Two Towers tips: how to stop sappers and fire archers

These two towers tips are for the moment the game stops being about the gate. Most attackers in Two Towers march down the road and hit the city gate. Two kinds do not. Sappers go after your hill towers and dig under them. Fire archers shoot burning arrows at your towers and set them smoking. If you only plan for the gate, these two quietly take your firepower away, and the next wave walks in.

This guide uses the game's own words for both attackers, then gives you a plan you can follow on the stage they show up. Two Towers is free and plays in your browser, on a computer or a phone, so you can test each step as you read.

Why these two are different

Almost every other attacker in Two Towers is a threat to the gate. Knights soak up arrows on the way to it. Rams strike it hardest. Archers, crossbowmen and mangonels stop short and shoot at it. Your answer to all of them is the same in spirit: hit them before they reach the gate, and keep the gate strong.

Sappers and fire archers aim at your towers instead. That matters because your towers are the only thing that kills anything. A tower that cannot shoot is worse than a tower that shoots slowly, and a tower that shoots slowly is worse than a tower at full strength. So the question is not "how do I protect the gate?" but "how do I keep all four towers firing?"

You have up to four towers: the two you pick on the title screen for the left and right of the gate, and two more you can buy for West Hill and East Hill. The first hill tower costs 150 gold and the second costs 300, and each can be any of the four kinds: Archer Tower, Trebuchet, Ballista or Fire Tower.

Sappers: the attackers who dig under hill towers

The game describes a sapper in one line: he "Digs under a hill tower to silence it". When he gets there, the tower shows "Silenced", a number of seconds, and the word "undermined". For those seconds the tower is out of the fight.

Notice the word "hill". Sappers go for West Hill and East Hill, the towers you paid gold for. Your two gate towers are not their target. That changes how you think about the hills: they are not only extra firepower, they are something you have to defend.

The game's tip for sappers is short: "Sappers dig under hill towers to silence them: Archer Volley catches them off the road, and a Bell slows the dig." Two answers are packed into it:

• Archer Volley. Sappers leave the road to reach the hills. An Archer Tower with its Volley special shoots at up to four attackers at once, so it can pick off sappers while it keeps shooting at the road.
• A Bell. The title screen says a Bell Tower rises at stage 25. The tip says a Bell slows the dig, which buys your other towers time to finish the sapper before the hill tower goes quiet.

A silenced tower comes back once its seconds run out. The danger is that a stage full of hard attackers arrives while two of your four towers are silent. That is when a gate that was safe a moment ago starts to break.

Fire archers: the attackers who set towers smoking

The game describes a fire archer as one who "Sets towers smoking with burning arrows". A tower that has been hit shows "Smoking: shoots slower". It still fights, but at a slower rate of fire.

The tip for fire archers is: "Fire archers set towers smoking: buy Range to hit them first, and Douse a smoking tower from its sheet." Again there are two answers:

• Range. The tip says to hit them first. Towers that reach further find the fire archers sooner, before they can set anything smoking. It is the same idea as the game's tip for ordinary archers: "buy Range so your towers reach them before they stop."
• Douse. Open the smoking tower's sheet by clicking or tapping it, or its tab along the bottom, and choose Douse. The game says it simply: "the smoke clears".

Douse fixes the symptom. Range fixes the cause. If you find yourself dousing every few seconds, your towers are not reaching the fire archers early enough, and the gold is better spent on Range.

Two Towers tips: a plan for the stage they arrive

Here is a worked example you can follow. It assumes an Archer Tower on one side of the gate and a Trebuchet on the other, plus at least one hill tower.

1. Pause and look. Press Space to pause. Look at the road and the hills. If you see sappers heading off the road, or fire archers in the wave, you know what this stage is about.
2. Put Volley where the sappers walk. If your Archer Tower does not have Volley yet, buy it. Volley lets it shoot at up to four attackers at once, so it can keep the road busy and still catch sappers leaving it.
3. Buy Range on the tower facing the fire archers. One Range upgrade on the right tower is worth more than Damage on a tower that cannot reach them.
4. Watch the tower labels. Unpause. If a tower shows "Smoking: shoots slower", open its sheet and Douse it. If a hill tower shows "Silenced", there is nothing to click: your other towers carry the stage until it comes back, so do not spend that moment on something slow.
5. Between stages, follow the general tip. When the game says "Stage N held", it also warns you what comes next: "The enemy grows stronger", "grows in number" or "marches faster". Its own advice for this moment is "Spend your gold on Damage between stages, and Reinforce the gate."
6. Plan the hills for stage 25. If sappers keep silencing a hill tower, the Bell Tower the title screen promises at stage 25 is your next answer, since a Bell slows the dig.

Press F for double speed on the calm stages, and save your full attention for the ones with sappers and fire archers.

Where the real sappers and fire came from

Both attackers are named for real parts of medieval siege warfare. English Heritage describes miners who dug a horizontal "sap" or mine under the foundations of a castle wall, propped the space at the end with timber, packed it with fuel and set it on fire, so the wall above collapsed. Defenders answered by digging countermines that the attackers could not avoid breaking into, so the miners were found before they did damage. They also kept timber, stone and earth ready to repair breaches.

The same page says siege engines fired "arrows, bolts, stones and flaming projectiles". Fire was a weapon on both sides of the wall. If you want the full story of how a real mine brought down a castle tower, our post on undermining a castle follows the mine at Rochester in 1215 step by step, and the post on what defenders really poured from the walls covers the other side.

The game is not a history lesson, and these attackers are simplified. But the idea underneath is the same: a siege was won by taking away the defenders' ability to fight, not only by breaking the gate.

How this fits with your opening pick

Your first two towers are chosen before you know which stages bring sappers and fire archers. That is fine. The opening pick is about the road and the gate, and our guide to which two towers to pick first covers that choice. What sappers and fire archers change is how you spend gold later:

• Hill towers need a guard. If you build on West Hill or East Hill, have at least one tower that can reach attackers off the road. An Archer Tower with Volley does this well.
• Range matters more than it looks. Range answers archers, crossbowmen, mangonels and fire archers. The game's tip for mangonels says "a hill tower with Range reaches them", so Range on a hill tower does two jobs.
• Do not let every tower smoke at once. One smoking tower is a nuisance. Three are a gap in your defense.

For the other attackers, the guide to beating every kind of attacker groups them by the problem they cause.

Frequently asked questions

What do sappers do in Two Towers?

A sapper digs under a hill tower to silence it. The tower shows "Silenced" with a number of seconds and stops shooting until the time runs out. Archer Volley catches sappers off the road, and the game says a Bell slows the dig.

How do you stop fire archers?

Buy Range so your towers hit fire archers before they shoot. If a tower is already smoking, open its sheet and choose Douse to clear the smoke.

Do sappers attack the towers next to the gate?

The game says sappers dig under hill towers, so the towers on West Hill and East Hill are their target. The two towers beside the gate are not named in their description.

Is Two Towers free to play?

Yes. It is free and plays in your browser on a computer or a phone. Signing in is optional and only puts your defender name on the kingdom boards.

Get started

Open the game, pick your two towers, and keep going until the first sappers leave the road. Pause, find them, and try the plan above.

Play Two Towers: it is free and plays in your browser on a computer or a phone.