Kingdom Rush 6 Genesis TD Genesis TD Upgrade Planner
Global tower board is back. Spread stars. Heroes catch up on double XP.
Devlog #28 (11 September 2026) put global tower upgrades back. Individual tower leveling from the demo is gone because players called it a grind. The Upgrades panel is again a wooden board with four columns (archers, barracks, mages, artillery) and a star counter, the original-trilogy system. Towers still have a tree that unlocks a third skill at the top. Heroes and spells keep personal levels; anyone behind your highest earns double XP. Full story: UI rework. This planner is a spend order, not a leaked spreadsheet.
Stars come from clearing campaign stages well. Gold is in-stage and does not buy these nodes. If you mix those two currencies, you will “save gold for the board” and then leak.
The four global columns
Series tradition, restyled:
- Barracks / rally / armor on soldiers — makes Knights Order and stall cousins less paper.
- Archers / range / extra shots — makes Archer Garrison and rangers pay rent.
- Mages / armor-break / extra bolts — makes Scholar Mage worth the pad.
- Artillery / splash / reload — makes Royal Catapult and Culverin less ceremonial.
The screenshot on this wiki shows mixed seals: hearts, shields, extra projectiles, bombs, a green orb, a purple beam. Exact names will be filled when the encyclopedia tooltips are stable after 24 September 2026. The order of spend does not need names.
First 20–30 stars
Do not floor one column. A max archer line still loses to armor. A max barracks line still loses to flyers.
Suggested first pass:
- 2–3 nodes in archers (economy and flyers start every map).
- 2–3 nodes in barracks (Gerald is not a barracks).
- 2–3 nodes in mages before the first heavy-armor region.
- 1–2 nodes in artillery after you have actually placed a catapult on a shared kill box.
Then look at the region you hate. Stormcloud flyers? Archers. Academy armor? Mages. Western Wall clumps? Artillery. That is the whole planner.
Heroes, spells, and what towers no longer do
Do not grind each pad as its own RPG. That was the demo experiment. It lost.
Heroes and spells still have personal trees. Retune between stages.
- Gerald: survive and door. Gerald Lightseeker.
- Zefira: burst and mobility. Zefira.
- Oni: breaker, not a barracks. Oni.
- Spells: cooldown and radius on the three you actually equip. Spell list.
If a personal node conflicts with Classic Mode, skip it. Classic does not care about your Treant tree. Switching heroes is cheaper than the demo taught: double XP for anyone behind your highest.
Iron and Classic spend
Iron mode — only buff the families in your locked kit. Stars in a tower you will not bring are vanity.
Classic — the four columns are the extra personality you cannot get from extra towers. Over-invest here. Heroes and spells cover the rest.
What the planner is not
- A reason to skip placing the four tower jobs.
- A live-service season pass.
- A place to dump stars before you have seen a mage-armor stage.
- A substitute for pause-and-think micro on controls.
A one-line algorithm
Count the last three leaks. If they were flyers, buy archers. If they were armored, buy mages. If they were clumps, buy artillery. If they were a naked path, buy barracks and also put Gerald on the door.
When Ironhide publishes exact values, this page can grow a table. Until then, spread, then specialize, then stop buying flavor nodes you never click.
Worked example: first three maps
Linirean Citadel. You barely need the board. Buy a cheap archer node if you have a spare star so flyers on map two hurt less. Do not dump ten stars into artillery you have not placed.
Silveroak / splits. Barracks and hero survive nodes matter because two paths exist. If Zefira still dies chasing, that is a tree problem and a two-hero problem, not a catapult problem.
Western Wall. Now artillery nodes earn their keep. Buy splash or reload after you have actually overlapped two lanes with a Royal Catapult. Buying splash “in case” while the catapult sits on a decorative cliff is how people go broke on stars.
Stars versus gold versus IAP
Stars: campaign. Gold: stage. Money: store. Mixing them is how mobile players buy a portrait and still leak. Steam’s premium pitch already includes the roster; extra IAP is a mobile warning on the hero roster, not a star shortcut.
If a YouTube thumbnail says “BEST UPGRADE PATH 2026” and floors one column, close it. The tower tier list is jobs. This planner is insurance across jobs. Together they beat a one-column meme.
After a failed Iron run
Do not refund the board. Change the locked kit. Iron fails because a job was missing, not because you were three stars short of a vanity seal. Read Iron mode, pick the missing family, then spend the next stars on that family only.
Classic runs are the opposite: you should invest in all four columns because you cannot bring the extra eleven towers. See Classic Mode.
Write the next three star purchases before you open the panel. If you cannot name them, you are shopping, not planning. Shopping leaks. Planning three-stars.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD questions.
Should I max one upgrade column first?
No. Spread the first stars across archers, barracks, and mages, then specialize for the region that hurts.
Do hero upgrades use the same stars?
Campaign stars feed the global board and unlocks. Hero panels also have personal trees. Do not ignore the Anchor's survive nodes.
Does Classic Mode use the upgrade board?
Yes. With only four towers, the global columns are how those four grow extra personality.