how to win survivals: when you decide you've had enough of defending a losing war, head away to a corner with relays(and occasional solar's for insurance), build up a defensive base with no miners, and fight against like 10th of the enemy. Becomes super easy this way, as the rest of their army is busy destroying the first base.
classic mode(full upgrades): 1st run: get at least $55(different angle will change the number) 2nd run: balloon+ramp height1+ramp length1 (you get duration 1, so a total of ~$210) 3rd run: sugar rocket+fuel2(you get duration4, earning a total of ~$2.1k) so you can start day 1 with 2.1k gold.
black hole does effect the final boss and is kind of a necessity for lvl 27 :)