Defense Games

Defense games are all about holding out. You place towers, soldiers or traps, and the enemy comes at your base in waves, trying to tear it down. There are more than 100 on the site, from classic tower games to versions with zombies, pirates and characters you already know.

How a round works

Nearly all of them follow the same pattern. Enemies walk along a path, and you choose which spots around it get a defense. Every enemy you beat usually pays out some money, and that money buys new defenses or upgrades the ones you have. Between waves there's a short pause to regroup. If an enemy reaches the end of the path you lose lives, and when they run out, the game is over. The first waves are gentle. The hard part comes later, with tougher or faster enemies.

Variations, and where to start

The most familiar version is towers along a fixed path. Kingdom Rush, Tower Defense and Spider TD fit that mold, and they're a good first stop if you've never played one. Then there are the ones that change the setting without changing the idea: Tower Defense Zombies, Imposter Survivor vs Zombies and Kingdom Survivor bring in hordes of zombies, while Prehistoric Defense and Pirate Bay move the action to another era. If you like familiar characters, Super Mario Riding Defense and Ben 10 Saving Bellwood bring them into this format.

Not all of them are about building. In some games on the list you play a character who shoots or holds the line directly, and the pace feels closer to an action game than a planning one.

One tip that works in most of them: put your defenses at the bends in the path, where enemies spend more time in range. Upgrade what you already have before buying lots of new pieces, and don't spend all your money at once, because somewhere mid-game a tougher enemy usually forces you to reinforce. Your first run is for learning which enemies show up and in what order. By the second, you know where to build up.