If I had a dime for every dead monster…

*If you have no idea what Master of Defense is - and feel intrigued to learn more - the game’s homepage can be found here where all your questions can be answered.
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I’ve only been playing this game for a few days now, but I’ve learned a number of tricks that I wish I would’ve known before I began. So if you’re struggling or looking to refine your tactics, read on for some helpful advice.

• 1. Upgrade existing towers before building new ones.
• This can’t be stressed enough; it is absolutely vital to winning the game. The idea is simple: for each tower that you build, upgrade it to more or less full strength before constructing a new one. A single maximized tower is worth a lot more than a bunch of weaker ones - quality over quantity. Don’t get overzealous and build 10 level 0 towers right off the bat unless you like to lose.
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  2. Save after each successful raid and then spend the gold.
• You don’t have to do this after every turn, but it’s a good rule to practice. It can mean the difference between destroying the next raid and letting a few squeak by. Sometimes all it takes is one more upgrade or one more tower with a couple of upgrades to make all the difference. If one method doesn’t work, reload and try something else.
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  3. Use caution when selecting monsters.
• Clicking on a monster will cause all towers within range to attack that one enemy. This generally isn’t a problem during the early raids, but as the trains get longer, faster, and harder to kill, this action will cripple your defenses, allowing a ton of baddies to slip through unscathed.
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  4. Slow down the game speed.
• Playing at normal game speed tends to move a bit fast for the last few raids of each map. Slowing things down can help reduce the pain of multi-tasking.
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  5. Sell the majority of your towers during the final raid.
• Sadly the game doesn’t convert all of your towers into gold after the last encounter; instead, you’re forced to quickly pick and choose which towers to sell while keeping enough around to win the battle. The payoff comes at the beginning of the next map because you’ll receive one inhabitant for every 100 gold previously acquired.
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  6. Pause the game via the experience menu (map 2+)
• While probably unintentional, using the experience menu to pause allows you to perform a couple of time-saving “cheats”.
• *Note: the main menu does not work as a substitute.
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    a. Move around and construct towers.
  • You can go anywhere on the map and build any tower unrestricted. As a bonus, if you build a tower and click the upgrade button, the action will take place once the game resumes. Unfortunately, you can’t upgrade any pre-existing towers using this method.
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    b. Position the balloon (map 4+)
  • If you right click the desired destination for the balloon and then enter the experience menu, the balloon will continue traveling to the specified position.
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  7. Max out the “gold income” option in the experience menu (map 2+)
• The first two maps are the hardest, in my opinion, because gold is tight. Once this upgrade has been maxed out, you’ll be collecting 100 gold per turn making life much easier for upcoming maps. I’d recommend doing this after dropping a point into both the fire and ice towers.
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  8. Use the balloon effectively (map 4+)
• I like to place the balloon over the enemy spawn point and use it to follow the train below. The balloon loses effectiveness in terms of damage for the last half or so of the remaining raids, but it’s still great for slowing down monsters and grouping them into tower-eating-sized chunks.
• The balloon can also be used for cleanup should a monster or two break loose; but if the towers are setup properly, this should be a rare occurrence.

Good luck and have fun playing!