How to Survive Waves in Defend Your Treehouse

Enemy families by wave band

• • Waves 1–100: Slimes (12 enemy types)
• • Waves 101–200: Zombies (9 enemy types)
• • Waves 201–300: Skeletons (10 enemy types)
• • Waves 301–500: Mixed — all three families together (31 enemy types)

when a tougher enemy first appears, its HP ramps up over 6 waves instead of jumping at once.

Bosses and checkpoints

• • Boss cadence: every 15 waves, plus special appearances on waves 20 and 400.
• • Checkpoints: the checkpoint sits 5 waves back (clear wave 50, restart at 45; highest checkpoint 495).
• • Starting wave: you can pick any unlocked starting wave in settings, or use Auto.
• • from wave 405 onward three bosses spawn at once, 1.5 seconds apart.
• • defeating every boss at least once grants the permanent Boss Slayer reward: +10% cash in the Index.

Cone Zombie

fastest normal enemy — 12 studs/s from wave 122, about twice the speed of most enemies. Frozen Turrets near the path start are the standard counter.

Acid Skeleton

10 studs/s from wave 242 plus 1.1M base HP — fast and tanky at once.

Orca Slime

slowest enemy in the game (4 studs/s, wave 28) — easy to cover, hard to out-range.

Moss Skeleton

the tankiest normal enemy: 6M base HP and the best payout, $18M per kill (wave 294).

Burns the target for 5 ticks (1 per second), each dealing 20% of the hit that lit it — a full burn adds +100% of one hit. Best against bosses and single tough enemies.

Each hit deals 50% of its damage to every other enemy within 15 studs. Best against packed groups.

Slows the target to 50% speed for 3 seconds; re-hits reset the timer. Best for keeping enemies inside turret range.

Read the wave band before you push

Waves 1–100 are Slimes (12 kinds), 101–200 are Zombies (9), 201–300 are Skeletons (10), and 301–500 mix all three families. Each band's newcomer is tougher than the last band's tank, and a new enemy's HP ramps up over 6 waves rather than spiking — use those 6 waves to add damage before the full-strength versions arrive.

Respect the 15-wave boss clock

Bosses arrive every 15 waves, with extra appearances at waves 20 and 400. Flame is the standard anti-boss tool: the burn applies another full hit of damage over 5 seconds, and the Minigun's 5 shots/s lights burns fastest. From wave 405 the game sends three bosses at once, 1.5 seconds apart — budget damage for a triple, not a single.

Slow what you cannot out-damage

Frozen Turret hits halve an enemy's speed for 3 seconds, and re-hits reset the timer. The community-standard layout keeps one Frozen turret near the path start so fast enemies spend their whole life inside your damage.

Bank cash between pushes

Every cleared wave pays and every kill pays. If a wave breaks you, restart at your checkpoint, farm it safely a few times, and return with upgraded turrets — depth of wave is your income, so a stable 5 waves back earns more than repeated failures at the frontier.

Farm mutations during storms

Thunderstorm, Firestorm and Snowstorm events mutate turrets already placed on your plot — the only way to mutate a turret you own rather than roll. A mutated turret keeps all its stats and gains the on-hit effect for free.