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2112TD
Price: $1.99
2112TD is a pretty good tower defense game. It relies more heavily on micromanagement than your traditional tower defense game. That’s where the difficulty in this game comes from. At its core, it plays like most tower defense games. You place defenders, upgrade them as you play, and try and keep the upper hand against the attackers. The game includes achievements, combat stats, and a rock-solid overall experience. It’s a bit more old school than these modern games, but it has a single (and honestly, cheap) price tag with no in-app purchases.
Bloons TD 6
Price: $4.99 with in-app purchases
The Bloons TD series is one of the most popular and successful tower defense franchises on mobile. The latest one, Bloons TD 6, launched in 2018. It features 20 maps, tons of upgrades, 19 towers, three upgrade paths, offline support, new game modes, and more. Of course, previous iterations of the game have their charms as well and some of them still get updates. It’s nice to see companies still taking the genre seriously even years after it hit its second renaissance. Bloons TD 6 (and previous games) are solid tower defense games for reasonable prices.
Defenders 2: Tower Defense CCG
Price: Free to play
Defenders 2 is a tower defense and card-collecting hybrid. You unlock various towers and such by collecting cards. The things you unlock are usable in the game. The freemium aspect should be fairly apparent. However, this game can pump out a few dozen good hours of play before it starts bothering you for money. It features a total of 40 towers, 20 spells, 29 bosses, and even PvP. This one has a bit of a bad endgame thanks to microtransactions, but the initial experience is quite good.
Defense Zone 3
Price: Free to play
Defense Zone 3 is the latest of a popular series of tower defense games. It features a lot of the mechanics from the prior two games along with some new stuff to freshen things up. It also features several difficulty modes, eight kinds of turrets, special battles, and support for 20 languages. In addition, the game leans a bit on its difficulty settings so you can find a difficulty no matter your experience level. The graphics are also pretty good. This one is a bit older, but it’s still quite good.
Digfender
Price: Free to play
Digfender is a fun take on the tower defense genre. Each level gives you a basic map. You’ll then have to dig your level out yourself and defend the path you dig. The game features 70 levels, a survival mode where you can challenge for leaderboard supremacy, achievements, and a variety of upgrades. It also boasts no pay walls or wait timers so you can play as much as you want. It’s one of the most underrated tower defense games out there.
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Element TD
Price: $2.99
Element TD is a newer pay-once tower defense game in a genre that is quickly being overtaken by freemium titles. It features simple graphics and a fairly standard premise. There are maps, you lay down towers, and hope they can get the job done. There is an elemental mechanic where the elements you choose determine which towers you can lay down. That helps provide an extra layer of challenge. There are also 44 towers, 50 different bad guys, 30 achievements, and five difficulty settings. It’s a solid overall game and it’s worth a shot.
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Grow Castle
Price: Free to play
Grow Castle is one of the interesting tower defense games. This one gives you an actual tower that you must defend. It can be stocked with a selection of heroes that do the defending. There are 120 heroes, Each one has its own powers to shape the context of the game. The game also features a ranking system, guilds, and more. It’s a freemium game. That’s probably the thing we like least about it. It is a fun play, though.
Infinitode
Price: Free to play
Infinitode is a minimal tower defense game with fairly simple graphics. The minimalism of the game allows you to build like a madman and boasts the ability to create 1000 towers at once. As you can imagine, the maps are gigantic and there’s a map editor so you can have some fun. Every level is endless, there are global updates during games that change the situations, and more. The game is one of the more unique games we’ve seen. It’s also great for those who love only the most chaotic tower defense games. It’s free to download with in-app purchases. However, the developer states in the description that you should be able to unlock everything without buying anything.
Iron Marines
Price: $4.99 with in-app purchases
Iron Marines is the latest tower defense game from Ironhide Game Studio. We also have their Kingdom Rush franchise a bit further down. This one is among the newer tower defense games. It features 14 campaign missions, ten additional special missions, and an Impossible Mode for additional challenge. There are also a variety of towers and heroes. They are unlockable and upgradeable. It comes complete with achievements and more. It’s $4.99 with in-app purchases. This one is also available on Google Play Pass if you use it.
Kingdom Rush games
Price: $0.99-$4.99 with in-app purchases (each)
The Kingdom Rush series is one of the most prolific and highly rated tower defense franchises on the list. It adheres strictly to the classic tower defense mechanics which has garnered it a tiny bit of vitriol from more serious gamers, but most people still really enjoy these titles. There are four total, including Kingdom Rush, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, Kingdom Rush Origins, and the newest title, Kingdom Rush Vengeance. They all have similar mechanics with small mechanic changes as you progress through the series. The first Kingdom Rush game is free with no in-app purchases which makes it a great jumping in point. The entire Kingdom Rush series is also available on Google Play Pass.
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Myth Defense LF
Price: Free / $2.99-$3.99
Myth Defense is a family of pay-once tower defense games for those who dislike freemium. The basic mechanics are purely tower defense. It also adds things such as random maps, alchemy, and more. There are 18 maps in the campaign mode, two difficulty levels, 22 towers (along with three traps), 33 total levels, and support for multiple languages. You can also play both difficulties at once with each one having its own save file. There are two games in the series (Myth Defense LF and Myth Defense 2) and both them are relatively inexpensive. They’re worth a shot. Both games are available on Google Play Pass as well.
Plants vs Zombies 1, 2, and Heroes
Price: Free to play
The Plants vs Zombies games are arguably the most casual gamer-friendly tower defense games on the list. It doesn’t look like your classic tower defense but the mechanics are there. You must defend against waves of enemies by planting weaponzied plants in your yard to obstruct their path. It’s long been one of the most popular tower defense games. Additionally, it’s a fun game and it’s great for casual gamers. The developers have also been consistent with adding in new content for those who have reached the end of the game. Plants vs Zombies Heroes is also decent if you want a card game spin on the game mechanics.
Radiant Defense
Price: Free / $0.99
Radiant Defense is easily the most colorful tower defense game on the list. It also features some rather unique mechanics. Players build their own routes and then line that route with towers. This is in stark contrast to the standard where the developers make the paths for you. It adds an extra layer of strategy on top of an already above average tower defense experience. It’s a bit short with only about 15 missions. However, the game is also quite inexpensive.
Swamp Attack
Price: Free top lay
Swamp Attack is a tower defense game with a goofy, southern theme. It plays a lot like Plants vs Zombies. Bad guy waves come in from the right side and a hick with a gun battles them off from the left side. You get a bunch of weapons, some decent strategy elements, and 390 single player levels. That should keep you going for a while. Players also tap the screen to shoot weapons so there is an element of control here as well. It’s a free to play game, but it really only affects the endgame experience.
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Thing TD
Price: Free to play
Thing TD is our wildcard pick for best tower defense games. This one features a narrative story line, over 50 enemies, eight heroes, 25 levels, and 60 achievements. That is a decent amount of content for this genre. The mechanics are typical tower defense. You lay defenses along a path and prevent bad guys from reaching the end. It gets quite difficult as you progress, but this is good, classic tower defense fun with the usual free to play price tag.
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