FANTASY DEFENSE Max Damage Strategy Guide Version 1.0 Copyright 2011-2016 Kelvin Liu V1.0 December 28, 2016 -Added "Going Beyond DPSG" section describing advanced strategies -Added "Introduction" section -Minor fixes: guide name, description, DFC>DPSG, formatting V0.2 January 19, 2011 -Corrected attack speeds using data -Updated DPS using new attack speeds V0.1 January 19, 2011 -Started guide ======================= Introduction ======================= The table below shows the DPS (Damage per Second) and the DPSG (Damage per Second per Gold) of the classes available in Fantasy Defense. A class with higher DPS is stronger, but that still doesn't mean it's better. Instead you should look at DPSG, which is the bang for your buck. If you want the simplest strategy, just build units with the highest Damage per Second per Gold (see the table). If you want the advanced strategy, keep reading. The main purpose of this guide is to present the statistics I've collected, not to cover comprehensive gameplay. The strategies presented here are simple ones that work, but you may know better ones. Feel free to email me about them. There's also no guarantee that I've covered all the factors that make units better or worse. My hope is that these numbers and discussions help improve your understanding of tower defense strategy. ======================= Damage per Second (DPS) ======================= DPS is used to compare the strength of units because comparing damage alone isn't useful. Why? Because a 200-damage unit is actually worse than a 100- damage unit that fires three times as fast. So we calculate DPS by dividing attack damage by the time it takes to attack, giving us the average amount of damage dealt each second. A minor detail to remember is that a unit that deals infinite damage is no better than a 1,000,000-damage unit. Since overkill damage does nothing, it counts against DPS, so the faster unit with same DPS is always technically stronger. We won't go further into this because it's hard measure and not that important. If you're an advanced player, you know that DPS (and even DPSG) are only half the story. DPS doesn't take into account unit placement, the usefulness of Range/Slowing/Stunning, or the chance to do extra damage with Multishot/Splash/Pierce. I tried my best to fix this by adjusting the DPS (eg. by doubling the DPS of Blaster assuming it hits two enemies on average), but of course this really depends on the level and unit placement. I discuss advanced strategies for using DPSC to compare classes in the "Going Beyond DPSG" section. ================================= Damage per Second per Gold (DPSG) ================================= DPSG measures how much damage you're getting for gold spent, so the basic strategy is to build units with the highest DPSG. So build only Holy Eyes (or Warriors if the enemies have less than 400 HP) and don't upgrade. This strategy might not always work, so see the next section (Going Beyond DPSG) for the advanced strategy. DPSG is a better way to compare classes than DPS, for the same reason that comparing DPS is better than just Damage. You can build three Level 3 Wizards (831 total DPS) for the price of one Sky Arrow (280 total DPS) and get more than double the DPS. So DPS isn't everything. On the other hand, if there isn't enough space to build three Level 3 Wizards, then you DO want to pick the unit with higher DPS. ================= Going Beyond DPSG ================= Slowing, Stunning, and Range, along with good unit placement all improve the effectiveness of units. A high DPSG unit is useless if it's too far away to hit enemies. The amount of time a unit spends doing nothing hurts its DPSG, so increasing Range and putting the unit in a better spot help. Slowing and Stunning help in the same way by keeping the enemies in range of your towers. If you use Slowing and Stunning, you should always group your other units around these "chokepoints" to improve their "effective" DPSG. This effective DPSG changes depending on the unit's range, location, enemy speed, etc., so there's no way to measure it overall. I'll give you two ways to measure it yourself. Here's the hard way: Look at a particular unit in a particular spot on a particular level and count (in your head) how many seconds it actually spends attacking. Then multiply this by the DPSG Damage per Second per Gold) to get DPGL (Damage per Gold for the level). Short of doing a bunch of math, DPGL is the best possible way to measure unit effectiveness. Now let me explain the much easier but less accurate way: The greater length of path (taken by the enemies) that the unit can reach, the longer it'll stay active. Since spots that can hit two (or more) different enemy paths essentially multiplies your active time by two (or more), that ends up being the most important factor. Hairpin loops (spots the path doubles back on itself) count too. (So it's much more important to use range to reach more paths or hairpins, than just hitting enemies earlier.) So count the total number of paths or hairpins in range and multiply by DPSG to get DPGL^ (relative DPGL). DPGL^ is very different from DPGL, but luckily you don't need DPGL if you just want to compare which unit is better! For those interested in the math, here's the formula: multiplier = num_paths_or_hairpins x (length_wave + length_range) / speed The actual amount of time spent attacking is related to the number of paths or hairpins, the length of the wave (total distance, let's say in squares, from the first to last enemy), the length of path covered by the unit's range (in squares), and the speed of the enemies (in squares per second). Since length_range is very small compared to length_wave, we can ignore it, giving us: multiplier ~= num_paths_or_hairpins x length_wave / speed Now, since length_wave and speed are going to be the same for every unit (except Slowing or Stunning, to some extent), and we just care about comparing the units, we can just divide those out. This leaves us with multiplier ~= num_paths_or_hairpins, like we discussed above! In the table below, I already adjusted DPSG to try and include the value of units with special effects (Warlord, Brandisher, Splatter, Holy Eye, Sorceress, Blaster, Ice Mage). But these measurements change from stage to stage. For example, I assumed Blaster's Splash damage would hit two enemies on average, so I multiplied DPSG by two. If you're playing a stage with lots of enemies clumped together, maybe you multiply my DPSG by three or four instead (and then divide by two because I had already multiplied by two). Now for the strategy: Just always build the unit in the spot that will give you the highest DPGL^. Remember the easy way: DPGL^ = num_paths_or_hairpins x DPSG (from the table) This is much easier than it sounds. Usually it just means putting Holy Eye or Ice Mage (if you need range to reach multiple paths or hairpins), or Brandisher. If you've made it this far, congratulations! Now you know a sure-fire way to build better units. It isn't perfect (since it works poorly for Slowing/Stunning, and doesn't consider armor, overkill, and other unpredictable factors), but it's a good start. ============== The DPSG Table ============== This table lists the stats for every tower class at each upgrade level. Remember that you don't have to upgrade to level 3 to class change. Attack, Speed, Range, and Gold (cost) are already given to you in-game. Now, I calculated an approximate DPS (damage per second) for each class/level taking into account special effects. From this, I also calculated the DPSG (damage per second per gold). You can use this table to find the highest-damaging or most cost-effective unit. cClass Level ATT SPD RNG Gold DPS DPSG ======================================================================== WARRIOR 1 130 255 100 300 138 0.92 2 210 270 104 500 241 0.96 3 280 285 108 750 347 0.92 KNIGHT 1 230 350 108 900 406 0.90 2 300 305 112 1400 413 0.59 3 380 320 116 2200 567 0.52 WARLORD 1 450 265 115 2100 755 0.72 splash damage 2 600 275 119 2700 1059 0.78 to an area<3x3 3 750 285 124 3900 1393 0.71 BRANDISHER 1 140 240 111 500 166 0.66 chance to stop 2 220 255 115 1250 281 0.45 enemy briefly 3 310 270 119 2250 427 0.38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARCHER 1 80 250 230 300 83 0.55 2 130 265 260 500 145 0.58 3 200 280 280 750 241 0.64 SPLATTER 1 120 250 250 900 312 0.69 shoots 3 at 2 180 265 265 1400 503 0.72 once 3 250 280 280 2200 754 0.69 SKY ARROW 1 280 290 360 2100 356 0.34 2 360 305 400 2700 496 0.37 3 450 320 440 3900 672 0.34 HOLY EYE 1 100 105 220 500 258 1.03 damages even 2 200 125 240 1250 553 0.88 after hit 3 300 145 260 2250 891 0.79 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WIZARD 1 120 225 210 300 111 0.74 2 180 240 230 500 178 0.71 3 260 255 240 750 277 0.74 SORCERESS 1 240 190 240 900 312 0.69 attacks through 2 300 210 255 1400 426 0.62 enemies 3 380 230 270 2200 592 0.54 BLASTER 1 320 250 280 2100 665 0.63 splash damage 2 420 265 290 2700 939 0.70 to an area>3x3 3 550 275 300 3900 1294 0.66 ICE MAGE 1 140 250 200 500 174 0.70 chance to slow 2 220 270 230 1250 303 0.48 to 1/2 speed 3 300 285 260 2250 446 0.40 Note certain units have additional effects (I tried to compensate for these when calculating DPS): WARLORD - does splash damage to an area slightly smaller than a 3x3 square (1.5x DPS) BRANDISHER - has about 50% chance of "stunning" the enemy when hit, stopping it in its tracks temporarily (1.2x DPS) SPLATTER - shoots 3 arrows at a time, hitting any enemies in range; thus 3x DPS unless there aren't enough enemies HOLY EYE - marks the enemy on hit; the enemy keeps taking damage for a while; this does about 4x DPS SORCERESS - pierces the enemy, hitting any enemies behind it (1.5x DPS) BLASTER - does splash damage to an area slightly larger than a 3x3 square (2x DPS) ICE MAGE - has a chance of "slowing" the enemy to 1/2 speed for a while (1.2x DPS) ======= Credits ======= I will credit you if you contribute material, corrections, suggestions, or anything else to this guide. Currently, credit goes to: -The GameFAQs forum users for pointing out that Ice Mage and Brandisher are great despite low DPS -GameFAQs, for hosting this guide -And you, for reading this guide All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. This guide may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. The following websites have express permission to use this guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com