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Overview

Six times during the game you'll get to participate in a tower defense mini-game. These sequences aren't required. You can assign one of your resistance captains to take care of the defenses instead, but if you do that then you'll lose out on a secret and two ability points each time. So obviously it's better to complete them rather than skip them.

Some useful things to know about the tower defense sequences are listed below:

• The more enemies you kill with traps, the more machine parts you earn. So let the traps do the bulk of the work.
  
  
• If you're standing near enemies when they die, then they'll drop loot. Otherwise they won't. This is only really important for the boss in the final wave. Most other enemies will only drop potions if they drop anything at all.
  
  
• In each sequence you'll be able to power up one or more Salvage Recyclers that will reward you with extra machine parts over time. These are only useful in sequences with more than four waves.
  
  
• Your game will get saved when you leave for a tower defense map, and it won't get saved again until you've completed the defense. That means you can start over if you don't like how things are going (by exiting and re-entering the game, or by selecting "start over" at the end-of-wave dialogue), but it also means you can't leave in the middle. So make sure you have at least 15-30 minutes available before you start a defense.
  
  
• For each mini-game, there's something you can do to cause an ink portal to appear, which will lead you to a secret treasure chest. See the defense summaries below for how to make the portals appear.
  
  
• You can press the Wave Info button to see which enemies are going to appear in the next wave, and which routes they're going to take to reach the exit(s). You should always check this to see if champions or bosses are scheduled to appear, since there's a good chance they'll survive your taps, and you'll need to finish them off.
  
  
• In our opinion, the two best traps are the Ratat-O-Tac gun (upgraded so it does area damage) and the Monster-in-the-Box (which stops enemies cold and lets your other traps kill them).
  
  
• When you play the mini-games on the veteran difficulty, be sure to turn off your trophies before going in. The trophies will probably help your enemies way more than they'll help you (since your traps should be doing most of the work, and they don't receive trophy bonuses).

Tower Defense Maps

The Subterranean Incursion

• You won't have too many options for this map. We'd recommend using Monster-in-the-Box traps next to Ray-o-Frost traps.
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if you can complete two waves without any monsters reaching your base. You'll find an Elixir of Fortitude inside the chest.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 2571 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact

Invasion of the Rat-Things

• Immediately buy the two Rocketous Automated Sentries near the top of the map. They're within range of all three starting points, and they'll put a big dent into each attack wave. You should then be able to mop up the rest with Monster-in-the-Box, Ray-o-Frost and Ratat-o-Tac traps.
  
  
• You'll probably only break even with Salvage Recyclers, so there isn't any reason to build them.
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if your traps kill 300 enemies. You'll find an Elixir of Wizardry inside the chest.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 4923 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact

The Inhuman Regiment

• This is the first map where Salvage Recyclers will start giving you a noticeable profit.
  
  
• Focus on traps that can hit multiple routes.
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if you build 20 traps.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 4923 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact

Maze of Blades

• This can be a tough map, so give yourself extra time to solve it.
  
  
• Rely on basic traps instead of fully upgraded traps.
  
  
• Every floor trap should be a Freeze-o-Floor trap. For only 40 machine parts each, these will combine to take out the Rat-Things (which are the enemies most likely to slip through your defenses), and they'll damage and slow the rest.
  
  
• Every gun trap should be a Ratat-o-Tac trap upgraded once for area damage and once for extra damage. This will cost you a total of 110 machine parts each. These traps will deal most of your damage, and they should be able to mop up whatever survives your floor traps.
  
  
• For the remaining traps, you can use whatever you want. Ice-o-Bob traps aren't nearly as good as Monster-in-the-Box traps. We usually go with Ray-o-Frost traps.
  
  
• Only buy the Rocketous Automated Sentries when waves start going past them.
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if you build six Salvage Recyclers. The recyclers can be found next to the exits. We'd recommend buying two recyclers for the first wave, and then one each for the next four waves.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 4923 xp / 2 Attributes Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attributes Points / Rare Artifact

Caverns of Steel

• You'll have to deal with four routes that don't overlap very much. The two inner routes should be straightforward, as you'll have a standard assortment of traps available, plus Rocketous Automated Sentries. The two outer routes will be tougher, and so you should put some extra mechanical parts aside so you'll be able to build better traps against them when they come into play (in waves 3 and 4).
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if you fully upgrade five traps. Special traps (Hydraulic-o-Grinders, Rocketous Automated Sentries, and Salvage Recyclers) start out fully upgraded, and so they're the easiest way to get to the secret.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 4923 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact

Hall of Remembrance

• This map should be pretty easy. The attack routes conveniently intersect, so they're easy to defend. There are a bunch of trap locations, giving you all sorts of options for what to build. And you'll get a ton of machine parts, so building what you want shouldn't be a problem.
  
  
• You'll gain access to the secret chest if you build 10 different types of traps.
  
  
• Reward (Normal): 4923 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact
• Reward (Veteran): 40,000 xp / 2 Attribute Points / Rare Artifact