Nud Guide

[lightstriker]

Please note that due to... issues... with the current high-score system for normal, I will NOT be discussing how to achieve high scores in normal.

Beginners Guide to Tower Optimization.

The basic idea of this guide is to give general guidelines for optimizing your various types of towers. I will NOT be giving specific maze help in this post (that will come later) nor will I be providing High-score suggestions, although those will probably come later as well.

Tower Optimization is trying to get the most damage out of the least towers. I will be giving (what I consider to be, feel free to argue) the layout of towers that works best for each individual type (at least for me).

Please note that these layouts will ONLY be retrograde (by which I mean that for the nud layout I can ONLY use nuds, for the warp I will only use nuds and warps, etc.)

As well, I am NOT exceptionally good at this, I am much better (I think) at layout work. Please feel free to disagree/ post suggestions.

Nuds

Demo picture generated on in-out

Nuds work best in boxes of size either 2x3 or 3x3. Any larger than that, and you're losing quite a lot of efficiency.
The goal with these boxes is to try and get the creeps to move alongside at LEAST 2, and preferably 3-4 sides of these boxes. The above picture demonstrates one of the ways to do this.

Please note that 4x3 or 5x3 boxes don't work quite as well (for their cost), but generally work fine (I simply do not list them due to the difficulty in finding an area to use them well, however, please see shard cannons). anything >3 by >3 generally begins to lose quite a bit of efficiency however

A picture demonstrating another dual-3x3 box layout, this time on Baby steps


I'm not exceptionally good with nuds however, please feel free to post suggestions.

Warp
coming both a) once I have time, and b) once I get better with them.

Lancet
coming soon

Shrap

Shrap nuds are VERY finicky towers. Depending on where you place them, they can be MUCH weaker then just a duonud.
The goal for placing them is to make it so that they only fire in the direction you want them to, namely at nearly adjacant enemies, with no towers in the way. Also, important to note is that Shrap nuds recieve the most benefit from other shrap nuds. As such, long lines of Shrap nuds along the edge of maps seem to work best, at least in my experience with the tower (although other layouts are certainly plausible).

Shrap nuds combo very well with warpnuds, do to their (often intentionally) limited firing radius. However, both towers adjacancy bonus is of little or no benefit to the other tower (Shrap criticals only increase the damage of a single projectile, while giving a warpnud damage is... pointless [it is possible that this causes it to deal damage in its aoe, but even if this is so, they fire slow enough that this benefit would be much more useful on another tower])
For this reason, it seems wise to place a warpnud in a location where it covers the area that you want the shraps to be firing in, while not actually touching the shraps.

A sample layout:

[Nyme]

Nice to see you doing a guide.

Shard is actually Shrap. You know, coming from Shrapnel.

Also, perhaps 4x3 and bigger boxes of Monos are not constructable on small maps like Baby steps and even In Out, but it is very possible to build them in a map like Bifurcation or Twoway.

[Skasi]

I have to demonstrate, if you really say stuff bigger than 3x3 is not as efficient. I do think it is much better!

I think it's most efficient if nuds shot all the time they can. Some people will now think "So they have to be able to target enemies at both direction of a box.", but actually one side is enough. The reason for this is simple: Enemies keep coming. So your nuds will have targets every second - except for the short pauses between each wave.

So. I'm gonna stop right at this point, as I do not want to turn this one into a thread for discussions - I don't know, if this is wanted.

[Normandy]

Code: Select all

MMM
MMM
MMM
185 (5/7) total DPS
20.6349 average DPS (per trinud)
3.4392 average DPS (per spent money)



MMM
WMM
MMM
164 (23/28) total DPS
20.6026 average DPS (per trinud)
3.0242 average DPS (per 100 spent)


MMM
MWM
MMM
165 total DPS
20.6250 average DPS (per trinud)
3.0275 average DPS (per 100 spent)

Interestingly enough, building a warpnud in the middle of a 3x3 block of mononuds gives more DPS than building it in the side of a 3x3 block, raising total DPS by (5/28). This is assuming:
-All towers are constantly shooting
-A critical does twice as much damage as a normal shot
-Criticals occur at a predictable, constant rate
-No shots are wasted
-All towers are upgraded to third tier
-A second is 30 frames
-DPS is (30 / delay) x damage
-A third tier warpnud gives 20% critical bonus (I'm not sure if it actually does, I forgot. If it's 25% percent, however, just fudge the numbers upwards a little).

[lightstriker]

@Skasi: Oh, no, I certainly wouldn't object to this turning into a long thread of discussions (I'll just end up setting up a series of hotlinks to sort it).
As to your statement: it's certainly debatable. I would personally argue in favor of using smaller boxes in a staggered formation, but as I believe I've shown, that's personal preference. Using larger boxes is certainly an option, however as you yourself stated you WILL lose some efficiency due to pauses between mazes, bosses, etc. Very little, but some. This guide is out of necessity subjective. However, I believe I stated that using boxes larger than 3x3 is certainly an option.

@Normandy: thank you very much for that analysis. However, due to the fact that tower optimization is most necessary in normal mode (certainly helps in survival, but... it's different) I don't believe that an analysis of dps for maxed out towers will be particularly useful for this guide.

Just to clarify, I am mainly creating this guide (or at least this portion) as a guide to NORMAL mode, not survival.

[Nyme]

Just to clarify, I am mainly creating this guide (or at least this portion) as a guide to NORMAL mode, not survival.

Please point it out in your first post.

[lightstriker]

Well, I would actually like to retract that statement, due to... issues... with normal at the moment. I will work on creating a survival guide (once I have some time to get a hang of it myself) This will, however, be done once I've got the normal guide done, or at least the aspects of it that I plan on doing.

[Normandy]

Don't look at me, I was bored. I guess I should've posted into the gameplay observations thread, then.

[Himura.Kenshin]

Someone give me a good (and free) video making program and I'll throw up a video guide on how to beat each level.

[Skasi]

I don't think there should be guides to the completion of the levels at all! They are all pretty easy anyways.

[leoleez]

well for some people they are not, like for my i needed a epiphany to beat some of the levels, I try to get them flawless, so far, it aint too hard, but we should make sections on how to beat them at least to unlock Survival mode.
I have been saving images of the plain levels and started saving images of how I completed them.

Also these guides are helping, they are improving my survivability rate, i hope it will help others as well. I have been combining my own style with some of the tips, and I am starting to truly get better!

Thanks, and thanks for the fun from this game th15, ur good.
I would be willing to donate some of the pictures I have taken... just I have to figure out how to post them I am not too keen on that...

[Alastair]

i think 3x3 is where it stops, the middle nud doesn't get much range, i used to make the middle of a 3x3 fully upgraded as soon as possible, but on further playing i found that the outside ones got more shots in, due to the short range of nuds, hwever this might have changed as i think i have an older version of NUD