Anyone have tips on the hard mode? Not looking for a complete strategy, but some hints to get me further. Also, here's a general tip for the easy/medium levels: Once you have a fully upgraded light skeleton, upgrade it to a heavy skeleton as soon as you've collected 450 gold. Even the unupgraded heavy skeleton is *much* stronger than the fully upgraded light skeleton.
Top tip: Place archers BEHIND your other units, this way they can use their long range attack as long as possible before your other skeletons get wiped out. Never leave an archer on it's own, it will die.
Now that 1.0.1 is out the gold exploit is squashed and is it just me or is hard mode just a little bit...harder? Anyways about strategy. So far it seems the only way to get enough momentum going on hard mode is to focus all energy on the middle spawns. I feel like I'm doing pretty good through R5 with an L2 archer and 3xL2 sword but the turning point of this game is definitely R6-8. If you can survive past those you'll typically have enough cash and upgrades to start really cookin'. Problem is I haven't found a good strategy to consistently get me through R6 much less 7 & 8. When the margins of success are this razor-thin, it's as specific as putting your archer on this spawn instead of that spawn even if it's right next to it. One thing's for certain, the archers are absolutely the key to victory, don't think it's even possible with only melee units.
Ok yeah, spent more time with it and tried different variations and I pretty much found the sweet spot to win at hard. It's basically as has been said above as far as replacing your swords with axes and getting range attacks ASAP and focusing early efforts on the middle spawns. The difficulty lies in knowing when to place specific units and when exactly to upgrade them so you have enough gold for the critical moments during R6-8 and that I'll leave unmentioned as it's the whole fun of the game. However, the way I win it DK always takes some damage so I'd be interested to know of a strategy for hard where he stays 100% untouched. EDIT - ok got it all figured out now, DK no damage on hard. After finding the way to win on hard every time it'll be great to see how the random mode plays which should be coming in a few weeks.
I basically have done the same thing. Concentrate all units in the middle spawn area. archers in back, melee in front. A few more maps should change everything and would force us to vary strategy. Overall a good TD. A couple more units and maps and it would be top top notch. What I would really like to see, is upgrade paths for units as well. IE, bows can do area damage at level 3, or stronger single target damage. Might be interesting.
We fixed a bug where the skeletons were anticipating an attack, but the heroes had to get whacked once before doing battle. Now they anticipate an attack just as the skeletons do. And, yes it is a bit harder.
I am really having difficulty on hard...I usually fail at level 6, but if I don't, then I definitely fail at level 7. The problem for me seems to be figuring out when to upgrade and when to add archers. I wish I new the damage differences. Also, I never seem to be able to afford the heavy skeletons (they last much longer and their strikes do a little more damage). I will post a screenshot tonight if that helps.
Here are some screenshots. I have gotten closer, but I can't get past lvl 8. Deckard...apparently you are my only hope! Here are some different attempts and strategies. Screenshot 4 makes me feel like an idiot!
Ok you certainly have the right idea but in general you need to focus more energy on unit placement and your ranged attack. In some of the shots you posted I see a couple units placed that for the majority of any battle are just idle until the primaries die at which point a single unit is just fodder. Light skele's are only successful when they can surround the heroes, kill 'em quick and dash back for a bit of healing; the head on toe to toe stuff is for the heavies which come later. Tweak the light placement with that in mind and utilize that spawn in the corner that you currently have unoccupied. Remember the light skele backstab only works if they can get behind the melee rabble and stick 'em in the ribs so again surround and conquer is the mantra. Probably the biggest tip is that you need more arrow chuckers! You should have enough coin for 3xL1 archers and 3xL3 light skele's to tackle R8 and if placed very strategically, should get you past and into the deeper levels where the heavy skele's can start pounding heroes to dust.
This might be giving too much away but if you come back to this thread it's probably because you're still stuck anyway. If you can achieve this layout by R8 and work towards adding a 3rd archer you should be basking in glory from there on out.
to be honest once you get past level 8 the rest is easy. and not only does this game desperately need more...... it also now needs a fast forward button, its so slow with nothing to do for long stages my phone went out if i didn't just prod the screen. now going back to besiegement
Uhhhh....it has a fastforward button in the top bar. I think the game is great! By the way, I did get through after your text advice (I think mine was slightly different that yours, but it was the same idea, deckard). Thanks!
This is greatly improved in the next update which really should have been live by now (dev's any word on delays?) but hopefully very soon.
I beat Hard without healing or selling anything, and never upgrading swords to axes. (In fact, I've only ever used axes "for the heck of it" late in the game when I have cash and soldiers to spare. They seem useful when you have just one spawnpoint to defend two archers.) So now, to add my own challenges, I've tried running on Easy and seeing if I could win with just ONE type of skeleton. My results: * Swords only: I don't THINK it's possible. I can get pretty far and have L3 swords on every spawnpoint, but the heroes overwhelm me even so. I was doing near-constant King slowdowns (on the theory that it would give my units more time to heal) but still lost. I doubt it can be done. If it can be done, then it would be by spending excess gold to heal units early, instead of (or along with?) King powers. I didn't try that. * Archers only: yes, doable on Easy. You take a real beating through R3 because you don't have enough gold for any soldiers at all. But the tide turns and you can win without ever buying anything but an archer. Next I'll try on Medium. * Axes only: no. You can JUST barely buy ONE axeman before your King dies, but one lone axeman cannot save him. So then I lowered my standards: I'd allow swords at the beginning, and upgrade them to axes later. I tried limiting myself to just one sword, then two, then three... but I still can't make it. Maybe if I allow 4 swords early on. (And I have NOT allowed myself to upgrade the swords. Maybe if I allow myself some L2s it can be done with 3 or fewer swords.)
Damn, that's some impressive stuff AI. I am a HUGE DD fan and even I haven't tried those challenges. Very interesting. I'd have guessed immediately that it couldn't be done with axemen due to cost but I never would have thought you could do the whole map with just archers, even on easy. Admittedly (and the dev's would probably say so as well) the first map is more of a tutorial so the challenge is light. Don't be dismayed though, after my beta-test experience with the next map (Blood-Orb) the challenge is much more in line with seasoned players and I'm hoping the skill level continues to ramp up with each new map release.
