The Depths

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## Overview

* **The Depths** is the 1st map from **Swamp.**
* The game starts with 3 bases & 300 Resources.
* After each finished wave, the reward is 250 Resources & 2 Bases.
* This is one of the four maps in the game without any time limits, the other ones being Introduction, The Labyrinth & The End.
* The map has 5 orange mines (links in Youtube & Steam: [1], [2]). Each deals the same damage as a level 2 AR mine (9500).

## Enemies

### Wave 2

* 4 x Bobble Head
* 3 x Soaker

### Wave 3

* 3 x Hoverer
* 20 x Snorker
* 1 x Armoured Heavy
* 3 x Spitfly

### Wave 4

* 8 x Hoverer
* 5 x Rhino

### Wave 5

* 6 x Rhino
* 2 x Soaker
* 3 x Hoverer
* 1 x Armoured Heavy
* 6 x Snorker

### **Wave 6**

* 20 x Walker
* 5 x Bobble Head

### Wave 7

* 4 x Spitfly
* 5 x Bobble Head
* 4 x Screamer Matriarch

### Wave 8

* 4 x Spitfly
* 16 x Snorker

### Wave 9

* 1 x Armoured Heavy
* 4 x Rhino
* 3 x Screamer Matriarch
* 1 x Hoverer Queen

### Wave 10

* 6 x Bobble Head
* 1 x Super Heavy
* 15 Brood mothers

## Trivia

* The map has some Easter eggs (link in Youtube: [1])
* Back in time, this map has had some yellow mines, but they have have been removed later on.

## Notes & tactics

* Sweet can perform well vs the Soakers, the mini-swarms, while being pretty good at kiting and staying alive around Hoverers & Rhinos, due to her great air control and higher jump.
* Skye can do decent stacking damage bonus with the Drone Launcher, Plasma rifle & other weapons that benefit from the Tactical juxtaposition perk.
* SiMo can be a good choice, since you can take advantage of the **weakspot** damage bonus, but can be problematic to keep alive around Hoverers and Rhinos, so if picked, has to be used either immobile or carefully in some waves.
* Haigen can be a somewhat risky chice, particularly due to the bosses, but also cannot always do very good job, since if he is around Hoverers and Rhinos, he can be quickly melt down or sent away in a dangerous zone and his 50% bonus health can't come in handy very much in random situations.
* It's advised to be prepared to do most of the damage by weapons, since many of the usually used towers in the game often don't have the right range / orientation to be effective. That's why any weapon-related perk can do some job, especially Tactical Juxtaposition, with the Drone launcher, Plasma rifle, Smatter band and some other weapons as well.
* It is good to have some more **weakspot** damage, since the only place to attack Bobble Head lumes is the weakspot and Hoverers take good damage when critically hit. Critical hits perks such as Marksman and weapons such as Plasma Rifle can do decent job in this direction.
* The Drone Launcher can be effective against heavily/infinitely armored enemies such as Super Heavy, Hoverer, Bobble Head, Armoured Heavy, and Hoverer Queen, but it shines mainly vs the two bosses, since many other weapons can ensure a lot faster execution of the lower- health enemies.
* The Plasma Rifle can do a great job with getting rid of Hoverer and Bobble Head lumes. Since you're hitting weakspots anyway, you will benefit from the bonus damage to weakspots by using a Plasma Rifle.
* The Sniper Rifle also can do good job, but has higher recoil than the Plasma Rifle, which is remarkaby visible if combined with the Tactical juxtaposition perk.
* The Battle Rifle can do decent job vs the miniswarms and keeps high damage capability vs single enemies, but has some trouble with hitting weakspots, the worst possible sample being Bobble Heads, especially if there is high ping (poor connection) in coop. The Smatter Band and other weapons are potentially better.
* If doing the map with 5 Feats of strength, it is recommended to be at least level 40, since then the primary weapon can be changed for something more comfortable.
* Rupture mines can have an exceptional success even in the highest difficulties, since they can damage all ground enemies and can even be used solely without the need of other towers, as the spitflies usually can easily be dealt with.
* Focus can be combined with a Range Spire in the 2x3 area near the Core, which can have good results with the higher range.
* The Violator has good range. One can be built near the center of the map to maximize coverage area. You'll need to adjust its targeting for each wave (for example, when the Hoverer Queen spawns, you want to set it to least health so it doesn't waste its shot dealing 0 damage to the shielding front). This rule tends to be also valid for all other damage towers as well, and the ones with targetting system should be set properly.
* The Anti-Air can help a bit, but the 3 waves with Spitflies have just a few of them and they can usually be taken at ease with just weapons and/or other towers.
* Reinforcements can help a bit, although their purpose is mainly against Snorkers who kamikaze against the Explorers, and for distracting Walkers to buy extra time. If the bosses, however, reach the shielded explorers and there are towers nearby, this can have some dangerous side effects.
* If player has too much trouble keeping the core alive, core perks can do some job, e.g. Unstable Core, Resilient Core & Shocking revelation.
* At the start of each round, it is good to stand **near** the enemy spawn, since you need to shoot Hoverer lumes behind as they float past you. It doesn't help much to just sit near the core, which means that the Core Guardian perk has a pretty limited purpose.

## Video playthroughs with links, towers, modes & results

* [link] - with Rupture mines (7 dispensers); 5 Feats of Strength; undamaged core
* [link] - with 4x Focus; 5 Feats of Strength; full-health core via the Resilient core perk
* [link] - with 4 Lightnings, Anti-air, AR mines (2 dispensers) & 4x Focus; 5 Feats of Strength; 3640 core health remaining

*Vids before 28 Sep 2015 (for these it is wise to check update(patch) notes in [link1], [link2], [link3], etc):*

* *[link] - with AR mines (3 dispensers), Amp & Focus; 5 Feats of Strength; undamaged core*