Thronefall's tiny tower defence townbuilding has reached version 1.0

Image credit: GrizzlyGames

Thronefall is a pleasant, minimalist mashup of tower defence and strategy, in which you build up a base during the day then defend it from monstrous hordes at night. It launched in Early Access in August last year and has been wooing people with its cool colour palette ever since. Now it's hit 1.0.

The 1.0 update adds three new levels, new weapons including a battle axe and blood wand, and some quality-of-life changes, including the ability to peek at future enemy waves so you can plan your defences accordingly. There's more outlined over on Steam.

Katharine was one of those swept off her feet by Thronefall upon its initial launch.

Working out what to spend your money on is really the only thing you have to consider here. Of course, with its fixed maps and fixed building nodes, you might think that pairing couldn't possibly be compatible with a good fun time. After all, where does the strategy come in if the game funnels you down a fixed and specific route each time? But that's precisely why Thronefall is so damn brilliant, because when enemies appear from different angles of attack every night (thankfully marked up on your map in advance), it scratches exactly the right cluster of tactical, puzzley brain cells to make it feel devilishly moreish.

Islanders, the previous game from the same developer, was one of the last Alec reviewed for us before riding his tiny horse out of town.

It's been a good month for modern, hybrid offshoots of tower defence games, given Diplomacy Is Not An Option also hit 1.0 on October 4th. If Thronefall is your pick of the crop, however, then you can grab it from Steam with a 25% launch discount.