"It was supposed to be a simple mission. Get in, defend the colony, and get paid. Instead, I found myself trapped on the planet, caught in a war between mankind and a robot uprising. In the end, I'm not sure who I should be fighting for..."
Axon TD: Uprising
What is Axon TD?
Axon TD is a mazing-centric tower defense where you manipulate the map layout to your advantage. Build towers, make the longest maze, and survive against an onslaught of enemies!
In the Campaign, you'll play as a defense contractor on a routine mission. But when you arrive, your ship is shot down, and you're attacked by a robotic force called the Axons. Your only way off the planet now is to fight. Build towers, secure each location, and push back against the Axons! And perhaps, find out the truth behind the war...
Be free of your restrictions and maze how you please!
Ways to Play
Outside of the Campaign, there's three major modes:
Quick Play: Pick a level, choose your Tower Loadout, and try to beat it!
Survival Mode: A longform mode that has you start with minimal towers and space, but throughout the course of the game, you'll receive randomized expansions that you can place where you please, and slowly grow your loadout. Just beating all the waves is a challenge in of itself.
Online Co-op: These are larger levels designed for 2, 3, or 4 players. Each of you chooses your Tower Loadout before the game begins, and then you're free to build where you please. Coordinate with your team, transfer resources, and try to clear each level!
All three of these modes support Global Leaderboards.
When will it release?
Axon TD will release in Early Access in Q3. By then, it will contain the following:
32 Towers, Traps, and Mines
8 Castable Abilities
Chapters 1 & 2 of the Campaign
Numerous Quick Play Levels
Survival Mode
Co-op with up to 4 Players
Leaderboards for Quick Play, Survival, and Co-op
And an actual Tutorial
How does this game differ from Element TD 2?
The speed, scale, and style of the game is very different, even from Element TD 2's Mazing Mode. You choose your Towers at the start of the game. You've got unlimited time between each waves. You have a limit to how much you can sell, making each placement really matter. And you can directly manipulate the map to add pathways that didn't exist before.
On some levels, you can even change where the "end" is.
Will there be Workshop Support?
Hypothetically, this would include the ability to create custom maps for Quick Play and Co-op. We don't know when it'll happen, but we're making Workshop Support a top priority for this game.
We'll be providing smaller weekly updates on here. Hop on in!
Element Studios Plans for 2023
Greetings! It's been a little while since we last posted. 2 months ago, we released the Mazing DLC, and it's gotten overall positive reception. Player counts for the game have been up since then, and we've seen a good influx of new and returning players.
As for us, we've been working quietly in the background, both on Element TD 2... and maybe a new project. Below is a list of upcoming things we're working on:
Version 1.9
Coming on Friday, March 31st, we'll be releasing Version 1.9. This will be the last major patch for the game (for the foreseeable future). Contained within it will be 2 More Mazing Co-op Maps, one last round of Cosmetics, balance updates, resets for Ranked & Score Leaderboards, and various fixes.
Speaking of those Co-op Mazing Maps, we're looking for designs to implement. If you've got a cool idea you want to see added to the game, hop onto our Discord and post it in #map-ideas! Some things to consider:
People really like the Space map, especially due to how open it is plus how abusable the Checkpoints are. We want to make use of Checkpoints for at least one of these two maps.
Path lengths can only go so long before it imposes a framerate drop. So for example, if all the paths are capable of circling the map twice over, that's unfortunately a no-go.
We'll be locking in which designs we implement within the next 2 weeks.
Another Tournament!
Sometime during Q2 2023, we'll be doing another Tournament. This time, the settings will be:
Map: Random, Non-Variant
Difficulty: Very Hard
Element Selection: Pick
Length: Full
Paths: Standard
Wave Order: Normal
As for whether it's Mazing or not, we'd actually like your input on that. On one hand, the game is not balanced around Mazing. On the other hand, it's fresh and seems to be the preferable game mode. Be aware that Casual will not be on, meaning you can't immediately go for the longest maze and stall a ton of interest.
That said, comment below which you'd prefer! We'll also be running a poll on our Discord.
Next Project Announcement!
By the end of Q1 2023, we'll be formally announcing out next game project! We've been silently working on it on the background for some time now. For the time being, know that it's a Tower Defense, and it's not related to Element TD 2. When we announce it, expect a short trailer, some info, and a release window!
Fret not, although our resources are shifting to the next project, Element TD 2 is not forgotten! We've got a few more things to look forward to over here.
Just to clarify, we'll continue updating Element TD 2 throughout the year, it's just that after 1.9, the fixes will be focused on bug fixes and quality of life. Otherwise, that's what we've been working on lately! Apologies if we've been quiet on that front, but with work split between two game projects, we've been quite busy. Look forward to our upcoming stuff this year!
Version 1.8.8 - More Fixes and Performance Improvements
Fixes and Improvements
Towers now instantly build in Campaign wave breaks.
Health bars have been optimized for performance.
Fixed Casual mode toggle not being remembered when creating multiple lobbies in a session.
Fixed the Casual mode Scoreboard Creep column not accounting for game length.
Fixed an issue where going into a ranked game and then playing single player would result in you being unable to quit out.
Fixed an issue where playing Mega Survival Online resulted in a single lane instead of two.
Fixed an issue where Co-op replays were displaying the wrong starting gold.
Version 1.8.7 - More Fixes, Localization, Tournament, Co-op Maps
Fixes and Improvements
Fixed Mazing Campaign not saving progress across different devices via Steam cloud.
Fixed Mission 14 of the Mazing Campaign not ending when all the bosses were killed before creeps were done spawning.
Fixed "Avalanche Avenger" achievement being impossible to unlock.
Fixed Balanced Paths in Co-op not being reflected correctly in replays.
Fixed "No Blocker Limit" option not listing that it made the session ineligible for achievements.
Updated Russian Localization
News
We will be holding another tournament before the summer!
We plan to add two more Mazing co-op maps. We're looking for map layout ideas so please visit #map-ideas on our Discord if you have one.
Version 1.8.6 - More Fixes, A Few Cosmetics
Cosmetics
New Builder: Level 150 Demonic Horse
New Builder: Level 150 Psycho Dino
New Trail: Level 125 Cookie Squad
New Wings: Level 125 Cookie Guard
Thine Dino Hat hath become the Builder.
Fixes
Fixed an issue where losing connection to Steam would kick you from the game itself
Fixed an exploit that enabled unlimited blockers in Teams & Co-op Mazing.
Fixed Mega Survival only using 1 Path
Fixed Tropical Teams Mazing creeps not coming from both portals
Improved German localization
Improved Spanish localization
Also, for the Steam Winter Sale, you can acquire Element TD 2 for 50% off, so gift it to your friends, family, enemies, and everyone in-between!
Fixed an issue with being unable to fail the achievement in Mission 3 of the Mazing campaign.
Fixed an issue where the achievement in Mission 6 would display as being failed when it wasn't.
Fixed an issue where the Campaign Loadout wouldn't remember that you had had turned Recommendations Off.
Fixed an issue where the No Blocker Limit option didn't toggle for other players in a lobby.
Fixed an issue where the No Blocker Limit option wouldn't properly deactivate when you toggled Play Offline in Survival.
Fixed an issue where loading a Checkpoint in the first 5 waves of a campaign mission would put you at wave 2.
Fixed an issue where Loading a replay of Autumn, Temple or Space on the Mazing Leaderboard would load Forest Mazing instead.
Fixed an issue where watching a Mazing replay would give you achievements.
Fixed an issue where the buff indicator from Blacksmith, Well, Trickery and Life Altar would not display in Mazing.
Fixed an issue where you could not sell allied blockers in Teams and Co-op Mazing after they had disconnected.
Version 1.8.4 - Mazing Hotfixes
Fixes & Improvements
In Mazing, creeps speed up each wave. Players were noting creeps were speeding up too fast, especially in later waves, so we scaled it back by roughly 5% to 10% (depending on the stage of the game).
In Casual Mode, what wave each player is on is now listed on the Scoreboard.
Attempted a fix that may reduce the chance of missed events/inputs in Multiplayer. If this works, this may reduce desyncs. Fingers crossed.
Fixed creeps would suddenly ignore the laws of physics and bypass the mazing grid entirely.
Fixed Mazing Campaign unlocking out of order.
Fixed Damage Chart not working for Current & Previous.
Fixed selecting Random Map in Singleplayer Mazing resulting in a Non-Mazing Map.
Fixed shorter Lengths not accounting for the scaling Blocker Gain.
Fixed trying to build a tower on a Trickery Clone while at Max Blocker Cap would prevent you from building the tower.
Fixed Mazing Teams Map Previews showing up as blank screens when zoomed in.
Fixed some error log spam on Winter & Temple.
Fixed camera bounds on Temple cutting off Players 4 & 8 from accessing their maps properly.
Fixed Co-op Entries on the Leaderboard not showing up.
Chinese, Japanese, German localization for the Mazing DLC applied. More languages will be applied over the next few weeks, as well as the updated Specialization tooltips.
If you've reported a bug that hasn't been fixed in the above patch, worry not, we're working on them internally. There'll probably be a Version 1.8.5 with more fixes later this week.
So far, reception to the Mazing DLC has been fairly positive. The game has been a lot more active, and a lot of people have been telling us personally they enjoy the game, even directly after reporting a bug, which has been really energizing for us.
If you can, leave us a review on the DLC Store Page. The more reviews, the more visibility, and the more players we'll likely have!
Incorrect DLC Regional Pricing - Edit: Fixed
EDIT: Regional pricing has been fixed!
It has come to our attention that in some currencies, particularly South American, the price of the DLC is more than half of the price of the base game. This is not intended.
We have submitted correct pricing to Valve and as soon as they approve it this will be fixed. I really apologize for the inconvenience.
Incorrect DLC Regional Pricing
It has come to our attention that in some currencies, particularly South American, the price of the DLC is more than half of the price of the base game. This is not intended.
We have submitted correct pricing to Valve and as soon as they approve it this will be fixed. I really apologize for the inconvenience.
Mazing DLC Out Now!
At last, the time has come. The Mazing Expansion has finally released!
We've also got a fancy trailer for it, courtesies of community member wadebbqwall2. Check it out below!
For the full details of what this expansion entails, read on for the full notes!
Mazing Mode
How Does Mazing Work?
Located on the left of your Build Bar, you have access to the Blocker. This is a limited resource that costs no gold, meant to make the path longer.
As you place Blockers, the path will automatically adjust.
By default, you'll start with 20 Blockers. Each wave you clear, you gain 1 Blocker, and every 5 waves, you gain 2 Blockers instead.
The bonus you get every 5 waves increases over time.
The number of Blockers you have also acts as your Tower Limit.
In Co-op, you start with 30 Blockers.
However, these aren't just for increasing the path length. They also let you build Towers directly on them.
Selling a Tower will always leave a Blocker behind. This way, you don't accidentally open up a hole in your path.
Changes made to the maze mid-wave won't cement in place until the next wave starts.
This prevents you from accidentally opening a hole mid-wave, or routing creeps through an infinite loop via buy/sell abuse of Blockers.
What are those yellow portals?
What's in the Mazing DLC?
The expansion contains the following:
A Mazing Campaign featuring 14 Missions
This has its own Loadout & Progression, separate from the Main Campaign
10 New FFA/Teams Mazing Maps
4 New Co-op Mazing Maps
Mazing Leaderboards for each of the new maps
With 10 Pick + 10 Random + 10 Teams + 4 Co-op Leaderboards, that's a total of 34 Mazing Leaderboards!
Tack that on to the existing leaderboards, and we've got 72 + 34 = 106 Total Leaderboards
New Achievements specific to Mazing
To be precise, including multi-tiered Achievements and "clones" for each map, there are 174 Mazing Achievements. Happy hunting!
In order to access any of the singleplayer content or host games, you need the expansion.
However, you do not need the expansion to joinMazing lobbies online.
You're also not restricted from getting Mazing Achievements or getting entries on the leaderboard. It's just going to be a lot harder to practice any of that relying solely on others to host lobbies though.
Check out this magical Railgun snipe that perfectly avoids clipping the terrain or architecture.
Mazing Q&A
Below is a list of questions and technicalities we've seen people ask about over the last few months.
What are those yellow Portals I see on certain maps? Those are Teleporters. When creeps pass through one, they appear through a different Teleporter. You'll be able to see based on how the path line goes through them.
Is it possible to completely block the path? No. The game will prevent you from placing the tower or blocker that would block the path. It'll also give you a pop-up message.
Can I build a tower without a blocker beneath? Yes! Well, to clarify, if you build a tower on a space without a blocker, it'll build the tower with a blocker beneath it.
How does drag building work in Mazing? It works two ways:
If you're drag-building over open space, it'll drag-build over that open space.
However, if you're drag-building and
*any blockers** are under the selection box, it'll only build towers on blockers.
Also, if your drag-build would happen to block the path in any way, it'll cancel your entire drag-build order and give you a message.
I don't have enough Blockers. Why is there a limit at all? We chose to have a limit that scales over time so that the game isn't a complete joke at the start of the game due to having a ridiculous path length.
However, there is an option that lets you turn the Blocker Limitoff, and it's accessible in multiplayer, even in Co-op. Do note that toggling this option will make the run illegible for leaderboard.
Is it me, or do the creeps speed up over time? That is not your imagination. Each wave, the creeps speed up just slightly. Their spawn interval also decreases a bit. This way, when you do eventually gain a ludicrous maze, it doesn't take 3 minutes for creeps to get all the way to the end. Even with this in, Mazing takes longer to clear than the standard game, especially in Co-op.
Is there a separate balance for Mazing? No. We decided to keep the balance the same for the whole game. In fact, we actually made some changes back in Version 1.8 to account for Mazing while also keeping it (theoretically) balanced for the rest of the game. In particular, the shockwave changes on Earth, Quake, & Nova, and the adjustment to Mushroom's damage formula.
How does Multiplayer work? In Mazing FFA & Teams, we've made it so that Casual Mode is on by default. This means you're not at risk at getting rushed out by someone camping the entrance, which in Mazing, is kind of counterintuitive anyways because you naturally want to make really long mazes. Of course, you're welcome to turn Casual Mode off and experience the rather... unique game style.
That said though, there's a chance we may do a Mazing Tournament in a few months, and if we do, Casual Mode will be off for that.
In Co-op, am I restricted to my color zone? You are not. We decided to colorcode the build zones in Mazing Co-op because A, the maps are way bigger than the standard game, and B, they're a little less intertwined than the standard game. This way, it kind of provides a guide for each player.
However, there's no actual restrictions. You can build in other color zones, and heck, you can even build your towers on allied blockers.
I feel like I've seen the Avalanche map somewhere before. Is it based off something? For those of you that played tower defenses during the Warcraft 3 days, there was a popular map called Wintermaul. Avalanche's map design is based off of that, with some tweaks.
I'm one of the crazy people that plays the Co-op Boss Mode. Will there be support for it Mazing? For now, no. However, whenever we get around to Version 1.9, we may look into adding it.
Is there a Ranked Mazing? For now, no. We're not sure Mazing is properly balanced, especially since it's not getting a separate balance adjustment. If it plays well over the next few months and there's enough demand for it, we'll consider it.
What about War Mazing? Between it being a buggy massacre that'd be a huge pain to fix, and the fact that it's easily the least popular part of the game, probably not. Honestly, we think it would be cool to see it happen, but the truth of the matter is that the mode has numerous design problems that conflict with Element TD 2. Unless we figure those problems out, we're unlikely to add Mazing War Mode.
If you have any more questions about technical details or suggestions, feel free to ask about them in the comments, on the Steam Forums, or our Discord. There's even a dedicated #mazing channel on there.
Yep, this map looks familiar alright.
Additionally today, we're releasing Version 1.8.3, which contains numerous fixes and improvements, Specialization tweaks, and *le-gasp* some new Cosmetics. Read on the full notes!
Version 1.8.3
Cosmetics
New Builder: Level 45 Demon Watcher
New Builder: Level 55 Gyrobot
New Builder: Level 65 Lava Ray
New Builder: Level 90 Cutie
New Hat: Level 65 Cookie Hat
The Cookie Hat: Makes towers 100% tastier! But not necessarily more edible.
Fixes & Improvements
Added the ability to adjust Hats on Towers:
Everyone: See everyone's hats on their towers. This is the default option.
Self Only: Only see your hats on your towers.
Nobody: Hats on towers are hidden. Not that you should do this, unless you're trying to save a bit on performance.
Campaign - You can now toggle Tower Recommendations on and off in the Loadout.
Campaign - Whenever you press the Ready button, the game will save state again, so that if you made a bunch of changes during the wave break, you don't have to redo them all on loading checkpoint.
Campaign - There's now an indicator of the mission-specific Achievement in-game, and whether you've flunked it or not.
When in-game, the Game Mode UI has been updated to display the primary mode in the middle of the screen. Upon hovering over it, you'll see a list of all the game's modes and modifiers.
The game now remembers the state of the Play Offline setting in the Singleplayer menu.
Managed to dampen the snow effect on wintery maps so that it's less foggy on towers and creeps.
Fixed Cannon Tower's cannons tilting up/down on creeps.
Fixed Impulse Tower not being highlighted on the Tower Table when hovering over the 1500 range setting.
Fixed a bug where Geyser Specialization 1 wasn't reducing its damage by the intended 25%.
Fixed a bug in Mega Survival where your camera and builder would not start in the proper location on certain maps.
Fixed a bug where, when viewing the Map Previews in Teams, if you clicked the magnifying glass to zoom in, it'd display the incorrect preview image.
Fixed a visual error between water and Fog of War that'd make it unusually dark depending on the camera angle.
Specializations
As we were testing and polishing the Mazing Campaign out, we ran across numerous Tower Specializations that were either underwhelming or blatantly silly.
Astral
Specialization 1 -- Old: Damage increased by 50%. Range reduced to 900. -- New: Damage increased by 60%. Range reduced to 900.
Specialization 2 -- Old: Every 9 seconds, this tower shoots up to 12 creeps at once. -- New: Every 12 seconds, this tower shoots at up to 12 creeps at once. Attacks can stack on one creep.
Darkness
Specialization 1 -- Old: Damage increased by 35%. However, attack doesn't bounce on kill. -- New: Damage increased by 40%. However, attack doesn't bounce on kill.
Poison
Specialization 2 -- Old: Damage-per-second reduced by 40%. Duration increased to 35 seconds. -- New: Damage-per-second reduced by 35%. Duration increased to 35 seconds.
Disease
Specialization 1 -- Old: Damage reduced by 25%, but Range increased to 1150. -- New: Damage reduced by 20%, but Range increased to 1150.
Specialization 2 -- Old: Damage increased by 25%, but Range reduced to 750. -- New: Damage increased by 30%, but Range reduced to 750.
Runic
Specialization 2 -- Old: Damage increased by 300%, but AoE reduced to 0. -- New: Damage increased by 225%. AoE reduced to 0.
Vapor
Specialization 2 -- Old: Range increased to 1500. Bonus damage per creep reduced to 0%. -- New: Range increased to 1500. Bonus damage per creep reduced to 1% / 2% / 3%.
Corrosion
Specialization 2 -- Old: Damage Amplification increased to 25% / 50%. -- New: Damage Amplification increased to 25% / 50%, but Duration reduced to 4 seconds.
Mushroom
Specialization 2 -- Old: Damage reduced by 30%. Primary target is slowed by 10% / 20% / 30% for 1 second. -- New: Damage reduced by 20%. Primary target is slowed by 20% / 30% / 40% for 1 second.
Impulse
Specialization 1 -- Old: Range increased to 1750, but Damage reduced by 20%. -- New: Range increased to 1900, but Damage reduced by 25%.
Root
Specialization 2 -- Old: Slow is doubled, but Duration is reduced to 2 seconds. -- New: Slow increased to 30% / 60%, but Duration reduced to 3 seconds.
Geyser
Specialization 1 -- Old: Damage is reduced by 25%, but every 3rd attack does a 300 AoE attack. -- New: Damage is reduced by 20%, but every 3rd attack does a 300 AoE attack.
Muck
Specialization 2 -- Old: AoE reduced to 0, but Slow increased to 32% / 64%. -- New: AoE reduced to 0, but Slow increased to 40% / 80%.
Lastly, regarding Localization, we're aware it's not fully up to date, especially with the Mazing DLC and the above changes. We'll be getting it properly updated next week.
Special Thanks
We'd like to give a shoutout to everyone that helped us test the Mazing DLC during the Open Alpha & Beta periods, as well as everyone that's continued to support the game. Special kudos to wadebbqwall2, for doing the trailer, screenshots, and any promo art you've seen in the past year!
What's Next?
Now that we've released the Mazing Expansion, what's next for us? We can't provide too many details yet, but we're working on our next project already. Expect to see a formal announcement about it in Q1 2023!
Well, it's official. Element TD 2 is now a sci-fi game. Have fun mazing!
