I like it that way, too. This is a fixed-position TD, so the way it works makes more sense, especially since these positions for “towers” are so close to each other.
Bloons TD lets you choose what sort of placement method you use. If it’s a huge problem, write the designers and ask for an option to toggle :)
Ok, after reading that I was supposed to play the maps on casual at first, this game went from crap to awesome. I also wasn’t spending points on my hero, I was just spending tokens on equipment.
You can also grind, if things are too tough… that coupled with getting xp even for failure makes the game very rewarding. Wow, what a great concept. And I hate tower defense.
That’s some dude somewhere whose niche is a Sean Connery impression for relatively low budget strategy games.
yes, I played it yesterday and thought… hm, funny, sounds like Sean Connery… now I have my confirmation!
(is the story worth following? I am on the second map and I want to skip the story, but I live in the fear of missing somethin important…) Can I skip the story completely?
So apparently I suck at defending chronicles, or chronicling defenders. One loading screen tip says that you should be able to beat every level up to Master without relying on a hero. Um, how do I beat the very first level on Master… even with a hero? Anyone done that? There are always too many of those tough orcs getting through.
I can’t beat any levels on master either. In fact, I still haven’t finished the new map, Siria, on novice.
To beat master levels without just brute forcing through them with a levelled-up kitted-out general, I suspect there’s a rigid build order you have to figure out. You’ll note if you buy the manuals, there are lots of specific numbers available for all the units. It even explains how some defenders can block some attackers, which I assumed was hard coded (it’s a matter of comparing units’ speed ratings). So I imagine you have to note the precise order of the waves and put some math to work.
-Tom
Ha ha, I’m awesome! None can stand before me! I mean, I managed to beat the first level on Master. The key is to place a wizard at the top level ASAP (so you need to have unlocked wizards, duh). Eventually I got a second wizard there, and otherwise the normal setup of a few warriors and archers. And a hobbit for fun but I don’t think he mattered very much.
Wizards are much better at killing armored enemies than warriors. They fire slowly and have a short range, though, so you need to put them right next to a warriors’ guild to pin any advancing heavies.
Wizards also got me a perfect score on the first two levels on casual. They are great against those dragonriders that start appearing on the second level – those can’t be blocked by warriors but they move slowly enough that the wizards can target them.
This game is the best tower defense game of all time. Of all time.
BUt this is coming from somebody who tire quickly from tower defense games and really don’t care at all for stuff like Fieldrunners.
I find this game hard, however. The small tips told me basically that Novice was for pussies, so I threestarred one map on Casual and was slaughtered on every subsequent one. Fliers seem to be my bane.
But I like it a lot and keep returning for more.
And I agree with Tom on the interface. It helps you not build the wrong hut or upgrading by accident.
Fieldrunners is terrible, if you want other flavors of TD games on the iPhone you should try the two GeoDefense games.
Also, as you already discovered the difficulty levels were apparently named by people who don’t speak English. You are really supposed to play every map on Novice at first.
Sorry, not really getting the love for it… I will say that I’m not a big fan of the subtype of maze TD that has only a few spots to put down towers/units.
My top iPhone TD games
ElementalMonster TD - The whole “deck” building aspect is great, and the game controls well and has a feature that every goddamned game should have - the ability to invert the color of the playing field so you can see better.
Sentinel/Sentinel 2 - Easily the best of all the TD games graphically, and it still manages to not gobble up the battery in a long play session. Well balanced difficulty and the sequel adds a secondary collection mechanic that lets you activate various powers to help yourself out of tight spots.
GeoDefense - Tower Defense + Crank.
The Creeps - Probably the most underrated of them all, excellent graphics and a huge variety of levels. Don’t be put off by the cutesy monster theme, it can be a brutal game until you get the hang of managing your towers so that you can clear off the map so you can put more towers down vs killing the crazy things that are running down the path. My only real complaint is the special powers usually involve tilting the iPhone around and making you look silly in public.
Is the consensus that Novice is the way to start? Somehow I believe this game will show up on my iPhone when I sync this morning.
Adree, I need to try that Elemental Monsters thing. Honestly, I’m not that big a fan of tower defense games, so what really pulls me into Defender Chronicles is the meta-game. It sounds like Elemental Monsters does that as well. But without that pull, I kind of shrug at even the best tower defense games. I can recognize the brilliance of Geo-Defense Swarm and still not be terribly interested in playing it.
Fuzzy, for maximum xp and tokens, I’d recommend playing on normal. Then drop back to novice when you start getting discouraged. I did fine on normal up until the last two levels.
-TomA full complement of units is advisable on any map – as I discovered, mages are crucial even on the first maps if you want a perfect win on Casual, or win at all on Master. So I would recommend blasting through all maps on Novice first until you get mages (and rangers and berserkers along the way), then go back and redo the first couple of maps properly.
You get a bonus if you don’t let any creeps past the gate, by the way, though I haven’t checked the numbers to see if a perfect win on Novice is worth more than an almost-defeat on Casual. In any case I like to go through the difficulty levels from the bottom up and score as many perfect wins as possible. Besides, I prefer learning a level through winning rather than losing…
Also, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THAT STUPID SHOP INTERFACE ARRRGH
I must have lost over 50 tokens because I dragged an item from my character to the blacksmith in order to sell it… then dragged the item in the same place, which I thought was the NEW item I wanted to buy, back on my character.
Turns out that when you sell an item, your OLD item replaces the one on the spot where you drag it, so I wasted enormous amounts of tokens selling and rebuying the same stuff!
Checked my log, and 3 stars on Casual are in fact worth far more than 3 stars on Novice (= perfect), so I guess going for the perfect win doesn’t really give you much benefit other than your own satisfaction.
In other Defender Chronicles news, I have now unlocked both the archmage and the mini-ogre. I’ve yet to use the archmage but the mini-ogre is awesome! Just as you would expect for that price (120 gold!). He can even go toe to toe with a real ogre (or golem), even though he’s mini.
And I unlocked Melwen which is a far and away better general than the General. The first weapon I got her at the elven shop shoots four (FOUR!) bolts of lightning! That should work out to the equivalent of a free archmage on every map, as opposed to the General who is little better than a free warrior.
And although DC might be the best tower defense game of all time, the mages surely have the worst voice-acting of all time. “My, what a pretty flower!” But I also checked the game credits to see who was voicing the advisor. Wouldn’t you know, it’s indeed George Ledoux who voiced a great many video games, including Majesty! Thank you, George, you’re awesome.
edit: It’s a mini-ogre, not a mini-golem!
Has anybody beaten Siria on Casual yet? Anyone. Level 64 Melwen here and I still keep getting my ass handed to me by wave 10. The one with all the gnolls and orcs and not enough troops. I’ve 5-starred every other map…
Any tips?
The Archmage is great. Good vs fast enemies, good vs armored enemies, good vs swarming enemies, good vs flying enemies. I don’t actually use the Mini-golem all that much, Berserkers can mostly do the same job.
And I unlocked Melwen which is a far and away better general than the General. The first weapon I got her at the elven shop shoots four (FOUR!) bolts of lightning!
And although DC might be the best tower defense game of all time, the
Yeah, I like the Mage goalie better than the Warrior goalie. Look for a Frost wand thingy, it does decent damage to multiple targets and also slows them.
For the Siria map:
I just concentrate on putting three Warrior units at the top of the map on the right hand slope, where the first waves come down, and powering them all up to level 4 as quickly as possible. Once they’re all level 4, I back them up with a mage on the next build spor down the slope, and power her up to level 3 or so. That combo should deal with everything including that early rock golem thing. A couple powered up Warrior huts are way more effective than the equivalent money’s worth of more Warrior huts at a lower level. Eventually those top three Warrior huts I built at the beginning are all level 3 Barbarians, backed up by the one level 5 Mage, and they stop pretty much everything. Occasionally a single unit will trickle through, but Melwen zaps it easily.
Between that top defense and the end of the map, do not put down any more Warriors. Instead, make it all mages, as many as can affect the events on the right hand slope (the left hand slope is much simpler and softer to defend. 2 Warrior 5s, a Mage 4, and a a singe Ranger hut should cover it fine. I digress).
Make the remainder of the right slope all Mages, as high level as you can manage, because eventually Toe-Rag will come and his irritating…Earthshaker or Thunder whosiwhatsis ability that shuts down all your huts will kick in when he’s stopped by a melee hut. If you let him walk through unmolested, a sufficient number of powerful mages will zap him to death. Oh, sometime along here you’ll have enough coin to stick the Archmage somewhere, I recommend just at the end near Melwyn. That worked for me.
I found the mini-ogres very useful - you only ever spend 120 gold on them. They level up automatically every 20th kill or so :)
They also one-shot orcs.
What halflings do is they get one gold for every kill they make. I find they are best used early in the level before your archers slaughter all the R1 infantry that are the only kind these little guys can fight. Depending on upgrades and items these little guys can be amazing and they nearly always earn back their cost from stolen gold alone, never mind the kills they make.
Don’t think of the extra gold they earn as paying for something else, instead get into the frame of mind that they are rather paying for themselves, its basically a free unit.
Halflings are also nice with the level 5 “share poison”. Put them somewhere up at the start where the creeps come in, drop two archers next to them, and every critter that comes onto the map gets poisoned.