This walkthrough guide will cover how to attain gold medal scores for all modes of Assessing the threat, the second level in “The Awakening” campaign of the game Defense Grid.
Each mode has its own section, covering effective build strategies along with videos showing full walkthroughs showing step by step how to get the score needed to attain a gold medal.
Contents:
- Level Overview
- Story Mode
- Story Challenge
- Relaxed Mode
- Fully Loaded
Level Overview
The map in Assessing the Threat consists of a communications tower that sits in the center with the enemy’s path looping counterclockwise around it, starting with a 90 degree angle at the entrance, making two half circles, one large, one small, before taking a second sharp 90 degree turn to the core. Three tower placements spots sit on the inner portion of the map, which the path circles, only two of which are in any real prime spots for exceptional tower coverage.
The other two placement areas come in the form of three blocks of land, one pair of spots on the bend by the entrance, five spots in a strip midway through the first big half circle and three spots in another strip at the end said half circle, before the start of the second smaller one.
Available Towers:
- Inferno Lv1
- Gun Lv1
Story Mode Gold Medal
Meow Gallery: The layout none is not available in this version.
Score needed for Gold: 49,600
There are a few spots suitable for Inferno towers, two of which should be established right away, the first being in the center of the second small half circle, and the other on the right side of the bend in the path near the entrance. The third suitable spot closest to the middle of where the two half circles meet, should be built on with another Inferno as the second wave begins to enter the map.
Pay attention to the range indicators when you build turrets and notice how the spot on the inside of the small circle is overlayed almost perfectly with the Inferno tower, subtle hints like these are what can help you determine where what towers will be most effective. The longer an enemy unit is underneath that circle showing attack radius, the more value in damage dealt you are getting for the money spent on that tower.
From here on out, all you will be building is Guns, starting with one in the lone spot situated in the middle of the large half circle for wave 3 which is a perfect spot for that tower type, which you can see when looking at how the attack radius circle matches up with the shape of the path, just like mentioned above for the flame turrets and the small circle.
Try to have around 300-400 saved as the mission continues from this point to accrue needed interest. If you’re building mostly when you need to, this shouldn’t be much of a problem.
As you continue onwards through waves 4 through 5 you can start building more guns, a couple to fill up the last remaining open spots near the entrance and another two on the open spaces around the large half circle, prioritizing the spots which offer the most coverage first and then building out from there. By wave 6, you’ll want to have 7 total machine guns built, making 9 towers total with your two Infernos which will be sufficient to keep any cores from escaping.
Story Challenge
Score needed for Gold: 49,600
The story challenge mode for Assessing the Threat follows a similar build strategy as in story mode, Inferno towers in the same places, with Guns established everywhere else starting with the spots offering the best coverage and working your way elsewhere.
The only major difference is by wave 6, you’ll want two additional Gun turrets on the two spots you left open last time around. In the video bellow, I manage to build the last Gun towers a bit later than preferable, barely stopping the aliens on their way out, so it would be recommended that the last couple towers are established sooner than shown.
Relaxed Mode
Score needed for Gold: 49,600
Like the challenge mode, the relaxed mode follows a similar strategy as the regular story mode, except in the opposite direction, with you only needing to build a total of 4 Gun towers by the end of the level, which helps you push your top score even higher. Unfortunately there isn’t much variation available since tower options are limited and the level is so short.
Fully Loaded
Score needed for Gold: 49,800
*All towers and upgrades available
The build strategies for the Fully loaded mode can differ greatly from the previous modes, although the story mode build should work equally fine here. Interestingly, while there are many options on how to proceed, all of the effective builds seem to end with around the same score, typical just about 150 points or so above the requirement, making it a bit of a tight goal to reach.
The strategy used in the run covered in the video below, involved building the first two Inferno towers, same as in Story mode, however instead of building a third, upgrading the tower in the small half circle to level 2 around wave 3. You’ll then want to build a Gun in the spot in the middle of the large half circle and a Laser tower next to the Inferno by the entrance afterwards. Around wave 5, before 6 shows up, the final piece will be upgrading the Gun to level 2 to get the damage dealing you’ll need.
One alternative strategy is to use just a pair of Gun towers, one in the big half circle at level 3 and a second level 2 tower in one of the better coverage spots, like the corner where the two half circles meet. Check out the pictures to the top right for examples of this.
Last Updated on October 4, 2020 by Standard of Entertainment