Universal Tower Defense: A beginner’s guide

Universal Tower Defense is a tower defense-style experience where you collect units through the Summon system and use them in battle. Battles have you face several waves of enemies bent on attacking your home base. Your objective is to use your units to defeat all enemies and protect the home base from being destroyed.

Each battle requires you to adapt to the situation through unit placement, upgrades, and resource management. This guide covers the basics of Universal Tower Defense, giving you a rundown of its core mechanics and what can help you clear its missions.

Getting started with Universal Tower Defense

Overview

In-game titles (Image via Roblox)

Universal Tower Defense is a straightforward tower defense title: get units by performing summons on the Summon Banner, equip the best ones, and head into battle. Battles can be in the form of Story mode or special Dungeons, and Event missions. Story missions tend to be easier and beginner-friendly, while Dungeons and exclusive Events are balanced with endgame players in mind.

Your party loadout consists of six unit slots, in which you can equip your collected units freely. If you’re just starting the game, you will only have access to four of the six available slots. At level 15, you will unlock the fifth slot, while level 30 gives you access to the sixth slot.

In battle, enemies spawn from a fixed point and follow a preset path to your home base. You can place your units along the path to deter them. It’s possible to place the same unit multiple times if you are short on characters to use in the early game. Defeating units and clearing waves is the most straightforward way of generating Cash, allowing you to upgrade your on-field units and boost their stats. Each upgrade costs more than the preceding one, so keeping an eye on the Cash counter is a must.

Once your units make short work of the enemy onslaught, you will receive the clear bonus for the stage and the option to replay it. Stages have first-time clear rewards, like Gems, and farmable prizes, like upgrade materials.

Try to collect as many Gems as possible to get the best units in the game and use them to trivialize even the most challenging encounters.

If you’re looking for similar tower defense-style titles, Tower Defense Simulator is a classic Roblox Tower Defense experience. Feel free to check out the beginner’s guide for this game to learn more about its basics.

Controls

Available game modes and areas (Image via Roblox)

• Movement: W, S, A, D
• Interact with units and UI elements: Left Mouse Button
• Skip wave: Spacebar
• Upgrade unit: E
• Sell unit: R
• Sprint: Left Shift
• Menu: Tab

Gameplay features

Gameplay still (Image via Roblox)

• Gameplay Progression: The progression system in this game is simple: start by clearing a few beginner-level missions to get Gems, and use them in Summons. Chances are, you will land at least one Epic-rarity unit, which can serve as your main damage dealer. Use this character to clear the Story mode and gather even more Gems. The idea is to get the best units possible as quickly as you can to make the endgame accessible at a faster rate. Once you have at least one Legendary-rarity character, it’s time to start leveling them up and upgrading your units’ stats through permanent buffs.
• Unit passives and abilities: Beyond raw stats, what makes certain units better than others are their abilities and passives. They give characters their unique flair, making them distinct among the game’s roster of different towers. Additionally, you can use stat points each time your units level up to boost their stats and improve their overall effectiveness.
• Etherealizing Units: Units can be Etherealized by feeding them duplicates, unlocking new passives and bonuses. This feature gives dupes a purpose beyond being fodder that occupies your unit inventory space. If you have a duplicate, use the Etherealize feature from the Units menu to strengthen your main unit.
• Relics: Relics are boosters that apply passive effects to a unit. These effects range from critical chance boosts to hyper armor, essentially changing how a unit functions. The idea is to get a Relic that suits your character rather than using any Relic for any unit. Based on your preference, you may either use them to mitigate a character’s shortcomings or amplify their strengths even further. It’s always better to craft a unit’s build through the latter approach, giving you access to a specialized character instead of a master-of-none unit.
• Traits: Traits target a specific stat of the unit to which they are attached. In a way, these are optimization tools that can help maximize a specific stat of the targeted character. Getting Traits is a matter of RNG, as Trait Rerolls are required to randomly assign a specific Trait to the desired unit.
• Evolution: Certain units can be evolved to transform them into their final forms, giving them new abilities and maximizing their effectiveness. Each eligible unit can be evolved using specialized Evolution materials, which can be obtained through stage completion, crafting, and shop purchases.
• Quests: A large part of this game’s resource collection process is through the Quests menu. You can complete Daily, Weekly, and Personal Quests for units, currency, upgrade materials, and more. The more missions you clear, the better equipped you will be for the endgame. So, consider actively aiming and completing the tasks listed in the Quests menu to make your progression even faster and smoother.
• Game modes: Alongside the Story mode, you can access the Challenges and Virtual Realm modes. In the Challenge mode, you can tackle specialized daily dungeons, Half-Hourly missions, and the featured Challenge map. The Virtual Realm mode gives you the option to access special stages modeled after those seen in the Story mode, albeit with increased difficulty. Both of these modes grant you ways to farm exclusive resources.

Also read: Unique Roblox username ideas for new players

FAQs on Universal Tower Defense

What is Universal Tower Defense about?

Universal Tower Defense is a tower defense-style experience all about using units obtained through summons to defeat hordes of enemies and keep your home base safe.

Is Universal Tower Defense free to play?

Yes, Universal Tower Defense offers its core gameplay mechanics to experience for free, only locking behind optional items and boosts behind a paywall.

How do I get new units in Universal Tower Defense?

You can get new units in Universal Tower Defense by summoning on the Summon Banners using Gems and event currency.

Edited by Swapnil Joshi