   
7. Use the Reposition spell on the wolf, which will drop it on top of the freeze trap.
   
8. Move your Rook away from the wolf so it is not adjacent to it anymore.
   
9. Move one hero towards the wolf leaving a single empty tile between them.
   
10. Place a freeze trap on that empty tile. Since, the wolf has the Hunter behaviour, it will take the shortest path to attack the closest hero.
    
11. Move the other two heroes away from the wolf so that only the single hero is the closest.
    
12. End your turns until the wolf triggers the second freeze trap.

Have a hero make an attack at 6 or more Range.

This achievement can be done immediately by using the low tier spell "Sight Tracker - Give a hero +2 Temp Range.

1. Start the first battle.
   
2. Use all Sight Tracker charges on a single hero, they will now have 8+ range.
   
3. Move your hero away from an enemy so that they are at 6+ tile range.
   
4. Attack the enemy in question.

Recover every book in your bookshelf.

The "books" referred to in the achievement are those part of the bookshelf upgrades, which are purchased with gems. There are 30 total book upgrades with a total cost of 47 gems. Gems are awarded by defeating bosses.




Have 3 Epic Loot upgrades on one hero in a run.

Epic loot (denoted by loot with yellow text; see screenshot above) is awarded from defeating bosses. As such, this achievement is guaranteed if you complete 3 consecutive boss battles and use all the epic loot drops on a single hero.




Unlock an alternate hero.

The easiest way to do this is simply spend 3 gems to reach the "Hero Upgrade 3" unlock in your bookshelf upgrades. This will unlock the Samurai class for your warrior archetype.




Complete a run.

Nothing to it, just complete a run, likely on Ascension 0.




Destroy an enemy wave on the first round they arrive.

You'll likely obtain this achievement during the tutorial.

As the Magister, you can summon 3 different hero archetypes to enforce your will.

Specifically, the 12 available hero classes are grouped under each of the the 3 archetypes with only one hero class able to be selected from each during a run.

• Warrior Archetype
  
  • Warrior
    
  • Samurai
    
  • Barbarian
    
  • Elven Commander
• Rogue Archetype
  
  • Rogue
    
  • Corsair
    
  • Ranger
    
  • Mercenary
• Sorcerer Archetype
  
  • Sorceress
    
  • Black Witch
    
  • Possessed Soul
    
  • Banshee

The Magister often makes use of his guile to craft various tricks to hamper his enemies or empower his allies. Contraptions come in 2 types; tools or traps. By default you have 2 tool charges and 3 trap charges to use each battle.

The Magister has the ability to craft towering structures to channel the might of his magics upon the battlefield. These battle towers can be grouped into 3 categories:

• Crystal Towers
  
  • Emerald Tower
    
  • Eight Gem Tower
    
  • Splitter Tower
• Artillery Towers
  
  • Cannon Tower
    
  • Sniper Tower
    
  • Mortar Tower
• Elemental Towers
  
  • Arcane Tower
    
  • Frostbolt Tower
    
  • Lightning Tower

Note: The above categories are colloquially labelled for convenience. As there are many in-game skills that affect towers by their specific group category.

Every available spell.

During every run, you will have access to 3 different spells to aid in your battles. Spells are selected randomly but, after completing Ascension 9, you are able to choose your spell selections manually without any RNG.

Spells come in 3 tiers with an associated number of uses per tier:

• Low Tier Spells have 4 charges.
  
• Mid Tier Spells have 3 charges.
  
• High Tier Spells have 1 charges.

I've collected all of the available spells in the following sections accompanied by my own personal ranking of them.

Who doesn't love loot?

Skills are obtained as randomized loot drops from defeating enemy waves, completing boss fights, and killing Loot Couriers.

They come in 3 three different rarities with an associated coloured text/border;

• Common (Blue)
  
• Rare (Orange/Brown)
  
• Epic (Yellow).

Additionally, skills are archetype-specific (i.e. skills intended for the warrior archetype will never appear for the sorcerer archetype).

In the following sections, I've collected all available skills, ranked them in a tier list from S to F, and added my personal opinions on each.

The War Room

In a dusty corner of the Magister's war room is a bookshelf full of upgrades that you can purchase with gems. You can obtain gems by defeating bosses in your attempted runs.

There are 3 categories of upgrades (i.e. heroes, contraptions, and spells) with 10 upgrades each. The total cost to unlock every single book is 47 gems.

Defend the Rook includes an in-game glossary, which has been reproduced here to allow for Ctrl+F searchability.

• 2024-12-25
  
  • Added details for the "All-in" achievement in the 🏆 Straightforward Achievements section.