Interesting strategy saving the “prime spots”, I didnt think about that before.

Another good hint is to manage your ice towers wisely. If you have a level 3 ice tower in the lowest prime spot, consider inserting a level 1 cheap ice tower on the very first square at the hell gate. The level 3 ice tower will certainly ice large groups down, but the ice tower will always focus on the monsters that have advanced the longest way up the trail. By keeping a short range 40% slowing ice tower in the first spot you avoid – or at least slow down – large groups that otherwise will avoid the level 3 ice tower. Sort of a “primer” for the major ice tower.

Eventually, of course, you need more than one level 3 ice tower.

The first one unfortunately is luck. If you have 4 or 5 monsters on top of each other, it’s virtually impossible to stop them, it’s an unfortunate part of the game I think that it just needs one level with a bit of bad luck and you lose.

The second is concentration. I realised that I shouldn’t be watching my monsters being killed, I should be watching the exit from hell. I am able to trust my towers to do their job, so I don’t need to watch them, but I do need to keep an eye on whether there are a large group of monsters on the way, in which case I need to pause the game and add a few more towers. I found that if I focussed on my towers killing the monsters, by the time I realised that I was about to be overwhelmed it was too late. So my advice is trust your towers and put your attention onto the exit from hell. A helpful way of building trust is to do the hard mode on classic to get a feel for the levels and what is the minimum requirement. This strategy is also good for saving the money, so you can build the minimum required towers, and then build more only if you need them. In this way you should be able to more regularly get into the later levels.

So onto my tower building strategy, I only build level 1 arrow towers on the first 7 levels, and don’t build in the 3 “prime” corners as I like to save these for ice towers later. So you can beat the hellbat on level 7 by using 18 evenly spaced level 1 arrow towers, so on average you need 3 per level (on some you might need to add 4 or maybe 5, but it just means you add fewer on the next level), except the firecats which I find can be beaten 95% of the time with the same towers as the previous demons level. I also try not to build directly next to the road to leave space for more powerful towers later on, with the exception of the 3 spaces that surround each “prime” corner. I usually have around 260 to 270 gold by now.

I then find that adding 3 more arrow towers and upgrading one of the best positioned ones to level 2 is enough to get past the next 2, and then add 2 evenly spaced bomb towers per level next to the road but not in the “prime” corners (again you need to be flexible, you might need to add more to clear a particular level, so just add fewer on the next levels) until the next firecats level, when you should add an ice tower in the first “prime” corner slot, so your first halo upgrade should be ice not interest. Bomb towers are good because you get the splash bonus damage. You should also upgrade a few arrow towers. I find this to be a tough level to pass without using a lot of gold. To beat the next devil, just upgrade your ice tower to level 2. You should have around 430 to 450 gold by now and you can upgrade your interest rate. I estimate that I can get to this point around 1 in 3 times using this strategy.

Over the next few levels, I add 4 more bomb towers, 2 more ice towers in the “prime” corners and gradually upgrade them to level 2 by the firecat level 20. You can sell a couple of arrow towers near the corners and put a couple of your new bomb towers there. On this level I also upgrade a bomb tower and a few arrow towers. This level I find incredibly annoying as the firecats are so fast if you get 3 or 4 on top of each other there’s not much you can do. I upgrade a few more arrow towers on the devil and hellbat level. By now I have around 950 gold, 11 level 1 arrow towers, 8 level 2 arrow towers, 9 level 1 bomb towers, 1 level 2 bomb tower, and 3 level 2 ice towers in the “prime” corner postions.

You might be able to get away with not building anything for the next few levels, but keep an eye on it, and if you do need to build, then start building level 1 magic towers in good positions near the corners. But don’t necessarily sell any towers as magic towers have a good range.

I would also add a few more ice towers up to level 27 and maybe upgrade some bomb towers. By now if you’re lucky you could have around 1700 – 2000 gold. But to beat level 28 you will probs need 3 level magic towers minimum so a lot of expenditure is required on this level. This is where I often fail. Its easy if you get a level 3 storm, but I prefer to use magic and get the interest upgrade before level 29.

After this it becomes much easier, the only thing I would note is that you need a few more level 2 magic towers to get past level 33 which is the demons who are resistant to bombs. After completing this level 33, I’ve never failed to go on and complete the game, as it definitely gets easier from here on. Get the storm upgrade and build a storm tower near one of your corners (but don’t sell your ice towers) to complete the level with 5 devils and try to keep your gold levels above 1000 at all times after this as you need the interest. Then keep upgrading and building more magic towers, get a couple more storm towers and build and upgrade your bomb and ice towers as well.

I hope this is helpful to everyone, remember the key points of concentrating on the exit to hell and being flexible on building new towers mid level.

Another thing I’ld like to add in regards to importance of arrow towers; you can “double stack” them along the path and they are still very effective although it looks like they are out of range. You can litter the path with towers and they don’t need to be immediately next to the path. Within the round of the CEO keep several almost every piece of the path would be double stacked with not-upgradeable towers. They key is, having four arrow towers per “upward”/horizontal square is very damaging and cheap.

Try this: Go to “Silverspoon” Hard and just put in 30 arrow towers along the path wherever you can insert them. See how many levels you get through before you get one bugger by (which just simulates sudden death).

Forget about earthquake, you will never have cash to upgrade it. I didnt use cannons, just wait until you can afford magic.

Also – the game depends heavily on how clustered the monsters are. The best stragegy will fail if the bastards come to close. This is particularily important in the early games before you can have several ice towers that slow everyone down.

Cash and ICE!

First round: Set an arrow tower in the top right corner and one in the middle tower ONLY (or anywhere else, but the corners are the prime spots). Play until you make it through. You will win in one in every six or so attempts.

Second round: Buy two more towers in good locations. Get a third if you need to (and don’t want to do round one too many times). After winning this round you should start accumulating credits.

Third round: Add three (or only two if you feel lucky) and hope for the best.

When getting two research points, upgrade interest rate.

Keep going on and add two or three arrow towers every time. Some time of course you get screwed and need to add more to the end to kill certain clusters of monsters.

Up until level 12 (or so, “The CEO”). Build either one water tower in the bottom corner and upgrade max or build two water towers with one upgrade. Upgrade two or max three arrow towers and hope for the best. You should be able to have 550 credits after this level is done. After the CEO your defences should be good enough to handle a couple of rounds without buying anything except whats listed in the paragrah below:

The level after the CEO gives you one research point. Get ICE. Replace your water tower with Ice and upgrade once, maybe twice. For a couple of rounds going forward, replace some arrow towers with ice if you can upgrade once. Don’t put Ice towers too close to eachother, they will not complement eachother.

As you go along, you need to get the magic tower and start replacing your arrow towers, but be careful, make sure you steadily reach over 1000 credits as you go along. Never buy stuff so you have less than 500 credits unless you are in one of the very last levels (of 43 total).

Finally, start deploying Storms, but only when you can afford to upgrade them fully. I ended the game with 5 fully upgraded when I finally won.