Tower Defense Terms Glossary: From Aggro to Wave

Strategy guides are full of shorthand. If you have ever read "stack slows at the kill zone before the boss wave" and nodded without understanding, this tower defense glossary is for you. Terms are in alphabetical order, with examples from Sozo Tower Defense where it helps.

A

Anti-air. Towers or abilities that can hit flying enemies. Flyers skip the path, so ground-only defenses can fail against them. In Sozo, the Missile Battery reaches up to knock flyers out of the sky, and you can shoot or punch flyers yourself.

Area damage (AoE). Damage that hits everything in a radius. The Cannon's shells blast whole groups of ground enemies.

B

Boss. A powerful enemy, usually at the end of a level. Sozo includes giant bosses such as the Kraken and the Lich King.

Burn. Damage over time from fire. The Flamethrower is described as leaving a burn that keeps on hurting.

C

Core / goal. The thing you protect. In Sozo it is the Core Crystal.

Crowd control (CC). Effects that restrict enemies: slows, freezes, stuns. The Frost Spire slows the wave.

D

Debuff. A negative effect on an enemy, such as slowing or weakening.

DPS. Damage per second, the usual measure of a tower's output.

E

Exposure time. How long an enemy stays in a tower's range. Bends increase it.

F

Flyer. An enemy that ignores the ground path.

K

Kill zone. The stretch of path where your towers' ranges overlap most, where you want enemies to die.

L

Leak. An enemy that reaches the goal. A few leaks may be acceptable, but too many lose the level.

M

Mazing. Using towers to build the enemy's route on an open grid. Sozo is path-based instead.

O

Overlap. Where the ranges of several towers cover the same stretch of path.

Overcharge. In Sozo, a power that pushes your towers past their limits.

P

Phasing. An enemy trait of becoming temporarily untargetable. In Void Nebula, phasing monsters flicker out of reach right when you aim.

Power / ability. A player-triggered effect, such as Meteor or Stasis.

R

Range. The distance within which a tower can attack.

Realm. A themed world with its own rules. Sozo has eight.

Regeneration. Health that returns over time if the enemy survives. In Verdant Hollow, monsters regenerate if you do not finish them off.

S

Single-target. Damage focused on one enemy.

Slow. A crowd control effect that reduces speed.

Stasis. In Sozo, a power that freezes the battlefield in place for a moment.

Swarm. A large number of weak, usually fast enemies. Spread your damage.

Synergy. Towers that work better together.

T

Tier. An upgrade level. Sozo towers have three.

Trait. A special rule on an enemy, such as armor, healing or phasing.

W

Wave. A group of enemies arriving together.

How to use this glossary

When reading a guide, keep it open and look up unfamiliar terms. After a few levels the vocabulary becomes second nature, and you will find yourself thinking in terms of kill zones and exposure time.

Terms you will meet in guides

Guides often mix terms from several games, so you may see "AoE", "DoT" (damage over time), "CC" (crowd control) and "aggro" used casually. Most tower defense games do not use aggro in the way role-playing games do, since towers pick their own targets. When a term is unclear, check how the guide uses it and test it in a level; the game itself is the best dictionary.

Keep this glossary open for your first few sessions and look a term up whenever a guide uses one you do not recognise. Within a handful of levels the vocabulary becomes second nature, and the strategy articles start reading like plain English.

FAQ

What does DPS mean in tower defense?

Damage per second: the damage a tower deals each second under normal conditions.

What is a kill zone?

The part of the path where several towers overlap, concentrating damage where enemies spend the most time.

Does Sozo use these terms?

The concepts all apply to Sozo. Try them in the game on the Meta store.