Towers in Emberward are grouped by the footprint they occupy on the grid. A 1x1 tower fits in any leftover corner; a 3x3+ tower needs the maze built around it. This page lists every family in the 1.0 build by size, what each one is for, and how enhancements and relics change the pick.
How the tower list is organised
| Footprint | Towers | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1x1 | Scrap, Basic, Dice, Cannon, Drill, Flamethrower, Frost, Icicle, Drone, Laser, Lighting, Dart, Arcane Missile, Axe, Magic Arrow | Cheap coverage, fills maze gaps, scales into late game through count |
| 1x2 | Lightning Ball | Bridge tower, covers a corridor turn that nothing else reaches |
| 1x3 | Poison | Damage-over-time along a full lane |
| 2x2 | Giant Dice, Golden Statue, Boulder, Chomp, Lava, Fireball, Sniper, Fan, Snowball, Missile, Lasso, Hammer, Landmine | The mid-game core: real damage, real footprint, real cost |
| 3x3 | Scrap Tank, Earthquake, Thunder, Starfall | Wave clearers, need a purpose-built maze around them |
| 3x3+ | Bomb, Decimate | Run-defining pieces; the maze exists to feed them |
The towers that decide runs
Scrap Tower (1x1)
The Scrap Tower is the earliest tower you will lean on and the one with a real downside: when it runs out of ammo it is destroyed. It has three relics that interact with it specifically — Scrap Master's Note raises its ammo by 50% (to 45 shots), Scrap Master's Wrench changes what happens when it is destroyed, and Scrap Master's Boots round out the set.
Play it as a tempo tower. It carries waves one to ten for almost nothing, and it is also the tower most likely to leave a hole in your maze exactly when you cannot afford one. If a run is going long, plan the replacement before the ammo bar decides it for you.
Scrap Tank Tower (3x3)
The big version of the same idea, and the subject of the community's most detailed enhancement write-up. It occupies a 3x3 footprint, which means it is a decision you make about your maze, not a purchase you make mid-wave. Build the maze so that a 3x3 pocket sits where three lines of approach overlap.
Sniper Tower (2x2)
Long-range single-target damage. In a maze that folds back on itself, a Sniper placed at the fold sees the route several times over. In a straight corridor it is an expensive dart thrower. Position, not stats, is the whole tower.
Dice Tower and Giant Dice Tower (1x1 / 2x2)
Randomised damage output — the Giant Dice variant is the 2x2 version of the same gamble. They are popular in challenge and daily runs because their ceiling is higher than their cost. Treat them as a flex pick, not a foundation.
Ice, Frost and Snowball
The Ice element family slows rather than kills. Frost Tower (1x1), Snowball Tower (2x2) and Icicle Tower (1x1) all trade raw damage for control, and control is what makes a folded corridor survivable. A slow at the entrance of a long corridor is worth more than a damage tower at the exit.
Bomb and Decimate (3x3+)
The top of the size ladder. These are wave-deletion tools with a footprint to match, and both are useless without a maze that forces enemies into a tight cluster. If you are building around a 3x3+ tower, build the maze first and place the tower last.
Enhancements: where the numbers actually come from
Enhancement paths are per-tower and change how a tower scales rather than what it does. Three rules hold across the 1.0 build:
- Enhance before you expand. An enhanced tower in a good position beats an extra tower in a bad one.
- Enhance the tower your relic supports. Relics that name a tower family (the Scrap Master set being the clearest example) multiply an enhancement's value.
- Ammo, cooldown and range enhancements are all economic choices. Range is only worth it if the maze gives the tower more route to cover; otherwise it is a damage stat you did not buy.
Element identity
Every tower belongs to one of the six damage identities — Normal, Fire, Ice, Electric, Poison and Arcane — and each element has its own relic pool. Mixing three elements across a maze spreads your relic support thin. The 1.0 build rewards committing to one damage element with a support element (Ice or Poison) for control, and using the remaining slots on Normal towers as filler.