7 Things I Wish I Knew Beforehand

[poetic_justice_]

1. The DNA upgrade material (e-volve) is very limited. I blew most of mine upgrading the crossbow tower, only to realize the game wanted me to buy more e-volve with real money. Once you beat a level with three stars, you will never get e-volve from that level again. The game doesn't explain this. If I had to redo Day D Tower Rush again, I would have invested more in the catapult (lowering the cost to purchase them) and fossil resource towers (faster speed, more fossils generated). I also would have invested more in the Common upgrade "enemies drop more fossils when killed".

 

2. After the first three levels, the crossbow becomes a support class weapon for individual enemies. Day D is a horde game, and the catapult is the #1 weapon against hordes. The catapult is the main reason I was able to three-star the first 10 levels. However, at a base cost of 150 fossils a unit, a catapult is expensive. If I would have invested just 14 e-volve, the base price (and all upgrades) would have dropped 10% (135 fossils). The cannon is also decent, but when there are literally a hundred dinosaurs charging your time machine, you want five catapults, not five cannons, and definitely not five crossbows. One or two crossbows at the time machine gate are good for protecting the time machine itself due to their rapid fire rate, but your go-to on 85% of the map will be catapults. A fully upgraded cannon at the gate is even faster than a crossbow, but they are quite expensive.

 

3. Upgrading the rate & speed of the fossil resource tower once or twice with e-volve helps with the trophy Paleontologist: Earn 10,000 bones in a level.

 

3. For unlocking 100% of trophies, it is worth it to pay $1 dollar US for the Unlock Jurassic add-on. This allows you access to the last level, which contains all five geo-charge attacks. You must use all five geo-charge attacks in one level to unlock A Natural Disaster: Used all (five) different types of geo-charge on a level. Without this, you will be slogging for hours on levels 11-19. 8Floor does this to force players to buy e-volve to upgrade their towers, but with Unlock Jurassic, this investment of time is no longer necessary. You can get all the other trophies on the first 10 levels (or less), and you only need to play level 20 for A Natural Disaster trophy.

 

4. The rarest trophy, An Important Position: Placed all types of weaponry accessible in the episode on a single tile, is super easy, barely an inconvenience. You need to build-sell-build-sell-etc. the four basic units on one tile: crossbow, cannon, fossil resource, and catapult. You do not need to upgrade any of these towers; just build the basic unit and immediately sell it, then build the next one. This process isn't cheap (50+70+90+150 fossils), so I recommend doing it on level 5+ during one of the later waves. I recommend having a resource cushion of three hundred fossils before attempting it. Each time you sell a tower, you get 50% of the fossils back.

 

5. Do not waste your e-volve on the pay-to-win towers in most levels. You need that e-volve to upgrade your catapults in the main menu. Buy one pay-to-win tower once during the tutorial so you unlock the corresponding trophy, but other than that, you can win levels and keep your time machine at 25/25 without buying a pay-to-win tower.

 

6. For the final grind trophy, Butcher: Kill 20,000 dinosaurs, replaying levels 7-9 seemed to be the sweet spot for me. Yes, levels 10-20 spawn more enemies, but spawning more enemies isn't the same thing as killing more enemies. On levels 10+, I couldn't upgrade towers fast enough to commit thunder lizard genocide, which is the goal of Butcher. It is obvious 8Floor Games wants players to spend real money for e-volve tower upgrades, because level 11 onward become ridiculously hard to three-star. On levels 7-9, I was able to fine-tune my catapult placement to wipe out every dinosaur before it reached the time machine and didn't have to spend any e-volve.

 

7. If there are too many enemies onscreen and the action becomes too hectic, Circle pauses the game. Square unpauses the game, and Triangle doubles the game's speed. While the game is paused, you can still buy/upgrade/sell towers and activate geo-charge attacks. This is helpful if you have a mob at your gate and your towers are overwhelmed.

 

8. Geo-charge attacks, particularly the earthquake, are helpful when you are low on funds, especially at the beginning of a new level. The earthquake attack is insanely powerful, killing every enemy in its AOE. However, it takes a long time to charge. Don't be shy about using geo-charge attacks; they are free and free up your towers to focus on other enemies.

 

If I had known those eight things before playing Day D Tower Rush, I might have cut my time to 3 or 4 hours instead of 5 hours. I wouldn't have wasted time trying to gut my way through level 11+. Buying the Jurassic Unlock is worth the $1 dollar it costs for the hours it will save.

Edited June 2, 2022 by poetic_justice_