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Hold the Line gives you four towers, and each has a blind spot another one covers: Dart for quick single shots, Burst for crowds, Frost to slow everything in reach, and Lance for one heavy shot that goes through plate. You rarely need all four on a board, but you always need the one that answers the enemy in front of you. This guide describes version 0.12 and says what the game itself tells you, then what the numbers in its code suggest. You can play Hold the Line in another tab while you read.
What each tower does #
All prices are in energy, the currency you earn in an assault by stopping enemies. An assault starts you with 150 energy on assault 1 and a little more as you go, up to 255 from assault 31. Energy does not carry over from one assault to the next, and store upgrades such as Reserve add to the starting amount.
| Tower | Opens at | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dart | Assault 1 | 40 | A fast single shot at the enemy furthest along the path. Weak against plate. |
| Burst | Assault 5 | 60 | Lobs a shell at the leader. It lands a moment later and hurts everything near. Good against crowds, poor against quick enemies that have moved on by then. |
| Frost | Assault 10 | 50 | No damage. Slows everything in reach to half speed, so every other tower gets more time. |
| Lance | Assault 16 | 85 | One heavy shot at the toughest enemy in reach, straight through plate. |
Dart and Burst aim at whoever is nearest your base. Lance picks the toughest enemy in reach instead, which is why a swarm of small enemies wastes it. Lance also has the longest reach of the four and Dart and Frost the shortest.
A new tower takes about a second to come up before it fires, so build it before the enemy arrives, not as it passes. The assault does not start until you build your first tower, which gives you time to look at the board.
Which enemy needs which tower #
The first time an enemy kind appears, the game says so in one line. This is the full list, with the assault where each begins:
- Walkers (assault 1): plain. Dart handles them.
- Swarms (5): many small, quick enemies. The game's own hint is that Burst hits groups.
- Runners (10): fast. Frost slows them, and the hint says so.
- Plated (16): armour takes a fixed amount off every hit, though never more than four fifths of it. A Dart shot can lose most of its damage to them. The hint is that only Lance goes through plate.
- Splitters (21): when one falls it breaks into small, quick ones, two at first and three after a long while. Keep a tower with splash near the spot where they break up.
- Wards (31): each ward eats one whole hit, however heavy. A Lance shot spent on a ward is a heavy shot for the price of a light one, so let cheap fast shots strip the wards and keep Lance for what is under them. The enemy starts with 4 wards and later ones carry more, up to 10.
- Hulks (41): slow and very tough. Frost slows them only about 40% as much as it slows others, so do not count on it here.
- Rage (45): some enemies come enraged. Once one is hurt down to half its toughness, it speeds up.
Two things change the board rather than the enemy. From assault 25 a second gate can add a second path that joins the first. From assault 35 a tunnel can cover part of the path, and nothing in it can be hit, slowed or even aimed at. Towers that reach only the tunnel do nothing while enemies are inside, so check what a pad can see before you spend on it.
Upgrades: when a level beats a new tower #
Every level raises a tower's strength by 35% (for Frost, how much it slows), and raises its reach, its shots a second and its splash by a little less each time, towards a cap of +45% reach, +60% rate and +50% splash for Burst. From level 2, Dart and Lance hits also hurt what is next to the target for 40% of the hit.
The price is the catch. Each level costs 1.5 times the one before. This is what each step costs in energy, from level 1 up to level 7:
| Level reached | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dart | 30 | 50 | 70 | 110 | 160 | 245 |
| Burst | 50 | 70 | 110 | 160 | 245 | 365 |
| Frost | 40 | 60 | 90 | 135 | 205 | 305 |
| Lance | 70 | 100 | 155 | 230 | 345 | 515 |
A Dart raised to level 7 has cost 705 energy in all, a Lance 1,500. Set a level against a new tower: a second Dart costs 40 and doubles your Dart fire, while the step from level 4 to 5 costs 110 and adds a third to one tower's strength, plus a little reach and speed. So fill the pads first. The limit is pads: a board opens about 10 to 14, and the store sells more. When you run out of pads, upgrade. This is a reading of the numbers, not something the game states.
Two bonuses reward the upgrades. At level 7 each tower gains a special move:
- Dart: its shot bounces on to nearby enemies, two at first and more every third level.
- Burst: the shell breaks into three bomblets.
- Frost: what it slows takes extra damage, 25% at first and up to 80%.
- Lance: the shot carries on through everything in its line.
And an enemy stopped by a raised tower pays more: each level above the first adds 10% to the energy for the final blow. Frost never lands one, so it gains nothing here.
Selling and moving towers #
Selling gives back 75% of everything the tower cost, upgrades included, and frees its pad. A level-7 Dart returns 528 of its 705. That makes moving a tower expensive but not ruinous: sell one that no longer sees any enemies, and the energy goes to a pad that does. In the game, selling asks for a second tap to confirm.
A pad's value is how much of the path sits inside the tower's reach. The reach is a circle, so a pad beside a bend generally sees more path than one beside a straight stretch.
Abilities and speed #
The store sells five abilities, which you then trigger in play. Each has a wait before you can use it again. The coin prices are at coin level 1 and, as in Skimline, rise with your coin level.
| Ability | Opens at | Cost | Effect | Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mend | Assault 1 | 250 | 3 lives back | 60 s |
| Halt | Assault 4 | 400 | Every enemy stands still for 2.5 s | 45 s |
| Windfall | Assault 7 | 600 | 50 energy at once | 40 s |
| Rush | Assault 12 | 900 | Every tower fires twice as fast for 5 s | 45 s |
| Strike | Assault 18 | 1,300 | Every enemy in sight loses 25% of its toughness | 55 s |
Those are the base values. Power and Cooldown levels bought later raise the effect and shorten the wait. You have 10 lives, and Mend only works if you have lost one. Strike is eaten by a ward like any other hit. Autocast, a one-time purchase, uses each ability you own the moment it is ready and would do something.
Game speed also opens with progress: ×1.5 on reaching assault 10, ×2 at 20, ×3 at 30 and ×4 at 40. Endless has every speed open from the start.
Keep your progress #
As a guest, your progress and coins stay in this browser, on this device. A free player account keeps them with your account too, so they follow you to every device where you sign in. Choose Create account the first time you open the game, or go to your account page. To open the game with one tap from your phone, add our games to your home screen.
