META

''*Important: With the update on 11/16/2020 releasing two new sets of end-game monsters, the META may need some tweaking. The information in this page is still relevant as it utilizes practices that are important throughout the entirety of the game, however some balancing will likely need to be done.''

What is "META"?
META stands for Most Efficient Tactic Available - it's a term you might have heard of, as it is popular in many other games. It's a strategy that's widely accepted as being the best for its purpose, which, in this game's case, is likely progressing further.

What is this game's META?
If you're looking to progress further, there's a single strategy that can be applied throughout the majority of the game.

First, you need to find your 2 strongest monsters of different elements (highest DPS, in this case - they're called "carry" monsters, or "carries"). Then you place both of those, preferably distanced, as putting them close to each other creates a conflict of purpose, where your secondary carry tries to kill every single enemy, which is the purpose of the main carry. Although you can manually circumvent this by targeting specific enemies, the strategy shouldn't even require you to do so in the first place. Anyway, when both monsters are placed (generously distanced), you invest enough gold into your main carry (highest DPS monster) so that it can clear any wave without issues (except resistant enemies, but we'll get to that later). The rest of the gold should then be invested into your secondary carry (2nd highest DPS monster), whose purpose is to clear stragglers/leaking enemies, and resistant enemies that your main carry couldn't kill. In other words, if you take the average gold you make per run (up to you to estimate, usually around what you have before you prestige) and split it somewhat evenly between both your carries, you'll notice your main carry will end up fairly stronger than your secondary - which is completely fine, as your main carry will deal with the majority of enemies, since resistant enemies make up a minority of all enemies you encounter. Note that this strategy is arguably more efficient than splitting gold between 3 "different-elemented" monsters, as you'll end up with higher damaging towers (which gets you further) for the price of having to need some luck to pass a set of waves. Basically, a 3 monster strategy is more consistent, but because of gold's importance in the game, the need to split it three ways makes the strategy often worse than the META. You will notice you still have a lot of slots left to fill, which is where you're greeted with 2 options:


 * 1) You place monsters of the same element as your carries, with the sole intent of buffing them.
 * 2) You find monsters with movement impairing abilities (Some: Air monsters have Confusion skills, Water monsters have Slowing skills, and Earth monsters have Stunning skills), and preferably of different element than those of your carries, and you lay them around the map. These monsters will create time for your carries to deal with incoming enemies.