Two Towers hill towers: what to build on West and East Hill

Two Towers hill towers are the two extra towers you buy once the game is under way. You start with two towers guarding the city gate, one on each side. Later you can buy a tower for West Hill and one for East Hill, with gold you win: 150 for the first and 300 for the second, and each can be any of the four kinds. This guide shows how to choose what goes on each hill, when to spend the gold, and how to keep sappers from silencing them.

Every game detail here comes from the text the game shows on twotowers.vlvd.net. Gold in the game is in-game gold, never money.

What Two Towers hill towers are for

Your two gate towers are chosen on the title screen, before you see a single attacker. You pick from four kinds for the left of the gate and four for the right: Archer Tower, Trebuchet, Ballista and Fire Tower.

The hill towers are your second chance. By the time you can afford one, you have seen which attackers give you trouble. So the best way to think about a hill tower is simple: it covers what your gate pair cannot.

Two kinds of attacker make that plain. The game's tip for mangonels says they "throw stones from far off: a hill tower with Range reaches them." And sappers, a newer attacker, go after the hills directly: a sapper "digs under a hill tower to silence it".

The four kinds, seen from a hill

Each tower does one job well. Here is what each brings to a hill, in the game's own terms:

• Archer Tower: fast arrows at one attacker, and with the Volley special at up to four. The tips call on Archer Volley for monks, cavalry and sappers.
• Trebuchet: slow, long-range stones that hurt everyone where they land. The tips name it for peasant crowds, hound packs, shieldbearers and crossbowmen.
• Ballista: a heavy bolt through a line of attackers that ignores armor. The tips name it for knights, monks, standard bearers, rams and siege towers.
• Fire Tower: fire pots that leave the road burning, and fire burns through armor. The tips name it for crowds, hounds and knights.

Notice the pattern. Your gate pair already covers some of that list. The hill tower should cover the rest.

A worked example: two gate pairs, two hill plans

Here are two common starts and how to fill the hills for each. Follow the one that matches your title screen choice.

Start A: Archer Tower and Ballista at the gate. You can pick off monks and standard bearers, and your bolts get through armor. What you lack is a way to hit a whole crowd at once, and reach on attackers who stop far away.

1. First hill tower (150 gold): a Trebuchet. Its stones hit crowds and hounds, and the crossbowman tip names it.
2. Buy Range on it early, since the mangonel tip asks for a hill tower with Range.
3. Second hill tower (300 gold): a Fire Tower, for burning road and another answer to armor.

Start B: Trebuchet and Fire Tower at the gate. You handle crowds well. What you lack is a precise shot at the attackers who make others stronger: monks heal those around them, and standard bearers lend them armor.

1. First hill tower (150 gold): a Ballista. The tips say to bring standard bearers down first with one, and it also answers monks.
2. Second hill tower (300 gold): an Archer Tower, then buy its Volley special. Volley catches cavalry and monks, and the sapper tip names it too.

If you have not chosen your gate pair yet, our guide to which two towers to pick first compares the pairs.

When to buy a hill tower

Gold has three jobs in Two Towers: Damage and other upgrades for your towers, Repair and Reinforce for the gate, and the hill towers. The game's general tip is "Spend your gold on Damage between stages, and Reinforce the gate." A hill tower competes with both.

A simple order that works with the game's tips:

• Do not buy a hill tower right before a king stage. A king leads every fifth stage, and the tip for it is to Reinforce the gate before it and save gold for Damage.
• Buy the first hill tower on a quiet stage, once your gate towers have some Damage.
• Buy the second when attackers that stop far away, like mangonels or crossbowmen, start hurting the gate.

For more on the gate side of that choice, read when to repair and when to reinforce the gate.

Keeping sappers off your hills

Sappers are the reason a hill tower is not a safe place to forget about. A sapper digs under a hill tower, and the tower then shows "Silenced", a number of seconds, and "undermined". While it is silenced, it is not helping you.

The game's tip names two answers: "Archer Volley catches them off the road, and a Bell slows the dig." So an Archer Tower with Volley, at the gate or on a hill, protects your other hill. The game's home page says a Bell Tower rises at stage 25, so later stages bring that second answer.

The game gives no number for how long a tower stays silenced, or the stage when sappers first come, so watch your hill towers' status line. Our post on how to stop sappers and fire archers goes deeper.

Why real defenders wanted height

The idea of putting weapons up high is older than any game. English Heritage's guide to medieval siege warfare lists, among a castle's defensive measures, mounting siege engines on towers and walls, and inside the defences.

Its page of ten things about sieges adds that some castles, like Kenilworth and Pevensey, had their own siege engines to hurl missiles back at attackers. It also explains crenellations, the gapped tops of castle walls: soldiers shot arrows and crossbow bolts through the gaps, then hinged wooden shutters dropped shut to protect them while they reloaded.

Attackers knew the value of height too. The same page says wooden siege towers gave crossbowmen and archers a higher, and therefore better, position to shoot from. Your hill towers are the defender's answer to the same problem. For more on the stone throwers both sides used, see trebuchet vs mangonel.

Frequently asked questions

How much do the hill towers cost in Two Towers?

The first hill tower costs 150 gold and the second costs 300. That is in-game gold you win by holding stages.

Can I build any tower on a hill?

Yes. Either hill can take any of the four kinds: Archer Tower, Trebuchet, Ballista or Fire Tower.

What is the best hill tower against mangonels?

The game's tip says a hill tower with Range reaches them. Buy the Range upgrade on whichever hill tower you choose.

Why did my hill tower stop shooting?

A sapper probably dug under it: the tower shows "Silenced" and "undermined" for a number of seconds. Archer Volley catches sappers off the road.

Get started

Open Two Towers, choose your gate pair, and plan your first hill tower around what that pair cannot do. It is free and plays in your browser on a computer or a phone.