Iron Sea Defenders Trophy Guide & Road Map

Iron Sea Defenders
Iron Sea Defenders Trophy Guide

Estimated trophy difficulty: 2-3/10 (Personal Estimate) - Trophy Difficulty Rating Thread
Offline trophies: 12 (7, 4, 1)
Online trophies:
Approximate amount of time to platinum: 6-10 hours (Personal Estimate) - Estimated Time to 100% Thread
Minimum number of playthroughs: 1
Number of missable trophies: None
Glitched trophies: Admiral (beneficial - pops early on PS4), Head Hunter (may be glitched/work differently on PSVita)
Does difficulty affect trophies?: No difficulty options
Do trophies stack?: There are 3 versions/stacks of this game - PSVita (Worldwide, shares 1 list), PS4 (EU), PS4 (NA). The game is NOT crossbuy between the PS4 and PSVita
Do cheat codes disable trophies?: No known cheats
Additional peripherals required?: No

Iron Sea Defenders is a simple tower defense game from Publisher 8bit. There have been numerous similar previous titles - Fort Defense, Fort Defense North Menace, D-Day Tower Rush, Medieval Defenders, Royal Defense, and Royal Defense Invisible Threat.

The premise of the game is very simple - build towers to defend your base from waves of incoming enemies.

If you are familiar with tower defense games, or have played any of the previous entries in the series, you are in for a relatively simple 100%. This is one of the better games in the series, and a good time waster.

If you have not played any of the previous entries, there is a 7 in 1 pack available for the Vita that contains all the above titles, and is a great bargain pick up.

Step 1 - Complete the first 3 Campaigns

There are a total of 4 campaigns, each consisting of 20 levels. You will need to complete the first 3 campaigns, earning 3 stars on each level, for the Admiral trophy. A number of miscellaneous trophies should come along the way. The 4th campaign is not needed for Admiral, at least on the PS4 version.

To cut down on the grinding later, I would suggest trying to go for 3 stars, but don't get hung up on a level - you can always upgrade and come back later.

As you go, work on manually launching waves - there is a brief pause between waves, allowing you to upgrade/place towers - but this can be skipped by pressing (PS4) or (Vita). This actually gives you a small boost in coins, so it is helpful, and there is a trophy requiring you to do it 100 times over the course of the game, so get in the habit of doing this from the get go.

I would also suggest working on selling towers when you have the opportunity and some extra gold. You can grind this afterwards, but in many maps you will have filled the building locations and will basically be on autopilot - I suggest using that opportunity to build/sell spam a location off to a side, you can easily get 20-30 sales per level, which will cut down on grinding later.

Trophies earned in this step - 7

Builder
Cannoneer
Secret Weapon
Seller
Furious
Head Hunter
Heavy Artillery

Step 2 - 3 Star all Levels in first 3 Campaigns, Grind 50,000 kills and 1000 builds/500 sales

This is essentially a clean up step, and you may already have most of these from Step 1. Here you will be 3 starring any levels you missed, grinding for tower builds/sales, and getting 50,000 kills.

This game is pretty generous with upgrade points (anchors). You get 20 for each level you 3 star. This is broken down as 5 anchors for 1 star, 5 more (10 total) for 2 stars, and 10 more (20 total) for 3 stars. If you complete a level at 2 stars and get 10 anchors, going back and getting 3 stars will give you 10 more, so you don't lose anything by not getting 3 stars the first time.

Repeating levels that you have 3 stars in does NOT award any additional anchors, so you do need to be sensible with how you spend your upgrades.

The light cannon tower should be your main focus - fully upgrade its damage, range and cost. This should get you through every level. I would also suggest upgrading the mine tower, as the gold farming and radar boost tower functions are very helpful. See Trophy Guide for more detailed strategy.

Feel free to spend some anchors on spells, starting cash and enemy kill cash, but try to keep some reserve in case a level does stump you and you need to unlock the premium tower locations.

As a general rule, however, I would suggest trying NOT to use anchors for the premium locations or to reload spells unless you are absolutely stuck on a level. If you run out of anchors, there is no way to farm them, so you will either need to delete your save and restart, or purchase anchors from the store for cash.

Note that the 4th Campaign is not necessary to 3 star for trophy purposes, but you will be well short of 50,000 kills after finishing everything else. You can either farm a level over and over, or do the 4th Campaign for extra kills before grinding.

Regardless, be prepared to replay a extra 40-50 levels to get the remaining kills.

Lastly, polish off the 500 tower sales if you didn't work on this as you went along, and finish a level with 1 HP remaining on your base (this may come naturally, but otherwise is easy to set up)

Trophies earned in this step - 5

Fortune's favorite
Engineer
Commander-in-Chief
Capitalist
Admiral

[PST would like to thank diskdocx for this Roadmap]

Builder

Build 50 towers
See Engineer.
Cannoneer

Kill 1000 enemies
This will be one of the first trophies you will earn. Most Levels have a few hundred enemies, so you should get this early on in the first Campaign.
Secret weapon

Kill 500 enemies with the secret weapon
The Secret Weapon is actually your spells. You will likely be using these regularly on most Levels, especially as you go for 3 stars. This should come naturally midway through the game. I would suggest upgrading the strength of the spells when you find yourself with extra anchors, as they are quite helpful when you get overwhelmed on a wave.
Seller

Sell 50 towers
See Capitalist.
Furious

Launch 100 waves on one map manually
Before each wave starts, there is a brief timer that counts down. You can use this time to place or upgrade your towers.

You can also bypass the timer, and launch the wave manually. This gives you a small gold boost, and starts the wave immediately. To manually launch a wave, press on PS4 or on PSVita.

Note that the trophy description is rather vague and misleading - there is no Level with 100 waves, and it isn't clear what a 'map' refers to.

I would suggest using this from the start of the game, and it should come naturally. If you are not getting it, start a Campaign from the first Level, and use it on every wave until it pops.
Head Hunter

Get 100 000 coins
This is a cumulative trophy, and will pop when you have earned 100,000 gold in Levels. I believe only gold awarded for enemy kills counts, not gold from base HP or farmed from mines.

Regardless, this will come very early on, at least on PS4.

On Vita there are reports of this not unlocking, and the work around seems to be to earn all 100,000 on a single Level. This may have been patched, but if you are playing the Vita version and do not get this by the end of the first Campaign, have a look at this thread for a work around.
Fortune's favorite

Complete level when your castle has 1 HP
This is likely a trophy that you won't get naturally. I wouldn't worry about it until you have finished every Level. If you don't have it, then load up the first Level and let the first wave entirely hit your base (don't build any towers). Then start the second wave, and let enough enemies through to take your remaining HP to 1, then build a tower and stop the rest.

I have created a video outlining how to do this.
Engineer

Build 1000 towers
This trophy may come through natural game play, as most Levels have about 10 build spots, so you'll get this around your 100th level.

However, if you follow my recommendation for grinding sales for the Capitalist trophy, this will come earlier.

Either way, you'll have this before you grind the 50,000 kills.
Commander-in-Chief

Kill 50 000 enemies
This will most likely be the last trophy you earn in the game. I would estimate most levels have an average of 200-300 enemies. If you complete the first 3 Campaigns, replaying some for 3 stars, you will likely have about 25,000 kills (note that there is no way to track this, so this is just a personal estimate).

There are a couple of options to grind this once you have the other trophies - you can pick a level and replay it over and over, you can go on and play the 4th Campaign, which is optional for the Admiral trophy, or you can replay earlier Campaigns.

The 4th Campaign has a lot of enemies on each Level, and completing this awards extra anchors, which you won't get replaying earlier Campaigns.

I chose to play the 4th Campaign, then went back and replayed the 2nd Campaign fully, and the trophy popped early on during a replay of the 3rd Campaign - I would therefore estimate that you will need to play a total of about 140 Levels, give or take, to reach 50,000 kills.

If you do want to just play a Level repeatedly, Levels 2-10 and 4-10 have a lot of enemies.

I have uploaded a video of 2-10 for reference.
Heavy artillery

Fully upgrade 200 towers
Fully upgrading a tower requires you to first build a basic unit, then pay for the 3 levels of upgrades. The final upgrade generally has 2 options - doesn't matter which you pick.

Most of the levels will require a number of fully upgraded towers to clear at 3 stars. There are also lots of enemies on levels, so having the gold coins necessary for upgrades shouldn't be an issue.

The cheapest unit to upgrade is the basic cannon, and this should be your default unit.

Farming this should not be needed, this will come as you play the game naturally.
Capitalist

Sell 500 towers
This is likely to be a trophy you need to consciously work towards, as selling units isn't something you will be doing frequently.

There are 2 options to approach this - one is to wait until the end and farm it, the other is to work on it as you go. I would suggest the latter, but the approach will be the same regardless.

The best method is to start a level normally, get your towers set up, and then once you have everything upgraded, let the last couple of waves run on auto. Use this time to select a build location that is a little out of the way, and repeatedly build a basic cannon, sell it (don't upgrade it), then build again. These only cost 35 gold if you have maxed out the cost upgrade, so you can easily farm 30 or more sales in a given level.

If you work on this as you go, whenever you have a level fully set up, then you can chip away towards the 500. Alternatively, you can do this while farming the 50,000 kills.
Admiral

Complete all levels with 3 stars
Technically the hardest trophy in the game, this will require you to complete all the levels with 3 stars. If you are familiar with tower defense games, this isn't very hard, especially if you have played previous entries in the series.

Note that for the PS4 version, only the first 3 Campaigns are required for this trophy. The Vita version may require all 4, and I will update the guide once I have played that version or receive confirmation.

General strategy/tips:
- The basic light cannon will be your default unit. Concentrate on upgrading it fully with anchors, at maximum level the power and range allows it to destroy most enemies with ease
- The final upgrade on levels should be the green cannon - this will freeze enemies which is quite useful
- I would recommend maxing out the mine unit as well - using this in conjunction with the cannons, when upgraded to a radar tower, makes your units almost overpowered as it gives all nearby cannons and damage and range boost
- Combine the above units, having a radar tower centrally located with as many cannons in range as possible (see video under Commander-in-Chief for an idea of how I lay out a map)
- When possible, put the mine/radar tower on a location with a range boost (these are noted with binoculars)
- Don't waste anchors unlocking the premium build locations, they really aren't necessary
- Use extra anchors to upgrade the spells (damage at least), and starting cash/cash from enemies
- I never used and never upgraded the other attack units in the store