Towers

Towers are used to protect the base from enemies. Each tower is effective against different types of enemies. Some towers provide debuffs (slow, stun etc.) on enemies that can impact the effectiveness of other towers.

There are 16 types of towers:

Name	Icon	Features
Basic		The simplest and cheapest of all, fires at single targets, copes well with Regular enemies, but does not scale well.
Sniper		Has a very long range and inflicts huge damage per shot, but attacks slowly. Needs extra time to aim at an enemy. Copes well with stronger single targets, but struggles with large groups.
Cannon		Has a small range, fires explosive projectiles that inflict damage on multiple targets.
Freezing		Does not deal damage, but slows down enemies in its radius. Increases effectiveness of other towers.
Antiair		Attacks only flying enemies, highly cost-efficient.
Splash		Fires a large number of projectiles in all directions, does not aim.
Blast		Deals damage to all enemies within attack radius and stuns them.
Multishot		Fires multiple projectiles per shot in an arc, suitable for moderate crowds of enemies.
Minigun		Attacks a single target with incredible fire rate. Attack speed accelerates when firing.
Venom		Deals initial damage and adds a poisoning effect to enemies that deals damage over time. Fires very slow projectiles.
Tesla		Attacks enemies with discharges of electricity. Discharges chain across enemies nearby, dealing less damage with each jump.
Missile		Fires missiles at a long distance with low attack speed. Rockets explode and damage all nearby enemies. Once fired, the projectiles will seek out enemies at any distance.
Flamethrower		Fires a short distance, constantly inflicts damage to enemies in a cone and sets them on fire.
Laser		Releases a beam that passes through the entire map and deals damage to the first enemy hit. Each shot needs to be charged.
Gauss		Consumes resources before firing a single, powerful shot that penetrates enemies. Does not aim on its own, requires manual targeting.
Crusher		Grabs nearby enemies off the road and holds them for a few seconds, constantly dealing damage to them. Can disorientate its targets to make them deal damage to other enemies.

After passing the training levels, only the Basic and Sniper towers are available. The other towers can be unlocked with the completion of levels.

Experience level

Towers gain experience by dealing damage to enemies, destroying enemies, or passively. When a certain amount of experience is reached, the level of the tower rises. The default maximum level a tower can reach is 4, which increases to 20 with full normal research. However, in endless mode, the maximum level a tower can reach is 100 (through research). It can be further increased via level-specific effects and cores, hardcapping at 256.

Towers can gain experience every second with certain research. The amount of XP gained per second depends on the current upgrade level of the tower, following the formula:

• [XP rate] = [max XP rate] ÷ 10 × [tower upgrade level]

The amount of experience earned can be increased by research or placing them on an experience tile.

When built, all towers begin with experience level of 1 and Upgrade Level of 0. The starting experience level can be increased with research (up to +3), the Master trophy (+1), and cores.

As experience level increases, the value of unique characteristics of the tower increases. At levels 11-20, tower also gets + 1% PWR, which increases all non-unique characteristics (except range) by 1%.

Upgrade Level

Towers can be upgraded using coins by selecting a tower. By upgrading the tower increases non-unique characteristics. Tower upgrades get more expensive with each level.

By default, all towers can be upgraded up to level 3. Research can increase this limit to 10. Upgrade level cannot be increased further by any means.

Selling Towers

Towers can be sold at anytime, unless disabled by Metaphor or enemies walking over them. 50% of the coins spent on towers (building and upgrading) will be given back to the player if done so. This amount can be increased through research or placing the tower on a sell refund tile.

Towers can be sold at full cost for 13 seconds after being placed, which is indicated by the green sell button. Once this time passes, the tower attacks anything, or is upgraded, the sell button will turn red, ending the grace period.

Tower Abilities

When the tower reaches levels 4 and 7, it can unlock one of 3 abilities that significantly affect the effectiveness of a tower (for example, for Basic Tower this can be extra attack speed, damage, or speed of rotation and shells).

When the tower reaches Level 10, it will automatically obtain its 4th ability.

When the tower reaches Level 20, it can unlock one of two abilities: their unique ultimate ability or the powerful ability, which multiplies their PWR by x1.1.

Tower Characteristics

All types of towers have certain characteristics (Range, Damage, Attack speed). In addition to usual characteristics, they have unique characteristics for their type (for example, the Sniper has the chance to inflict critical damage). Unique features are displayed in gold in the tower menu.

Most towers share these characteristics:

Range - The maximum distance (in tiles) the tower can attack enemies from.

Damage - The damage dealt to an enemy per hit or per second.

Attack Speed - The rate at which the tower attacks (in shots per second). Since the game runs at 30 frames per second, a tower cannot fire faster than 30 times per second. If the attack speed stat exceeds this limit, damage will be increased to compensate.

Projectile Speed - The speed (in tiles per second) at which the tower's projectiles move.

Rotation Speed - The speed (in degrees per second) at which the tower rotates to aim at enemies.

Power (PWR) - Increases all of the usual characteristics except range by 1% for each 1% PWR.

All towers possess Unique Characteristics, which vary between towers and can only be increased with experience level.

Tower Effectiveness

Tower damage against enemies

Damage Dealt = [Tower Damage] × [Effectiveness] × [Enemy Vulnerability]

	150%	100%	100%	100%	0%	0%	50%	100%	100%	150%	100%	25%	100%	25%	100%	150%
	100%	25%	150%	100%	0%	100%	50%	150%	50%	150%	25%	0%	100%	100%	25%	100%
	50%	150%	25%	100%	0%	50%	25%	0%	50%	100%	150%	100%	50%	100%	100%	50%
	0%	0%	0%	100%	150%	50%	0%	50%	100%	0%	50%	100%	0%	50%	0%	0%
	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%	50%	0%	50%	50%	0%	150%	25%	0%	150%	0%	0%
	25%	100%	50%	50%	0%	25%	150%	25%	150%	150%	0%	50%	25%	100%	150%	50%
	25%	100%	100%	100%	0%	50%	50%	25%	150%	100%	100%	100%	0%	150%	50%	100%
	150%	50%	100%	100%	0%	150%	25%	100%	50%	0%	100%	50%	150%	50%	50%	150%
	50%	25%	150%	50%	0%	150%	25%	100%	25%	50%	25%	150%	150%	0%	100%	50%
	25%	150%	50%	100%	0%	150%	50%	50%	0%	50%	0%	50%	150%	100%	150%	50%
	100%	25%	50%	100%	0%	100%	25%	150%	25%	100%	50%	150%	100%	25%	100%	150%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	50%	100%

Tower Targeting

Most towers can change their targeting method through 6 different options, which will change how they prioritize enemies to shoot. The default targeting is First.

Once the tower detects an enemy, the tower will rotate to them and will focus on them until the enemy leaves the tower's attack range, is killed, or reaches the base. The tower will then select a new target, depending on the targeting option, after a brief pause.

The SEARCH modifier allows the tower to keep on searching for new targets even when the current enemy is alive, this allows for faster target switching, even by a few frames.

First - Tower will target the enemy who is closer to the base. If there are multiple paths, the tower will target the enemy who has moved the furthest distance.

Last - Tower will target the enemy who is closer to the portal. If there are multiple paths, the tower will target the enemy who has moved the least distance.

Weakest -Tower will target the enemy who currently has the lowest health value.

Strongest - Tower will target the enemy who currently has the highest health value.

Nearest - Tower will target the closest enemy to itself.

Random - Tower will randomly select an enemy to target.