Defense Derby Review: No horsin’ around

Discalimer: the last competitive tower defense game I really enjoyed playing was Sanctum 2 on the PC. Or maybe one of the Orcs Must Die! games. Be as it may, KRAFTON’s mobile games haven’t been disappointing, in any way, so when we got the beta codes for Defense Derby (Android and iOS), I jumped into it quite quickly.

The game, created by game developer RisingWings, Inc, incorporates some interesting elements from other mobile games and does a great job putting it all together. Spoiler alert: Despite being called Defense ‘Derby’, the game has no connection to horses. This might be important to some people. Possibly.

That said, the game does have a bit of a learning curve, which people may or may not find somewhat frustrating. Personally, I found the challenge refreshing. Although, if I’m nitpicking, I would’ve liked to have a training ground, of sorts. An offline PvE arena where you can see your builds in action before taking on real players.

The Basics

Defense Derby’s arena (aka, Derby) comprises a 3×3 grid of units, with a hero in the middle of the cube. You and three others face the same waves of enemies. Each player starts with two units (plus the hero) from their deck, and after each wave of enemies that you beat (or survive), you either get a random unit from your own loadout, or bid on a random unit from any of the four players’ decks to fill your arena.

The bidding system requires some strategy and foresight on the players’ part. Outbidding or underbidding gives players a chance to get ahead, or push their rivals out of their derbies.

The units are categorised in three factions: Human, Beast, and Spirit; each dealing one of two types of damage: Physical or Magical. Lining up your units to match either faction or damage type gives bonus stats to each unit. This is something players need to keep in mind not only when creating their own loadout, but also when bidding for units. I’ve seen it make a crucial difference when winning and losing games.

The units and heroes in the game can also be upgraded (Common to Mythic) or levelled up to improve stats like attack speed, damage and buffs/debuffs. So… Just another two things to keep in mind.

Your loadout consists of one hero, eight units and three artifacts. Five artifacts are dropped every day by completing your daily quests, and can be upgraded with multiple drops of the same artifact. These give specific buffs to your loadout, and can be swapped out in your loadout based on your playstyle.

The Gameplay

Ranking up in the game playing Derby Games has an impact on several gameplay elements. Primarily, your Derby’s hit point bar.

The first two winners of each battle are ranked up, the third winner keeps to their rung on the rank ladder. The loser ranks down. Essentially: Avoid being dead last.

Winning regularly also drops two currencies that allow you to try your luck in the game’s spin-to-win menu, and also to purchase unit upgrades. These change weekly and seasonally, respectively, so fair warning to resource hoarders, you may find yourselves in trouble when the cycles refresh.

There are two main game modes: Derby and Blitz. Derby games help players rank up by playing PvP. Blitz games are purely PvE and currently seem to be the only way to gain talent points, which can be redeemed in the game’s Talent menu to give buffs to particular factions or unit types. There are several smaller game modes in the ‘Adventure’ menu of the game. There’s the Valley of Trials which refreshes each day to help you improve your game with variations of factions and types. There’s the ‘Friendly Derby’ which allows for friends to play together. And the Themed mode where the developers seem to try small variations to keep Derby games interesting. There’s also an ‘Arena’ in development.

Defense Derby has a Guild system in place, which would indicate a potential ‘Guild Wars’ element in future updates. For readers interested: SKOAR! has its own guild, open to players, so search for SKOAR, if you’d like to join us.

Money, money, money

Despite having eight different currencies in the game, Defense Derby does a pretty good job keeping it fair. There is a paid currency, but players won’t really feel the need to indulge in micro-transactions because reward drops, even for the paid stuff, are steady throughout the game.

Here’s a quick lowdown on the currencies in the game:

Gems are the premium currency of the game and can be bought and consumed for unit cards or other currencies. Cubics are the more common reward drops and can be used to get more unit cards. Faction Crystals are three types, one for each faction. They’re rarer and work like Cubics, but guarantee units from a specific faction. Crystals are essentially faction crystals, but can be used as replacement currency for any of the faction crystals. Gold and Elixir are used to upgrade and level your units. Eternal Feathers and Doubloons are the spin-to-win currencies.

Personally, just doing my dailies and weeklies, I’ve found it all to be fairly easy to level up my account and rarely find myself underpowered. That said, there may not be enough pay-to-win players in the game right now, so the playing field may change, given time.

The Verdict – Defense Derby

All-in-all, Defense Derby’s kept me engaged longer than I expected. The balance of RNG and strategy is great, allowing players to rely on skill, adaptive thinking and luck equally to move forward. For all you mobile gamers out there looking for a fun game to pass time on long commutes and in-between waiting on world bosses to spawn: Give it a shot!

Also read: Road to Valor: Empires – Paved with Good Intentions