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Tower Defense & Upgrades

By ScotPublished Updated Sources checked

Tactical Quick Answer

Your central tower ends the run if it falls, so keep defenders parked beside it instead of counting on explorers to race home, and lean on Titans for that job once you have one. The lobby store sells named machines that come with spells attached, including the Meteor Repeater, the Tesla Machine for lightning, the Teleport Receiver, the Acid Fog Generator, and the Magic Smithy for tower healing. Buy the Decoder of Ancient Maps and the Magic Smithy first, then the Statue of Majesty for a higher Titan cap.

The central tower is your lifeline. If it falls, the run ends. Defending it requires a mix of stationed minions, active spell management, and long-term investment in permanent upgrades.

Defending the Tower​

You cannot rely purely on your exploring minions to return in time to stop a wave. You need something at home.

Early on that means keeping a couple of units back, and ranged or high-damage builds do the job better than heavy melee, especially since patch 1.0.4 taught ranged units to hold their distance instead of closing to melee. Once you have Titans, they become the answer: place two or three near the tower and let everything else gather resources.

Machines and Their Spells​

The lobby store sells machines, which are structures, and the useful ones come with a spell attached that you cast yourself. Both halves are true at once, so the framing of "spells not structures" is a false choice. Note also that casting is gated by cooldown, not by a mana price, and update 1.0.4 added hotkeys for spells.

Separately, you convert spare body parts into mana by right-clicking them in your base inventory, or shift-clicking in bulk. There is no dedicated extractor building, despite the name that circulates for one.

  • Meteor Repeater: Calls down meteors on an area. Multi-tier, and good for breaking lairs as well as defending.
  • Tesla Machine: The lightning spell, and the community's single highest-priority upgrade. Maxed lightning is widely treated as mandatory for the Master Disc, mostly for clearing lairs.
  • Teleport Receiver: Grants the teleport spell. Pull a Titan or a valuable unit out of trouble, or yank a boss back toward your tower. In the final fight, players teleport their Titans up to the tower.
  • Acid Fog Generator: Lays down a damaging acid cloud.
  • Magic Smithy: Heals the tower on a recharge, and one of the two upgrades that most reliably keeps an early run alive.
  • Field Generator: A force field for the tower, added in patch 1.0.2 and part of every documented Hand strategy.

There is no spell called the Lightning Coil, and no Wind of Change or "Fan" spell granting a speed burst. Neither name appears in any source.

The Meta-Progression (Gold Upgrades)​

Between runs, you spend the gold your minions collected on permanent upgrades.

Priority Upgrades​

The store is a roster of named machines, not a set of generic stat sliders, so there is nothing called Starting Parts, Gold Gain or Tower Health to buy. Extra gold comes from artifacts instead, and tower durability comes from the in-run extensions that blueprints unlock.

Community priority lists differ, which is worth knowing instead of papering over. Two credible orders:

  1. Survival first: Decoder of Ancient Maps for better libraries, then Magic Smithy for tower healing. These two do the most to stop an early run collapsing.
  2. Power first: Statue of Majesty for a higher Titan cap, then libraries, then the Cat Bed, then the Tesla Machine for lightning, then the Teleport Receiver, then the Acid Fog Generator, then tower healing, then the Necromancer's Table for body-part income.

Prices came down across the board in patch 1.0.1, so anything you read about the store being punishing predates that.

Tower Toys: The Cat​

The Cat Bed unlocks the Cat, which autonomously clears body parts and resources around the tower. It is a multi-level upgrade, and no source gives a price. If you have seen 100 gold quoted, that figure belongs to the first Necrosmith. Necrosmith 2's own achievement for it is pointedly named "Get the Cat Bed (again)".

Fully upgrading the Cat is not optional in the late game, it is close to mandatory. Community walkthroughs list a maxed Cat among the things without which the Master Disc is extremely difficult, and the standard Master Disc opening has the Cat and your mobs clearing everything around the tower together. Manual collection units complement the Cat instead of replacing it.

Frequently Asked Questions​

How do you defend the tower in Necrosmith 2?

Keep something at home instead of relying on explorers to return in time. Early on that means a couple of ranged or high-damage units, since patch 1.0.4 taught ranged units to hold their distance. Once you have Titans, park two or three near the tower and let everything else gather.

How do you get mana in Necrosmith 2?

Right-click spare body parts in your base inventory to convert them, or shift-click to do it in bulk. The tutorial covers it, and there are achievements for making mana from 50, 250 and 500 parts. There is no dedicated extractor building despite the name that circulates for one.

What is the best machine for killing bosses in Necrosmith 2?

The Tesla Machine, which grants the lightning spell. Maxed lightning is the community's top priority and widely treated as mandatory for the Master Disc. Pair it with the Master's Hat artifact, which gives a 35 percent chance to skip a spell's cooldown after casting.

Which tower upgrade should you buy first?

The Decoder of Ancient Maps, for better libraries and therefore better blueprints, followed by the Magic Smithy for tower healing. Those two keep an early run alive. Some players put the Statue of Majesty first instead, for a higher Titan cap.

Is the Cat worth it in Necrosmith 2?

Yes, and more so as the game goes on. The Cat clears parts and resources around the tower, and a fully upgraded Cat Bed is listed among the things you need for the Master Disc. It works alongside your collection units and is never replaced by them. No source gives its price, and the 100 gold figure often quoted is from the first game.