Fire-Forged Friendships: A Beginner’s Guide to Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

The Kingdom Rush series has been a mobile mainstay for many years now. First published as a Flash game in 2011, the franchise has carefully cultivated its unique take on the tower defense genre, with each iteration of the series better than the last. That leads to the most recent game in the series: Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance.

In Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, you’ll once again step into the shoes of a commander leading the armies of Linirea in search of the king. However, there’s a twist this time. Vez’nan, our erstwhile foe and dark lord, will join us in our quest to find King Denas. What kind of foe would persuade our foe to work together with us? How long will this alliance hold? And what kinds of havoc will you wreak, given the power of both Linirea and the Dark Army?

Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance is available on the Google Play Store, the App Store, and on PC via Steam. For reference, I’ll be using screenshots from the mobile version. Note, too, that this is a paid game, but there are also optional microtransactions.

In this Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance beginner’s guide, we’ll be going over:

• Game Basics – the basics of Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance.
• Mastering Your Tools – beating TDs requires an intimate understanding of your tools so that you know which tower or ability to use in which situation. Here’s a breakdown of your towers, skills, and heroes, as well as how to upgrade them.
• General TD Tactics – victory consists of two parts: knowing your tools and leveraging the environment. Here, we’ll discuss TD tactics, such as utilizing chokepoints, separating foes, grouping enemies, and more.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a TLDR guide, feel free to jump to the “Quick Tips” subsections!

Game Basics

While the game does have a fantastic tutorial, it always pays to go over the basics. In this section, we’ll be going over both tower defense basics and basics specific to Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

Quick Tips:

• Your objective in each map is to weather all enemy waves.
• Each enemy that touches your base costs you a different number of lives; lose 20 lives and you lose the stage.
• Enemies arrive in waves, indicated by skulls.
• You can tap on a skull to see the enemy types in a wave, how many of each type there will be, and what path will they take.
• Some stages give enemies new paths as the waves progress. Stay alert and spread out your defenses to mitigate the danger of an ambush.
• Skulls with wings indicate that that wave will have flying enemies.
• You can double tap a skull to call a wave early. This nets you bonus gold and ability cooldown time. Be prudent in calling waves early as it’s very easy to overwhelm your defenses.
• Build towers to slay enemies before they reach their goal. Towers can only be built on empty lots. There are four general tower types:
  • Arrow tower – all-around DPS. Physical damage, can hit flying.
  • Barracks – summons units to block the path. Physical damage, cannot hit flying.
  • Mage – burst DPS that utilizes slow but powerful attacks. Magical damage, can hit flying.
  • Artillery – masters of splash damage. Physical damage, cannot directly hit flying.
• Towers can be sold at a loss.
• There is no one omni-tower. You will need to utilize each tower’s unique strengths and cover their weaknesses to succeed.
• Each tower shows its relevant stats: attack damage, attack speed, and range. Range is represented by a green ring around the tower when tapped or placed.
• You can equip 5 towers. You don’t need to bring one tower of each type, either.
• Some stages will have extra elements that can assist you, such as damaging spells, unique pre-placed towers, and background events.
• If you’re having a hard time with a particular level, make sure you’re engaging with that stage’s unique element. A little extra help never hurt!
• The two factions are Linirea and the Dark Army. Their approaches to towers, units, upgrades, and heroes differ. This means that you can use the tools of both armies to create a powerful fighting force that covers the weaknesses of the other half.
• You can tap on an enemy to view its stats, namely its health, damage and damage type, resistances, and lives.
• Damage done by foes only applies to your units. In general, one unit blocks one enemy.
• Enemies cannot attack towers directly, and their AI has them move to the base at the end of their path as their highest priority.
• Resistances are split into physical or magical armor. Armor is classified as low/medium/high, and the more armor a unit has against a damage type, the less damage of that type it will receive. True damage ignores armor.
• Enemies tend to have either physical or magic armor, not both.
• Standard enemies do 1 damage if they reach your base, minibosses deal around 2-3. Bosses always deal 999 damage, meaning that they will always be lethal.
• On top of their stats, most enemies also have abilities. You can tap on an enemy’s portrait to see its abilities.
• Use the knowledge you glean from an enemy’s stats and ability to come up with a counterstrategy against it.
• Finishing a stage nets you stars depending on how many lives you have left when you clear the stage.
  • 18-20 lives left = 3 stars. No need to reset at one or two leaks if you still have 18 lives.
  • 6-17 lives left = 2 stars.
  • 1-5 lives left = 1 star.
• Each star is worth 1 upgrade point in the upgrade tree.
• There are 4 difficulty settings – casual, normal, hardcore, and impossible. Enemies have less or more health depending on your difficulty setting.
• You can still get all 3 stars regardless of difficulty setting. The only thing it affects is an achievement for finishing all stages on hardcore and impossible, respectively.
• Heroic and Iron challenges are optional tests of skill. These are very difficult levels that have special restrictions. You do not need to clear them to progress, though clearing them will give you a prettier stage banner and an achievement for clearing all heroic and iron challenges (respectively).

Objectives

In all tower defense games, the objective is simple: survive a certain number of waves. If they touch your base, you lose a life; run out of lives and you lose. In Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, your base varies from map to map, but will always be indicated by a shield icon.

Enemy Waves

Enemies in Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance come in waves. These waves are indicated by skull icons:

You can tap on a skull icon to see what enemies will arrive in that wave, how many of each enemy there will be, and which path they will take – the last one is especially important in stages with multiple bases. Some skulls will also have wings on them, which indicates flying foes.

Beware – while most paths are highlighted from the beginning of a round, some stages give enemies alternative ways to penetrate your defenses and emerge somewhere you might not expect. It pays to stay alert and spread out your defenses so that you won’t be caught unawares.

You can double tap on any skull to call a wave early. This gives you some bonus gold and cooldown for your abilities, but be warned – it’s very easy to get overwhelmed with multiple waves, so be prudent in rushing waves!

Tower 101

To protect your base, you’ll need to build towers. Towers can only be built on empty lots, such as these:

To build a tower, simply tap on a lot, select the tower you want, and then tap once more to confirm. The gold will be deducted from your stores. To get more gold, you’ll need to kill mobs. No, mobs that make it to your base do not count as dead and will not give gold.

There are four basic tower types in Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance:

• Archer towers are all-around DPS towers. They don’t excel in any particular field, but they push out a fast wave of low to medium damage projectiles. These deal physical damage and can hit flying enemies.
• Barracks produce infantry that will block the way for enemy troops. When enemies run into your units, they’ll stop to engage them in combat, delaying them and potentially creating openings for your other towers. Barracks soldiers deal physical damage and cannot engage flying foes with their normal attack.
• Mages are the opposite of archers. Instead of firing multiple projectiles, mage towers fire a slow but immensely powerful magic attack. This burst damage role makes mages great at taking down big, beefy targets. These deal magical damage and can hit flying targets.
• Artillery towers are the masters of splash damage. With their explosives, they can pepper areas with bombs, dealing great damage in an area despite the low individual damage of their shots. Artillery towers deal physical damage and cannot fire at flying foes – though fliers caught in the AOE of artillery attacks will still take damage.

If ever you build the wrong tower or need emergency funds, you can sell a tower by tapping on it and then tapping the dollar sign. Note that towers are always sold at a loss, so it’s always better to plan carefully from the get-go!

That said, there is no single tower that can handle every challenge in the game. Archers, for example, fare poorly against heavily armored, high HP foes, while barracks barely have any DPS to contribute. You will need to mix and match the different towers at your disposal to succeed.

Now, each tower has stats. These can be seen by clicking on the tower or looking at the preview when placing that tower.

In the image above, we can see that the Tricannon I deals 3-5 damage per projectile, has a very slow attack speed, and has a decent range. Range is represented by the green ring, and towers can only attack enemies within their range.

Lastly, Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance allows you to bring up to five towers into combat.

The towers you have equipped can be changed in the “Towers” menu option while on the world map.

Outside Help

Some levels will have extra elements to help you in a fight. It’s only fair; the enemies do have access to ambushes, after all.

While in a stage, look out for new towers, units, or events that can help you. For example, the heart in The Heart of the Forest will channel a powerful spell that can be unleashed when the Arborean says it’s time!

Other stages have pre-placed towers that you can interact with, such as the Arborean Thornspear barracks in the Emerald Treetops.

Sometimes, you’ll need to do certain tasks to enlist outside help, such as the slaves in the Carmine Mines.

To free these people (and convert them to archers that will pelt enemies from above), you’ll need to defeat the taskmasters that appear from the northern caves.

As stage balance is built around players utilizing every resource given to them, always engage with these extra mechanics especially if you’re having a hard time.

Linirea and The Dark Army

Unique to this entry of the Kingdom Rush series is the concept of factions. As both Linirea’s and Vez’nan’s technologies are available to you, each faction has something different to offer.

The main differences between the two factions are:

• While each faction has one of each base tower under its command, these function very differently. Royal Archers (Linirean), for instance, fire a constant stream of arrows, while Ballista Outposts (Dark Army) fire volleys of bolts before a lengthy reload time.
• Upgrade-wise, the Linireans favor survivability and versatility, while the Dark Army prefers to vanquish foes by going all-out on the offensive.

The two factions’ different approaches to combat means that you have a very wide pool of towers, upgrades, and heroes to choose from. As with selecting towers, use the strengths of one faction to cover the weaknesses of the other. Apes together strong!

Enemy 101

Now that you know about towers, let’s take a look at our enemies. For starters, let’s look at the humble Hog Invader, the weakest enemy in the game. To bring up this display, tap on an enemy unit.

In the info panel, we can see the Hog Invader’s stats, namely its health (40), damage and type (2-4 physical damage), physical and magic armor (0 in both), and how many lives we’ll lose if this mob reaches our base (one, as seen beside the skull).

Let’s dig into this a little more:

• Damage indicates how much base damage it does when attacking one of your units. The type also indicates whether it’s physical or magical damage.
  • Enemy AI is simple – run to the base at the end of their path and only stop to engage units in the way. In general, one unit blocks one enemy. Enemies will not attack towers.
• Armor shows how much resistance this unit has against both physical and magical damage. The gray shield shows physical resistance, while the blue one shows magic resistance. Armor is divided into low, medium, and high; the higher the level, the less damage of that type the unit receives. Enemies also tend to have either physical or magical armor – not both at once.
  • Note that some attacks deal true damage, which bypasses all resistances.
• Lives lost tends to scale with how difficult the enemy is. Small enemies usually only take away one life, while minibosses take away more lives per hit. Bosses always do 999 damage, meaning that you can’t use any shenanigans to survive the hit.

Note that these stats apply to all units – even your own – though naturally, your own units don’t have a lives lost stat.

These stats let us know the best way to counter a foe. However, we also need to take an enemy’s abilities into account. While the game will always offer you a tooltip describing a new enemy, you can always tap on an enemy’s portrait to bring up a more detailed description. Let’s take the Cutthroat Rat as an example.

Apart from their base stats, Cutthroat Rats also have fast movement speed and turn invisible after hitting one of our units. This means that barracks and reinforcements are a liability when facing these foes!

Remember: every enemy in the game has a weakness. It’s up to you to read up on your foes and devise a counterstrategy against them.

Stars

When you clear a stage, you’ll receive up to three stars depending on your performance. Stars are important as each star gives you an upgrade point, which you can spend on many aspects of your fighting force.

The number of stars you get depends on how many lives you have left on stage clear.

• 18-20 lives left awards you all three stars.
• 6-17 lives gets you two stars.
• Anything less gives you one star.

As you can see, you can make minor mistakes and still get the 3-star reward. Don’t restart a stage instantly after you’ve lost one life – the fight isn’t over yet!

Difficulty Settings

Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance has four difficulty settings: casual, normal, veteran, and impossible.

The difference between these modes is a health bonus for all enemies. On casual, they’ll have less health than usual, on normal, they’ll have baseline health, and on veteran and impossible, they’ll have a health bonus. Enemy damage and wave compositions remain the same. Mind you, the increase or decrease in health is more than enough to change the way you play!

Apart from affecting your gameplay experience, there’s also an achievement for finishing all stages on hardcore and impossible. Note that difficulty does not affect your stage rewards – you’ll get stars as usual no matter your difficulty setting.

Iron and Heroic Mode

If getting all three stars on veteran or impossible leaves you wanting more, you can always tackle the heroic and iron challenges of a stage.

• The Heroic challenge pits you against fewer waves, but each wave is significantly harder than in normal mode. You also only have a single life – one little mistake will cost you the run.
• The Iron challenge has you face off against a single, long wave. This means that you can’t fast forward for bonus gold and cooldowns, and you’ll need to deal with mixed enemy compositions very quickly. You’ll also be restricted to certain towers, meaning that you’ll need to have a very thorough understanding of the game’s mechanics to succeed. As with the Heroic challenge, you only have one life.
• Tech is also gated by the available tech level at that stage. For example, you can’t upgrade towers in stage one’s heroic or iron challenge, because you can’t upgrade them in normal stage one.

However, it’s not all bad.

• You get to bring your heroes in these challenges, and they retain their level and skills.
• Upgrades will apply as normal.

Keep in mind that these modes are optional tests of skill. You don’t need to finish them to beat the game, though clearing the heroic and iron challenge in a stage makes its banner prettier. There’s also an achievement for finishing every heroic and iron challenge (respectively), so if you feel like pushing your skills to the utmost, be my guest.

Mastering Your Tools

Now that the basics are done, let’s move to more practical knowledge. As the commander of both the Linirea forces and the Dark Army, it falls to you to create order out of chaos and help both factions perform to the best of their abilities. In this section, we’ll walk through the many tools you have at your disposal to defeat your common foe.

Quick Tips:

• Knowing what counters what is crucial to success in Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance. For an early game example:
  • Royal Archers are good versus Hog Invaders and Cutthroat Rats. Paladin Covenant is good against anything that isn’t Cutthroat Rats, Dreadeye Vipers, or Rottenfang Hyenas. Arcane Wizards counter Tusked Brawlers (armor) and high HP targets like Bear Vanguards.
  • Tricannon requires positioning but is good against anything that doesn’t have lots of HP.
• It’s your job to experiment and figure out how to counter enemy compositions.
• Towers can be upgraded up to level 4. Each upgrade boosts a tower’s stats.
• At level 4, towers can buy skills. Each level 4 tower has two skills, and you can buy up to 3 levels per skill.
• Skills are very powerful, but you should also keep in mind the tower’s position (i.e., is the tower in a good place to maximize its skills) and the opportunity cost of building new towers or upgrading existing ones with that gold.
• Heroes are powerful warriors under your command. Think of heroes as powerful, mobile towers.
• If a hero dies, it respawns after 30 seconds. Try not to get your heroes killed at all as this will drop your overall DPS.
• Heroes gain experience as they kill enemies. Each level boosts a hero’s stats and gives it a skill point. Levels are permanent.
• Skills can be spent and reset freely. Stronger skills require more skill points.
• Familiarize yourself with the four free heroes you get as each of them has a unique part to play in your defense.
• You can bring up to 3 spells into battle.
• The first spell is always Call Reinforcements, which summons a bunch of guys. This spell has a fairly quick cooldown.
• The last two spells will depend on your heroes. The last skill in each hero’s skillset is the spell they’ll give you when assigned to battle.
• Thus, apart from the individual strengths of each hero, you’ll also need to consider if their spells will be a good match for your strategies.
• Each star you get from completing a stage gives you one point for the passive upgrade tree.
  • Some generally good passive upgrades are Scoping Mechanism (leftmost 2^nd node), Master Blacksmiths/Intense Workout then Linirean Militia or Order of Shadows depending on if you use reinforcements defensively or offensively (3^rd tree), and the first 5 nodes of the rightmost tree.
• Passive upgrades can be reset freely, so don’t be afraid to switch passives if you’re having trouble.
• You can use items to give you an edge in battle. These must be purchased with gems. As with towers, you’ll need to equip items to bring into battle. You can equip 3 items at once.
  • Gems can be bought with real money. You also get some from finishing stages (first clear), killing enemies (small amounts), and completing achievements.

What Counters What?

Mastering your towers is pretty simple – all you really need to know is what counters what. Every enemy and enemy wave in Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance can be handily beaten with a bit of forethought and planning.

In the early game, you’ll only have access to four towers: Royal Archers, Paladin Covenant, Arcane Wizard, and Tricannon. These four give you all the tools you need for the starter stages:

• Royal Archers pick off low to medium HP enemies and excel at dealing with Hog Invaders, Cutthroat Rats, and Turtle Shamans.
• Paladin Covenants are good for holding off anything that isn’t a Cutthroat Rat, Dreadeye Viper, or Rottenfang Hyena.
• Arcane Wizards counter Tusked Brawlers (armored mobs); the high damage also makes them great at picking off Bear Vanguards.
• Tricannons require a bit of positioning but are good against anything with low to medium HP.

You will always have a tool for every task. It’s your job to figure out what each tower’s niche is.

Tower Upgrades and Skills

Towers aren’t a one-and-done affair. By upgrading them, you can vastly improve their performance. Each upgrade that a tower receives improves its stats by a considerable amount, with higher level towers outperforming several of their base forms. Upgrades also improve a tower’s visuals, with high level towers looking bigger, better, and more detailed than lower level ones.

To upgrade a tower, tap on it, then select the upgrade button. This costs a large amount of gold, so be sure you’re upgrading the correct tower!

Towers can be upgraded up to level four. Once a tower is level four, you can buy and upgrade its skills instead of further improving its base stats.

Each level four tower has two powerful skills at its disposal, and those skills can be upgraded up to three times, with each upgrade improving their numbers. Skills can be passive or active, with active skills having their own internal cooldowns. For an easy example, let’s look at the Royal Archers IV tower.

Royal Archers IV can invest in two skills:

• Armor Piercer is an active skill that causes the tower to fire three arrows that deal bonus damage and ignore some of an enemy’s physical armor. This gives the tower better coverage against its one main weakness.

• Rapacious Hunter, on the other hand, gives the tower an eagle that independently engages enemies and deals considerable damage. As you can see, I’ve already put one point in this skill as it essentially allows the Royal Archers to serve as two towers at once.

While they’re worth investing in, skills are expensive.Try to save them for towers in key positions and weigh the opportunity cost of buying skills against buying (and upgrading) other towers.

Heroes

Apart from your towers, you also have command of up to two powerful heroes that can be deployed anywhere on the field.

As with all units, heroes have stats. Unlike other units, however, a hero’s stats grow as its level increases. As a hero slays foes, they gain experience, and once they have enough experience, they level up.

Each level not only increases a hero’s stats but also gives it a skill point which can be spent on five different skills. These skills define the role of a hero, with moves such as nukes, AOEs, disables, and more. And yes, levels are permanent, and skills can be reset for free.

The main asset of heroes is that, unlike your towers, heroes can move around. Think of them as extremely powerful towers that can relocate anywhere on the map.

To command a hero in battle, tap on their portrait or their unit chibi, then tap or drag their unit model) to where you want them to move. Note that you can also command other units the same way, though barracks units are restricted by the range of their home base.

While heroes are powerful, they’re not immortal.

When a hero falls in battle, they’ll leave behind a gravestone (depending on the hero) which will respawn them after 30 seconds. While they respawn, it’s better to not get your heroes killed at all – a hero at low HP will do the same damage as a hero at full HP – so don’t be afraid to micromanage your heroes and retreat them to safer ground if they’re taking a beating. Be wary of ranged enemies as they can swiftly kill unattended heroes!

Now, let’s talk about your available heroes.

The four heroes available for free are:

• Vesper is a powerful Linirean ranger who uses his bow to destroy enemies from afar. While he boasts good damage, his lack of armor and low health pool means that Vesper suffers in melee combat. The best way to make use of Vesper is to park him behind a barracks or a bulkier hero so that he can continue delivering ranged DPS uninterrupted.
• Raelyn is a Dark Army hero who serves as a bulky warrior. Boasting good health and a low armor rating off the bat, Raelyn is designed to engage in melee combat and come out on top. Her upgrades give her access to powerful true damage nukes, debuffs, and survivability, so she can be built to either tank or damage foes.
• Nyru is an Arborean mage who’s pretty much a magic damage counterpart to Vesper. Thanks to his plethora of magic damage (whether as DPS or burst), Nyru is a great hero to use against heavily armored foes.
• Grimson is a versatile melee fighter who uses both DOTs and true damage, making him a versatile answer to both armored and magically resistant foes.

The types of heroes you’ll want to bring into battle depend on how often you’re willing to micromanage them. For example, both Vesper and Nyru are ranged heroes but will quickly be overwhelmed by bulky, hard-hitting foes. As a general rule, I bring Nyru (for ranged magic DPS) and either Raelyn or Grimson to tank and pick off weaker foes.

However, there’s another thing you need to keep in mind…

Spells

…and those are your spells. You also have access to some spells that will be of great help in your quest.

You can bring up to three spells in battle. These spells can be cast any time they’re off cooldown, which is indicated by their portrait being lit up. Remember that calling waves early gives you some bonus cooldown to your spells – though this’ll only count for spells that are currently on cooldown.

The first spell is always Call Reinforcements, which summons units to the selected area.

While these units are weak, the versatility of this spell cannot be overstated – we’ll talk more about it in the “General TD Tactics” section.

The last two spells, on the other hand, are dependent on the heroes you bring. These spells are the last skill in each hero’s skill list:

This means that apart from their roles in combat, you’ll also want to select heroes whose skills are a good match for the enemies you’ll be facing!

The spells of your starter heroes are:

• Arrow Storm (Vesper) fires 20 arrows at an area, each of which deals some physical damage. With great coverage and a smart tracking AI (the arrows will always curve towards the biggest concentration of enemies), this is a good general-use spell and deals the biggest amount of damage. However, be wary that it deals physical damage; couple that with its “many small hits” nature and you have a spell that suffers immensely against medium-armored foes.
• Command Orders (Raelyn) summons a single bulky Dark Knight that boasts a good amount of HP and deals true damage. On paper, he doesn’t sound like much, but in practice, this is one of my favorite spells. As with reinforcements, we’ll discuss this a bit more later.
• Root Defender (Nyru) coats an area in roots which slow passing enemies and deal some true damage per second. Lacks the punching power of Vesper’s Arrow Storm, but the important part of this spell is the slowing component.
• Creeping Death (Grimson) is very similar to Root Defender. This spell coats an area in slime that slows enemies; after a moment, the slime mutates into spikes, dealing a burst of true damage. Doesn’t last as long as Root Defender, but is a nice compromise between Nyru’s and Vesper’s skills.

As with your heroes’ other skills, the spell skills can be leveled up to improve their efficiency. However, note that leveling up spell skills costs more skill points!

Passive Upgrades

The stars you get from clearing stages can be spent as upgrade points in the passive upgrade tree.

This tree features a lot of passive nodes, each of which will give you a unique boost in battle. As the skill tree can be reset at any time (and for free), you can pick and mix your passive skills to match your build for a stage!

There are four trees in the passive upgrade section. Let’s start with the leftmost tree, which deals with general tower upgrades.

The skills here, starting from the bottom are:

• War Rations (1 point) – Increases the health of all tower units by 10%. General upgrade and is a prerequisite to everything else, so you have to buy it.
• Scoping Mechanism (1 point) – 10% more range on all towers. More range means more damage output, so this is a very good upgrade.
• Wise Investment (1 Point)– Towers resell for 90% of their value. Mitigates mistake and repositioning costs. More relevant on higher difficulties. If you’re playing on casual or normal, you can skip this unless you want the skills it locks.
• Call to Action (2 Points)– Reduces barracks unit respawn time and Call Reinforcements cooldown. Worth it just for the faster Call Reinforcements.
• Golden Time (2 Points)– More bonus gold when calling waves early. Hit or miss – if you’re getting overwhelmed by a previous wave, the bonus gold may or may not (more likely not) help you fix the mess…though you’ll now have to deal with the next wave too.
• Improved Formulas (3 Points) – Removes damage dropoff from splash radius for explosive towers and these towers always do max damage. Makes your artillery towers much more potent, but skippable if you don’t use them.
• Favorite Customer (3 Points) – 25% chance that tower skills cost 60% less. Note that you must still have enough gold to buy the skill at the base price. Effectively increases the amount of gold you get in a stage, though I don’t think I need to tell you how statistics work. Also gated behind Wise Investment and Golden Time, so it effectively costs 6 points.
• Battle Fervor (4 Points) – 20% reduced cooldown for all tower skills. A straight upgrade that comes into play later on in a match.

The second tree deals with hero upgrades:

• Know Thy Enemy (1 Point) – Heroes ignore 10% of enemy damage resistance. Cheap damage boost but may not help as much as it seems.
• Lone Wolves (1 Point) – Heroes gain more experience when far away from each other. Great for building up heroes. Remember that you can refund the skill tree any time you want, so once your heroes are sufficiently leveled, it’s a free point.
• Helping Hand (1 Point) – Heroes have 10% more armor when near each other. Grants extra survivability when using both heroes to block the same lane. I’m unsure if this refers solely to physical armor or both physical and magical resistance.
• Unlimited Vigor (2 Points) – Hero skills have 10% less cooldown. More skills means more damage and more utility.
• Lethal Focus (2 Points) – Heroes have 20% crit rate. Excellent damage upgrade.
• Nimble Physique (2 Points) – Heroes have 20% dodge rate. Improved survivability; useful if you don’t want to micromanage your heroes. Not as useful against bosses since most of them one or two-shot heroes.
• Limit Pushing (3 Points) – After using each hero spell five times, its cooldown is reset instantly. A great panic button, though you have to be mindful of how many times you’ve used each spell. You can make do without this.

Note that you can invest in the third node no matter which side you pick.

The third tree is all about your reinforcements from the Call Reinforcements spell:

• Master Blacksmiths (1 Point) – Improves reinforcement damage and armor. Worth it even if it was just the armor boost as it helps your guys last longer. Always take.
• Intense Workout (1 Point) – Improves reinforcement health and duration. Always take.

Unlike the other trees, the third tree diverges at the third node and you can only pick one side. Let’s take the left side first:

• Linirean Militia (2 Points) – Replaces reinforcements with Linirean Rebels, which have better armor. If you’re using reinforcements purely defensively or for blocking purposes, this is the way to go.
• Spiked Armor (2 Points) – Linirean Rebels reflect some damage from melee attacks. Helps your rebels do more damage. Not as important but is a prerequisite to the last node.
• Linirean Paragon (4 Points) – Call Reinforcements also summons a Paragon Knight. The Paragon Knight is a big, beefy brawler that can take a lot of punishment. If you’re using your reinforcements just for blocking or separating your foes, you can’t go wrong with this.

The right tree has the following skills:

• Order of Shadows (2 Points) – Replaces reinforcements with Shadow Archers, which are powerful but fragile ranged units. Yes, these are the same guys from the first Kingdom Rush. Good if you want to use your reinforcements more offensively. Don’t forget that since they’re archers, these guys can hit flying enemies!
• Ashen Bows (2 Points) – Shadow Archers have greater range and attack speed. A simple but effective upgrade.
• Shadow Crowcaller (4 Points) – Call Reinforcements also summons a Shadow Crowcaller. The Crowcaller summons birds that engage enemies independently and can fight in melee alongside their familiars.

In short, take the left tree for defense/utility and the right tree for raw offense.

The fourth and final tree involves various improvements based on the factions of your heroes and towers.

• Courageous Stand (1 Point) – Heroes gain some max HP based on the number of Linirean towers built. More HP isn’t necessarily a good upgrade for your heroes. Remember to build the towers you need; don’t focus on maximizing this buff. No sense getting all that max HP if you’ve built the wrong towers for the job!
• Merciless Defense (1 Point) – Heroes gain some max damage based on the number of Dark Army towers built. Much more useful than Courageous Stand, though once again, build the towers you need, not the towers for maximizing this buff.
• Friends of the Crown (2 Points) – Each equipped Linirean hero reduces tower build and upgrade cost. Fantastic upgrade that gives you some guaranteed bonus gold per stage.
• Shady Company (2 Points) – Each equipped Dark Army hero increases tower damage. Also a fantastic upgrade. Both this and Friends of the Crown are ideal though you can micromanage your points depending on the heroes you’ll be bringing to each stage.
• Shared Reserves (2 Points) – You have more gold at the start of the stage. Always take.
• Arcane Pillars (3 Points) – Exit flags are replaced with arcane pillars that teleport enemies away a short distance, on a cooldown. Good for getting a second chance against big enemies. Pillars have a long rearm time after activation.
• Seal of Punishment (3 Points) – The defense point icon (shield) is replaced with a magical seal that deals damage to enemies that step on it. Great for sniping those nearly dead mobs that somehow snuck past your defenses. Very long rearm time.
• Blessing of Vitality (3 Points) – Linirean hero spells also heal and respawn all allied units. Not as useful as it sounds as it essentially locks you into using normal barracks; even out of this scenario, this is a more situational bonus. If you play barracks-heavy compositions, take it; if you don’t play barracks heavy or prefer imps, skip it.
• Ominous Curse (3 Points) – Dark Army hero spells also slow all enemies. Global slow is very, very powerful.

Items

Lastly, you can use items if you’re in a pinch.

Items are one-use consumables that have various effects; the simplest ones deal damage, while more expensive ones give you lives, gold, or even dispense instant death. However, they are consumable – once you use an item, it’s gone forever!

Getting items is straightforward – go to the items tab in the main menu, then purchase items. The stronger the item, the more expensive it is. As with towers, you’ll need to equip items before they become usable and you can only carry three items at once.

To buy items, you’ll need gems. Gems are the game’s premium currency and can be acquired by completing achievements. Most achievements involve tapping and interacting with the environment in each stage, so don’t be afraid to tap away and experiment.

You can also get gems from completing stages (first clear) and in small, random amounts when killing enemies. Gems will still drop from cleared stages. If you really want to, you can also buy gems with real money.

Lastly, you can complete every challenge in the game without using items. Using them is purely optional.

General TD Tactics

We’re almost done. The last thing I’d like to teach you is how to maximize your environment and

Quick Tips:

• Don’t build willy-nilly. Consider the compositions of the enemy waves (armor, magic resistance, special abilities, HP, speed) before committing to a build.
• The first wave is always paused, so take your time and study the layout of the map before starting.
• More time spent in a tower’s range means more damage.
• For this reason, curves and corners are prime spots for your main DPS towers.
• It pays to look for places where enemies will be exposed to a lot of tower fire – the easiest example of this is sets of 3 towers in a line. Other places can include two towers at the exit of a path.
• By using barracks towers in these chokepoints, you can delay movement through the area, forcing enemies to take more attacks than they normally would.
• Stuns, slows, and freeze effects can be used to amplify the damage enemies take.
• Call Reinforcements is a valuable spell not only because it gives you free bodies, but because it’s a fast pseudo-slow.
• Call Reinforcements can not only be used to prolong exposure to tower fire but also separate or group troublesome foes. For example, you can use this spell in the early game to split Turtle Shamans up from the rest of their party, reducing the danger of their healing ability.
• As a last resort, heroes can be used to split up enemies, but don’t forget that the main role of heroes is to deal damage!

Where Do I Build?

One of the first questions that most new players ask is this – where do I build? As with most things, you need to be adaptive when it comes to building.

There are several factors you should consider when placing a tower:

• The enemies coming down that lane. Are they mostly armored? Magic resistant? Do they move fast?
• Do they have any special abilities you should be wary of? For example, Cutthroat Rats become invisible if they fight a unit in melee, while Corrupted Stalkers teleport forward the first time they’re hit.
• Will enemies respond to consistent DPS or burst damage better?
• Does a lot give a tower a lot of time to attack enemies? Are there many lots in a line?
• Are there any chokepoints you can use?

Don’t forget that the first wave is always paused until you signal that you’re ready, so take your time and study the battlefield before building!

We’ve already discussed the importance of knowing what counters what (seriously, read up on your enemies), so we’ll skip that. Instead, let’s move to the next topic.

Range and Exposure

Range is very important in tower defense games. The more of a tower’s range covers the walkable path, the more time an enemy will remain exposed to that tower’s attacks.

This means that building plots at corners and big curves are prime positions for DPS towers, as enemies will have to spend a large amount of time exposed to that tower’s range. You should also be on the lookout for plots that allow a tower to threaten two lanes – especially if that lane circles back on itself!

Chokepoints, Slows, and Stuns

The importance of range means that you should actively look for areas where you can expose foes to as many towers as possible, such as this area:

In this image, we have three lots above and two below. By using barracks tower(s), we can prolong the amount of time that an enemy spends in this lane, thus allowing other DPS towers in the area to maximize their damage.

Now, you won’t always have the terrain advantage. Luckily, there are ways to create your own chokepoints by slowing or stunning enemies when they’re in a vulnerable position.

To help you maximize your DPS with stuns and slows, here’s a list of things that stun or slow enemies:

• Vesper: Arrow to the Knee skill (single target stun)
• Raelyn: Inspire Fear skill (AOE stun)
• Nyru: Root Defender hero spell (AOE slow)
• Grimson: Creeping Death hero spell (AOE slow)
• Ballista Tower IV: Final Nail (single target stun on last shot per volley)
• Ballista Tower IV: Scrap Bomb (AOE slow)
• Arborean Emissary IV: Bramble Grasp (stun traps)
• Dwarven Flamespitter IV: Scorching Torches (AOE stun)
• Eldritch Channeler IV: Power Overflow (chaining slow)
• Eldritch Channeler IV: Mutation Hex (not a stun per se, but the sheep loses its abilities and moves slowly)
• Winter Age item (freezes all enemies)

The Power of Reinforcements

The Call Reinforcements spell has been in every iteration of Kingdom Rush for a good reason – it’s an incredibly versatile tool that can be used not only to bolster failing defenses but also to group and isolate troublesome foes. In this sense, you can view your reinforcements as an on-demand slow.

To demonstrate the power of reinforcements, take a look at this picture.

In this area, I’ve deployed reinforcements as well as Raelyn’s Dark Knight. While not in the picture, the troops are delaying the Bear Vanguard such that it’s exposed to two upgraded Arcane Wizards, forcing it to take much more damage than it should from that area!

Reinforcements can also be used to thwart enemies from maximizing their abilities. Take, for example, the annoying Turtle Shamans.

By carefully deploying reinforcements, I’ve isolated the Raging Rhino from the Turtle Shamans, compromising the main threat of the wave!

Lastly, don’t forget that your heroes are mobile. While they’re best used at dealing damage, you can use heroes (especially fast-moving ones) to separate troublesome foes and trap foes between powerful towers!

For King Denas!

Make no mistake – finding the king will be no easy task, even with the help of Vez’nan. But with his help, and your newfound tactical thinking skills, we’ll be able to drive back the wildbeasts and the cult and dive into the truth of the matter. Hopefully, Vez’nan won’t expect a reward.

That concludes this beginner’s guide to Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, and I wish you luck in your future battles. If you have any corrections to make or any suggestions on how to improve this guide (especially for players totally new to TD games), let us know in the comment section below!