KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Aliens come in all shapes and colors. However, some aliens carry traits that require more careful approach.

To see what kind of aliens is coming, select the invasion vortex, then select the alien picture to read its description.

ARMORED ALIENS

Rokka, Leman, Crustab, Solar Ufon etc.

Armored aliens are resistant to bullets, energy weapons and splash damage caused by explosions.

The armor-piercing impact of a Seraphim Missile or Starcrusher Cannonball does good damage to a single armored alien.

Proximity Mines are an excellent armor-piercing countermeasure. Ultraviolent radiation of the Neutron Megablast and the lethal aerosol of Pandora Biocid spray circumvent any armor protection altogether!

REGENERATING ALIENS

Glow Norkel, Bog Flo, Emerald Jello, Soker etc.

Regenerating aliens usually come in greenish colors. Best approach to deal with them is through a concentrated rapid fire. If you had built a great long route scattered with slow firing weapons and regenerating aliens give you trouble, consider shortening the path so that it leads just around your rapid firing weapons, such as Typhon Fury Flamer or Beliah Gunturret. Never give the regenerates time to heal.

ENERGY RESISTANT ALIENS

Tempest Flo, Sapphire Jello, Gemma, etc.

Creatures resistant to energy weapons can easily get past your Laser and Tesla weapons, and they can even absorb good portion of damage out of the Judgement Ray shot and Flamer fire. Best weapons against energy resistant aliens are the ones that shoot bullets and make explosions!

SPAWNERS

Frogar, Swollen Patizon, Ruby Jellord, Sakpod

Death is not the end. At least not for these aliens. In the moment they're destroyed, they release bunch of smaller critters they've been smuggling inside. The worst thing to do is to let them pass your main defenses. To prevent this, use Proximity Mines or Power Blades that can either greatly speed up spawners' death or quickly dispose of their freshly spawned offspring.

ANTI-KINETIC FORCESHIELDS

Anti-Kinetic Forceshields are glowing bubbles that could be wrapped around any kind of alien. Forceshields are resistant to bullets, explosions and Biocid spray. Only tools effective against Forceshields are the energy weapons. Solaris Lasers, Stormguard Tesla Arrays, Neutron Megablast and Power Blades work best. Typhon Fury Flamer takes longer time before its Thermonium burns through the shield, but it does the job. Judgement Ray Gauss gun can usually take down single Forceshield in just a few shots, however it's not an adequate solution against larger groups of protected targets.

TIPS:

• Energy weapons are better positioned at the beginning of the alien route (near the vortex) in order to strip Forceshields off the aliens before they pass your main firepower.
• Burning aliens regenerate slower or not at all. Build Typhon Fury Flamers to set aliens on fire.

WEAPONS ARE POWER, PLACE THEM WELL

Weapons firing kinetic projectiles - such as Starcrusher Cannon or Beliah Gunturret - have a very low accuracy. They perform best when they can fire down the narrow corridor, against the incoming enemies. Even if the first enemy evades the flying bullet or a cannon ball, one of the aliens queued behind will most likely take the hit.

Kinetic weapons are not suited to be placed inside the bends of an alien route. Unless the target enemy is very slow, most of the projectiles would miss while the weapon rotates trying to catch up. Being positioned outside the bend is much better for cannons, because there they don't need to turn in full circles whenever an alien flies by.

Energy ray-casting weapons such as Solaris Laser and Judgement Ray Gauss Gun always hit their targets with 100% accuracy. It's better to place them inside the bends, so that their range covers as much of the route as possible. Just bear in mind that Judgement Ray Gauss Gun requires a minimum range so it won't fire at targets that get too close.

Each weapon excels at a specific function and works best in concert with weapons that make up for its shortcomings.

TIPS:

• Soften groups of enemies first with cannons, then finish them with gunturrets or lasers.
• Place the support towers such as Tachyon Warp Generator (slowing), Stormguard Tesla (weakening), Brightmark Searchlight (marking) within the range of as many other weapons as possible.

PUT MONEY TO WORK

In Radiant Defense there are 3 ways to increase your budget.

The basic source of income are the aliens themselves - you get money for each and every alien killed.

At the end of every wave you collect the 'Efficiency Bonus', which is 10% of all the money you didn't spend. The maximum amount of the Efficiency Bonus is $50. Therefore by saving as much money as you can, you'll eventually create a reserve that yields up to extra $50 every wave.

Another way to make more money is to build the Recuperator and kill the incoming aliens within its range. The Recuperator doubles the money reward from aliens killed nearby. Recuperator can be effectively combined with area specific weapons such as Proximity Mines, Power Blades or Omega Cannon.

TIPS:

• For the low cost of one Mine exploded in the Recuperator's range, you get double the money for all the aliens killed in the blast.
• Try to save money during the 'easy waves'. You'll generate more interest money to spend later when things get difficult.

SELLING, UPGRADING AND RETRY WAVE

During the build phase you can build new weapons, change your mind and sell them again for their full price. Once you start the wave though, the selling price of all new weapons drops down to half. Anything you sell during or after the wave is regarded as "used ware", and you'll only get back half of its original price. You can, however, return back before the weapons were used.

Whenever you start the wave, a save of your current build phase is created. You can return to that save through the RETRY WAVE option.

Choosing to RETRY WAVE from the pause menu will take you back to the build phase just before you let the latest wave in.

You can use this to experiment with new weapons. Build a brand new weapon, start the wave and if you're not satisfied with the outcome, choose to RETRY WAVE. You'll return to the build phase where you can sell the unwanted weapon at its full price.

This does not apply to upgrades made on previously used weapons. Therefore it's best to buy new weapons during the build phase and make upgrades to your other weapons during the wave. If anything goes wrong, you can RETRY WAVE, return to the phase before the upgrades were made and sell 'new' weapons before they've been used.

Note: Weapon upgrades are designated with small control lights in the corners of weapon's module.

The Basic weapon has no control lights active. Improved weapon shines one colored control light in the upper right corner of its module. Master weapon upgraded to the maximum level shines four control lights - one in each corner.

ENTER THE HALL OF FAME

Your scores reflect how efficient you are at eliminating the alien threat. During the wave, each alien you kill adds to your score. At the end of the wave, you get Extra Score that's calculated by a simple formula:

(Money) x (Spiral Lives) + (Flawless Bonus)

If you have 100 credits left in your budget and 10 Spiral lives, you'll get 1000 Extra Score points. If you've finished the wave flawlessly, without any alien getting to the Spiral, you get additional 5000 score points Flawless Bonus on top of that.

Once you lose a single Spiral life, you won't receive a Flawless Bonus for the rest of the remaining waves.

To achieve the highest score, finish all the missions without losing a single Spiral life and save as much money as possible.

More importantly though, aliens need to die. Have fun!