What are the best Tower Defense games on Steam?

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Nov 12, 2023

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The 2 must play gamesWhy?

Best Tower Defense games on Steam	Price	Platforms	Genre
93 Kingdom Rush	$9.99	Windows, Mac, Steam	-
92 Orcs Must Die: Unchained	Free	-	-
88 Bloons TD 5	$9.99	-	-
-- Mindustry	$4.99	Windows, Linux, Mac, Android	Sandbox/Tower Defense
-- Defense Grid: The Awakening	-	-	-

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Orcs Must Die: Unchained

Top Con

Multiplayer game, so it may die

Because the core of the game is multiplayer, based on matchmaking, if few players play the game you'll end up waiting for a very long time in the queue. See More

Top Pro

Some of the most fun heroes in gaming

Some heroes are good for defending, others for attacking or looting. The latter two are more relevant in the MOBA game mode than tower defense. But all of them have unique, distinct skills which level up based on your performance in the match. And they have ultimate abilities. See More

ColorfulSiebog's Experience

Server is dead, and no longer supported on steam. See More

Top Con

Questionable balance between heroes

Different heroes have different purposes, but some are a little better at theirs than others. If you ever encounter an enemy Zoey... God help you. See More

Top Pro

Trap tactics

Traps are the core mechanic to defending the lanes against oncoming hordes of npc enemies. Be smart, use bottlenecks, spend your currency wisely on traps and coordinate with team mates. See More

Top Con

Poorly balanced singleplayer

OMDU is primarily designed as a multiplayer game, so you'll have some difficulty when playing alone, especially when just starting out. This is mostly because the enemies have a lot of health, meaning your damage might be too low to take them out on time. There’s also the issue of some levels being quite big, so you might not be able to cover all the paths easily. OMDU is certainly playable on singleplayer but only if you’re up for the challenge. See More

Top Pro

The game is funny

From its cartoonish design to the banter you hear from oncoming enemy npc's, this game clearly doesn't take itself too seriously. The different heroes you can choose from are caricatures themselves. Watching those orcs being blown to pieces or catapulted into the air is very satisfying. See More

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29 Other Games Considered

Bloons TD 5

Top Pro

Co-op mode

Unlocked at rank 10, two players can work together to beat a game, with a set map and difficulty, of Bloons. In co-op mode players can transfer money between them opening up new possibilities of gameplay. See More

Top Con

In-app purchases

This app does contain in app purchases, and plenty of them. Though they're not necessary for normal play, they are still present, and needed to unlock special perks (double cash mode). Everything else can be purchased with coins and bucks, which can be earned (or bought) through normal game play. They range from $0.99 - $49.99 per item. See More

Top Pro

Lots of progression (towers, upgrades)

Top Pro

Nicely varied gameplay

There's a great variation in towers, their stats and upgrade trees, as well as enemy types (bloons) and levels you have your battles in. See More

Top Pro

Easy to pick up and play

Top Pro

Great depth and variety

There's a great variation in towers, their stats and upgrade trees, as well as enemy types (bloons) and levels you have your battles in. See More

Top Pro

Fun multiplayer

Unlocked at rank 10, two players can work together to beat a game, with a set map and difficulty, of Bloons. In co-op mode players can transfer money between them opening up new possibilities of gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Clean graphics

The gameplay in previous games (TD4 and lower) was a bit laggy at times, luckily TD5 has cleaned up the graphics to make them a bit more simple while also allowing for new designs that differentiate things in the game in order to make it easier to tell what is going on. The cleaned up graphics also allow for smother gameplay due to them using less resources, meaning no more laggy gameplay. See More

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Mindustry

Top Pro

Multi platform

NobleNodens's Experience

A good open source tower defense game in active development with a bit of factorio See More

Specs

Genre:Sandbox/Tower Defense

Co-Op:yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

You build a factory

RickZeeland's Experience

Open source game that is also available from the makers website, the Steam version is paid and offers achievements, seamless multiplayer and map browsing/Workshop support. See More

Top Pro

Multiplayer

Top Pro

Single-player and multi-player

Top Pro

Open-source

Top Pro

Big campaign

There is a big campaign if you want to play alone. See More

Top Pro

Free

You won't lose anything if you don't like it. See More

See All

Defense Grid: The Awakening

Top Pro

Can really build some crazy mazes in later levels

Early on you are limited in placement, but in later levels you can and need to build your own mazes to really direct the enemies. There are lots of options/routes/ways to build those mazes so it really opens up a lot of replayability to try and beat your friends scores by tweaking your mazes for maximum points. See More

Top Con

During early missions you are very limited in tower placements

It gets better though and you can really build some crazy mazes. See More

EnergeticLeibOlmai's Experience

This is an excellent game. I'm a huge tower-defense fan, and this is in the top 3 of all time, along with "GemCraft" and (pre-EA) "Plants Vs. Zombies". See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Looks beautiful

Top Con

Later levels allowing the multiple entries and exits for the enemies is not fun.

When you're being invaded from different directions, you soon feel like you've suddenly gained a terrible case of ADD. It's just not fun - it's a lame cop-out that tower defense designers use to make levels more difficult. See More

Top Pro

Very nice voice acting

Top Pro

Checkpoints in levels

Checkpoints allow for partial level rewind so beginning parts of levels don't need to be played over and over to get to difficult parts. See More

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Dungeon Defenders

Top Pro

Lots of replay value

A leveling system and a good selection of different characters adds a good amount of replay value. See More

Top Con

Repetitive gameplay

Once you've played a few maps you'll have a taste of everything this game has to offer. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Co-Op:2 Player Online / 4 Player Couch / 4 Player LAN

Controller Support:Full

See All Specs

Top Pro

4 player local and online co-op

Dungeon Defenders has four player local and online co-op play. See More

Top Con

Single player is boring

Dungeon Defenders shines in its multiplayer mode, but playing alone is just boring. See More

Top Pro

A mix of tower defense, FPS, and RPG mechanics creates original feeling gameplay

Dungeon Defenders is a mix of many genres, resulting in game that feels original (although it leans most heavily on the tower defense model). This originality creates a situation where the game still feels familiar enough to grasp the gameplay, while still keeping things fresh enough for those familiar with the genres combined in the game. See More

Top Con

The screen

Dungeon defenders screen should give everyone the same amount of screen. See More

Top Pro

Combining numerous weapon loadouts with many character classes allows for a ton of replayability

Due to the wide assortment of classes and loadouts, replayability is pretty high. Each class has its own skills, each weapon will require different strategies. Mixing these together allows for numerous possibilities in gameplay. See More

Top Con

Can get grindy

See All

Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows

Top Pro

More than 190 levels

With so many levels to play in the game will last a good while. Each map is varied and with that makes for an experience that does not get tiring either. See More

Top Con

Performance can be an issue late game

If you're spawning 5000 monsters on screen, with a few dozen towers, each blasting 10 bolts per second, with lightning, and various slowing poison traps,.. your CPU might just kind of overheat a little bit. See More

Thomas's Experience

What can I say,. I've played every single part of the gemcraft series - and this is the first one to reach steam - obviously I had to have it and it's one of the (very few) games in my library that I actually paid the full price for. The earlier versions may be found as flash games on sites dedicated to such games if you are inclined to seek them out. The steam version of GC Chasing Shadows is big, has a ton of achievements to unlock, drops trading cards, and has over 190 levels - each one you will want to complete 3 or more times to maximize your score. Gemcraft is radically different from any of the other tower defense games in that you do not upgrade the towers, but actually the gems which you must then place in the towers. You get 9 different colors - each with different effects. And they may be infinitely combined and upgraded to higher levels of power at the cost of mana. The game features 419 achievements (I still lack 2 at the time of writing),. and I can assure you it's a big challenge to try and get them all. Aside worth it - because they will give you more skill points, and this will boost your power in-game. See More

Top Pro

Addictive, in-depth gameplay based on combining gems that provide different traits to your towers

The main mechanic of the game is using gems that provide properties like splash damage, poison, chain lightning, etc to your towers in different combinations. Add to that the fact that there are 7 levels for each gem, you have to manage your mana, there are multiple difficulty levels that change the amount of experience you gain, there are multiple kinds of spells, 25 passive skills and talisman fragments among other variables that you have to balance and you end up with an impressive amount of choice and depth. See More

Top Pro

Rewarding and challenging achievements

The game features no less than 419 achievements, great for all metagamers to spend a good month hunting See More

Top Pro

Multiple ways to play

Gems for Pure crit, double and triple damage, full mana drain, slow - combine gems and boost their power. You choose and mix how you want to play to get the most points out of a level. Or just skip towers and gem-bomb your way to the end. See More

Top Pro

High replayability

Completing a level does not mean you've gotten all the score you could from it. You can return to every level you've completed at a later point - when you're stronger, have more skills, etc and brute force the level to get maximum points (points equal xp) See More

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Tower Wars

All

1

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Bloons TD 6

Top Pro

It has many upgrades

Top Con

Its android requirement is very high

It takes up approx 1GB space after installing. In lower android phones it lags a lot. If you have less than 2GB Ram then don't install it. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Now on offer for free in the Epic Game Store: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/bloons-td-6-bf95a0 See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Co-op is back

The long awaited and most requested feature, Co-op, now features up to 4 players playing at once along with a lot of other new things, which is a definite upgrade from 5 See More

Top Pro

New upgrade options

Three Upgrade Paths (compared to the previous game's two) and 5 upgrades at each path with an option to crosspath two upgrades give the game endless variety of towers. See More

Top Pro

It is a 3D tower Defence game

Top Pro

Monkey hero

In this version there is some monkey heroes that help very much on game. After purchasing in game, automatically upgrade without cost, or you can upgrade fast with money up to 20 lvls. See More

Top Pro

New towers added

Druid and alchemist. See More

See All

Core Defense

Top Pro

Replayability

Between the random and the "supercharge" option you can play many games without having the same experience. See More

Top Con

Difficulty

The difficulty is the good aspect of this game, but even the easiest difficulty can be hard for starters. See More

NobleNodens's Experience

A good rogue-like tower defense game for less than 10€ on steam See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Roguelike Tower Defense

See All Specs

Top Pro

Difficulty

It is hard to win in every difficulty. See More

Top Con

Only one mode of game

Enven with the "supercharge" option there is still only one mode of game and it can be redundant. See More

Iridium Flare's Experience

A good, solid tower defense game, with extreme replayability and excellent difficulty-ramping. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Top Con

Small comunity

I don't know if it will change, but for now the comunity is small. See More

ehmprah's Experience

Caveat: this is a shameless plug! ;-) See More

Top Pro

Combos

Yes , there are combos. See More

Top Pro

Daily challenge

Includes rankings! See More

Top Pro

Sound design

Has a good soundtrack. See More

Top Pro

Good graphics

It's 2D, but the graphics are obviously very good. See More

See All

Minecraft

Top Pro

Amazing extended community

The community surrounding this game is huge due to its popularity. There are lots of servers and projects revolving around it that allow for so many different choices in how one wants to play and who they want to play with. From crafting guides/videos, themed servers and YouTube play sessions, there is enough out there to help one find what they are looking for. See More

Top Con

Steep and time-consuming learning curve

Learning what items are needed to craft takes quite a bit of knowledge and time. There are guides and videos online that can help with this, but not much in-game that helps the player know exactly how and what to craft. See More

EagerProvidentia's Experience

It's not a TD game. See More

Specs

Genre:Indie / Survival / Sandbox

Co-Op:8 Player Online / 4 Player Couch / 8 Player LAN/ Infinite Player Servers

Controller Support:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Randomly generated worlds and distinct locations keep the gameplay fresh

Each new world is randomly generated, making for a different experience every time. There can be plains, rivers, beaches, ravines, giant mountains, hidden villages, and a lot more. There are also 38 biomes, which includes snow, desert, forest, swamp among others. Each one has its own set of unique blocks, plant life, and creatures. You won't get tired of exploring above ground or underground because every location will seem new and exciting. See More

Top Con

Still involves killing other things

In order to progress through the game and craft items, players will need to kill other things such as skeletons, zombies and monsters which may not be seen as child-friendly or can result in frightening situations. See More

Top Pro

Great creativity tool

If you prefer building, creative mode is the way to go. It immediately gives you unlimited blocks, the ability to fly, and immortality. This allows you to easily build anything you want without worrying about height or enemies. Things like giant castles, villages, roller coasters, and even unique builds such as the Enterprise from Star Trek. You can really let your creativity loose. See More

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Candy Disaster

Sanctum 2

Top Con

Towers play only a secondary role

In this game the FPS aspect is more heavily emphasized, and the towers assist the player more than the player assists the towers. Towers definitely still play an important role, but the player often needs to do a lot of the work, especially for early waves. See More

Top Pro

Unique maps

There are many different levels in the game and the player(s) always have a choice about how to build their maze. The maps themselves usually have a large open area, with a few obstacles to build around in some cases, and the player(s) can place down blocks wherever they want to create unique mazes every time. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Co-Op:4 Player Online

Controller Support:Full

See All Specs

Top Con

Block/tower limit reduces design choices

One thing that is not ideal is the player(s) start with a limited amount of blocks. You can't design a grand maze from the start as you don't start with enough blocks. You get a couple more blocks at the end of every wave, but it takes a while to get a solid maze going. This somewhat dampens the possible creativity in designing your layouts. There is also a cap on the number of Towers that can be constructed, so it requires you to think carefully about where to build them. See More

Top Pro

Well balanced campaign that allows for 1 to 4 players while keeping the difficulty scaled in order to keep the gameplay challenging

The campaign remains balanced regardless of how many people are playing. The difficulty of play scales very effectively to ensure the level of challenge is appropriate. See More

Top Pro

Caters to lots of various playstyles

There are different characters/classes to choose in this game. Each has their primary weapon which can't be changed, and a special ability. The were is also a secondary weapon available, which can be other player's primary weapons once a level requirement is met. As for the abilities, one character sets enemies on fire to provide constant DoT any time she shoots an enemy. Another character gets bonus critical damage, etc. There are also perks you unlock as you level up which can drastically affect your play style, such as one perk that moderately damages enemies within a block of you once per second. This can be combined with a perk that boosts your weapon damage by 10% for each close enemy for up to 6 stacks. There are tons of different perks, like ones that focus on protecting/healing the core, or slowing down enemies, or maximizing turret effectiveness, so the game allows you to play how you want to. See More

Top Pro

Solid tower diversity

There are many different types of Towers. There are Cannons which fire reliably with moderate damage, Focus Beams which lock on to a single target and fire continuously until it dies or leaves the range, Lightning Towers which emit massive AoE damage on enemies passing by, but fires very slowly, and much more. Towers can be upgraded 3 times which increase their effectiveness. See More

Top Pro

Excellent enemy diversity

The game offers drastically different enemies. Some might be slow tanks, while other could be fast and in swarms, but very weak. The Bobbleheads can only be damaged by shooting their crit spot on the top of their head, but they sway back and forth as they move through the maze. There are also Bosses that show up at the end of some levels, which are very powerful and giant versions of some of the core enemies. They all gain special abilities which makes them an even bigger threat, such as the Hoverer Queen who, like Hoverers, can only be damaged by being shot in the crit spot on its back. However, this Boss will emit something like an EMP Pulse when attacking the player, which will shut down all nearby towers for a couple seconds. This might force the players to adapt to taking shots at it from far away. See More

See All

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Kingdom Rush

Top Pro

Extra challenges for every map

Top Con

It is clear that the game was designed for a mobile device

A more convenient way to experience this game is on a tablet, but it is still a great game if played on PC. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Several heroes with unique abilities

Top Pro

Well-ballanced and gradually increasing difficulty level

New towers and abilities are unlocked at a rate that feels natural and not sluggish. See More

Top Pro

Lots of enemies, all of them are described in ingame encyclopedia

Top Pro

Lots of fun references hidden throughout the game.

Though most of the little easter eggs don't do much past an achievement, they really give the game character and make the levels more memorable. See More

The 2 must play gamesWhy?

My Recommendation for Kingdom Rush

My Recommendation for Kingdom Rush

Extra challenges for every map

It is clear that the game was designed for a mobile device

Several heroes with unique abilities

Well-ballanced and gradually increasing difficulty level

Lots of enemies, all of them are described in ingame encyclopedia

Lots of fun references hidden throughout the game.

Great sounds and voice acting

Nice comic style graphic

My Recommendation for Orcs Must Die: Unchained

My Recommendation for Orcs Must Die: Unchained

Multiplayer game, so it may die

Some of the most fun heroes in gaming

Questionable balance between heroes

Trap tactics

Poorly balanced singleplayer

The game is funny

29 Other Games Considered

My Recommendation for Bloons TD 5

My Recommendation for Bloons TD 5

Co-op mode

In-app purchases

Lots of progression (towers, upgrades)

Nicely varied gameplay

Easy to pick up and play

Great depth and variety

Fun multiplayer

Clean graphics

My Recommendation for Mindustry

My Recommendation for Mindustry

Multi platform

You build a factory

Multiplayer

Single-player and multi-player

Open-source

Big campaign

Free

My Recommendation for Defense Grid: The Awakening

My Recommendation for Defense Grid: The Awakening

Can really build some crazy mazes in later levels

During early missions you are very limited in tower placements

Looks beautiful

Later levels allowing the multiple entries and exits for the enemies is not fun.

Very nice voice acting

Checkpoints in levels

My Recommendation for Plants vs. Zombies

My Recommendation for Plants vs. Zombies

Never gets old

Way too easy

Very repetitive

My Recommendation for Dungeon Defenders

My Recommendation for Dungeon Defenders

Lots of replay value

Repetitive gameplay

4 player local and online co-op

Single player is boring

A mix of tower defense, FPS, and RPG mechanics creates original feeling gameplay

The screen

Combining numerous weapon loadouts with many character classes allows for a ton of replayability

Can get grindy

My Recommendation for Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows

My Recommendation for Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows

More than 190 levels

Performance can be an issue late game

Addictive, in-depth gameplay based on combining gems that provide different traits to your towers

Rewarding and challenging achievements

Multiple ways to play

High replayability

My Recommendation for Tower Wars

My Recommendation for Tower Wars

My Recommendation for Bloons TD 6

My Recommendation for Bloons TD 6

It has many upgrades

Its android requirement is very high

Co-op is back

New upgrade options

It is a 3D tower Defence game

Monkey hero