The Tower Enemies: Every Normal, Elite, Boss and Fleet Enemy Explained

Enemy groups and spawn caps

Every enemy belongs to one of four groups. Normal enemies are Basic, Fast, Tank, Ranged, and Protector. Bosses arrive on boss waves. Elites are Vampire, Ray, and Scatter. Fleets are Saboteur, Commander, and Overcharge. The game tracks a separate cap for each group, so a screen full of Basics never blocks an elite or a boss from spawning.

Total enemies at once

150

Normal enemy cap

120 fleets count against this cap

Elite cap

20 8 per elite type on screen

Boss cap

10

The spawn chances of the normal enemies always add up to 100% on a given wave. What changes as waves go up is the mix: fewer Basics, more of everything else. That matters for income because a Basic has the lowest base coin value (1), while Fast and Ranged are worth 2, Protectors 3, Tanks 4 and bosses 5. The enemy coin weight curve shows how that mix shifts wave by wave, and the enemy stats table gives health and attack at any tier and wave.

Mechanics every enemy shares

Three rules apply to all enemies, and all three punish you for letting things live too long.

• Heat-up: an enemy deals 4% more damage with each hit it lands. A target you cannot kill keeps getting more dangerous.
• Coin decay: an enemy that has been alive for more than 3 waves is worth 50% fewer coins. Builds that hold enemies for a big Golden Tower kill window need to release them before this kicks in.
• Mass growth: enemy mass goes up 4% for every wave the enemy survives. More mass means less knockback, so old enemies slowly push through.

On tier 21 and above the Mass Enforcement battle condition raises that mass growth much further. The numbers per tier are in the Tiers guide.

Normal enemies and bosses

Stat multipliers below are relative to a Basic enemy on the same wave, before any enemy labs. Once you research a lab for one type, the ratios drift. For example, a boss is no longer exactly 20 times a Basic if you have reduced Basic health but not boss health.

• Basic Normal

  The baseline every other enemy is measured against. No special behavior, and the lowest coin value of any enemy.

  • Health: 1x
  • Speed: 1x
  • Base coins: 1
• Fast Normal

  Moves at twice the speed of a Basic, so it is the first thing to reach the tower when knockback or slow falls behind.

  • Speed: 2x
  • Base coins: 2
• Tank Normal

  Half speed, five times the health. Tanks are also the escort type for Commander fleets.

  • Health: 5x
  • Speed: 0.5x
  • Base coins: 4
• Ranged Normal

  Stops at a distance and fires projectiles, which lets it hit you from outside orb range. A lab can shorten its attack range.

  • Base coins: 2
• Protector Normal

  Projects a shield: enemies inside it cannot be instantly killed and take 60% less damage. Only appears on tier 2 and higher, at most one per wave, with a cooldown before the next can spawn.

  • Shield: -60% damage taken
  • Base coins: 3
• Boss Boss

  Spawns on boss waves only, normally every 10th wave. Immune to Orbs, Death Ray, Shockwave, and Black Hole damage. Drops module shards and reroll shards.

  • Health: 20x
  • Speed: 0.3x
  • Base coins: 5

Bosses have a 0% chance on normal waves and a 100% chance on boss waves. Battle conditions can shorten the gap between boss waves to as little as 5. The Orb Boss Hit lab is the one exception to the orb immunity: it lets orbs chip a percentage of boss health.

Elite enemies: Vampire, Ray, Scatter

Elites are immune to Orbs, Death Ray, Shockwave, and Black Hole, so the usual instant-kill tools do nothing to them. They are also the only source of Elite Cells, which pay for lab speed boosts. All three are worth 4 base coins.

• Vampire Elite

  Drains 2% of your tower's max health every second and switches off health regen and lifesteal while the drain is active. Wall regen keeps working. Perks and other modifiers cannot raise or lower the drain.

  • Health: 2x
  • Base coins: 4
• Ray Elite

  Charges for 30 seconds, then fires a beam for twice the damage of a Basic. It cannot be knocked back, so you have to kill it inside that charge window or absorb the hit.

  • Health: 1x
  • Charge time: 30s
  • Base coins: 4
• Scatter Elite

  Splits in two when killed, four times over, with each child at half the health of its parent. One Scatter becomes 31 bodies in total, ending in 16 small ones. Only one of the pieces drops Elite Cells.

  • Health: 2x
  • Splits: 4
  • Base coins: 4

When elites start spawning

The three elite types share one spawn chance. The total climbs in ten steps (1%, 4%, 9%, 16%, 25%, 36%, 49%, 64%, 81%, 100%) and the game displays one third of it per type, which is why you see values like 0.33% and 33% in the wave info. Once the first elite is guaranteed, a second roll starts climbing the same ladder. When that one is also guaranteed the display jumps from 33% to 100%, meaning two elites every wave.

Percentages are the combined chance across Vampire, Ray, and Scatter. The in-game display shows one third of this per type.

Higher tiers compress the whole curve. On tier 1 you need wave 8,000 for a guaranteed elite; on tier 16 that happens at wave 1,441, and on tier 24 at wave 620. The full ladder for every step is on the elite spawn rate chart.

Elite Cells per kill

On tiers 1 through 13 an elite drops between 1 cell and a number of cells equal to the tier, so the average is (1 + tier) / 2. From tier 14 the floor rises as well.

The wiki does not list cell values for tiers 22 to 24.

Fleet enemies: Saboteur, Commander, Overcharge

Fleets are the top of the enemy ladder. Each has 20 times the health of a Basic and a long list of protections: immune to Orbs, Death Ray, Shockwave, knockback, Black Hole damage, and Black Hole pull. Chrono Field, Chrono Loop, Thunder Bot, Poison Swamp stun, and Land Mine stun are only 50% effective. The Plasma Cannon card cannot target them, and they pass straight through other enemies instead of colliding.

Thorns barely works either. Fleets resist 85% of thorns damage, and what gets through is based on their current health rather than max health, so thorns alone can never finish one. Their attack rate starts very slow at wave 1 and reaches its maximum at wave 4,000.

• Saboteur Fleet

  Runs all the way to the tower. Each hit on the tower picks an Ultimate Weapon and lowers its upgrade level by 1, switching it off at 0. Hits on the Wall do not touch your Ultimate Weapons, and its attacks deal no damage, though they still trigger thorns. Escorted by Fast enemies.

  • Health: 20x
  • Speed: 2x
  • Attack: 0
• Commander Fleet

  Stops once it is inside tower range and pulses. Each pulse gives nearby enemies 1.15x health, mass, and speed, up to 8 stacks per enemy. Bosses are not affected. Escorted by Tanks.

  • Health: 20x
  • Speed: 0.5x
  • Max buff: 8 stacks of 1.15x
• Overcharge Fleet

  Stops inside tower range and throws a returning projectile. Each hit deals 1.4x the damage of the one before, and it fires a final shot when it dies. Its base damage is locked to the wave 1 value for that tier. Escorted by Ranged enemies.

  • Health: 20x
  • Speed: 1x
  • Hit scaling: 1.4x per hit

Fleet spawn schedule

A fleet always spawns on its scheduled wave. Skipping that wave with Wave Skip does not remove it. On tiers 1 to 13 fleets only show up very deep into a run, as part of Overheat. From tier 14 they are a regular part of the tier, and from tier 20 there is at least one every 10 waves.

Bonus fleets arrive every 100 waves on top of the regular schedule. A bonus fleet drops nothing if a regular fleet is alive at the same time. In Legend tournaments the first fleet comes at wave 895 and then every 30 waves. The Overheat table on the Tiers page puts the bonus start at wave 10,000 for tiers 22 to 24 instead of the values shown here.

To see how fleet health and damage scale on your tier, use the fleet stats reference.

Fleet rewards

A dead fleet drops one of two things. There is an 80% chance of reroll shards, with the amount set by tier, and a 20% chance of module shards, split evenly at 5% each for Cannon, Armor, Generator, and Core. Module shard amounts depend on the wave the fleet spawned on: 5 shards before wave 250, plus 1 for every further 250 waves, capped at 25 from wave 5,000.

Enemy labs

Enemy Research labs do not make your tower stronger. They make one enemy type weaker, on every tier and every wave. Most unlock early on tier 9 and have 30 levels. They are slow: the final level of a standard enemy lab takes over 160 days before lab speed bonuses.

Unlock is the milestone tier and wave. Totals are the sum of every level in the wiki cost table.

The elite labs arrive much later, at tier 19 wave 60, and are priced on a different scale. All six share the same cost and time curve.

Elite labs

6 attack and health for Vampire, Ray, Scatter

Levels each

30 -12% at max

Level 1 cost

0.25Q last level 7.50Q

Total per lab

116.25Q last level takes 323d 23h 39m

Labs that counter specific enemies

Enemy Attack Level Skip and Enemy Health Level Skip work differently again: they give each wave a chance not to raise enemy levels at all. You can model that with the enemy level skip calculator. See the Labs guide for how lab speed and cost discounts apply.

What works against each group

Most build decisions come down to which immunities you are up against. This table collects the ones the wiki documents.

"Not listed" means the wiki pages used here do not state the interaction. Thunder Bot stun is 50% effective against bosses and elites as well as fleets.

In practice this means orbs and knockback handle the normal crowd, while elites, bosses, and fleets have to be killed with real damage or thorns. The Ultimate Weapons guide and Bots guide cover the tools that still work on them.

Frequently asked questions

How many enemies can be on screen at once in The Tower?

The cap is 150: up to 120 normal enemies, 20 elites, and 10 bosses. Each elite type is also limited to 8 on screen, not counting Scatter children. Fleet escorts have a separate cap since v28.3.

When do elite enemies start spawning?

It depends on the tier. On tier 1 the first 1% elite chance starts at wave 500 and one elite per wave is guaranteed at wave 8,000. On tier 16 those waves are 41 and 1,441, and on tier 24 they are 17 and 620.

What are elite enemies immune to?

Vampire, Ray, and Scatter are immune to Orbs, Death Ray, Shockwave, and Black Hole. Ray is also immune to knockback. You need direct damage or thorns to kill them.

When do fleet enemies appear?

Fleets are a regular enemy from tier 14, where the first one arrives at wave 2,495. The first fleet wave drops to 95 on tier 18 and 5 on tier 20 and above. On tiers 1 to 13 they only appear from wave 15,000 (tier 1) down to wave 12,000 (tier 13).

What do fleet enemies drop?

Each fleet has an 80% chance to drop reroll shards, from 1,080 on tier 14 to 2,700 on tier 24, and a 20% chance to drop 5 to 25 module shards of one type depending on the wave it spawned on.

How much health does a boss have compared to a normal enemy?

A boss has 20 times the health of a Basic enemy on the same wave and moves at 30% of its speed. Enemy labs change that ratio, because Basic and boss health are reduced by separate labs.

Sources and credits

The numbers on this page come from the community-maintained The Tower - Idle Tower Defense Wiki and were reorganized and rewritten for Towerstats.org. Wiki text is available under CC BY-SA.

• Enemies
• Elite Enemies
• Fleet Enemies
• Common Enemy Labs
• Fast Enemy Labs
• Tank Enemy Labs
• Ranged Enemy Labs
• Boss Labs
• Protector Labs
• Vampire Labs
• Ray Labs
• Scatter Labs
• Lab Category/Enemy Research
• Lab/Orb Boss Hit
• Currency/Elite Cells
• Currency/Coins
• Thunder Bot
• Tier-Specific Guide