Three ways to hold the line
- 3games
- 20languages
Vallum Tower Defense is the fixed-road one: you build four kinds of towers on stone pads beside the road, upgrade each twice and hold the wall on eight maps across meadow, steppe and frost, with a boss on every fifth wave and an Endless mode after the campaign. Wickfen Castle Defense takes building out of a menu. You walk the fen as its warden, pick up coins by walking over them and pay them into a plot by standing on it, and the building rises once its price is paid. Latch Maze Defense has no road at all: you lay blocks into a maze, and the clockwork column always takes the quickest way through whatever you built.
That moves the decision from game to game. In Vallum it is which pad gets which tower. In Wickfen it is where the warden stands, because coins only turn into towers, walls and crofts under your feet and no building can rise above the level of the keep. In Latch it is the shape of the route itself: every block lengthens the walk, and the walk is what your turrets get to shoot at.
Latch Maze Defense: you build the road
A block costs 5 gold and every block you set down makes the column's walk longer, but the game refuses any block, turret or gate that would leave an entrance with no way to the exit. Turrets mount on blocks or on open ground, so the walls are also the guns. Six turrets, Bolt, Mortar, Frost, Arc, Lance and Lantern, each upgrade twice, and the third level is a choice between two forms. Anything bought since the last wave began sells back for its full price, older builds for 70%.
Gates come in two colours, sun and moon, and one pull of the Lever swings all of them at once: shut gates open, open gates shut and the column re-routes on the same step, so a column about to leave can be turned back past every turret. The Lever holds two charges and refills one every 12 seconds. You have 20 lives. Most automata that reach the exit cost one, Plated and Rams cost two and bosses ten. Gliders fly straight over the maze, Hoppers jump a wall one block thick and Rams break shut gates, and each of them has an answer in the turret set.
Maps, stars and what comes after the campaign
Latch has ten maps, each with a rule of its own: fords, two entrances, ice, boulders, a night fair lit by lanterns, hills, culverts, conveyor belts and a court with three entrances, and a boss on maps 4, 8 and 10. Winning a map with 10 lives left earns two stars and 18 earns three; Vallum uses the same thresholds on its eight maps. Hard mode opens after map 4 in Vallum, where every enemy has 15% more health, and in Latch, where enemies have 35% more health and the Lever holds one charge. Wickfen opens it after map 3, also with 35% more enemy health.
Progress buys different things. Stars pay for nine Workshop perks in Latch, while Wickfen pays embers, one per night held and more for a clear, into ten perks with up to three levels each. Latch opens an endless Proving Field after map 5, and Vallum has an Endless mode too. Wickfen and Latch also have a daily run: in Wickfen everyone gets the same map and twist without perks, in Latch the same map and the same rule, such as a swarm or iron shells. Stars and best Endless waves stay on the device you play on, with no account, and a sync code carries them to another phone or computer.
Playing Latch with a friend
Maze Duel gives you and a friend the same map and the same waves on a shared clock. Spend gold on your own maze or on squads sent to your rival's entrance, which also raise your income at every wave start. Whoever loses all lives first loses, and if both last, more lives wins. Vallum and Wickfen are single-player.
Frequently asked questions
Which tower defense game is the easiest to start with?
Vallum Tower Defense. The road is fixed, towers go on stone pads with a tap, and its eight maps are short.
Can I block the path in Latch?
No. Every block, turret and gate is checked before it goes down, and one that would leave an entrance with no way to the exit is refused. Inside that rule the maze is yours.