A practical sequence for your next attempt

Use these checkpoints as the run develops, and revisit them as conditions change.

Checkpoint Action What you should be able to explain afterward
Opening assessment Trace the trench route, inspect tower coverage, and compare your four resource stocks with your next intended purchase. Which part of the defense needs attention and which material limits the response.
First expansion Choose one island objective and budget for reaching it, the island fight and the construction that makes the capture useful. Retain a specific defensive response. What the island adds, and what you can still afford after taking it.
Developing the build Compare the next Runestone offer with the bottleneck you can currently observe. What it changes, whether it affects something already in use, and what else you would need to buy.
Preparing for a tougher encounter Identify the towers that can engage the target and the job of any support tower. Where useful damage comes from and whether the marked target is actually being attacked.

If one answer is missing, investigate it before committing more resources to the same plan. A different map or permanent progression state may change the order in which these issues become urgent.

1. Troops vs towers: who fights where

If you are trying to send your starting units down the cliffs to fight trench enemies, stop and reassess their job. In a 22 October tutorial discussion, a developer clarified the division: units fight other island units; towers handle trench enemies. Read the developer's reply.

Apply that distinction before buying reinforcements. More soldiers will not address an ordinary trench-defense problem simply because they are close to the action. Conversely, a line of trench-facing towers does not give you a complete plan for taking the next island.

Ask two separate questions: “What is stopping the wave?” and “What is winning the island fight?” If you cannot answer one, you have identified a gap.

2. Choosing which island to attack next

An expansion should solve something: access to a resource you need, a useful position, or progress toward your objective. “There is another island” is an incomplete reason to spend.

Before committing, compare the whole project with staying put:

  • What do you need to reach and contest the island?
  • What can you build or gain there that improves your current position?
  • What resources will remain for the defense you already rely on?
  • If the attack stalls, can the existing position continue to hold?

Choose a smaller objective when the full project would leave you unable to respond elsewhere. A promising island can still be the wrong immediate purchase.

Make island fights easier to review

Before sending the army, name one objective and a position you intend to return to if the attack goes badly. Watch which unit is taking damage and whether the rest of the force is contributing. If you try withdrawing a threatened unit, observe what the enemies do next; do not assume they will stay locked onto the first target or stop attacking.

Read the actual hero ability description before planning an engagement around it. Check its affected targets, activation conditions and cooldown when those are shown. Do the same for any recovery effect available in your run, and build your plan around those conditions.

Judge the next attempt by whether it achieved the island objective with an affordable loss, while the trench defense continued to function.

3. Towers, troops or resources: where to spend next

If trench enemies repeatedly pass the same section, inspect that section's coverage and damage before buying an unrelated upgrade. If an island attack goes badly, reconsider the army commitment and objective before spending on distant towers.

For a resource shortage, name the missing material and the purchase it blocks. “I need a better economy” is too broad to guide a decision. “I need the resources for this defense improvement before funding another expansion” gives you an order of work.

Use the resources guide to compare those competing demands without assuming every map needs the same opening.

4. Why you lost: a defeat checklist

What happened? What to examine next
Soldiers remained on the islands while the base took trench damage Whether you assigned the army a job that belongs to towers
Expansion consumed your spending room The total expansion budget, including what you needed afterward
One part of the route kept leaking Local tower contribution, rather than total tower count
You owned plenty of one material but could not build The specific requirement blocking the purchase
A purchased skill seemed to do nothing immediately Whether it unlocks a future option instead of granting an immediate benefit

Pick one major adjustment for the next attempt. Changing your spending priorities, expansion target, and upgrade choices simultaneously makes it harder to tell which change helped.

5. What carries over between runs

At the end of an attempt, inspect the skill-tree purchase you are considering and describe its effect in your own words. If the description adds a Runestone to the pool, treat that as access to an option. It does not promise that the next run will offer it.

The Runes and skill-tree guide explains that distinction. For the first fortress encounter, continue to the Troll Rider preparation checklist.

Prepare for the Troll Rider

Start with a supported damage plan, not a target tower count. The Forgotten Powers announcement recommends Ballistas and Eyodins for the Troll Rider. Treat that as a direction for preparation, not a guaranteed composition. Read the developer's recommendation.

As your run develops, review three questions:

  1. Where will your damage come from? Identify the towers expected to engage the dangerous target. Having a large total tower count is less informative than knowing which towers can contribute.
  2. What is the support accomplishing? If you are using an Eyodin, plan for its marked target to be attacked by your damage towers. A support purchase needs an existing damage plan.
  3. What can you still afford? Keep the resources for a specific defensive response before spending the remaining budget on expansion.

Ordinary waves feeling comfortable does not, by itself, tell you that the same position is ready for a different encounter. Review its intended job before relying on it.

Do not use an old trigger rule

The 16 October preview notes say the boss wave was moved later in the run. They do not establish its exact current trigger or a universal wave number. Read the preview changes.

Do not build your plan around either “the boss waits until I enter the fortress” or “staying away from the fortress delays it indefinitely.” Neither rule has been verified for the version covered here.

After a failed attempt, record whether the problem was insufficient damage, ineffective support, missing coverage or an exhausted response budget. Use that observation to make one deliberate change.

If the demo is running poorly

The latest patch notes found in our 25 October review are 0.19.4d, published 21 October, with performance improvements and smaller interface fixes. Check that Steam has finished updating the demo before comparing your experience with older reports. Read the official patch notes.

If the issue continues, compare one change at a time using the same save, scene or stage where practical. Record resolution, graphics settings, hardware, the game version or branch shown to you, and whether the slowdown happens immediately or as the run develops.

Changing settings and closing background programs are general diagnostic steps. Keep enough detail to distinguish a repeatable problem from a single slow moment, then use the official feedback thread.