Two Towers Archer Tower: Volley and the attackers it stops

The Two Towers Archer Tower is the first tower on the title screen, and its label there is "Fast arrows". Fast arrows sound like they should answer everything. They do not. This guide is about the one thing that makes the Archer Tower special, Volley, the three attackers the game's own tips send it after, the three it cannot handle alone, and how to read the line Two Towers shows you when the gate falls.

What the Two Towers Archer Tower does

Every game starts on the title screen, where you choose one tower for the left of the gate and one for the right. The Archer Tower is first in each column. Its job is simple: it shoots fast arrows at one attacker at a time.

Speed is the point. A Trebuchet throws slow stones, a Ballista fires heavy bolts, and a Fire Tower leaves the road burning. The Archer Tower is the one that keeps up with a fast target. That is why it shines against riders and why it struggles against armor: many quick hits are worth a lot against a light attacker and much less against one whose armor takes something off every hit.

Like every tower, it improves when you click or tap it, on the field or in its tab along the bottom, and spend gold. The choices are damage, fire rate, range and the tower's special. Each upgrade shows on the tower itself, from Plain through Trimmed, Fine and Grand to Masterwork.

What Volley changes

Without Volley, the Archer Tower shoots at one attacker. With Volley, it shoots at up to four. That one change turns it from a tower that picks off a single target into one that can thin a group.

The game's tips name Archer Volley three times, and in each case the problem is the same: one arrow at a time is not enough, because the attacker moves too fast, stands among the attackers he heals, or works away from the road. The game's text gives no price or stage for Volley, so this guide does not give one either. Watch your gold and your tower's tab instead.

The three attackers Volley is for

Each of these has a one-line tip in the game. Here they are one by one, with what the tip means in practice.

Cavalry

Cavalry are fast riders who reach the gate first. The tip: "Cavalry ride fast: Fire rate and Archer Volley catch them before the gate." Fire rate means more arrows per second; Volley means those arrows land on more riders at once. Together they cover the short window you have before the riders arrive.

Monks

A monk heals the attackers around him, so a wave with a monk in it lasts longer than it should. The tip: "Monks heal those around them: kill them first, with Archer Volley or a Ballista." The point is to stop the healing early, and the tip gives two ways to do it: Archer Volley on one side of the gate, or a Ballista.

Sappers

A sapper "Digs under a hill tower to silence it", and a tower that has been dug under shows "Silenced N s: undermined" for a number of seconds. The tip: "Sappers dig under hill towers to silence them: Archer Volley catches them off the road, and a Bell slows the dig." Sappers work off the road, against your hill towers, and the tip names Volley as the arrows that catch them there. Our guide to stopping sappers and fire archers covers them in more depth, and the Bell Tower rises at stage 25.

Where arrows fail, and the partner that fixes it

The same tips are honest about the attackers arrows do not answer. These are the reasons to pair the Archer Tower with something heavier on the other side of the gate.

• Knights. "Knights' armor turns arrows: Ballista bolts and fire go straight through it." Every hit on a knight loses a few points to his armor, which hurts a tower built on many small hits most.
• Shieldbearers. "Shields stop arrows: Trebuchet stones and Ballista bolts get past them." A tall shield stops most arrows, so a stage full of shields needs stones or bolts.
• Peasant crowds. "Peasants win by numbers: a Trebuchet or Fire Tower hits the whole crowd at once." Even with Volley, four targets is not a crowd.

Two partners each appear twice: the Ballista (knights and shields) and the Trebuchet (shields and crowds). The Fire Tower answers knights and crowds. If you pick the Archer Tower for one side, pick one of these for the other. Our Ballista guide covers the bolt side of that pair.

Three more tips lean on arrows' strengths rather than Volley. Archers "shoot the gate from the road: buy Range so your towers reach them before they stop." Crossbowmen shoot from further off, and "Range upgrades and a Trebuchet reach them." Berserkers charge when wounded, and "Damage upgrades finish them before they run." So range and damage matter for the Archer Tower too, not only Volley.

A worked example: reading "The gate fell mostly to"

When the gate falls, the game does not just say you lost. It says "The gate fell mostly to" an attacker, with the share of the damage that attacker did. That line is the most useful thing on the screen, because it tells you what to fix. Here is how to use it with an Archer Tower on the left and a Trebuchet on the right.

1. Read the name. Say the line reads "The gate fell mostly to Cavalry". Riders did most of the damage, so they reached the gate before your towers could stop them.
2. Find the tip. The cavalry tip names Fire rate and Archer Volley. Your Trebuchet is slow by design, so the answer sits with the Archer Tower.
3. Plan the gold. Next run, put the Archer Tower's gold into fire rate first, then Volley when you can, before spending on the Trebuchet.
4. Start again. Press "Start again from stage 1" and play the same pair. Press Space to pause when the riders appear, and F for double speed in the quiet stages.
5. Read the line again. If the next loss names a different attacker, the fix likely helped and you have found the next weakness. If it says "Knight" or "Shieldbearer", arrows are the wrong answer: think about a Ballista instead of the Trebuchet.

The same loop works for monks (Volley, or a Ballista on the other side) and for sappers (Volley, then the Bell once it rises). The habit to build is to read the name before you press start again. Our tips for every kind of attacker list the rest of the game's one-line answers.

Spending gold on an Archer Tower

The game's general tip is "Spend your gold on Damage between stages, and Reinforce the gate." For an Archer Tower, that is a good default, with two changes the tips point to:

• When cavalry are what break you, fire rate comes before damage.
• When monks or sappers are what break you, Volley comes before more of the same.

Range matters when archers or crossbowmen stop short of the gate and shoot it from afar. Damage matters against berserkers, who must be finished before they run. Keep some gold for the gate, too: a strong tower behind a broken gate still loses.

Frequently asked questions

What is Volley in Two Towers?

Volley lets the Archer Tower shoot at up to four attackers at once instead of one. The game's tips name it against cavalry, monks and sappers.

Is the Archer Tower good against knights?

Not on its own. The game says knights' armor turns arrows and that Ballista bolts and fire go straight through it, so pair the Archer Tower with a Ballista or a Fire Tower.

Which tower goes well with the Archer Tower?

A Ballista covers knights and shieldbearers, a Trebuchet covers shields and crowds, and a Fire Tower covers knights and crowds. Pick the one that answers the attacker the loss line keeps naming.

How do I know what to upgrade after a loss?

Read the line "The gate fell mostly to" and the attacker it names, then follow that attacker's tip before you start again from stage 1.

Get started

Pick the Archer Tower for one side of the gate, a heavier partner for the other, and read the loss line before every restart. Play Two Towers: it is free and plays in your browser on a computer or a phone.