Elder Gate

Elder Gate is a tower defence game set at a portal under attack from the Abyss. The player takes the role of the last Guardian of the Portal and must prevent waves of undead from breaking through. The game runs for 15 waves, each stronger than the one before, and the composition of enemies in each wave is generated rather than fixed, so the same approach may not work from one run to the next.

Defence is built from several unit types: fast-firing archers, spearmen that pierce armour, heavy infantry and mages, with each unit intended to counter a particular kind of enemy. Gold mines can be placed to increase the rate at which coins are earned. Tactical spells are also available, including a meteor strike that damages an area and chain lightning aimed at individual elite targets. Battlefield tools include slowing traps, barbed wire that damages armour on contact and pressure plates that trigger volleys of fire. These elements are designed to be combined, for example slowing enemies with wire so that more archer shots land, or using spikes and a meteor pool before finishing enemies with lightning.

Enemy types include skeleton wolves that move quickly and are countered by ice mages, armoured zombies that resist arrows and are vulnerable to hammers and explosive magic, ogres that deal area damage and can destroy the player’s structures in a few hits, and a mini-boss in the form of Death, who bypasses some armour and kills any unit in one strike. Towers destroyed by ogres must be rebuilt during the attack. Between runs, points can be spent in the Guardian’s Crypt on permanent upgrades such as increased archer damage, reduced magic costs and additional portal health.