Maze-building in tower defence, explained simply

The first time you load an open-map tower defence level, it can look paralysing. No fixed path, just a field and some money. The good news is that a few simple habits will carry you through most early maps.

Rule one: force a long path. The longer enemies walk, the more shots your towers get. Build your towers so the route snakes back and forth instead of going straight to the exit. Always leave one open tile so you don't accidentally block the path entirely — most games won't let you seal it, but the layout still matters.

Rule two: cluster your damage. A tower is worth far more when enemies pass it several times. Put your heaviest hitters at the tightest corners of your maze where creeps loop past twice.

Rule three: slow before you kill. A single slow tower early stretches the effective range of everything behind it. I ignored slows for ages and my clear rates jumped the moment I started building one on every map.

None of this is complicated once you see it, but it took me a lot of losing to internalise. Build the maze first, place the killers second, and slow the pack before it reaches your best towers.