Balanced army compositions and timing the casting of your spells is essential for success, especially when achieving the coveted Gold medals.
Make sure to spend your infamy. Hoarding it gives you no benefit.
When a unit dies, they will drop infamy as well as mana orbs. Each unit that dies will drop a total of 50 mana. These bursts in mana may allow you to cast that crucial last minute spell.
You get the most amount of Infamy by earning Bronze and Gold medals. If you find yourself stuck on a stage, you should go back and try "Gold medaling" an early level for a nice XP boost.
Villainous can be beaten without any grinding whatsoever. That means every attempt at a stage could award you a bronze or gold medal. It also means a true strategist is king in this game.
In spite of tip #5, for those who have trouble progressing, Villainous does encourage farming Infamy to become more powerful. So don't worry if you're stuck, because everything you do is rewarded.
Slowing down time is important in order to maximize the usage of your spells.
If you are having trouble with a stage, try a different army composition. Depending on the stage layout, a different composition can have a huge effect.
Mana orbs dropped by defeated units disappear after 10 seconds. You can use that time to cast spells before picking them up if your mana bar is full.
Towers always target the unit closest to the town, unless there's a Mammoth Turtle drawing their fire.
Sometimes it is better to stun Bog Towers then have a Cleansing Warlock in your army.
Skill Tree
Summoner+ is the best skill in the game. Putting in at least 4-6 points as soon as possible will help immensely.
MP Cap+ is very important. Adding a few points in this skill becomes absolutely necessary in order to progress through the later stages.
There are two Treasure Chests hidden on the Skill Tree. Getting these early on will help out a lot.
Every time you purchase a skill its cost increases. It's more efficient to upgrade multiple skills before going back and upgrading them.
At the ends of the Castle are Red Skills. These are the best skills in the game, and saving up a little for them will help a lot.
Increasing the health of units is an important way of buffing your units for the later waves.
Aura units can all be upgraded in order to improve their usefulness.
Shield Golems are great for later waves, but Healing Priests are better for the early waves.
Army Formation
Don't forget that the Goblin Raider is the most important unit in your army. Aura units are more powerful, but Goblins allow you to progress and give you way more Infamy.
When designing an army composition, compare the number of raids you need in order to get a bronze/gold medal, and use that to determine how many goblins you need to reach the goal.
Similar aura's will not stack. So if you have 2 Shield Golem auras overlapping on a unit, you're wasting valuable aura space.
Cleanse Warlocks have the second most health in the game. Placing them beside turtles is a good way of absorbing any splash damage from Cannon Towers.
Having multiple turtles will help distribute the damage since Towers will always focus the earliest turtle that enters its attack range.
Elementals have a very low HP base. If a level has Bog or Stun towers, Elementals don't benefit as much as other units from being within a Cleanse radius.
A single Elemental will double your mana regeneration rate. Having 1 or 2 Elementals in your army will help out a lot, but any more and you may be hurting your army composition too much.
Spells
Every time you cast a spell, its mana cost will rise. Be conservative with how you are casting your spells to make sure their costs don't get out of hand. All spells have their own individual spell costs, so cycling through your spells will help keep the costs down.
The Heal and Quake spell are not very strong in the beginning, but - unlike Stun - they can be upgraded in order to become extremely powerful.
Stun and Quake are better used in later waves when towers deal more damage. Heal, on the other hand, is a good spell to cast at any time.
Use corners to maximize the amount of units you can heal with the Heal Spell.
When fully upgraded, the Quake spell has a massive radius.
Unlike the Stun Spell, Quake is best cast when units are in the midst of the turrets.
Units
Mammoth Turtle - Cost (10) Unlocks the Mammoth Turtle. A powerful tanking unit which draws the fire of all nearby turrets.
Healing Priest - Cost (300) Unlocks the Healing Priest. An aura unit which will heal nearby allies (but not themselves).
Shield Golem - Cost (300) Unlocks the Shield Golem Unit. An aura unit which blocks a percentage amount of damage to nearby allies (but not themselves), with a minimum block of 5 damage.
Cleanse Warlock - Cost (400) Unlocks the Cleanse Warlock. An aura unit which makes all nearby allies immune to damage from Bog and Holy towers (but not themselves).
Elemental - Cost (400) Unlocks the Elemental. A weak unit which gives you bonus mana regeneration every second.
Health Upgrades
Turtle HP+ - Costs (500/1000/1500/2000/2500) Increases the Turtle's total HP from 1100 to (1220/1340/1460/1580/1700).
Goblin HP+ - Costs (400/700/1000/1300/1600) Increases the Goblin's total HP from 400 to (500/600/700/800/900).
Healer HP+ - Costs (400/700/1000/1300/1600) Increases the Healing Priest's total HP from 600 to (700/800/900/1000/1100).
Golem HP+ - Costs (400/700/1000/1300/1600) Increases the Shield Golem's total HP from 600 to (700/800/900/1000/1100).
Cleanse HP+ - Costs (400/700/1000/1300/1600) Increases the Cleanse Warlock's total HP from 800 to (900/1000/1100/1200/1300).
Elemental HP+ - Costs (400/700/1000/1300/1600) Increases the Elemental's total HP from 300 to (380/460/540/620/700).
All HP+ - Costs (1000/2000/3000/4000/5000) Increases the health of all units in your army by (60/120/180/240/300).
Unit Special Upgrades
Heal Aura Pow+ - Costs (500/1100/1700/2300/2900) Increases the health regeneration of the Healing Priest's from 7 to (8/9/10/11/12).
Shield Block+ - Costs (500/1100/1700/2300/2900) Increases the amount of damage blocked by Shield Golem's from 15% to (17/19/21/23/25)%.
Element Aura+ - Costs (500/1100/1700/2300/2900) Increases the amount of mana Elementals generate per second from 10 to (11/12/13/14/15).r Upgrades
Summon+ - Costs (150/475/800/1125/1450/1775/2100/2425/2750/3075) Increases the total amount of units you can summon per level from 2 to (3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12).
Magnet Rad+ - Costs (150/350/550/750/950) Increases your coin grabbing radius from 15 to (30/45/60/75/90).
Mana Cap+ - Costs (300/600/900/1200/1500) Increases your maximum Mana Cap from 500 to (700/900/1100/1300/1500).
MP+ - Costs (1000/1700/2400/3100/3800) Begin each level with (100/200/300/400/500).
MP Regen+ - Costs (1000/2000/3000/4000/5000) Increases your mana regeneration rate from 10 to (11/12/13/14/15).
Spells
Stun Spell - Cost (150) Unlocks the Stun Spell. A powerful single target spell that will disable a turret for an entire wave.
Heal Spell - Costs (600) Unlocks the Heal Spell. An Area of Effect spell which will heal your units for a set amount of HP.
Quake Spell- Costs (600) Unlocks the Quake Spell. An Area of Effect spell that will disable turrets for a set duration.
Spell Upgrades
Heal Spell Pow+ - Costs (750/1350/1950/2550/3150) Increases the amount of health regained from the Heal Spell from 150 to (200/250/300/350/400)
Heal Sp. Aura+ - Costs (750/1350/1950/2550/3150) Increases the radius of the heal spell from 50 to (60/70/80/90/100)
Quake Dur.+ - Costs (750/1350/1950/2550/3150) Increases the duration of the Quake spell from 5 to (6/7/8/9/10)
Quake Rad+ - Costs (750/1350/1950/2550/3150) Increases the radius of the Quake spell from 75 to (90/105/120/135/150)
Special Upgrades
Rainbow - Cost (7500) All units with Auras will now process their effect on themselves.
Circus - Cost (7500) Increases the radius of all Aura units from 75 to (100). All aura units now cover up to 3 allies.
Wave Mastery - Costs (1500/3000/4500/6000/7500) Each wave, tower damage increase is changed from 15% to (14/13/12/11/10).
Spell Mastery - Costs (1500/3000/4500/6000/7500) Cost for all spells reduced from 250 to (230/210/190/170/150).
XP Skills
Path Infamy - Costs (300/500/700/900/1200) Units drop (105/110/115/120/125)% more infamy on death.
Raid Infamy - Costs (300/500/700/900/1200) Earn (105/110/115/120/125)% more infamy for each successful raid.
Hidden Treasures
Cellar Door - Cost (0) Earn 2000 free bonus infamy.
Sponsor - Cost (0) Earn 2000 free bonus infamy.
Tower Breakdown
Archer Tower Damage: 25 Fire Rate: 1.0 per/s Range: Medium Archer Towers decimates low health units.
It can only target one unit at a time though, so Mammoth Turtles do a great job of taking its focus. Most archer towers lie on the fringes of the maps, but ones located in central parts are a good candidate for being stunned.
Cannon Tower Damage: 30 Fire Rate: 0.40 per/s Range: Medium
Cannon Towers are high damage small splash turrets. While turtles help offset some of the damage, it will still hit all adjacent units in a small area. Healers will counter a lot of their damage, but make sure they're not directly beside the turtle.
Crater Tower
Damage: 35 Fire Rate: 0.25 per/second Range: Medium
Crater Towers are pure area of effect turrets, dealing damage to all units within it's range. Turtles will not help defend your units against these at all, but healers and shielders help offset a large amount of the damage.
Rapid Tower
Damage: 10 Fire Rate: 5.0 per/second Range: Small
Rapid Towers are the bane of all units. Their damage output is low but their fire rate is extremely high, decimating any unit you use, including turtles. If a Shield Golem is protecting the unit however, it will block a whopping 50% of the damage (due to their minimum damage blocked).
Bog Tower Damage: 0.02% of the unit's max health Fire Rate: Nil Range: Large
Bog Towers destroy all units in the game at equal speed since the damage they deal is based off a percentage of a unit's maximum health. That means strong turtles will die just as easily as weak elementals. Cleanse Warlocks will negate all of the damage though. Stunning Bog towers is also a great way of dealing with the wide area damage.
Holy Tower
Damage: 10% of the unit's max health
Fire Rate: 0.40 per/second
Range: Normal
Holy Towers are like Bog Towers, except they deal a percentage of the maximum health of a single target. Like Bog, cleansers will negate all of the damage dealt from these towers, so using turtles with cleansers to draw all the damage is a great way to mitigate them.
Nuke Tower
Damage: 100 Fire Rate: 0.10 per/second
Range: Large
Nuke Towers are the end-all of towers. They have massive range, massive area damage, and hit harder than anything in the game. Once they fire, there's nothing you can do but to brace yourself. Their weakness lies in their fire rate (once every 10 seconds), and the travel time of their missiles. The missiles take a while to hit their location meaning clever positioning of your units can help misdirect a lot of their potential damage. Elementals are highly recommended as the extra mana regeneration will help you cast more spells to knock these towers out of commission.
Unit Breakdown
Goblin Raiders
Health: 400 (max: 1200) Special: The only unit that can raid a village. Goblin Raiders are the most important unit in the game bar none. Your entire battle plan should revolve around keeping these units alive.
Mammoth Turtles
Health: 1100 (max: 2000) Special: Draws the focus of all towers that can see it, forcing them to fire at them.
Mammoth Turtles act as a great buffer for your army, soaking up damage so that your weaker units can pass by safely. Mammoth turtles also get the most bonus health with the health skill.
Healing Priests
Health: 600 (max: 1400)
Special: Generates an aura which heals all nearby units. (7 to 14 hp/sec).
Healing Priests are great at reducing AoE damage. They are also key in allowing you to survive to the later waves by helping keep your units topped off. Try to keep Healing priests closer to the middle of your army chains in order to maximize their heal radius.
Shield Golems
Health: 600 (max:1400) Special: Generates an aura which reduces all incoming damage by a flat percentage, to a minimum of 5. (15 to 25%).
Shield Golems may not seem as useful as Healing Priests in the beginning, but the amount of damage they block begins to ramp up significantly in the later waves of a stage. Couple them with a healing priest in order to maximize their usefulness.
Cleansing Warlock
Health: 800 (max: 1600) Special: Generates an aura which blocks all Bog and Holy damage.
Cleansing Warlocks are the only units that can block tower fire that deals percentage damage. They are extremely critical for any stages that feature Bog or Holy Towers. Couple them with a turtle who will aggro towers in order to reduce the amount of Warlocks you need in your army.
Elemental
Health: 300 (max: 1000) Special: Generates mana every second they're alive. (10 to 15).
Elementals are very weak units so they have to be baby sat. Having 1 or 2 in your army though will increase your mana regeneration to absurd levels.
Spell Breakdown
Stun
Stun disables a turret for an entire wave.
This spell is best used strategically, disabling the most powerful towers in the level. Towers located at U-turns or corners are the best candidates for this spell.
Heal Heal returns a set amount of health to all units in its radius.
Upgrading its radius and strength will help make Heal one of the best spells in the game. Use it on corners to maximize the amount of units you heal.
Quake
Quake Stuns all towers in an area for a set duration.
While weak in the beginning, upgrading its duration and radius will help make it extremely powerful. Use it in areas with a high concentration of towers to maximize its efficiency.
Archer Tower
Cannon Tower
