You sure about that? None of my minions seem to do anything before they're riiiight in the face of the enemies.
Range is useless.
considering ive beaten the whole game with this method? most of the time doing so on my first try at a stage? yeah pretty sure.
example, first stage the ranged guy is the green slingshot looking one. just pump into range, send them in the middle since that has the enemy closest to spawn (golden pot thing) and hitting an enemy generates xp, so you want to start hitting him asap. 5 or so upgrades into range should be enough that you can attack him without being attacked.
farm exp, get the range high enough to outrange all the plants, and have enough capacity to send at least one slingshot on each row.
also several enemies have piercing shots, that trivializes the stage since one piercing shot can hit the rope even if the enemies are there.
also if you didnt notice the enemies you fight are your units in the next stage, so keep an eye on what they do/what their attacks are so you know which one to use next round.
so just went in to beat stage 1 again.
heres a tutorial.
send anyone down any lane for the first round, it doesnt matter, the whole point is the first round gives you a ton of xp regardless. dump all of this xp into the green slingshot guy, on the range stat in the middle.
this should give enough range to attack the golden pot on the middle lane without being attacked by anything, this gives about 30 xp a round.
use this on range, getting 3 units max, and damage on the green guy if you dont have enough for range. you dont need much damage, 4 or 5 is enough, you dont need rate at all.
range 8 or 9 should be enough to start clearing the majority of the board with just these three units. 10 definitely clears it.
it will clear it, but one or two units dies, at this point upgrade your max units to 5 or 6 so you can send in more guys once the board is clear. they will have a free run to the ropes.
should win by run 12 or 13.
and if you pay attention to your enemies, the flower in the middle lane seems to be the best ranged unit they have, this is your unit of choice in the next stage to upgrade.
second stage again, modified strategy. use the bottom pink flower.
level range and rate about equally, but also dump ALOT into max units. dont remember the amount, the the max unit upgrade cost 65 by the end.
hp is useless, the hand guy does 100 damage, with super high range and piercing.
goal is every time a unit dies, replace it with a new one. keep sending one in each lane. when one dies, and the hand projectile is not in the way, send a new one in that lane.
eventually your range and army size will allow you to kill the hand guy, once that happens all you need is enough leftover units to dump into the empty lanes. i won at run 12.
ranged units are king.
find the best one. hierarchy is: best-anything with piercing, next whichever has the highest starting range, last if all else equal is whichever has a damage upgrade
tailor your strategy to the ranged enemies that exist.
low range, low damage? try scaling hp or just outrange them.
high range, piercing? overwhlem them with numbers but dont let them pierce multiple targets at once. one unit in a lane at a time. employ distraction as they will always attack the closest target. build up your range until you can kill the dangerous enemy while it is busy attacking something in another lane.
use the chest on stage 3. beat it in 10 runs.
keep in mind I rerolled for a starting speed discount, so I don't know long it may take otherwise or if it's possible in 15 runs.
but yeah, get 3 units and the chest's speed to 6 asap, pester the eyes for xp and replace a chest once it falls.
once you have that try to get a 4th unit and level the other chest stats until hp hits 5, then focus damage to 7, it's enough for the chests to rack up enough damage to clear the eyes in 1 wave.
I should mention that you should time your spawns so that your units avoid the projectiles. to safely avoid the void, wait for its epicenter to reach the outside of the outer walls of the lane.
dump into units and wait for the board to clear of projectiles and send a chest in each lane to cleanup.