Flash Circle TD - Review
Play Here: Flash Circle TD
Developer: David Scott
Building on the massively popular Flash Element TD this game may possibly be the most anticipated tower defense to date. (Warcraft and Starcraft didn’t launch as TDs)
To me the most appealing aspect of Flash Circle TD is the unlimited creep waves. I believe the concept comes from Roman Sanines tower defense game. The only difference is David Scott chose not to go with a traditional number of lives. Instead the game ends when 100 or 80 creeps manage to survive in the maze at once. Also, creeps run in circles rather than following a linier path to your castle. Both ideas are unique to the genre.
Towers:
Fast Tower - These towers are extremely powerful in the early rounds. Building 2 fast towers can get buy you enough time to build a damage tower if you want to go that route. As tempting as it may be don’t mass fast towers. They become virtually worthless when creep hp levels start sky rocketing.
Splash Tower - May be the most powerful tower in the game if used with ice towers. Level 9 splash towers do a good deal of damage to fairly large area of creeps.
Air Tower - No surprise here. These towers are designed solely to take down flying creeps. They have enough range to cover the entire maze if you build them in the center and upgrade to lv9. Do not go overboard with these towers. Air levels all seem to be separated by several levels of ground monsters. So as long as your ground is covered you can afford to take as long as needed to bring down flyers.
Slow Tower - No doubt inspired by the Warcraft 3 ice tower your slow towers must be handled properly to get your golds worth. It definitely appears that a group of lv1 slow towers is more effective than 1-2 upgraded slow towers. It may be ideal to build a group of slow towers but that would be pretty difficult based on the rate that creeps increase in strength.
Damage Tower - Massive amount of damage, medium range, medium speed. I would like to think the ideal tower combination is damage/air but I can’t seem to score higher with this combo than splash/ice/air. I haven’t tried damage/splash/ice/air yet. This tower appears to be more cost effective if you mass them rather than upgrading. The rate of fire or range could give upgraded damage towers the edge but I haven’t managed to fully upgrade one yet.
Share your strategy! Let us know how you rack up the points with a comment. I am still trying to figure out how to fully upgrade a damage tower on the hard level. (without selling)
So far my highest score on the hard level is 2119.
(39 votes, average: 7.85 out of 9)
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March 17th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
my highest score was 2393 level 86
March 24th, 2007 at 10:37 am
My highest score was just over 2800 (just once) but I usually hit about 2400.
Strategy
Splash towers:
There are three rings — inside island, middle ring and outside ring. I build up Splash towers on the right part of the middle ring, right under the trail that cuts from right to left (fit them as close together as possible) . When you have money, upgrade these rather than purchasing new ones.
Slow towers:
I spread many of these around, but I never upgrade them (have about ten or so). Don’t place them close together as they then tend to lock on the same target, which defeats the purpose of having many.
Air towers:
I simply build these up right in the middle of the board. Upgrade fully, but do so slowly. Err on the side of these being too weak.
Getting to 2800:
With the Splash towers in one group, click on dense groups of creeps to have the most impact. Always focus on new waves as these are the most condensed. That’s it — click where it’s most dense.
March 28th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Haven’t reached 2400 yet, but I can tell you that a lvl9 damage tower does 2293 damage at a range of 174.
March 28th, 2007 at 3:40 am
Thanks for the strategy Derek! I managed to reach level 70 with about 3700 points! here’s a breakdown of my variation:
Some notes:
1. Your aim is to try and clear the board at the end of each round, except for flying units. You can still manage this up till around level 50 (although not every round by then)
2. Only spend money at the beginning of a round, because of interest.
3. Try to save up; the 5% interest makes a big difference. If you are clearing the board easily, don’t upgrade for a round or two (or more).
Ok, on to the layout / strategy:
1. build 2 fast towers. upgrade them once each at most.
2. Start building splash towers on the right part of the middle ring. I started of with 2 and then added on till I had 5 before I started upgrading any past about level 1. I had two below the split in the middle ring and 3 above the split. Only once they were all level 9 did I start adding more, although that might not be the most optimal, since by that stage things were getting a little bit frantic.
3. build cold towers spaced around the board. don’t bother upgrading them too much.
4. Once your fast towers are useless, sell them.
5. focus on where the packs are thickest. The splash towers are most effective here. Remember your goal is to clear the board before the end of each round.
March 31st, 2007 at 11:10 am
i am in the process of playing right now and i am at level 97 and i have 5566 points. my strategy is to just build damage and arrow and air one the entire middle and inner ring is covered then upgrade. dont build in outer ring
March 31st, 2007 at 11:18 am
now im at level 109
March 31st, 2007 at 11:19 am
if you post your email adress i can send you a screen shot
April 1st, 2007 at 3:12 am
I was just playing this for about 2 hours. I was on level 195 with around 11,200 points and $130,000 in the bank. I had about 60% of the towers on the board maxed out. Then I hit the damn back button on my mouse and ruined everything. As much as I like the game I don’t think I will replay it to see how many points I can get. 4+ hours is just too long.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Wow, things have changed with this game — my March 24 post is outdated. Since then, the creator of the game added the 5% Interest feature and removed the ‘click your target’ feature. It’s more like the Flash Element TD version now.
April 6th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I am ten years old and i find this game chaqllenging. I reached a level 36 and I placed too many towers on the outside. I lost because I didn’t level up and they were all on the outside. My mom reached a level 56.
April 9th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Before the ability to select your target was removed, I managed 4044 on hard. Now I get nowhere near that and have gone back to playing the previous game. Prettier and more fun.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
my friend and i was able to get to level 350 and 800,000,000.
our style is use only the big damage ones and when u start out by placing them right at the creep entrances and only use 8 4 on each side and then try to wait and build the bank and only upgrade when you go to around 80 creeps. eventually your interest is what wins the game for you, we use the air ones too, but no slow and splash, only upgraded when you get close to 75-80. The damage can shoot off-screen and get them b4 they come in.
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:24 am
My highest score (normal atleast)was 24,700 at level 380-ish, just let my interest rate get crazy then filled the map with fully-upgraded damage towers, and 2 circles of air towers on the outer ring, eventually the fast,hard,air levels couldnt be killed fast enough(at 200,000 hp no kidding) and built up on each other tell i lost. i didnt really get any major results after level 200 with splash,fast,or ice.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Level: 417, Score: 23,978, Bank: ??? Difficulty: Normal
Creep: 100, Died.
Screenshot:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/getnakano/
May 11th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Last night, i was playing hard for the first time, got about 5 levels past the second set of Hard/Air monsters with just over 3000 points.
May 12th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Played for the second time on hard, got 4184(?), check the leader board under “chrisfer”. Oh, and I realised it was only the first set last night. Thanks for the tips about placing many towers instead of powering them all up. Also, I had over 12,000 gp before I panicked and spent it all in the last round.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I found out last night that the fast levels come every 5 levels, air levels come every 7 levels, and hard levels come every 9 levels, and combos happen when those levels overlap. Fast/Air will first occur at level 35, recurring every 35 levels afterwards. Fast/Hard will occur first on level 45 and continue every 45 levels, and Hard/Air will first occur on level 63, happening every 63rd level afterwards. The Fast/Hard/Air level will occur on level 315? I have never actually made it that far before, so i’m not 100% sure, but that’s the first time all three levels overlap.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Just so everyone knows, there is a guy who set up a list on David’s Forum for all of the levels and their HP. It is not 100% accurate, but most of it is at least very close.
http://novelconcepts.informe.com/hard-normal-script-list-dt687.html
May 29th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Just for a strategy for someone who can get quite far - is it possible to not fill the 2×2 spaces with just air towers and use some splash towers to get some more levels out of the game, especially if you just bought extras until the hard/air levels are done.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I have been playing the game off and on for a couple of weeks. I play for about 15-20 minutes and then go do something else. I am currently on level 320 with a score of 18450 and 20611804 in the bank. My board is maxed out. The best strategy I have found is start with 2 arrow towers, then place 2 splash towers asap right next to them. Place 6 air towers right before your aiar level begins. save your cash for a while and then place 4-6 damage towers. This will keep you for a while and then place more of them. Try to space everything evenly. I have my board maxed out and all of my towers are upgraded. I’m just waiting to see how far this layout will take me, so far the creeps have over 200000 hp and don’t even make it half-way around.
June 13th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
My highest was just around 25,600 (which would have been the #1 highest score ever in the game, at the time I STARTED playing, but by the time I finished, someone else had over 25,800, and I’ve seen higher since then).
Anyway, I tried again, and didn’t get as high, as a strange bug crept in at that point. Since the board was full of Damage/Air that were fully upgraded, and I was getting hundreds of millions in interest each turn, I was demolishing towers to build others as needed. If I needed more air towers, I would demolish a bunch of Damage towers and build (and vice versa). After doing this for a few rounds (which were painfully slow by this point), things started to disappear! Slowly, the last 8-9 towers I built would just disappear off the map, leaving an empty spot to build on again. This kept happening, such that I would spend all my time trying to fill in spots that should be firing, and eventually just got overwhelmed (a couple thousand points earlier than the time before).
Very strange indeed (wonder if that’ll happen again, that was at least 2 months ago, I believe it’s been updated, since it behaves slightly different with the “clicking on the baddies” now as well).
June 13th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Correction: I was getting at least Billions in interest (I’m at 87M in interest this time, at level 382, 22K points, so plenty further to go). Also, I hit the bug last time where Changing the Resolution would reset the Level counter to “27″, and the next round would be Flying, so I have no idea what level I got to that time
Also, more flying at that point in the game isn’t very helpful 
Strategy I used was:
1) Start with 1 splash tower, top right of the inside wall.
2) Once you have enough cash, build a Damage tower, and then a 2nd. Those should be enough to get through the next few levels.
3) When the Air level comes, build 6 Air towers. Thats enough to take care of those guys.
4) From then on, just sit and wait, and only spend your INTEREST. It builds up quickly. Just build new Damage towers as you have the INTEREST to afford them, and build more Air towers as you need them.
The interest you earn will be enough to keep up with the baddies, and eventually pull way ahead of them. By level 200 I think I was back to clearing the board before the next round, without even filling the board with towers. After that, just build away and upgrade everything, let the game go. Lots of Damage, lots of Arrow.
I’d like to hear strategies for after you’ve got 24K points if anyone has them (obviously, my Destroy/Rebuild method wasn’t working, if only because of the bug, I wonder if it would have worked well otherwise…)
June 14th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Just so it’s said, you only need one air tower in the middle of the board, no upgrades, to kill off the first level of air creeps (maybe 2 because I always have fast towers as well), then up grade three levels each new level, until lvl 9, then start building new air towers to your own discretion.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Anyone know if the “clicking on the buggers” has changed? That used to target the one you clicked on with all towers in range, now it seems to do nothing. Using the same strategy as before, I ended up with about 1,600 points LESS than I had when I micromanaged the buggers (concentrating fire to finish off just enough to survive the next wave, instead of spreading the damage out amongst all baddies). Just under 24K points this time.
And yea, oops, I said “Lots of Damage, lots of Arrow”, I meant “Lots of damage, lots of AIR”. I never built an Arrow tower any of the times I broke 20K (though micromanaging the building/interest at the beginning might get you to “infinite” money sooner, but I think that’s a moot point)
August 6th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I don’t know how to get past lvl 417. At some point, there isn’t any more to do. I had every square taken and had 23,982 points. The only problem was that I had to let it run for about 3 days for it to finish. It is so much slower the longer it is played. Any ideas on how to get further? The normal creeps have 271068 hp.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I forgot to mention that every tower was maxed out.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:12 am
How is the max lvl?
November 29th, 2007 at 1:31 am
I am currently at lvl 328 with a score of ~19000 and about a bajillion fafillion dollars in the bank(2.5 billion to be exact). The map is completely covered with fully upgraded towers. I have only used damage and air towers. I have placed as many damage towers that are allowed around the outer and inner rings, then have air towers all the way around as well on each ring. In the center block I have a damage tower on each corner–these being the initial damage towers I placed–then the center is covered with as many air towers as possible. I started with an arrow tower in each of the four corners of the inner ring. At the first air wave I added one air tower in the center of the map and upgraded to lvl 5. At the 9th-12th wave I added a damage tower to each corner of the centerblock as stated above. Add one per wave. This should hold you for a while on the ground. For the next air wave I maxed out the lone tower in the center. By lvl 30 I had 4 more damage towers with one at the midpoint each of the four sides on the inner ring. I also had 4 air towers in the center, each being at the max lvl. At this point you should have around 5000 gold, thus receiving decent interest. Also by this point I had sold the 4 arrow towers. From here on I used this pattern: if creep count was 50-60 at end of wave, upgrade one tower(damage); if creep count is 60-70, upgrade 2 towers; if creep count is above 70 then upgrade four towers and quickly; and lastly dont upgrade anything if it is less then 50 you are just wasting valuable interest if you do. Basically you want to only spend interest (i.e. if your bank is 5200 then you get 260 in interest which is enough to place/upgrade a damage tower). At this rate you will get to the point to where money is no longer a concern. At lvl 100 you should have about 60000 gold and getting enough interest to drop a fully upgraded damage tower every wave. At lvl 150 I had 600k and pretty much unlimited spending money(if only it was this easy in the real world.) Right now I am receiving 120 million in interest each turn and it goes up a lot more then that for succeeding turns. Beware of waves that are in multiples of 63. These waves throw at you hard-air creeps which are a pain in the ass to kill so prepare your air defenses to take on these bastards. And then theres the 315th wave. Well if you can get that far then you should be able to survive it. Just something I figured out too: air creeps come every 7 waves, hard creeps every 9 waves. Also every 45 waves you get hard-fast creeps but your damage towers will rip right through them. Once you reach a certain point, for me it was around lvl 160-170, you pretty much just minimize the shit and check on it every so often. Just follow the pattern I listed above until the point to where money is no longer a factor then just fill the map with as many towers as your heart desires.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Oh yeah and at max lvl damage towers deal 2011 hp w/ a range of 179.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:50 am
*meant to say had 4 more air towers above
March 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Playing in hard mode, I’ve reached around 5000. (a little after the flying hard guys)
To start I put one splash tower on the middle ring, on thr right side, when I’ve the found I put another one just under it. Afterwards I keep money until air wave where I put some air tower on the inner square, on the extremities.
Then I go for damage tower. Those who work best are near the place where mobs come in, on the middle ring.
Upgrading towers to level 1 is better than putting an additional tower. I didn’t improve the splash towers: their dmg is too low. They’re pretty much decoration after a (quick) while.
The flying guys are problematic because it takes a while to kill them, you absolutely have to kill them before another flying wave comes out, if you don’t you better improve you air defense. The hard mobs can put you in danger too, don’t hesitate to spend a lot on damage towers when their time come.
It’s not easy to build interest on hard mode: you need the money to keep up with the everstronger ennemies. Basically you have to build at the start of a round and only when necessary (when hard mobs start to arrive).