It may seem odd to say this, but remember that you can't get lost in the weeds picking buildings and upgrades that won't help play to the innate bonuses of your chosen commander.

You'll often find more powerful - but not necessarily useful - items in certain Reinforcement pairs late in the game. There'll be time enough to pick these with a different Commander later.

Warden Gerhard here helps your other towers by boosting their damage when in proximity to Miradors - even Neutral buildings benefit from this perk! (More on Neutral buildings later) Therefore, whatever setup you're going with should include a bunch of well-placed, centralized Miradors for maximum effect...that means not spreading things out over great distances.

Remember to pay attention to what your Commander's strengths are and choose your fighting grounds and upgrades accordingly.

If you've already read the Glossary to understand what the difference between a Battlefront and an Entry Point are, then you now need to set your expectations for how your pathing system will evolve for the rest of the game.

You can either try to funnel your paths together to form a central kill-zone or utilize the benefits of some Commander's and Doctrines' bonuses for having more active Entry Points and/or Battlefronts.

You absolutely must continue to follow this mindset or you will quickly lose the ability to control the alien hordes when they approach.

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Be aware that if you're relying on explosive weapons or any other devices that have area of effect that NOT EVERY ENEMY CAUGHT IN THE RADIUS WILL BE HIT.

These are capped at a certain number of enemies per attack within the radius, but this can be increased with any respective upgrades that mention +/- Target.

This applies to every AoE type, including:

• the Gravity Well's Slowdown pulses
  
• all bombs and explosive shells

Oh boy! With this new tile, you've found a Neutral Building!
Not that you could have known what it would be or where it would appear on the tile...

Getting use out of these is vital to saving you money and helping to build up your damage output.

Many of them increase your towers' attack range, meaning that even if you have to settle for placement at height 0, you will get to peek further for the same effect!

Whether you receive an Offensive, Defensive, or Economy Neutral Building and where it appears on a new tile is completely random. You only have the ability to influence the chance of receiving a building at all by increasing your Discovery stat with Commander perks or Doctrines.

Just like with choosing where to build your road tiles, and which to actually build (depending on your Recon budget) it is of vital importance to select your Reinforcement bonuses carefully.

These are also random, and will either consist of flat Supply and Recon gifts, new Doctrines, and/or new Blueprints.


Think carefully about picking large, but otherwise non-scaling rewards. How badly do you need money to upgrade your defenses or build a new tower?



Taking chances in this game is a good thing, because the worst you can get is nothing!


Always take an opportunity to give your HQ extra health and regeneration.
Taking damage in War Mode is guaranteed. What matters is that you rebuild to avoid being too exposed.

By default, you are told two waves in advance what enemies are going to continue showing up for the rest of the game. This can be increased to four or more waves earlier with perks and Doctrines, and is incredibly valuable knowledge for informing the positioning of all new buildings and future upgrades.

The enemies that show up on each wave and the final wave are chosen from the pot!

You may have fewer than average Shielded, Stealth or Flying enemies show up in a given wave, and this may build a false sense of confidence when moving upwards in difficulty!

Always balance what strengths your towers have so they don't get overwhelmed.


Try to get the most bang for your buck. Towers that lend themselves to fighting certain enemies or work to the advantage of the landscape can go more waves without upgrades than others!

Because you're always expanding, it's entirely possible your most useful Neutral Buildings will be well out of the way of your original defenses.

If you plan to take advantage of these buildings, or just want to utilize your weakest towers more effectively, play it cheap!!

In the end, all this planning may not be enough.

You could get one bad wave with enemies stacked on your weakest defenses...it wouldn't have been your fault.

You may never get the Blueprints or Doctrines you need to make the most of your build...also not your fault!

This game has many elements working on RNG, and that means your wits are not all what's needed to beat War mode.

Do your best, and your odds of winning are as high as they can be! :D

Playing with the Pargans is markedly easier because of their base Recon income, and the fact they can gain an additional Supply and Recon bonus at the very beginning in exchange for some Tech.


Notice how with Captain Milio space should be made near the HQ to amp up heavy cannonry and make the most of his perks. Because I knew I'd be banking on explosive weapons, I decided to path my way into a single choke point.

It also so happened that I was lucky enough to have space to build the Outpost extension further up in the path, which I made good use of as well.

Neutral buildings were plentiful this time around, so that's yet one more reason I had an easier time.