A unique mind bending tower defense game | Full Review - Defense Derby

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Defense Derby is a mobile multiplayer tower defense game featuring hero collection and a unique mind bending multiplayer format. It is currently in a beta test until May 11.

Defense Derby is a simple game to play, monsters attack your square castle, and you have to place a variety of heroes on top of it to effectively survive the waves of enemies marching around and towards your castle gate.

The game features a mixed variety of heroes and units to use and place on top of the castle to do some wave defense. These units are your typical mages, archers, swordsman, rifleman, wizards, etc. that you’ll see in the fantasy genre, with everyone having their own unique attributes, attack ranges, and attack type. While heroes on the other hand serve as the leader of these units, they feature abilities that you can actively use in battle.

There are two main gameplay modes in Defense Derby, one is a singleplayer “Blitz” mode where you clear increasingly difficult stages with the use of your predetermined Unit and Hero lineup. While the “Derby” game mode is the multiplayer component and is the main star of the game.

In Derby mode, Four participants are given the same waves of enemies that they have to survive. Each participant faces these waves individually, and the last castle surviving wins. The four participants construct a deck of cards every round via “bidding”. They can start with two cards from their selected deck, and then every round a bidding is organized between the players to gain more cards and limit the other players’ cards as well.

The bidding is one of the most crucial parts of the PvP, as winning the bidding results in you taking the card up for auction, leaving the rest handicapped without any cards to add to their lineup. If the auction results in a tie, every tied participant gets the card.

Per card in a bidding, An average price is suggested for all the players, and it’s up to them to decide how much they are willing to offer. Bid too much and you will be swimming in these units, but will be left with nothing, unabling you to participate in the next one, and sometimes, the next one is just a bit better than the last… or worse. Bid too little, and you will be losing the units, leaving you with plenty of resources but no units too.  So it becomes a careful balancing of resources as well, on top of playing mind games with the enemies with the bidding process.

Aside from bidding, Defeating a boss monster can grant players an extra card from their deck as well. To increase their chances of winning, players can combine similar units and synergize units depending on their position during conflicts, which adds a layer of strategy to the gameplay. Players can also reposition their units with a short cooldown, in order to effectively cover all sides while using only a few units.

Additionally, Defense Derby includes an event mode called Derby Free Fight - Mirror Match, where all players use the same provided deck, eliminating the deck-building aspect and allowing them to focus solely on unit/ability placement and strategic gameplay.  This mode is expected to result in exciting mental battles, as all participants must utilize the same deck.

You can unlock and collect many different types of units and heroes, as well as participate in a gacha like system in order to obtain these heroes. Since this is just a beta test, the whole model is not yet finalized but expect a decent amount of grinding or spending real money to unlock the more rare heroes and units. Still, I feel that this will be a fun game to pick up and play without the absolute need to spend money.

Conclusion:

Overall, these previously mentioned aspects of Defense Derby provide an immersive and intense gaming experience for players. And for me a refreshing take on the tower defense formula, with the inclusion of the bidding mechanic to spice up the deck-building aspects of the multiplayer, while also mixing it up with traditional hero and unit gacha collecting elements.