Granted I spent a lot of time playing this game, it gets pretty simple once you get the hang of it. I played through the game twice--on my first playthrough, I maxed out all the skills, but by then you can brilliant any level with pretty much any combination of towers, so there was almost zero challenge.
For my second playthrough, I attempted a speedrun and was able to complete all 15 levels without failing or replaying any level. Also, by level 21, I was able to brilliant any stage. Here's how I did it:
My skill build: 1)Max the skill that gives you gold when you cast cut 2)Max "reduce cut mana cost" 3)Max "increase max mana" 4)Max mana regen rate 5)Max meteor damage 6)Max "reduce meteor mana cost" After this, I just put my points into the "reduce upgrade costs" of the different towers.
Gameplay tips and tricks: -I spent most my mana using cut to get gold. I very rarely used frenzy, it's really only necessary for those difficult champion bosses. -At entrances, place temples and upgrade them to do splash damage. This not only provides awesome dps (since the enemies are clumped), but works wonders for ninja waves because splash damage affects invisible ninjas. Basically, spam temples at the entrance if the terrain allows. -For those ninja bosses... METEOR METEOR METEOR. If you see a ninja boss coming up, save up your mana so you can meteor shower it to death. The ninjas bosses on the last few levels will take up to 5 meteors, so you'll need max mana for that. For those who say they can't cast quickly enough: turn off fast-foward, hold down shift, and use the circle to aim. It's really not that hard. -Imo, dens are the best damage dealers (other than splash temples at the entrance), so I got dens whenever I could. However, spamming one particular type of tower is not costworthy, so on most levels I have a fairly even distribution of types of towers.
I hope this post is allowed for this thread. I would make a more comprehensive guide for the walkthrough section, but I feel it's not really necessary because the strategy for this game is pretty one-dimensional (not to say it's not a well-made game). Hopefully this type of post is allowed in this thread, haha.
Also, if any was able to brilliant stages 14 and 15 at level 19 or earlier, I would like to know how they did it . Personally I don't think it's possible without extreme luck.
level 19 is the hardest - try to freeze or scare the last ninja-champion. Just build a single Freeze-tower (at highest level) at the entrance to make sure that's the tower that attacks it before he turns invisible. Pray that the ninja is scared or frozen and finish him off with the meteors...
I was having a tough time gaining 'brilliant' on levels 12 and 15. I tried everything but kept getting ninja'd at the end. I reread some of the above mentioned tips and came up with this: place grass huts and rock towers where the manna pools are; all other towers are scary ghost crypts. Whack down as many trees as it takes to upgrade as many towers as you can close to the entrances and the ninja is toast!
I really liked the game. My favourite tower was the Temple, I also liked the Crypt except for the fact that it needs to charge up for shots. I thought the Den was pretty cool, though. The game is sorta hard, because it's hard to go through the normal levels without losing at least one gem, but it's also sorta easy because you never usually lose all your gems.
Overall this is a fun, entertaining game. Some things that could/should be augmented for this game or the second installment:
1. The game needs to be longer. An easy fix even for the first version would be to add "Endurance" levels. One could use all 15 of the same levels, make them available once the first fifteen are beaten, and double, triple, or even quadruple the waves. Multiplying the waves after the game is beaten gives the gamer a chance to fully use that skill tree. As it is, there is no motivation to max it out once you've completed all 15 levels. Getting brilliant ratings is fun, but not fun enough to keep playing the same levels over and over just for the rating. Obviously if a 2nd installment is made, there will be new levels.
2. Add something to the skill tree or towers to deal with the large shadow soldiers. The gamer is able to kill the small ones easily as long as they have ample towers at the beginning of the trails [b]and at the end near the jewels to kill them near instantly. However, with the large shadow soldiers, it's only a matter of maxing out the meteor damage, mana capacity, and meteor cost. After that, it comes down to how fast you can click your mouse while targeting the shadow soldier. It's particularly difficult, because they have a much higher speed than any other giant enemies.
3. Hot Keys. The Cut, Double Fire Rate, and Meteor spells are far to tedious to single click for every use. The main reason being the situation in #2, and honestly, if the only fix for #2 was hot keys for the spells I think that would be enough.
4. Some sort of experience points multiplier/bonus. Maybe an icon that pops up randomly, or on certain levels. Or possibly behind the environment that one could use the cut down spell. That would encourage more towers to be built as well. On the same note, adding some achievements that added experience bonuses would be nice. Leveling up is not to difficult but once you reach the 20's or 30's, there are not really any payoffs for the gamer reaching that.
5. A create your own level option. That would solve several of the above problems, while adding some sweet levels.
6. Adding an levelable ability to the skill tree (at a very high level, say after 25-30) of being able to build a the tower mounds. It would be a great payoff for reaching a high level and make something like an endurance round, or harder 2nd playthrough much more interesting.
8. Lastly, being able to reset the entire skill tree would be extremely helpful.
That's about all I can come up with. I've spent a lot of time playing this and other tower games, and really do enjoy it. I would be really excited to play a revised version or 2nd game.
