History YMMV / TowerDefenseSimulator

*** Flying and Lead enemies exist only in these modes (besides Events). As a reminder, these cannot be damaged by normal means. Flying requires either cliff towers, air towers, Level 2+ Engineers, Archers, Hunters, or Executioners. Lead requires any form of explosion, electricity, fire, Accelerators, Level 3+ Rangers, Level 3+ Snipers, Engineers, Level 2+ Sledgers, Level 3+ Wardens, or collision damage.

*** As each wave goes on, all enemies will gain more Shield HP, which does not give money. This can be mitigated by the Cowboy (Golden Preferred), which also gives cash on every shot, no matter what they damage, whether it be normal or shield HP.

* ThatOneLevel: The Beginner Mode for most maps is infamous for how [[NonIndicativeDifficulty deceptively difficult it is]], especially if you are a new player. While Beginner has 10 fewer waves than Molten, this results in the game throwing tough enemies much earlier than expected. The Speedy enemies show up on wave 3 instead of 5, and the first major boss shows up, which has 10x the hp of the previous enemies, spawns at ''wave 7''. This gives players barely any time or money to prepare for the threats, especially for newer players who don't have farms unlocked and don't know how to efficiently spend their money. To add insult to injury, Beginner has worse rewards for a triumph when compared to Molten and Fallen.
* TierInducedScrappy: Almost no one uses these towers in their loadouts for good reason:
** [[Main/SplashDamage Rocketeer]]: Slow firerate, low DPS, expensive, shoots at where the enemy just stood instead of at the enemy, and has a placement limit of 8. In general, most splash towers suffer from these problems, except that the rocketeer is one of the more expensive options, and doesn't bring as much value compared to a Mortar or Executioner.
** [[Main/FreezeRay Freezer]]: Deals 0 damage at base level and its freeze duration is short. Used to be very powerful with two OP abilities and could deal more damage, but was then nerfed badly.

** For both modes:

*** The moment you and your team see Polluted Wastelands II in the Special Elevator, ''run for the elevator''. That is currently the most popular map due to the increased rewards and unique enemies. The elevator for this map will fill up the moment it appears.
*** Hidden Wave Trigger (Fallen ONLY and Not Available): Harbor and Marshlands are most likely the ones to go for.
* GoodBadBugs: There are four infamous ones, and all but one have been patched.

** The final one, which is currently unknown if it has been patched, is the Pizza Party Matchmaking Bug, which sometimes sends multiple teams of up to four to the same server, which made the match way easier, as there were more people who most likely had the best towers, which meant that the boss, although it had HP scaling, would be easier to beat.
* HarderThanHard: Hardcore. And Polluted Wastelands II. Let's see all the modifiers that make each one harder than Fallen Mode.

*** Maximum base health of 100, no matter the players' levels.

*** Both modes are extremely hard to the point of most strategies that can triumph this mode will require the [[WaveMotionGun Accelerator]], which you get by purchasing it with gems. Which are obtained by playing Hardcore. Which you need to be Level 50 to enter. Which requires a lot of XP. And the place where you can get the most XP? Polluted Wastelands II. Which you need to be Level 25 to enter.

*** Flying and Lead enemies exist only in this mode (besides Events). As a reminder, these cannot be damaged by normal means. Flying requires either cliff towers, air towers, Level 2+ Engineers, Archers, Hunters, or Executioners. Lead requires any form of explosion, electricity, fire, Level 3+ Rangers, Level 3+ Snipers, Level 6 Engineer's Sentries, or collision damage.

** For Polluted Wastelands II:
*** ''Almost all'' enemies, even most of the minibosses, are replaced with stronger nuclear variants, which will make the entire game even more painful.

*** [[FinalBoss The Nuclear Monster]] has ''1.5 million HP''.
*** These harder modifiers are sort of mitigated by the fact that the Polluted Wastelands II map is a bit longer compared to other maps and the fact that there is a chokepoint where enemies cross over multiple times, giving towers more time to hit enemies.
* ThatOneAchievement: "Western Action" used to require clearing the limited map "End of the Line" and "Badlands". However, an update removed the ability to play "End of the Line" and buffed the requirements to clear "Badlands" on ''Fallen Mode'', which is the hard difficulty of this game. Because of the way enemy spawns worked, this can easily put a massive strain on resources to the point where soloing it is downright ''impossible'', and was only possible on MEGA servers, leading to the infamous "[[AbridgedArenaArray MEGA FALLEN BADLANDS]]" being spammed across lobbies to the point of becoming a meme. Oh, and this was the only way to get Cowboy, and by the time you cleared it, with the exception of certain maps that don't allow farms, [[BraggingRightsReward you practically cleared every Fallen map]]. It was only after an update in which enemy spawns were divided between lanes in which it was made much easier to the point where soloing it was now possible.

* GoodBadBugs: There are three infamous ones, and all have been patched.

* HarderThanHard: Hardcore. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Just. Hardcore.]] Let's see all the modifiers that make it Hardcore.
** Tower placement and upgrade costs increased by 50%.
** Maximum of 3 players per game.
** Maximum troop placement of 25 per player.
** Flying and Lead enemies exist only in this mode (besides Events). As a reminder, these cannot be damaged by normal means. Flying requires either cliff towers, air towers, Level 2+ Engineers, Archers, Hunters, or Executioners. Lead requires any form of explosion, electricity, fire, Level 3+ Rangers, Level 3+ Snipers, Level 6 Engineer's Sentries, or collision damage.
** Maximum base health of 100, no matter the players' levels.
** 50 waves.
** [[FinalBoss The Void Reaver]] having ''1.2 million HP''. And they can ''damage the base''.
** Multiple major bosses, including those from Normal, Molten, and Fallen.
** No shared cash, unlike all other modes.
** New enemies that are way harder than those in Fallen Mode, which ''will'' test your mastery of the game.
** Stuns by enemies ''everywhere''.
** If you want to get in and attempt a match? Be Level 50 before entering, which will take a lot of grinding.
** This mode is extremely hard to the point of most strategies that can triumph this mode will require the [[WaveMotionGun Accelerator]], which you get by purchasing it with gems. Which are obtained by playing Hardcore.

** Flying and Lead enemies exist only in this mode (besides Events). As a reminder, these cannot be damaged by normal means. Flying requires either cliff towers, air towers, the Hunter, or the Executioner. Lead requires any form of explosion, electricity, fire, Level 3+ Rangers, Level 3+ Snipers, or collision damage.

** [[DualBoss Two Void Reavers]] with each having ''700k HP''. And both can ''damage the base''.

** Flying and Lead enemies exist only in this mode (besides Events). As a reminder, these cannot be damaged by normal means. Flying requires either cliff towers, air towers, the Hunter, or the Executioner. Lead requires any form of explosion, electricity, fire, or collision damage.

* ThatOneAchievement: "Western Action" used to require clearing the limited map "End of the Line" and "Badlands". However, an update removed the ability to play "End of the Line" and buffed the requirements to clear "Badlands" on ''[[HarderThanHard Fallen mode]]''. Because of the way enemy spawns worked, this can easily put a massive strain on resources to the point where soloing it is downright ''impossible'', and was only possible on MEGA servers, leading to the infamous "[[AbridgedArenaArray MEGA FALLEN BADLANDS]]" being spammed across lobbies to the point of becoming a meme. Oh, and this was the only way to get Cowboy, and by the time you cleared it, with the exception of certain maps that don't allow farms, [[BraggingRightsReward you practically cleared every Fallen map]]. It was only after an update in which enemy spawns were divided between lanes in which it was made much easier to the point where soloing it was now possible.

** [[Main/SplashDamage Rocketeer]]: Slow firerate, low DPS, expensive, shoots at where the enemy just stood instead of at the enemy, and has a placement limit of 8.

** [[Main/SniperRifle Sniper]]: Deals low DPS, can be costly, and takes up valuable cliff space that could be used for Ranger, who is better in every way besides lacking hidden detection and price.

* ThatOneAchievement: "Western Action"used to be require clearing the limited map "End of the Line" and "Badlands". However, an update removed the ability to play "End of the Line" and buffed the requirements to clear "Badlands" on ''[[HarderThanHard Fallen mode]]''. Because of the way enemy spawns worked, this can easily put a massive strain on resources to the point where soloing it is downright ''impossible'', and was only possible on MEGA servers, leading to the infamous "[[AbridgedArenaArray MEGA FALLEN BADLANDS]]" being spammed across lobbies to the point of becoming a meme. Oh, and this was the only way to get Cowboy, and by the time you cleared it, with the exception of certain maps that don't allow farms, [[BraggingRightsReward you practically cleared every Fallen map]]. It was only after an update in which enemy spawns were divided between lanes in which it was made much easier to the point where soloing it was now possible.

* ThatOneLevel: The Beginner Mode for most maps is infamous for how deceptively difficult it is, especially if you are a new player. While Beginner has 10 fewer waves than Molten, this results in the game throwing tough enemies much earlier than expected. The Speedy enemies show up on wave 3 instead of 5, and the first major boss shows up, which has 10x the hp of the previous enemies, spawns at ''wave 7''. This gives players barely any time or money to prepare for the threats, especially for newer players who don't have farms unlocked and don't know how to efficiently spend their money. To add insult to injury, Beginner has worse rewards for a triumph when compared to Molten and Fallen.

** [[Main/SniperRifle Sniper]]: Deals low DPS, can be costly, and takes up valuable cliff space.

* ThatOneLevel: The Beginner Mode for most maps is infamous for how deceptively difficult it is, especially if you are a new player. While Beginner has 10 fewer waves than Molten, this results in the game throwing tough enemies much earlier than expected. The Speedy enemies show up on wave 3 instead of 5, and the first major boss shows up, which has 10x the hp of the previous enemies, spawns at ''wave 7''. This gives players barely any time or money to prepare for the threats, especially for newer players who don't have farms unlocked and don't know how to efficiently spend their money. To add insult to injury, Beginner has worse rewards for a triumph when compared to Molten and Fallen.