Powerful builds against other players for Non-mazing Very Hard

[kiyoona]

Hey everybody, I'm kiyoona, a player with great experience in Element Tower Defense (SC2) from Hungary, and I thought about sharing my favorite builds with you guys for Non-mazing mode against other players. I'm not sure what made me post this. I guess I'm just bored of winning all the time by a landslide and having no rivals in this game for the longest time, so I've got no choice but to give up and reveal my builds before I take my leave, haha. No, seriously, I often end up with at least five times as many fruit points—typically in the region of 3100-3500—as does the runner-up in fruit hunt. That is not to say, of course, that I'm the best Non-mazing player. In fact, I do think there are a couple of old school players out there who are better than me and just departed this game because they found that, well... it was full of newbies.

Even though the SC2 section of this forum has lapsed into silence by now, doing a Google search on "sc2 td non-mazing strategy", "sc2 non-mazing td build", "sc2 element td builds", etc. will probably take the occasional SC2 ETD player here with an interest in learning new and potent builds. At least that's what I'm hoping for. After all, even if this game has kind of faded in popularity recently, it is still played on Battle.net, and I still run into players who have relatively high XP, but we've never played before, so even today, a few people may definitely have an inkling of interest. Since a topic search for the key words I just mentioned came up empty, I thought it'd be a good idea to maintain some semblance of activity and start a topic on this to show you guys two powerful SC2 ETD builds which hold up well even in Very Hard against rushy opponents, and of course, receive yours. I would really love to see some high earning 'rushproof' builds (2700< Fruit Points) for Non-mazing mode other than the two strategies I'm going to disclose. Adjustments to my suggested guides are also welcome.

1. 'All Right' (ART) build – 2900 - 3200 Fruit Points (Very Hard) (for ETD version 1.50)

First of all, this is a build that I have developed myself. I had never seen anyone else do this build before me. I did see similar builds but those did not include key elements that mine does, such as Mire Towers, and more importantly, NONE of them were done in Very Hard so those had significantly lower Fruit Points. So, as far as I know, this is a pioneering strategy.

So, Artillery Towers. My all time favorites... I've been playing this decent arcade game for a long time now, and one thing I've definitely picked up on is that Artillery Towers (Level 3 Earth + Dark) are unrivalled asskickers. I mean, with all the high range and damage they attack with—compared to virtually ALL the other triple-element towers—, it would hardly be a misnomer to call these beasts OP. Of course, in order to add more oomph to these Odin wannabes, you need to amplify their damage. To this end, it's best to support your Artilleries with Factories (Level 3 Earth + Fire) as these fully upgraded support towers almost DOUBLE their target's damage (90% increase)! That's why I've dubbed this build "All Right" - you max out every element at the Elemental Summoning Center on the right side, i.e. Dark, Fire, Earth, and put most of the Artilleries on the Right wing. But that's not the whole story. You want to invest two gases into ONE of the elements on the left - which should be either Water or Nature (I'm leaning more towards Water) to slow down and weaken the creeps with either a Mire/Corrosion (if you pick Water) or a Barb/Jinx (if you go Nature) combo. But, at the end of the day, this build relies primarily on Artilleries. For a replay and a detailed sketch, see the attached files.

Note: Actually, I already posted my best results (approx. 3900 FP's) in a replay somewhere on this forum one or two years ago doing this very build, but, as luck would have it, a recent patch update from Blizzard has rendered it unwatchable. That's one of the reasons why I've put the build orders down in Notepad. But to be fair, I don't really mind that because I'm not really a fan of the idea of contesting the best fruit hunter award in single player mode, anyway. It just takes the challenge out of it. You need competition. You need that extra bit of pressure to be playing under and reacting to stuff when needed. And given that this game will only save your points and XP's if you do have rivals, I'm pretty sure that's what the game developers had in mind, too.

2. 'All Elements with Particle Field (AEPF)' build – up to 3780 Fruit Points (and possibly more)! (Very Hard) (for ETD version 1.50)

I've only recently started to work on this strategy so it could definitely use some (major) improvements. Of course, I hasten to add I have NOT developed this strategy all by myself. Far from it. The ideas of buffing my towers with Well Towers at the end, building Wealth Towers and selling them at a later stage, as well as hovering my Particle Field over the Fruits all throughout the course (heck, I didn't even know you can move that thing!) while torturing them with Occult Towers are all something I've picked up from other players. My own contributions to this build—which increased the Fruit Points scored— include the use of my favorite spell-casting towers, the Mire & Corrosion duo on the classic Right wing combined with EVERY kind of offensive spell towers (Barb, Jinx, Incantation, and even Nova and Glacial!) that you can build out of the elements secured, the aggressive Flamethrower/Runic/Laser opening, the efficient positioning and use of Masquerade Towers. To be fair, I have seen a couple of decent Runic/Spellcasting combo builds from players that scored over 2700, but those were either done in Single Player or in a light competitive match with no serious rushers at all. So, I've made this build rushproof. So rushproof, in fact, that you can actually make it to the Fruits without losing a single life AND still hit 3500+ Fruit Points, no matter how hard your opponents are trying to be on you! The highest Fruit Points I've achieved with this build was 3780, although I'm almost certain that there is a way to squeeze even more out of it. I haven't done too much research on the positioning of the towers or figuring out ways to save as much money as possible. That's something I'll leave for other keen fruit hunters to find out.

I've uploaded a scheme for this build (without annotations), too, as well as 2 replays demonstrating its use.

About the replays:

1. ETD_ART_3132FP_vs_rush

'All Right' build – Very Hard – 44 lives and 3132 Fruit Points against a very rushy opponent (Light Pink) who put amplified Occult, Flamespewer and Pure Earth at the spawning point, trying to put others through the mill. Or maybe I provoked him with my opening, haha.

2. ETD_AEPF_3708FP_vs_rush

'AEPF' build – Very Hard – 46 lives and 3708 FP's against a heavy rusher (Purple) who placed amplified Electricity/Voltage/Potential Towers [F+L] at the spawning point. But I always fight fire with fire (quite literally) so I put a 'rushy' Flamethrower at the First Ledge to counter the rush, later accompanied by a Runic and a Laser.

3. ETD_AEPF_flawless_3051FP_vs_allinrush

'AEPF' build – Very Hard – 50 lives and 3051 FP's against an all in rusher (Red) who put even more amplified Potential Towers at the spawning point-- with ASAP Factories! Killed every creep almost in an instant. If you are one for aesthetics and perfection and whatnot, and wish to see a Very Hard flawless run (50 lives) with a REALLY aggressive, rushy opponent on your back, then this replay is for you. Unfortunately, though, I only had a measly 3051 for this one as the positioning of my spell-casting towers was rather poor. (Could have got like 3780 out of it!) Anyway, the guy scored 792 which isn't bad for a rushy Normal build. I think those Potential Towers could use some research. I can definitely see the POTENTIAL in them.

So, I hope you guys like my builds. Unfortunately, I'm about to abandon ETD as there are more important things to do with my life, haha. But it was definitely a fun, smart and challenging arcade game, so thank you Karawasa, WindStrike and other contributors for your time and diligence in developing and updating this wonderful game!

Sorry for the long post, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you fruit hunters out there!

kiyoona

AEPF_build.txt

ART_build.txt

ETD_ART_3132FP_vs_rush.SC2Replay

ETD_AEPF_3708FP_vs_rush.SC2Replay

ETD_AEPF_flawless_3051FP_vs_allinrush.SC2Replay

[Karawasa]

On 12/26/2015 at 10:30 AM, kiyoona said:

But it was definitely a fun, smart and challenging arcade game, so thank you Karawasa, WindStrike and other contributors for your time and diligence in developing and updating this wonderful game!

You're very welcome! I'm happy that you thoroughly enjoyed the game .

[Guest Leesama1987]

Guys! ... I'm aware that this is the wrong section to post this but it seemed pretty active. so I can't find the map in the game.. Do you have to have the expansions or is it just gone now?

[Karawasa]

That's a good question. I will look into it. You should not need to have the expansions.

[kiyoona]

15 hours ago, Guest Leesama1987 said:

Guys! ... I'm aware that this is the wrong section to post this but it seemed pretty active. so I can't find the map in the game.. Do you have to have the expansions or is it just gone now?

I had the same issue when I returned to this game after a long hiatus. I simply typed "element" into the search box under the Arcade menu and pulled it up.

And no, you don't need to have any expansion packs to play ETD. I have the vanilla SC2 (WoL) and it works.

[Guest Bonezi]

Uhhh. the replays doesn't work for me. Can you upload them on youtube? im interested of that particle strategy. Also interested of rush tactics

[kiyoona]

ETD_AEPF_3708FP_vs_rush.SC2Replay

ETD_AEPF_flawless_3051FP_vs_allinrush.SC2Replay

ETD_ART_3132FP_vs_rush.SC2Replay

[kiyoona]

For some reason, only the attachments have gone through in my previous post, no text, so let me just repost the rest of my comment.

 

---

 

On 2016. 03. 17. at 7:49 AM, Guest Bonezi said:

Uhhh. the replays doesn't work for me. Can you upload them on youtube? im interested of that particle strategy. Also interested of rush tactics

 

Thanks for your feedback, Bonezi. I didn't know they became unavailable. I've been really busy lately and almost forgot about this, lol. Seems like the replays got deleted in the process. 0 bytes and all just file names! Oops... Fortunately, though, I still have them in my SC2 folder so I'll just reupload them. (EDIT: I've tested it. You can watch them, but you need to go offline because it's an older version. You can find them in the post above.)

 

" Can you upload them on youtube?"

That's something that crossed my mind, too, but for some reason, my internet connection keeps dropping every time I try to upload or download a big file. That's why I put down the strategies into Notepad instead... only to realize that the texts got messed up, too! The line breaks were ignored and the whole text got lumped into one continuous chunk. I don't want to flood so I'll just paste the one with the highest score here:

 

'All Elements with Particle Field (AEPF)' build guide by kiyoona

This build order is based on the following settings:
Very Hard
Non-mazing
No heroes
Competitive
Normal length
Normal order
All pick
Solo
ETD version: 1.50

Expected Fruit Points: 3200 ~ 3780

 

Element sketch:
1. Earth 1
2. Dark 1
3. Fire 1
4. Light 1
5. Dark 2
6. Light 2
7. Fire 2
8. Earth 2
9. Water 1
10. Nature 1
11. Water 2

 

Items in brackets [] indicate the elements required to build the tower just mentioned.
Items in curly brackets {} indicate the current elemental building set-up.

 

For the sake of consistency, I'm going to use the terms suggested by Karawasa to refer to certain locations on the map (First Ledge, Center End, etc.). You can learn about them here:

 

Building sketch:
Wave 0-4 - 2-3 Ray Towers at the First Ledge, 3-4 at Wave 5 where you switch to Very Hard
Wave 5 - Earth 1
Wave 6 - +1 Earth Tower at the First Ledge {1 ET}
Wave 9 - +2 Advanced Grenade Tower and +1 Medium GT at the First Ledge, sell the GT's after the Forest Scourges walked past them, and rebuild them at the Lower End to catch all creeps. Sell all GT's. {1 ET}
Wave 10 - Dark 1
Between Wave 11 and Wave 12, sell non-elemental towers and upgrade to Cannon Tower [E+D] {1 CT}
Wave 15 - Fire 1
Wave 16 - +2 Fire Towers at the First End {1 CT, 2 FT}
Wave 20 - Light 1
Wave 20 - Sell everything besides CT. {1 CT}
Wave 21 - Upg CT to Flamethrower [E+D+F] {1 FTR}
Wave 25 - Dark 2
Wave 29 - +1 Trickery Tower [D+L] at the First Ledge so that it doubles the FTR to kill Dark Interceptors easily. {1 FTR, 1 TT}
start of Wave 30 - upg the TT to Runic Tower [D+F+L] {1 FTR, 1 Run}
end of Wave 30 - Light 2
Wave 32 - +1 TT at the First Ledge to clone one of your towers to deal with the Apaches, then, if you really want to rush, you can upg that TT to Laser Tower [D+E+L] {1 FTR, 1 Run, (1 Lsr)}
Wave 33 - +1 TT upg -> Masquerade Tower (turn off Auto-casting so you can control it) {1 FTR, 1 Run, (1 Lsr), 1 MqT}
Wave 35 - Fire 2
Wave 36-38 - sell Laser Tower if you built one (ineffective at this point), and upg Runic to Occult {1 FTR, 1 Occ, 1 MqT}
Wave 39 - +1 Money Tower at the bottom right corner of First End; 1 Forge [E+F] at the upper left corner of the Center End (all towers within range) {1 FTR, 1 Occ, 1 MqT, 1 Money, 1 Forge}
Wave 40 - Earth 2
Wave 41 - Upg FTR to Flamespewer {1 FSP, 1 Occ, 1 MqT, 1 Money, 1 Forge}
Wave 42 - Upg Forge to Foundry {1 FSP, 1 Occ, 1 MqT, 1 Money, 1 Foundry}
Wave 44 - Upg Money to Wealth  and clone it {1 FSP, 1 Occ, 1 MqT, 1 Wealth, 1 Foundry}
Wave 45 - Water 1
Wave 48 - +2 Wealth - one at the bottom right corner of the Center Corner, and one straight below that in the middle of the Low wing, +1 MqT somewhat below the center of the Right wing, so that it covers both recently built Wealth Towers. Clone both Wealth Towers against earth-sensitive Immortals. {1 FSP, 1 Occ, 2 MqT, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry}
start of Wave 50 - clone FSP against fire-sensitive Biohazard Trucks
end of Wave 50 - Nature 1
Wave 51 - +1 Occ and +1 MqT, both below the Upper Right Corner. +1 Periodic Tower of the Elements [all elements + essence] at the center of Above Middle / at the Upper Right Corner / at the center of Right {1 FSP, 2 Occ, 3 MqT, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry, 1 PTE}
Wave 53 - +1 Occ {1 FSP, 3 Occ, 3 MqT, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry, 1 PTE}
end of Wave 54 - Sell FSP
Wave 55 - Water 2
Wave 56 - (all below the Upper Right Corner:) +1 Nova [F+L+N], +1 Glacial [E+L+W], +1 Incantation [E+L+N], +1 Barb [D+E+N], +1 Jinx [D+F+N] {3 Occ, 3 MqT, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry, 1 PTE, 1 Nov, 1 Glc, 1 Inc, 1 Brb, 1 Jnx}
Wave 57 +1 Occ, +1 PTE at the center of Above Middle / at the Upper Right Corner / at the center of Right {4 Occ, 3 MqT, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry, 2 PTE, 1 Nov, 1 Glc, 1 Inc, 1 Brb, 1 Jnx}
Wave 55/56/57 - Sell all Wealth Towers {4 Occ, 3 MqT, 1 Foundry, 2 PTE, 1 Nov, 1 Glc, 1 Inc, 1 Brb, 1 Jnx}
Wave 58 - +3 Foundries on the left side of Center End/Center Corner, +4 Wells [N+W] on the right side of Center End/Center Corner, +1 Mire [D+E+W]  and +1 Corrosion [D+F+W] between Above Middle and the Upper Right Corner  {4 Occ, 3 MqT, 4 Foundry, 2 PTE, 1 Nov, 1 Glc, 1 Inc, 1 Brb, 1 Jnx, 4 Well, 1 Mire, 1 Cor}
Wave 60 - +1 Plasma [F+L+W] at the upper left corner of the First Ledge

 

Against Fruits:
8+ Occults [D+F+L]
4 Well [N+W]
4 Masquerade [D+L]
4 Foundry [E+F]
2 PEoT [all elements + essence]
2 Corrosion [D+F+W]
2 Mire [D+E+W]
2 Nova [F+L+N]
2 Glacial [E+L+W]
1 Plasma [F+L+W]
1 Incantation [E+L+N]
1 Jinx [D+F+N]
1 Barb [D+E+N]

 

All offensive spell-casting towers should be on the Right wing.

Since I haven't done half as much research into this build as I have into my ART build, there are bound to be unnecessary towers, ill-conceived positionings, bad timings for selling towers, or inefficient use of certain towers. Nonetheless, at the time of writing, this strategy is still one of the strongest builds in competitive Non-mazing mode that I have knowledge of.

 

This build has been designed to prepare you for the worst-case scenario, i.e., when your opponents get as aggressive and rushy as possible. Therefore, in a game with no rivals like that, you can actually delay or even omit many of the towers I've listed in order to save minerals.

Edited April 6, 2016 by kiyoona

[kiyoona]

Now, if you (or anyone) still can't watch my replays for some reason and have a hard time visualizing the AEPF build, I'll give you a few screenshots so you have a general idea of how the towers are positioned. (I don't have time for a tower-to-tower screenshot demonstration.) I've put the images in separate attachments because I can't seem to post comments that have images inserted into them.

 

Screenshot descriptions (numbered from top to bottom:)

 

1. Earlygame.jpg – This is at the early stage of the game where I'm killing creeps with 1 Cannon Tower and 2 Fire Towers (Wave 16). The FT's will be sold by Wave 20, leaving just enough minerals to get the CT teched up to Flamethrower.

2. Midgame.jpg – Mid-game. A Runic Tower is added at Wave 30 to eliminate creeps faster. (And if you really want to rush, you can add a Laser Tower [D+E+L] later at around Wave 32.)

3. Lategame.jpg – Late game, accumulating minerals (1 Flamespewer, 1 Occult, 2 Masquerade, 3 Wealth, 1 Foundry). The Wealth Towers will be sold at around Wave 57.

4. Fruits1.jpg, 5. Fruits2.jpg – The tower set-up against the Fruits (broken into two parts).

 

Hope this helps.

 

Take care,

kiyoona

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by kiyoona