You've spent millions of coins. You’ve sat there for three hours watching those little squares bounce off your thorns. Then, suddenly, a single Fast enemy slips through, or a Boss just decides your health bar is a suggestion rather than a rule. It's frustrating. Most players think they just need more damage or more health to progress in The Tower - Idle Tower Defense, but usually, the bottleneck isn't your stats. It’s your target priority The Tower settings.
If you’re still using the "Closest" default setting, you’re basically playing on hard mode for no reason.
The game doesn't really explain how the targeting logic interacts with your late-game perks or your Ultimate Weapons (UWs). It just gives you a list and expects you to figure it out. Honestly, getting your targeting right is the difference between hitting a wall at Tier 4 and farming Tier 7 with your eyes closed. We need to talk about why the "optimal" setup changes depending on whether you're running a Vampire build, a Blender strategy, or trying to survive the nightmare of Protectors.
How Target Priority Actually Works
Before you can fix your priority, you have to unlock it. You'll find the Target Priority research in the Lab. It’s not a one-and-done deal. Level 1 gives you the basic list. Level 2—which is where the real game begins—allows you to actually rank them in a specific order. Without Level 2, you're just picking one "special" target, which is better than nothing but still pretty mid.
Basically, the tower looks at its range and scans for enemies. If your priority is set to "Closest," it hits whatever is nearest to the tower center. Sounds logical, right? Wrong. In The Tower, the most dangerous things usually aren't the ones closest to you; they're the ones that prevent your Orbs from doing their job or the ones that deal massive chip damage.
The Problem With "Closest"
When you leave it on default, your tower spends way too much time shooting at Basic enemies that would have died anyway to your Orbs or Thorns. Meanwhile, a Fast enemy is zooming toward your inner circle, or a Protector is sitting just outside your range, making every other enemy inside its radius invincible to your instant-kills. You're wasting precious attack speed on fluff.
Why Protectors Changed Everything
If you haven't played in a while, Protectors are the green-domed enemies that ruined everyone’s "Blender" build. They provide a protective aura that prevents enemies inside from being killed by Orbs or Death Ray. This is a massive deal.
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If your target priority The Tower isn't focusing on Protectors early enough, you end up with a "shotgun" effect. This happens when the Protector finally dies or moves, and fifty enemies that were hiding inside its shield all rush your tower at once. Your attack speed can't keep up. You die.
Most high-level players—we’re talking people like Skye or the folks on the Discord who have crunched the frame-data—now argue that Protectors need to be high on the list, but not necessarily #1. Why? Because if you focus only on the Protector, a Boss might still walk up and tap you on the shoulder.
The "Standard" Meta Setup for Farming
For most players in the mid-game (Tier 5 to Tier 10), there is a "sweet spot" for your targeting list. You want to eliminate the things that bypass your main defenses first.
- Fast: These are the run-enders. They have high speed and can slip through your projectiles if your knockback isn't perfectly synced.
- Ranged: They sit back and chip away at your health. If you’re running a glass cannon build, these are your worst nightmare.
- Protectors: You need them gone so your Orbs can actually do their job.
- Bosses: Why so low? Because you usually want your Thorns or Plasma Cannon to handle the heavy lifting on Bosses. Your bullets are often just there to slow them down.
- Elites: Depending on which Elite is spawning (Vampires vs. scatters), you might need to move this up.
Vampires are a special kind of hell. If a Vampire is sucking your health, you can't lifesteal. If you can't lifesteal, you're dead. If you find yourself dying to "Drain," move Elites to the very top of your target priority The Tower list immediately. No questions asked.
The Nuance of LifeSteal and Knockback
It’s a balancing act. If you push enemies away too fast with high Knockback, your Orbs can't reach them. If you don't push them away fast enough, they hit you.
Specifically, the Target Priority 2 lab allows you to set a list. Let’s say you put "Fast" at the top. Your tower will ignore a Boss right in front of it to snipe a Fast enemy at the edge of the screen. This is usually what you want! Your Orbs will eventually hit the Boss anyway, but they won't hit the Fast enemy because Fast enemies have a higher chance of "teleporting" through the Orb line due to frame-rate calculations.
The Vampire Exception
Seriously, let's talk about Vampires again. They are the biggest hurdle for players transitioning from Tier 2 to Tier 6. Since they stop your health regeneration, having your tower focus on them is mandatory. However, some players prefer to let the tower focus on other things so that the Vampire eventually hits the Thorns and dies. This is a risky strategy. It only works if you have massive health pools. For most of us, "Target Elites" is the way to go.
Advanced Strategies: The Spotlight Interaction
If you're lucky enough to have the Spotlight Ultimate Weapon, your targeting gets even more complex. Spotlight grants a massive damage bonus to anything caught in its beam.
You want your tower to be hitting things in the beam. There isn't a "Target Spotlight" button yet (we wish!), but by setting your priority to Bosses or Protectors, you ensure that when those heavy hitters enter your beam, your tower is already focused on them, maximizing that 3x or 10x damage multiplier.
Common Mistakes You're Probably Making
Stop targeting Bosses first. I know it feels right. It feels like the Boss is the biggest threat. But in the current meta, your Thorns (upgraded in the Workshop) handle 99% of Boss damage. Your tower bullets are basically just toothpicks against a Wave 1500 Boss.
By targeting the Boss, you let the "mobs" (the Fast and Ranged enemies) crowd around your tower. This creates "enemy density." When density gets too high, the game’s targeting system gets overwhelmed, and that's when you take chip damage. Chip damage is the silent killer.
Another mistake is ignoring the Ranged priority. Once you get to the point where your knockback is high, Ranged enemies are the only ones that can actually hit you for a long time. If you keep them at the bottom of the list, they’ll sit just outside your knockback range and pelt you until your defense fails.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Run
Ready to actually push some waves? Here is the sequence to fix your game right now.
- Go to the Lab: If you haven't researched "Target Priority" level 1 and 2, start now. It’s cheap but takes time. It is more important than another 1% of health.
- Audit Your Deaths: Watch your screen when you die. Did a green circle (Protector) cause a swarm? Put Protectors at #2. Did a red line (Vampire) stop your healing? Put Elites at #1.
- Set the Standard Order: For a general-purpose build, try this: Fast > Elites > Protectors > Ranged > Basic > Boss.
- Adjust for Tournaments: In tournaments, enemy speed increases faster. You might need to move Ranged higher up because their projectile speed becomes insane at higher heat levels.
- Micro-manage if needed: If you’re at the very end of a deep run and a Boss is about to kill you, manually switch your priority to "Boss" for five seconds to see if you can push it back into your Orbs or slow it down. It’s tedious, but it works.
Targeting isn't just a "set it and forget it" mechanic if you want to be competitive. It’s a tool. The "Best" priority for Wave 100 isn't the best for Wave 3000. Start paying attention to what actually hits your purple tower and adjust the list to kill that specific thing first. That is how you break into the billions of coins per run.
Next Steps:
Check your Lab queue and ensure Target Priority LVL 2 is prioritized over minor stat boosts. Once unlocked, set your priority to focus on Fast and Elite enemies to prevent the most common mid-game death scenarios. Keep an eye on your Protector count; if more than two are on screen at once, move them to the top of your list to allow your Orbs to function again.