There’s a ton of tower defense games out there, and Age of Giants is one of the latest ones to appear in the Play Store. The game is characterized by fast-paced action, lots of different ways to defeat enemies (other than the towers themselves), and a relatively limited number of lives on each level (all levels feature just ten lives you can give before it is game over).
Age of Giants gives players lots of different ways to strike down their foes. Aside from different defense towers, players have a choice between different powers, heroes, and special moves that, when cleverly combined, should prove a good enough combination for most levels.
The game is free-to-play, and feature a premium currency (diamonds) you can buy for the real-world money, but you can be pretty successful at it without spending a dime. The key is saving up diamonds, combining the best powers and towers, and always trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy.
Age of Giants, more often than not, can prove to be a real challenge with nefarious monsters that can sometimes surprise you and sweep all of your lives in just a couple of minutes, aggressive bosses capable of wreaking havoc and destroying your towers in just a couple of seconds, and your own heroes which can sometimes give you headaches after they stray from their path and leave your giant undefended.
But, at the end of the day, Age of Giants is a challenging but not unfair game. With smart playing strategy, you can beat most levels with your lives intact, securing three stars and a chunk of those valuable diamonds. Stay with us and discover how to play Age of Giants and reap best prizes on every level.
1. Save Up On Diamonds
Diamonds can be used for buying card packs, which are the most important thing in case you want to beat each and every level. Card packs give you a couple of common and rare cards, but the important thing is that you get a couple of identical cards in each pack, meaning you can start upgrading cards.
Card upgrades are Age of Giants’ main way to get better and to make levels easier. When you collect two identical cards, just merge them, and they will get upgraded, improving all card’s stats. And since diamonds are used for buying packs, you must save them up and not spend on shaving off time when upgrading cards.
Never spend diamonds on slashing the time needed for a card to finish upgrading. Even during the tutorial, when the game prompts you about the ability to instant upgrade a card with diamonds, just wait for the card to finish upgrading and not spend diamonds.
After that, you will get five or ten diamonds after successfully finishing each level with a three-star rating. We advise you to try getting 50 diamonds and then buy a card pack. With some extra cards, you will be able to make a couple of upgrades, improving your arsenal and giving you higher chances of getting a three-star rating on each level.
2. If You Can’t Get Three Stars On A Level, Just Leave It And Get Back To It With Stronger Card Arsenal
If a level proves to be particularly tricky, if you can’t get your life counter intact after each monster wave ends, we advise you to skip that level and get back once you receive some upgrades. Some levels are pretty tough to beat, and since Age of Giants features energy system seen in many more similar games, it is better to spend that energy on playing new levels (which can give you more stars and maybe some diamonds) than to spend them on a level on which you can’t get a three-star rating with your current card combination.
We had a couple of levels that gave us lots of trouble. After trying for a couple of times, and failing, to get all three stars we just skipped those levels and returned once we upgraded some cards. And voila, monsters suddenly became flail and weak and we managed to secure a perfect rating (and lots of diamonds) without any problems.
3. Think A Bit Before You Start Placing Towers
Since Age of Giants features levels with pre-built places for towers and not free-form tower placement, it is important to place the best towers in places where they will have the best range. Try putting your best towers in places where they will cover the most ground, where they will be able to strike the most enemies.
For instance, if you have a dragon, try placing it so it can strike foes in the widest angle. Also, the tower capable of slowing down enemies should cover the most ground.
Basically, just take your time before placing towers. In Age of Giants you have unlimited time on your hands before the first wave of monsters starts coming your way, so take the time to think and come with the best possible tower placement strategy.
4. Always Pick The Best Towers
Preparation screen, shown before each level, shows all of your cards and enables you to select which ones will be used on a level. Always pick the best cards available, and always make sure to have at least one hero.
Just tap on a tower to see its damage output and always pick the most powerful towers. This way you will always have the most deadly tower arsenal at your disposal, improving your chances of getting the best grade.
So, when on preparation screen always check out damage output of all towers and pick strongest ones.
5. Always Pick At Least One Hero
Heroes can be a great help during the first couple of waves when your towers aren’t upgraded and when enemies can reach your giant easily. We advise you to pay for a hero instead spending gold on a couple of upgrades.
You see, a hero will stop enemies from reaching your giant and prevent them from stealing your lives, they are great for putting monsters to a halt, giving your towers more time to kill the off, and are excellent last line of defense capable of giving you a free extra seconds needed to earn enough mana to upgrade tower damage and range.
So, be sure to have at least one hero in your attacking arsenal on each level. Having two heroes is even better since you can summon the other hero immediately after monsters kill the hero who is placed on the battlefield.
6. Take Your Time
You can fast forward time when on a level, but we don’t recommend to do that except if you have powerful towers. Since fast forwarding time gives you less time to react and move your hero or upgrade towers, we recommend not to speed up time unless you have all towers maximally upgrade.
Playing slow but steady gives you more time to think and to spend mana on upgrading towers that are the most important. This way you will be able to upgrade the most important towers and to think about your strategy.
Just take your time. Each level can be beaten with a three-star rating, but for doing that you will need to always pick the most important upgrades and to have enough time to place your hero at the best possible position on the map, making it slow down enemies for your towers to kill them, or to stop monsters from attacking your giant (the huge thing that stands between monsters and your gate) and steal your lives.
7. Elven Giant Is The Best One To Pick
You have three giants to pick from at each level. The elven giant has the least amount of health, but has powerful spells that can mean a difference between getting one or two stars, or getting all three stars and earning a diamond prize.
Also, once you get the wooden shield for the Elven giant, equip it immediately. Wooden shield gives you the best power of them all, the power to recharge your lives. Yes, it gives you just one extra life at a time, but that’s usually just what you need since on many levels you will end up having one or two lives chipped off preventing you from obtaining a perfect score.
8. Combine Different Towers
Always pick at least three towers (except on the first couple of levels when you won’t have three different towers on your disposal), so they can be combined. Ballista towers are great for enemies without armor, electric towers are super effective against monsters with shields or armor, and dragons are great for any enemy since they spit fire that burns enemies over time.
Always combine different towers. This way your towers will be able to kill off various monsters, no matter whether they feature armor or shields.
Okay, folks, that was all. If you play smart, save up diamonds for card packs, and always have all of your towers spells and heroes maximally upgraded, you should have no problems with getting three stars on most levels.
We managed to play the whole game without spending one dollar on diamonds, and while the start was tough, after you upgrade a couple of towers and heroes things should get much easier. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!