Arc Project

**This is my personal view of the resell feature. Suggestion was made here. This may or may not coincide with opinions of the developers. Resell is intended as an option that offers a different play-style whereas interest upgrade was almost mandatory to be successful late game. There are stages when a player must spend a lot of minerals to avoid leaks because his build is weak against certain elements or abilities(Speed, Image etc). As conventional AP never encouraged selling element towers, his towers become over-efficient. Instead of sitting in his bank as reserve minerals milking additional interests, those towers become over-efficient until the strength of creeps catches up. By offering 100% refund upon selling, tower efficiency can be maintained to be lean so there's less overkill yet no leaks. Players who choose a more aggressive path can sell towers between wave intervals and rebuild them after interest tick over. This maneuver involves some risk because next wave may come pouring in unexpectedly. Pure Element Towers with limited range(Fire, Nature, Water, Earth and Periodic) also come into play. They can be sold then rebuilt to catch up with creeps for constant damage. Players can choose not to utilize resell upgrade just like skipping water element in favor of fire. Since this frees up 1-2 element slots, this opens up possibilities for a more lean hybrid build that can take care of multiple element/ability. Example: A tier-two 3 element tower like Comet costs 5000 minerals. On Very Hard difficulty with 2% interest, selling 4 comet towers before an interest tick-over yields 400 minerals. 400 again if other players are taking longer to complete the wave. Those extra minerals will sit in reserve and keep rolling in additional interests for the remainder of the game. Hmm. How big of a difference in networth did reselling make? I wonder if it's possible now to come up with a non resell build that can efficiently clear through waves of creeps.

Tried the resell feature on VH AP. It kept me on my toes till the very end trying to come up with good tower combination for the next wave. I messed up at wave 59, Ultralisks(Earth) against a bunch of Hail Towers(Light) and lost about 20 lives. lol. Ended up with 85 pts. Not much but I felt I earned all the minerals I piled up at the end. Somewhere between 100k~200k, I can't remember >.> I see more ppl talking about strategies in game. The experience feature is encouraging ppl to play a few more games also, I figure.

Thank you! My early game improved a lot after reading this guide. The section about different use of grenade and ray towers was particularly enlightening. Thumbs up

Yup, confirmed. Random Very Hard can be cleared by just spamming and reselling fire towers each wave. For water waves, just double the number of towers. For nature waves, cut the number of towers in half. Sell, rebuild then rinse and repeat. Also sell pure fire towers not firing and upgrade another tower in hot spot to Pure. Managed grand total of 3 fruit kills lol

ETD v0.83 It might be just me but i still have trouble finding the optimum spot to build this. Creeps just slip past its radius with minor to no damage. I wish the tower's orbit radius could be set shorter or the projectiles' hit box widened or both.

On website's creep section, creeps with ability to create images of themselves are described to have "Normal" ability. e.g Jade Ray(23) and Ghost(38) I believe it's supposed to be "Image"?

Hello I tend to disagree that fire towers are underpowered. If placed on 2 pass positions, fire towers are very cost effective through out the game. In fact, I believe fire tower is the strongest of all elements when massed. I almost finished a random very hard game by just spamming fire towers. My computer crashed when I was about to fill the map with them. /grumble Judging by the networth and wave number, all I had to do for the rest of 3 waves was keep adding more fire towers. I don't think other single element tower can even do that. Light/Darkness combo is mean especially with clone towers. Water/Earth/Nature does feel a little lackluster indeed.

A test build order for Very Hard AP. Refundlvl1 Refundlvl2 DWNL DWN L L This gives by 30th wave: - Flooding Tower(Water) - Hail Tower(Light) - Obliteration Tower(Darkness) Three of arguably the best dps towers. Because of 100% refund, they become completely interchangeable for each wave. Also: - Clone/Spring Towers(Tier 2) for buffs. - Pure Light Tower x 2 by wave 55 Pros: - Players can mass one of the three dps towers to inflict double damage on many waves while eliminating the chance of doing reduced damage. - Mix and match them for other waves like composite creeps. - Sell off towers while waiting for a new wave to arrive to get more interests. - Unlike in random mode, there's no need to wait for planets to align themselves for lucky element spawns. Cons: - Giving up 2 element choices. - Shaky Early game because element picks are delayed until 15th wave. - Shaky Middle game around 40-45th wave having to fend off with just tier 1 three element towers. Of course this is hypothetical. Many other possible variations. What do you think?

I have been playing a lot of random games lately. I recently made a transition from normal difficulty to hard, then onto very hard. Hard difficulty, seems to me, is easier than normal difficulty. The increase in interest rate more than makes up for the increased HP and damage reduction incurred. On some occasions I ended up with 600k+ minerals which is a few times larger than my average networth on normal difficulty playing random. It feels like the new sweet spot for income farming right now. Very Hard difficulty feels more in line in terms of challenge offered. Anyone had similar experiences?

After checking out the new sweet change builder feature, I got an extra SCV off selling a grenade tower at 4:44 mark. Replay attached. Funny thing is, I played horrid trying to use 2 builders at once ETD 0.83 2 builders bug 4min44sec.SC2Replay

Summary so far(skip if you have read the posts above): The proposed change is: - Take out the early generic gameplay involving composite towers and get right into using Element Towers like the map name suggests.(I agree) Because: - It gets repetitive and fall into the same play style everytime.(I agree) But this change will pose problems as pointed out already by forum regulars: - This may cause over-simplification in game-play to a point, seasoned players will find the game boring.(Higgsboson and others). Interest-Reselling is a technique used extensively to gain edge over other players. Without it, Element TD is basically a low APM Tower defense with simple build order and placement(Squad TD??) - Reselling is REQUIRED to play through Hard/Very Hard difficulties.(Megadramon). The amount of minerals gained from killing creeps alone are not enough. That's a good thing IMO. I like the concept of getting right down to the business. I am assuming composite towers still come into play somewhat and game starts from lvl 5-10ish. Suggestions: - As Vyce663 stated, get rid of interest upgrade altogether. We are pigeon-holed into taking this upgrade because it is too good. - Replace it with an upgrade that let you sell element towers for 100% refund. W..Wait! Please hear me out. Consider that players with random option already enjoy this benefit. Naturally, they will get this upgrade for free at start. Why?: - Skilled Players can continue with early reselling, this time, using Element Towers! Clever selection of elements and quick-thinking will net you with extra income at a cost of 1 element choice. - Players who wish to play more conventional all-pick may do so with a wider variety of elements to choose from. - No more bullshit interest upgrade at level 55 for random players - These changes offer a choice in playstyle for all pick mode. Honestly, reselling/adding element towers to optimize cost performance is what makes random mode so dynamic and fun! Why can't AP players have a bit of fun too? p.s Why so much hate on interest hoarding? It's one of the reasons ETD is so unique from the rest.

I did not save whatever error message came up after the crash. Perhaps I did not get one at all When I have some spare time I will try to replicate the crash.

LOL. Silly me. Tsunami is the Chuck Norris of ETD. It can crash the entire game with its round-house kick douse ability. Here's the spec. This one's a few years old. Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium Version: 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 build 6001 System Model: Dell XPS720 Processor: Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz、2666 Mhz BIOS Version: Dell Inc. A04, 2007/12/04 Locale: Japan Total Physical Memory (RAM): 2.00 GB Total Virtual Memory: 4.23 GB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX USB Keyboard/Mouse 320G Hard Disc Space

Windows Vista 32 bit Service Pack 1

Just as the title says. My friend and I have low-medium end computers. We have been experimenting with Tsunami towers with Well combo. Both of us have never seen the fruit level with this build because at around when we get both towers(w/e the lvl of upgrades), frame rate drops significantly. At some point around lvl 30-50, game crushed. It's happened 3 times for each. I am not entirely convinced what is causing the crush. The last time it crushed, I pressed Tsunami's special ability with well tower buff on.

Just got done some more runs on AP normal pub games. 337 kills Poison/Disease/Flooding/Pure Darkness $$ NWL NWL NW P (v0.78. Poison for AoE. Disease for Single dps. Flooding for finisher. Darkness sub DPS. Worked Surprisingly well. 750k networth) 214 kills Infrared/Disease/Jinx/Pure Nature $$ NF NF NF DDD (v0.78. Infrared to take down hp, Disease for finisher, Jinx for dmg amplification, Nature sub DPS. 440k networth ) 198 kills Vapor/Well/Pure Fire $$ FW FW FW NNN (v0.78. Vapor tower is another under-utilized tower which can farm like a boss. Fire sub DPS. No celerity tower. 890k networth.) 152 kills Quake/Barb/Hex/Flame Spewer/Pure Fire $$ FNE FNE DD F (v0.78. Abusing Quake 50% proc chance to farm. medium lag. 1million networth) Not Completed Torrent Tower crushed on me yet again v0.78. Any networth beyond 500k for 3 element tower combo or beyond 400k for 2 element tower combo are just unspent minerals. It seems it has become easy to hit the saturation point with many viable builds. While some lesser builds still struggle to complete even normal difficulty, perhaps a slight nerf in interest is in order?

Hello! Are you sure up to 900 fruit kills that you reported is indeed kills not points? Because the game determines the winner in points not in kills now. The number 900 also seems more in line with other builds if it were converted into points. If you are playing in Normal difficulty, 1 fruit kill is worth 3 points so 300 kills equals 900 points. The growth of fruit is capped at 350th kill when they receive 12 movement speed and a ridiculous amount of health. If your build can withstand fruit kills beyond say 450, it should be able to withstand waves of fruits indefinitely. I have attached some of screenshots I tried on Magnify+Forge combo earlier.

This build is interesting. I was hoping to get some runs earlier but it seems haste tower is bugged as of v0.77. Also polar tower dmg got nerfed but this shouldn't affect the build too much i guess. What got me thinking was, what happens to creeps with less than 30% hp if they get hit by a polar tower? (hit a creep with the debuff once, let it run out then hit them again as they are about to exit) Are they killed instantly? This sounds too good to be true but if that is the case, polar tower can be the best finishing tower if placed right. I will investigate UPDATE: never mind what I just wrote. The 30% health reduction is for the current HP not the MAX health so it will not work like I just described above. The quake tower proc chance is 50% now so they seem like a really good option.

Hello! I have been trying out different builds for fun on normal difficulties all pick games. Here's the list of how each build performed on fruit level(but I realize that those numbers are not the true presentation of their potentials). As you can see, these builds revolve around hording interest from early on and picking a main dps tower. I would appreciate some feedbacks. Sorry about the messy format 394 kills Haste/Forge $$ EFW EFW EF P (DPS peaks at fruit level as it is continuous) 343 kills Magnify/Forge/Pure Fire $$ DF DF DF EEE (Micro Heavy, pre nerf 150dmg->140. Post Nerf 340kills) 337 kills Poison/Disease/Flooding/Pure Darkness $$ NWL NWL NW P (v0.78. Poison for AoE. Disease for Single dps. Flooding for finisher. Darkness sub DPS. Worked Surprisingly well. 750k networth) 273 kills Hail/3 Ele towers $$ LDW LDW EE D (Easy mid game. Mass hail towers lag) 221 kills Laser/Barb/Pure Nature $$ LDE LDE NN N (Post buff. Laser's weakened target option clears faster. Barb different tier debuff stacks for 40% slow*FIXED) 214 kills Infrared/Disease/Jinx/Pure Nature $$ NF NF NF DDD (v0.78. Infrared to take down hp, Disease for finisher, Jinx for dmg amplification, Nature sub DPS. 440k networth ) 198 kills Vapor/Well/Pure Fire $$ FW FW FW NNN (v0.78. Vapor tower is another under-utilized tower which can farm like a boss. Fire sub DPS. No celerity tower. 890k networth.) 184 kills Mildew/Forge $$ NE EN EN FFF (The uber build. I must be getting better kills with this) 176 kills Celerity/Well $$ FNW FNW NW P (Post buff. v0.74. needs micro to be effective) 152 kills Quake/Barb/Hex/Flame Spewer/Pure Fire $$ FNE FNE DD F (v0.78. Abusing Quake 50% proc chance to farm. medium lag. 1million networth) 152 kills Nova/Infra/Nature $$ NFL NFL NF P (Post infrared nerf) 143 kills Cannon/Forge $$ DE DE DE FFF (Effective AoE. Not so good at killing fruits. Slow Projectile) 138 kills Life $$ LN LN LN DDD (180ish lives at lvl60. seems to struggle around 45-55 before pure towers on pub) 130 kills Quark/Forge/Earth/Elec $$ LE LE LE FFF (Quark fast rotation seems more effective. Visually pleasing) 116 kills Obliteration $$ LDN LDN LD P (The popular LDN build. Pre-nerf to obliteration. I must try LDNE later) 88 kills Ephemeral/Well $$ WNE WNE WE P (Post nerf. Performs well on easy waves but struggles on challenging waves which defeats its purpose as main dps) 76 kills Ice/Well $$ LW LW LW NNN (Projectile too slow to track a single target) 59 kills Light/Dark/Trickery $$ LD LD LD P P (1 unspent element. Abusing Trickery towers with single element towers. 8 pure towers with clones) 53 kills Poison Tower Spam No Record (Clears waves surprisingly fast. Don't have build order. One of my early attempts. Pre Nerf) 49 kills Electricity/Forge $$ LF LF LF EEE (Not enough single-target dps) 25 kills Drowning/Well $$ WND WND WN P (Drowning instant kill ability does not work well against fruits due to their massive health. Pun not intended.) 23 kills Money Tower $$ LFE LFE NWD (My attempt at uber mineral farm build. 210k networth. Other builds can stockpile more minerals) 18 kills Slow stacking NEDW NEDW L F P (Barb/Spike/Muck for triple slow*FIXED. Funny to watch but tends to get multiple waves at once due to lack of dps/slow. Periodicx3) Not Completed Tsunami/Well/Nature $$ NWL NWL NW P (v0.78. AoE fun. Crushed the game on 3 occasions mid game) What do you guys think? Am I underachieving with some builds? Other builds I haven't tried yet?

Good points. Those Earth towers needs to be replaced. In theory, one forge tower can support up to 4 towers with 15 seconds cool down. It takes 45 seconds of continuous firing to reach its maximum dps with no manual casting. My attempt at optimizing tower placement: H = Haster tower F = Forge X = Empty Space One building block looks like this: HHX HFH Then adding on: HFH XHH Yields: HHHFH HFHHH and so forth. HHHFHHHHFH HFHHHHFHHH I will try this and see if I can improve

Hello! Getting used to VH games can be rough, especially in VH public. I still get myself stomped mid game but I have cleared my share of VH public games. For me, elemental TD is about finding the sweet spot between survival and interest, which most of pub players are not aware of. Partly because the concept of Elemental TD is counter-intuitive to most other games where unspent resources are a bad habit. Things I noticed going from Normal to Very Hard: - Throw interest out of the window for the first a few waves. Spend everything and try to gauge the pace of other players. - Squeezing interest here and there. @2% interest(default), you get 1 mineral for every 50 minerals you have. @3% every 33 minerals. @4% every 25 minerals. If you have a tower you want to upgrade(13 minerals) and your mineral count is 105 with a few seconds left on interest timer, holding the upgrade till the tick over yields twice as much interest(2 instead of 1!). It may sound minuscule but those little bits can trigger snowball effect later on. - Timing on Elemental Beast Killing. There is only a few windows of opportunity offered for killing them in time. If the timing is missed, towers can't be upgraded to keep up with creeps. Build additional arrow towers in advance to aid in taking them down if so required. - Tower Placement, every tower counts and must be placed in a optimum position. The optimum positions are often affected by range of tower, its abilities and if it's a solo or public game. In a solo game, massing towers between entrance/exit area is quite effective as it offers chance to fire at each wave 3 times while taking as much time to clear them. In a public game, cluster of towers in that region either leaks or has to clear too fast(bad idea) because often waves reach the end of the maze just as a new wave spawns. - Knowing characteristic of each wave. I seem to have trouble with fast moving creeps, so I build additional towers or upgrade existing ones right before them. Zergling, Predators, Mutalisk and Kerrigan to name a few. - Luck. As much as I hate to admit it, your success rests heavily on shoulders of fellow players. Best scenario is when another player choose very easy and clear waves first. You end up with 45 seconds between each wave. Worst scenario, a player chooses hard/VH and go for a fast clear, he is not doing everyone a favor, including himself - Figure out weak and strong elements for your build. If your build is mainly fire, water waves are your biggest obstacles. Couple that with special abilities like immunity, undead, healing etc, those waves can give you nightmares. Be sure to upgrade towers right before those waves and place towers with different element types to complement each other. Conversely, fire is good at nature rounds. If your towers withstood the previous round fine, there is usually no need for an upgrade. - Practice and have fun cuz it's only a game.

Just finished a VH pub game with 283 kills I filled the entire map with the usual haste forge setup but ended up with less than 300 kills. If I didn't make too many Earth towers and got a few more lives left, I could have reached 300, I guess. I'm starting to get a hang of Very Hard difficulty.

Hello! Looks nice I have yet to try out going 2 2 2 2 1 on elements. So I'm intrigued. I think a 3rd tier element needs to be added for building pure towers somewhere. (or 1 more 1st tier element for periodic)

(I apologize in advance for any sloppy grammars.) I just finished a Very Hard pub game. It was actually my first clear. That was a lot harder than solo but very enjoyable nevertheless. Haste Forge combo netted 78 kills. The networth was about 170k minerals. I opted to only get one interest early because I was spending most of my minerals on towers anyways and I wanted to get a haste tower up 5 levels earlier. I got my second interest at level 50. Things I can improve on: - I pressed a wrong hotkey and built a dozen fire towers. - Leaks, 5 lives left at level 60. lol - Better tower placement. My opinion on wave finish timer: The new wave finish timer feature helped out heaps but I felt that it is still luck based. Depending on who clears each wave first, you end up with different timer till the next wave arrives. e.g 1: a player on easy difficulty(Easy Player) a player on hard difficulty(Hard Player) Easy Player builds a cluster of grenade towers and clears each wave first most of early games. The wait time between each wave is 45 seconds. Everyone adjust their play style accordingly. Mid game, Hard Player decides to mass Mildew towers right out side the entrance and clears waves as quickly as they come out.(insert evil laughter). The wait time suddenly becomes something like 15 seconds. Three unfinished waves get strung together, panic ensues. Players lose their lives and some die from it. e.g 2: A player likes to play on Very Hard difficulty. He hops into public games. The first game, he ends up with players with at least hard difficulties, he can't barely make the 30th wave because mobs just keep pouring out. The second game he ends up with players with easy difficulties, He manages to finish the game taking advantage of 45 second sweet wait time.

I just played my first Very Hard Elemental TD(solo) 311 Fruit kills using the same strategy above. Some points I can definitely improve on. - 90k unspent minerals. - Less leaks. 30ish lives left at level 60. - Early game, better tower selling. It has to be precisely before the interest rate ticks. - Kill the last creep near the exit. - Better tower placement(for solo).