Two Towers gate: when to repair and when to reinforce

The two towers gate is the whole game. In Two Towers, attackers march on the city gate, and if it falls, the game is over. Your towers kill. The gate is what buys them time. Between attacks, the gate's sheet gives you two choices: Repair or Reinforce. This guide explains what each one does, in the game's own words, and when your in-game gold is better spent on the gate than on your towers.

Two Towers is free and plays in your browser, on a computer or a phone, so you can try each step as you read.

How the Two Towers gate works

On the title screen you choose two towers: one for the left of the gate and one for the right. The gate sits between them. Every stage comes stronger, faster or in greater numbers than the last, and there is no final stage, so you defend the gate every stage, for as long as you last.

Not every attacker reaches the gate in the same way. Some walk up and hit it. Others stop short and shoot at it:

• Battering rams are slow and heavily armored, and they strike the gate hardest.
• Cavalry ride fast and reach the gate first.
• Archers stop on the road and shoot at the gate.
• Crossbowmen shoot it from further off than an archer, and harder.
• Mangonels stop far from the gate and hurl stones at it.

So the gate takes damage in two ways: from attackers who get through, and from attackers your towers cannot reach. Repair and Reinforce help with both, but neither one kills anything.

Repair: getting back what the attackers broke

The gate's sheet puts it in one line: "Repair what the attackers broke, or reinforce it." Repair is the first half of that. The button shows "+25%". When there is nothing to fix, the game tells you "The gate is whole", and Repair is not offered.

Think of Repair as catching up. It does not make the gate stronger than it was; it gives back some of what the last stage took. That makes it right when the gate is damaged and the next stage could finish the job. It is the wrong choice when the gate took only a scratch: that gold did not go into Damage, and Damage is what stops the next wave sooner.

Reinforce: raising the gate's strength

Reinforce is the second half of the line. It adds strength to the gate for gold. Where Repair puts back what was lost, Reinforce lets the gate take more before it falls.

The game names two moments for it, and both are in its own tips:

• Rams. "Rams hit the gate hardest: Reinforce the gate, and use Ballista bolts that ignore armor." A ram is slow but heavily armored, and no attacker hits the gate harder.
• Kings. "A king leads every fifth stage: Reinforce the gate before it and save gold for Damage." The king is very strong and hurries those around him, and you know when he comes.

Notice the word "before" in the king's tip. Reinforce is bought between attacks, ahead of the hard stage, not after the gate has started to break.

Gate or towers: where your gold goes

Gold you win can go to three places: the gate; a tower upgrade (damage, fire rate, range or the tower's special); or savings toward a hill tower, 150 gold for the first and 300 for the second.

The game's general tip is short: "Spend your gold on Damage between stages, and Reinforce the gate." Your towers are the only thing that kills attackers, and a strong gate with weak towers just loses more slowly.

Here is a simple rule that follows the game's own tips:

1. If the gate is badly damaged, Repair first. A gate that falls ends the run, and no upgrade matters after that.
2. If the next stage is a king's stage, or you have seen rams, Reinforce. Then put what is left into Damage, as the king's tip says.
3. Otherwise, spend on the towers. Damage first, then the upgrade the stage warning points to.
4. If attackers are shooting the gate from far off, fix the reach, not the gate. The archer tip says "buy Range so your towers reach them before they stop", and the mangonel tip says "a hill tower with Range reaches them".

Rule 4 matters most. If the gate keeps losing strength to shooters, Repair only treats the symptom; the cure is a tower that reaches them.

A worked example: the first stages, one choice at a time

Here is a plan for your first run, with an Archer Tower on the left of the gate and a Trebuchet on the right. Read your own gold and the gate's state as you go.

1. Stage 1. Pick Archer Tower for the left and Trebuchet for the right, then start. Press F for double speed if the stage feels slow.
2. After "Stage 1 held". Look at the gate first. If its sheet says "The gate is whole", put your gold into Damage on one tower. If it took real damage, Repair it.
3. Read the warning. If "The enemy grows in number", upgrade the Trebuchet, which "hits the whole crowd at once". If "The enemy marches faster", buy Fire rate or Archer Volley, which "catch them before the gate". If "The enemy grows stronger", stay with Damage.
4. Before the fifth stage. A king leads every fifth stage. Reinforce the gate now, before it starts. Put the rest into Damage.
5. When a ram shows up. Reinforce the gate after that stage, and think about a Ballista on a hill, since the ram tip pairs Reinforce with "Ballista bolts that ignore armor".
6. When the gate takes hits from far off. Save toward 150 gold for your first hill tower and give it Range. Spend on the gate only enough to stay safe while you save.

Press Space to pause, or to start the next stage. Every five stages your towers are rebuilt stronger, from Timber to Legendary. For more on the first choice of towers, see our guide to which two towers to pick first. For the answer to each attacker, see tower defense tips for every kind of attacker.

How real defenders repaired and strengthened a gate

The game's two buttons have a real history behind them. English Heritage's page on medieval siege warfare lists what a garrison prepared before a siege. One item was "supplies of timber, stone and earth to repair breaches in the walls during the siege." Another was cranes with chains and hooks for overturning battering rams, which were used to break down gates.

Dover Castle in 1216 shows a repair under pressure. English Heritage's account of the sieges of Dover says Prince Louis of France took the barbican outside the main gate, then set his engines and miners to work on the gate itself. They brought down its eastern tower, and the rubble made a ramp for his assault. His men broke into the outer bailey, but Hubert de Burgh's men drove them back out through the breach. Then, the page says, Hubert's engineers "quickly repaired their defences", building a strong barricade across the broken wall with wooden beams, rubble and earth. The castle held, and it held again when Louis returned in 1217.

That was a repair: fast, with what was to hand. The reinforcing came later. When the war ended in 1217, English Heritage's history of Dover Castle says the vulnerable north gate was blocked solid and replaced by two new gates, Constable's Gate on the west and Fitzwilliam Gate on the east.

Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight shows the same pattern. English Heritage's page on medieval warfare says that after a siege by French forces in 1377, the gatehouse towers were heightened and fitted with purpose-built gunports. Repair kept a castle standing during a siege. Reinforcing changed what the next attacker would face. Our post on why the gatehouse was a castle's strongest part goes further into how gates were built.

The game is not a history lesson, and its gate is simpler than any real one. But the choice is the same: fix the damage now, or make the gate harder to break next time.

Frequently asked questions

What does Repair do to the Two Towers gate?

Repair puts back what the attackers broke, and its button shows "+25%". When the gate has no damage, the game says "The gate is whole" and does not offer Repair.

What does Reinforce do?

Reinforce adds strength to the gate for gold, so it can take more before it falls. The game's tips say to use it against rams and before a king's stage.

Should I spend gold on the gate or on my towers?

Mostly on your towers, since they are the only thing that kills attackers. The game's general tip is "Spend your gold on Damage between stages, and Reinforce the gate", so keep the gate safe and put the rest into Damage.

What happens if the gate falls?

The game is over. There is no final stage, so the aim is to hold the gate for as many stages as you can.

Get started

Open Two Towers, pick an Archer Tower for the left of the gate and a Trebuchet for the right, and follow the plan above until your first king. Decide Repair, Reinforce or Damage after every stage. It is free and plays in your browser on a computer or a phone, and signing in is optional.