Parallel 45 Games released Tower Dominion on 7 May 2025. It is a roguelike tower defence where you shape the ground as well as the defence: between waves you expand the map with new terrain zones, and the paths you carve decide where the alien waves walk toward your HQ. Three factions, the Iron Dragoons, the Lions of Ravelski and the Pargan Assault Group, field ten commanders each, and the run ends the moment HQ life reaches zero. Difficulty runs Recruit, Veteran, Elite and War, and clearing War unlocks the endless Frontier mode.
Starting Tower Dominion can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Tower Dominion is a strategy game built around Battlefronts and HQ entry points and The expansion phase and terrain height. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sergeant Gurtag | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Tank Commander Beryt | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Archeologist Karia | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Techno-adept Jorg | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Captain Seculdi | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Tank Commander Beryt. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Captain Seculdi as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Battlefronts and HQ entry points
A battlefront is one path running from the map edge to an entrance on your HQ, and a single battlefront can feed more than one entrance. Difficulty sets how many battlefronts you begin with, so raising difficulty is not only tougher enemies, it is more directions to cover with the same starting Supply. Funnelling several battlefronts into one killing ground is the central strategic decision of a run.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Battlefronts and HQ entry points works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Main headquarters
The structure the entire run defends. It has multiple entrances, each fed by a battlefront, and the run ends when its life reaches zero. Several buildings interact with it directly, including the Mirador's close support upgrade which gives bonus effects when placed adjacent to HQ.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Durendal cannon: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Mounted on the Durendal Position, with a Dual Durendal Cannon variant available through upgrades. It is a direct fire option intended for the main approach rather than area denial, and the dual version roughly doubles the position's output for a Tech investment.
Step 4: Understand The expansion phase and terrain height
Between waves you place new zones onto the map, and Recon pays for rerolling the zones on offer. Elevation matters directly: an Advanced Mirador upgrade grants extra range, and community guidance is to sit Miradors at height 2 or 3 for the range bonus. Creating a dead end path forces a Pit to appear on that tile, so maze building has a built-in cost rather than being free.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Battlefront
Each battlefront is a distinct path from the map edge to the HQ. Starting count depends on difficulty, which is the main reason Elite and War feel disproportionately harder than Veteran rather than just numerically tougher.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Battlefronts and HQ entry points
A battlefront is one path running from the map edge to an entrance on your HQ, and a single battlefront can feed more than one entrance. Difficulty sets how many battlefronts you begin with, so raising difficulty is not only tougher enemies, it is more directions to cover with the same starting Supply. Funnelling several battlefronts into one killing ground is the central strategic decision of a run.
The expansion phase and terrain height
Between waves you place new zones onto the map, and Recon pays for rerolling the zones on offer. Elevation matters directly: an Advanced Mirador upgrade grants extra range, and community guidance is to sit Miradors at height 2 or 3 for the range bonus. Creating a dead end path forces a Pit to appear on that tile, so maze building has a built-in cost rather than being free.
Blueprints drawn three at a time
At the end of each wave you choose one blueprint from three offered. Every faction starts with two Miradors and one Sturdy Bunker; the Iron Dragoons add Officers Quarters and the Lions of Ravelski add The Stars Call. Because the draw is limited and random, a run is shaped as much by what never appeared as by what you built.
Doctrines and building doctrines
Doctrines are modifiers picked during the same reinforcement phase, split into three tiers by rarity and labelled with codes such as H33 imperial research, N37 advanced mirador and K38 immortal fortress. Building doctrines only appear once you have placed the matching structure and come as cost reduction or efficiency variants, and after collecting four of them an expertise doctrine can appear.
Supply, Tech and Recon
Supply is the general build currency, starting at 100 and earned from kills, commanders, buildings, neutral buildings and doctrines. Tech is deliberately scarce, starting between 6 and 10 depending on difficulty, and pays for the heavy upgrades on structures like Special Command, Plasma Fence and Mission Control. Recon buys zone rerolls during expansion plus a handful of buildings and upgrades.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Spreading towers evenly across every battlefront
The stronger play is merging paths so that one killing ground receives every wave, which lets a small number of upgraded positions do all the work.
2. Hoarding Recon instead of rerolling
Recon exists to reroll the zones offered during expansion, and a run that never rerolls is accepting whatever terrain the game hands it, which is how battlefronts end up impossible to merge.
3. Spending Tech early on a small upgrade
With only 6 to 10 points and few sources of more, Tech should go into the one or two structures your defence is actually built around, not into whatever looks appealing at wave 5.
4. Building long mazes without accounting for Pits
Dead ends force Pits to appear, so the classic tower defence spiral is punished here in a way it is not in most games in the genre.
5. Ignoring the wave preview
Enemy types are visible three waves out, so being surprised by an air wave or a shielded wave is a planning failure rather than bad luck.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Battlefronts and HQ entry points and The expansion phase and terrain height
- Choose Tank Commander Beryt as starting build
- Clear Main headquarters main content
- Acquire Durendal cannon or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Battlefront
- Enemies are organised into tiers, with Tier 0 appearing first and a higher tier introduced every 10 waves. That means a defence that comfortably holds wave 19 can collapse at wave 21, so build for the tier break rather than the wave in front of you.
- Three enemy modifiers exist and each has a specific counter. Air units resist standard weapons and need anti-air, shielded units carry larger effective health and are weak to shield-countering weapons, and dividing units split on death and simply require more total firepower.
Tips for New Players
- Enemies are organised into tiers, with Tier 0 appearing first and a higher tier introduced every 10 waves. That means a defence that comfortably holds wave 19 can collapse at wave 21, so build for the tier break rather than the wave in front of you.
- Three enemy modifiers exist and each has a specific counter. Air units resist standard weapons and need anti-air, shielded units carry larger effective health and are weak to shield-countering weapons, and dividing units split on death and simply require more total firepower.
- You see the enemy composition three waves ahead by default. Tank Commander Beryt extends that to five, and certain doctrines extend it too, which converts the reinforcement phase from guesswork into planning.
- Building a dead end forces a Pit to appear on that tile. Long spiral mazes are therefore not free, and the usual answer is to merge battlefronts into a single long approach rather than building a labyrinth that spawns pits everywhere.
- Tech starts between 6 and 10 and there are very few sources of more. Commanders like Archeologist Karia, Techno-adept Jorg and Captain Seculdi generate it, and on any other commander you should treat your starting Tech as the whole budget for the run.
- Every faction starts with the same two Miradors and one Sturdy Bunker. The faction difference at the opening is only the extra blueprint, Officers Quarters for the Iron Dragoons and The Stars Call for the Lions of Ravelski, so early play is far more similar across factions than the faction descriptions suggest.
- Height is a real stat, not decoration. Community guidance for the Mirador specifically is to place it at height 2 or 3 for the range benefit, and the same reasoning applies to any direct fire position covering a long approach.
- Building doctrines only appear after you have placed the matching blueprint. If you want the cheap or efficient version of a structure you have to commit to the structure first, and collecting four building doctrines opens a chance at the stronger expertise doctrines.
- Upgrading a few buildings deeply beats placing many shallow ones. Blueprint offers are limited to one of three per wave, so a defence built on three heavily upgraded positions is easier to actually assemble than one that needs eight different structures to appear.
- Frontier mode unlocks by clearing War difficulty and runs endlessly with its own doctrine pool. Treat it as a separate discipline from the campaign, because a defence tuned for a fixed wave count will not scale into tier breaks that keep arriving.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I unlock Frontier mode?
Clear the campaign on War difficulty, the hardest of the four settings, and Frontier unlocks as an endless mode with its own doctrine pool. The four difficulties are Recruit, Veteran, Elite and War, and each raises starting battlefront count while lowering starting Supply and Tech.
How many commanders are there?
Thirty in total, ten each for the Iron Dragoons, the Lions of Ravelski and the Pargan Assault Group. They are referred to as commanders or heroes, and each provides two positive effects called Powers, with most unlocked through achievements rather than being available from the start.
Which commander should a new player pick?
Sergeant Gurtag of the Iron Dragoons is the usual recommendation, because his effect buffs the HQ and makes early leaks survivable while you are still learning where to place towers. Tank Commander Beryt is a good second choice since his extra wave preview teaches you to plan ahead.
Is Tower Dominion multiplayer?
No. The Steam feature list covers single-player, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud and Family Sharing, with no cooperative or competitive modes. Progression between runs comes from achievement-based commander unlocks and building discoveries rather than from other players.
Does the official strategy guide change the game?
No. It is a separate digital book sold under its own Steam app containing lore, unit descriptions and concept art from the development team. It adds no in-game content, so treat it as a companion book rather than an expansion.
More Tower Dominion Guides
- Tower Dominion Tower Dominion Overview
- Tower Dominion Best Builds
- Tower Dominion Tier List
- Tower Dominion Walkthrough
- Tower Dominion Tips & Tricks
- Tower Dominion Weapons Guide
- Tower Dominion Combat Guide
- Tower Dominion Boss Guide
- Tower Dominion Maps & Locations
- Tower Dominion Crafting Guide
- Tower Dominion Classes & Characters
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- RimWorld Beginner's Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
