Game modes and difficulty

Every campaign stage has five more modes besides the campaign itself. Each changes one rule of the game. Blitz, Spell Rush, Hero Party and Classic Rush each pay a star when you win them; for Iron Challenge the published figures disagree on whether it pays one. Those stars are how you reach the heroes and towers that cost more than the campaign can pay; stars and unlocks adds them up.

Iron Challenge

• 1 elite wave
• 1 life

Blitz

• 3 waves of faster enemies
• more gold
• faster spells
• 3 lives

Hero Party

• 4 heroes
• no spells

Spell Rush

• no heroes
• faster spells
• 3 lives

Classic Rush

• 1 hero
• the original towers
• Rain of Fire and Reinforcements only

In Ironhide’s words

Difficulty

Four settings: Casual, Normal, Veteran and Impossible. Finishing the whole campaign on the two hard ones earns an achievement each, and so does winning every Iron challenge. Two of the three are the rarest badges in the game:

• Decorated Strategist: Complete the Campaign on Veteran difficulty. 3.1% of players.
• Supreme War Leader: Complete the Campaign on Impossible difficulty. 0.3% of players.
• Iron Fist: Win all the Iron Mode campaign challenges. 0.5% of players.

Which mode levels heroes fastest

XP is multiplied by mode and by difficulty, and the two stack. Classic Rush on Impossible pays 2.25× the XP of a Campaign run on Normal for the same play, but it also allows only one hero, so only that hero is earning.

The XP planner shows how much a hero or spell still needs.