Lane Defense guide: counters, gold and beating the Titan

How a map plays

Each map alternates between a build phase and a wave. During the build phase you place and upgrade defenders on plots beside the lanes while a panel shows the next wave's enemies and traits. Then enemies drive toward your base, and each one that arrives costs lives, more for bigger enemies. Clear the last wave with lives left to win.

The lanes are fixed and nothing you build blocks them, so placement is about coverage, not maze-building.

Kills pay a bounty and cleared waves pay a reward on top. Selling a defender returns 70% of everything spent on it.

The counter system

Every enemy trait has a weapon built to beat it:

Armoured enemies subtract a flat amount from every hit. The Lance's beam ignores armour completely.
Shielded enemies soak a share of every hit from every damage type except energy, which is what the Cryo Emitter deals.
Swarm enemies come in large, weak groups that the Mortar's blast handles.
Air enemies fly straight over the lanes. The Skyhook deals 2.5 times its damage to them; every other defender deals only 0.45 times.

On top of those effects, a weapon hitting the trait it counters gets an extra 35%. No hit ever does less than 8% of its raw damage, so nothing is immune, but the gap is huge. A level 1 Autocannon's 9 damage against a Bulwark's 18 armour lands for less than 1 point.

The defenders

Costs are the price to buy or reach that level.

Defender	Levels 1 / 2 / 3 cost	Damage	Notes
Autocannon	70 / 110 / 200	9 / 16 / 28	fast single-target fire, the cheapest damage
Mortar	120 / 190 / 340	28 / 46 / 80	splash of 2.2 to 3.0, counters Swarm
Cryo Emitter	115 / 190 / 340	7 / 12 / 20	cone, slows everything in it, counters Shielded
Lance	150 / 240 / 455	28 / 48 / 78	longest reach (10.5 to 12.5), hits two in a line, counters Armoured
Skyhook	125 / 195 / 340	34 / 58 / 100	homing missiles, counters Air, weaker on the ground
Relay Pylon	90 / 150 / 265	none	boosts units on the eight cells around it

The Cryo Emitter's cone has no target limit and its chill cuts speed by 38% at level 1, 58% at level 3. The Lance covers only a 48° arc, so its facing matters. A Relay Pylon at level 1 gives nearby units +18% fire rate, +10% damage and a little range; at level 3 it is +42%, +26% and more range. Pylons do not stack: a unit next to two pylons takes the stronger one.

The enemies

Enemy	Looks like	Base health	Trait	Lives if it leaks	Bounty
Mite	bike	26	Swarm	1	3
Runner	buggy	40	fast	1	5
Grunt	light armoured car	80	none	1	7
Drone	transport plane	85	Air	1	11
Warden	supply truck	170	Shielded (70%)	2	16
Bulwark	plated armoured car	210	Armoured (18)	2	17
Bastion	heavier plated car	340	Armoured (27)	2	26
Titan	tank	1,900	Armoured and Shielded	5	220

Health grows on later waves and harder maps.

Weapon tech

Tech upgrades every unit of a type at once.

Tech	Affects	Rank costs	What it adds
Ballistics	Autocannons	170 / 320 / 570	damage, then fire rate
Warheads	Mortars and Skyhooks	200 / 360 / 640	damage and blast radius
Focusing Optics	Lances	240 / 450 / 780	damage, then one extra target pierced
Cryogenics	Cryo Emitters	180 / 330 / 590	damage and a deeper chill
Autoloaders	Skyhooks	230 / 420	fire rate, then range
Targeting Grid	every unit	200 / 360 / 620	damage, range and fire rate

Targeting Grid suits a mixed board because every unit benefits; the other lines pay off when you own several of one unit.

Call-ins

Call-in	Recharge	Effect
Airstrike	38 s	bombing run along a line
Orbital	58 s	sustained bombardment in a wide circle
EMP	62 s	near-freezes the whole field for four seconds
Repair	78 s	restores 4 lives and shields the base for 12 seconds

Repair is four extra lives per use, so fire it whenever you are down lives.

The Titan

Titan waves come twice per map. The Titan is armoured, shielded, costs five lives if it reaches your base, and has an exposed core that takes 70% extra from squarely landed hits. It acts every seven seconds, and what it does depends on its health:

Above two thirds: it screens nearby escorts, halving the damage they take.
Below two thirds: it destroys your nearest defender and cracks that plot so nothing can be built there again. You get no refund.
Below one third: it speeds up the whole wave by 35% for six seconds at a time.

Phase two costs you defenders, so burst it down once it crosses two thirds. Lances with Focusing Optics, backed by Cryo Emitters, are the direct answer. Save EMP or Orbital for this wave.

The six maps

Map	Difficulty	Layout	Gold	Lives	Waves
Switchback Canyon	Easy	1 lane, serpentine	340	25	10
Ridgeline Pass	Normal	3 lanes, converging	360	20	12
Delta Flats	Normal	broad front, one narrow neck	450	24	14
Confluence	Hard	2 lanes, merging late	380	20	13
Twin Forks	Hard	2 lanes, pinch and fork	420	18	13
Crossroads	Expert	3 lanes, tight crossing, air-heavy	460	18	15

The first three are open from the start. Confluence, Twin Forks and Crossroads each open when you clear the map before them. A clear earns one star, two if you keep 35% of your lives, and three at 70%.

Opening plan

Spend most of your starting gold on Autocannons at plots that cover the most lane.
Read the next-wave panel before every wave. Buy the counter for any new trait one wave early.
Start waves early when your defence is comfortable. The bonus is 2 gold per second of build time you skip (2.5 on Crossroads).

Common mistakes

Answering armour with more Autocannons. Against Bulwarks and Bastions they do almost nothing. Build Lances.
No Skyhook before the first Drone wave. Planes skip the lanes entirely.

If you're stuck

If you leak on one wave every time, sell and rebuild toward that wave's traits during the build phase before it, and keep EMP charged for it. If the Titan wave is the wall, buy Focusing Optics and Cryogenics before it arrives rather than new emplacements, since the Titan can destroy emplacements but not tech.