Defense Derby Guide - Advanced strategy tips for beating bosses and upgrading quickly

With Defense Derby launching recently, the race to the top of the leaderboard is well and truly underway, and even after a few matches under your belt, there are undoubtedly still ways you can improve. If you are looking for a few more tips to be the best, then take a look below.

Never miss a synergy opportunity

If there's one golden rule in Defense Derby, it's that synergy wins matches, but what is the best synergy to build around? On sheer numbers, you’re best building your winning deck around Factions, not Types. With Faction bonuses stacking up to 60%, and Types staying at 30%, you can see why we prefer this approach to get the maximum 90% possible on each Unit.

Also, it is worth bearing in mind that whilst you can’t make a full Physical or Magic team from a single Faction right now, there is no doubt that Krafton will add extra characters at some point to make up the numbers. Of course, you should also take advantage of synergy between Units.

If we look at the Beast Faction, we can make a pretty strong team from effects. Start with Windy, who triples attack speed when he lands a critical hit. Put him next to Minotaur who increases Critical Chance, you will be procuring that bonus more often. Making your Hero Aella who also increases Critical Chance and Damage, meaning Windy will be pumping out a lot more damage. Finally, with Meow Mage increasing the Attack Speed of Units next to them, Windy will be a rapid-fire machine. Keep an eye out for these kinds of combinations to make an unstoppable team.

How to boss the Bosses

By now you will have played a few games and encountered a few of those menacing monster masters; Bosses, and they can be a bit of a pain to contend with, but if you know what you’re doing it can be more straightforward. The Blocker for example is probably one of the easier ones to deal with. He walks out with a huge stack of shields that reduce all damage to one until you whittle it away, so make sure you stack the start of your castle with quick units like Lupine Berskers and Archer to knock out his defence before your heavy hitters.

When Summoner comes out, make sure to shuffle your Units around so your bigger damage is always focused on them whilst leaving your AOEs at the beginning. Otherwise, the waves of enemies they summon will overwhelm you. Greed is tricky because of all the hearts they generate on the lanes to heal, so your best bet is to make sure you have one Unit that can slow, or one with knockback to pump out maximum damage before each heal.

King Slime is only a bother if you don’t prepare your formation correctly. Throw your big damagers like Divine Warden - the only time he is really useful - at Slime at the beginning to split them up quickly, and then stick your AoEs on the leftovers. The only wildcard is Ping and Pong, with their ability to shuffle your formation, whilst triggering all of their deployment counters so you can’t move them again, so your only reliable impact comes in three or four seconds. Load up the beginning with your most powerful burst units, and set up the end with some knockbacks to give yourself the best chance.

Do your dailies

The most important piece of advice for future success is the most obvious; make sure to do your daily missions. Easy quests such as logging in, levelling up and simply playing will get you 600 Cubics, along with 1,000 from the Weekly quests. That's a total of 52 units just from playing a little each day. On top of this, if you complete the slightly more specific Missions such as killing certain bosses, you will get yourself artefacts for those passive boosts.

Finally, don’t forget the Valley of Trials. Three times a day you can re-play your highest completed level of this rotating challenge, each providing you Crystals for one of the three Factions. You can use these to recruit units of that type, and even if they aren't in your deck, it's always worth putting in those five minutes to upgrade, just on the chance you Scout them.

Where to lighten your pockets

Krafton gives you a lot of ways to get a variety of currencies, and it can be a bit daunting to know what to spend them on, but it is pretty straightforward when you discard the less optimal choices. If you start with Cubics, throw them straight at the Fated Summons for two reasons; powering up units, and, of course, because that’s all you can spend them on. Easy.

Faction Crystals you want to save up until you get 3,000 for that extra free summon, so don’t be too hasty. When you first complete a Valley stage you get generic Crystals that can be spent on any of the three Factions, so simply add these to whoever you primarily use.

The hardest choice of currency is Gems, Defense Derby’s premium currency. You can use this to auto-complete Valley of Trail stages, open new deck slots, expand Army slots or on more summons. Our advice is definitely to save up to 2,000 each time and use them on the 11x Gem Summons, as this is the most useful option. These are the best way to gain extra Heroes to upgrade them with.

Who deserves your attention?

Our last two currencies are Gold and Elixir - the two most important - as these will be what you need to upgrade units, and will be the ones you miss the most when they run out. You can get a lot from advancing through Derby Mode and increasing your Garrison rewards, but you still won’t have enough for every single unit.

Start with your eight units for your primary deck, and max them out each time you manage to upgrade them. This will help you win Derby matches and advance through Blitz stages. Then, choose your preferred eight units from each Faction so you can advance through the Valley of Trails to maximise your daily Crystals. Finally, always keep your Army spaces filled, as that will save an innumerable amount of resources.

Even though it has only recently been released, it is quite obvious that Defense Derby is quite unlike any other tower defence that came before it. Even veterans could use a few pointers in this unfamiliar terrain, so take what you have learnt above and continue your journey to Castle Connoisseur.