Enemies are coming from every direction, you’ve got one tower left standing, and another wave is only 30 seconds away. There’s no army waiting to help you, no extra defences scattered around the map, and nowhere to retreat when things start getting crowded. Everything depends on what you can build into that one tower before the next group arrives.
Thankfully, you get eight new upgrade cards to choose from every round.
Tower Survivors: Fortress launches today on Steam, bringing a tower-defense auto battler from developer Berraco that takes inspiration from the popular Tower Survivors Warcraft 3 mod. You’ll collect weapons, combine elemental effects, and turn humanity’s last tower into something capable of holding off orcs, undead, beasts, and demons.
There are more than 120 weapons and upgrades to work with, although you’ll need to choose carefully. The enemies get stronger every round, and they’re not going to stop just because you’re still deciding what to buy.
Eight Cards, 30 Seconds, and Another Wave
Every round gives you a selection of eight potential upgrade cards, letting you add weapons, improve your existing equipment, or start putting together combinations that make your tower stronger.
The weapons range from a basic Bow costing 500 gold to the much more expensive Wrath of the Sky at 10,000 gold. That gives you some decisions to make about whether to invest in smaller improvements now or save towards something with a much bigger price tag.
You’ll need to think about how those weapons work together too. There are eight attributes in the game including Physical, Magic, Fire, Water, Lightning, Nature, Holy, and Unholy. Each weapon carries one or two of them, with bonuses stacking within an element and multiplying across different ones. That means concentrating on one element can make your attacks stronger, while weapons that combine two attributes can help connect different parts of your build.
Status effects are something else to consider. Burn, chill, stun, chain, shred, and leech can all play a part, with upgrades that reward you for combining them in different ways. The enemies have their own strengths and weaknesses too. Orcs, undead, beasts, and demons each resist certain attacks and take more damage from others, so building everything around one idea might leave you struggling when the next faction arrives.
Nothing is completely immune, though, which gives you room to make a build work even when the enemy lineup isn’t doing you any favours.
Forty Waves Is Just the Warm-Up
There are two main ways to play Tower Survivors: Fortress, and they handle progression quite differently.
Standard Survival is the more straightforward challenge. You get a preparation round before facing 40 waves, with an elite enemy arriving every ten rounds to see how well your tower is holding up. There’s no permanent progression or saving between attempts, so everything comes down to the weapons and upgrades you choose during that run.
Fortress Mode is a different matter. It’s endless, starts at a higher difficulty, and gives you Dominion Points whenever you die. Those points can be spent on a permanent upgrade tree that changes what you’ll have available the next time you play. You can unlock a ninth shop slot, get a free reroll every round, start with an Ankh, or earn a second Hail Mary to help when things aren’t going well.
The regular boss arrives at round 40, but Fortress Mode has another waiting at round 80. Survive that encounter and the waves continue, giving you more time to find out just how much damage your tower can deal before the enemies finally bring it down.
There’s Plenty More Than One Way to Survive
Across its two modes, Tower Survivors: Fortress includes more than 50 enemy types, three elite encounters, two bosses, five or more biomes, and three difficulty tiers.
There are also achievements that encourage you to make things harder for yourself, including completing runs with only one element, refusing to reroll your shop choices, or sticking to basic weapons. Steam leaderboards also let you compare your results with friends and players around the world, giving you another reason to see how far your latest tower can make it.
Tower Survivors: Fortress launches today on Steam for PC. Forty waves might be enough to save the day in Standard Survival.