Defender Z is a stunning tower defense game from Droidhen. The game lets you set up defenses against the undead horde to make your city zombie-free. A secret experiment goes awry, causing a deadly virus to spread across the city, infecting residents. You will have to install guns and turrets to repel the infected and make all “red zones” free from the zombie menace.
Defender Z has over 20 different types of zombies and several powerful weapons to take care of them. You will be in control of the main weapon, dragging your finger to eliminate enemies and using secondary weapons to destroy multiple zombies. But keeping the infected at bay isn’t easy. With these beginner-level tips, hints and strategies, you will know how to tackle the zombie menace and obtain upgrade materials for your weapons:
Table of Contents
1. How to Deal with Multiple Zombie Dogs
Fast-moving zombie dogs can be a nuisance since they charge at your base at full speed. They are faster than most zombies and hence difficult to contain. You should eliminate them before they begin destroying your weaponry. Drag your finger on the screen to direct your primary weapon to aim and fire at a zombie dog.
To tackle multiple dogs charging at your base, attack a dog that’s inching closer to the base. When you see the aiming reticle of the Turret on that dog, quickly direct your primary gun to aim and fire at another dog. The turret automatically targets a random incoming enemy so when the turret’s crosshair is fixed on a dog, don’t waste your primary weapon’s bullets on it. Start attacking another dog or a zombie until the turret aims and fires at it.
2. Always Upgrade Your Turret
The turret automatically attacks incoming enemies. You don’t have a control on it. Using your primary weapon, it won’t be easy for you to deal with multiple zombies at the same time, which is why you need a more powerful turret to kill several enemies before they reach the danger line. A turret with more firepower will definitely take some burden off your shoulders as eliminating lots of incoming enemies is quite hard if you rely only on your main weapon.
To make your turret stronger, upgrade it. To do this, tap “Arsenal” on your home screen. Now tap the Turret tab and then tap “Research”. You will need copper blocks to upgrade your turret. On upgrading, you will increase key stats such as ATK (Attack) and CP. A higher CP of both primary and turret weapon is key to clear a zone. With a high ATK stat, it will take less time to eliminate a tough zombie.
3. Keep an Eye on Ranged Zombies
Ranged zombies in Defender Z throw explosives at your base from a fair distance. They deal extra damage and together with tank and zombie dogs, can be extremely dangerous. You must thin the herd by eliminating ranged zombies using secondary weapons, such your turret’s “rocket projectiles” and your primary gun’s “grenade”. You can find them on the lower-right corner of the battle screen. Just drag the grenade or the projectile towards a group of ranged zombies to eliminate them.
4. Use Secondary Weapons to Eliminate Multiple Zombies
As explained in the previous paragraph, secondary weapons can be very useful in eliminating multiple zombies because they deal AoE damage. At times, it becomes difficult to get rid of several enemies, especially when there’s a wave of different types of zombies approaching your base. In such circumstances, you must use grenades and projectiles. Your turret’s projectiles can easily decrease HP of tank zombies to a greater extent whereas grenades can be used to kill normal/ranged zombies and zombie dogs.
You can also upgrade secondary weapons like the grenade and projectiles to increase their damage. Go to Arsenal > Gun > “Secondary” and then tap “Research”. You will need copper blocks and Z coins to level up grenade. To upgrade projectiles using copper blocks, tap “Turret” > “Secondary” and then tap “Research”.
5. Upgrade, Enhance, Evolve
You should not only upgrade your guns from time to time, but also evolve and enhance them. The more powerful your weapons, the easier it will be to eliminate enemies without taking much damage. While the strategies mentioned in this Defender Z guide can be helpful, the key to make a red zone zombie-free is to upgrade your weapons from time to time.
The primary material needed to upgrade your gun and turret is copper blocks. You will need these materials to “research” both the main and secondary weapons of your main gun and turret. You will get copper blocks when you win a main mission, complete certain achievements or complete certain secondary missions.
Enhancing weapons greatly increases their stats, thereby boosting their firepower. To enhance a weapon, turret and their secondary weapons, you will need “Nanometer”.
You can get them from certain “Elite Zombie Attack” missions, and can collect them on certain days as “sign-in rewards”. Make sure you log in daily to get your rewards so that you can obtain nanometer on those particular days.
You can also get nanometer by completing achievements or from “weekly missions”. Don’t forget to open the supply box to get materials. Tap “event” on the upper right corner of the screen to claim your free box. The free supply box is available every 24 hours.
Evolving guns is the sure-shot way to gain a massive increase in stats. You will need certain color-coded “X-Files” to evolve your primary and secondary weapons. You can see all info when you tap Arsenal > Research and then tap the “Evolve” tab under each primary and secondary weapon.
For example: Your main gun requires blue X-files, whereas the secondary weapon, the grenade requires a certain number of red X-file material to evolve.
You can get X-files from elite zombie attack/boss mode missions. Weekly missions are also a great way to get them. They are pretty rare to find, and you might get them from the production facility when you unlock it at zone 8.
6. Equip and Upgrade Weapon Accessories
Besides upgrading and enhancing weapons, you should also consider equipping special accessories to them to improve your firepower against zombies. To unlock an accessory, you will have to collect a certain number of fragments. You can get them from boss missions. Once you unlock an accessory, you are ready to attach it to your gun or turret. The accessory section of your main gun and turret can be found just below their stats in Arsenal. Tap the plus icon to equip an accessory.
You can upgrade an equipped accessory using “universal parts”, which you can easily get from missions, sign-in rewards and the lottery, which can be found on the right side of your home screen. Tap the accessory and then tap “research” button below it to increase its stats.
7. Take on Secondary Missions to Get Upgrade Materials
As you progress, finishing Defender Z missions will become quite harder. To make things worse, you won’t be able to acquire upgrade materials since there’s no way to replay previous missions. A zone once cleared can’t be cleared again. If you are in desperate need of copper blocks and you are constantly failing in a particular mission, start taking on secondary missions. They are easier than primary missions and offer rewards that range from coins to copper blocks.
To take on a secondary mission, tap “Mission” and then tap “Search” on the lower-left corner of the screen. The radar will find a random mission on the map for you. Every time you search for a new mission, you spend energy, which refills over a period of time. Complete secondary missions to get workers for your production facility, coins and important materials like the copper block.