Level 7 – Snake Eyes
Difficulty: Normal
Waves: 20
You could be forgiven for assuming that this level’s name refers to its two gem caves, between which the gems are divided. In fact, however, the level name refers to the G.I. Joe character – because this level is absolutely crawling with ninjas.
Set up a Crypt on both high grounds, stat – the high ground between the caves is too far back to really level it before the enemy starts their invasion. You’ll want to take advantage of all the mana pools, too, of course. Add a Temple on the rocky ridge near the entrance to blast incoming ninjas and a few Dens near the gem caves to administer the killing blow, and you should make it through.
Defending this level against non-ninjas is pathetically easy – just build Crypts on all the open snow near the entrance. They’ll be lucky if they reach the first corner.
Level 8 – The Maze
Difficulty: Normal
Waves: 30
I can only imagine they designed this level after they designed all the later ones, because it’s clearly the point where they ran out of good level names. Seriously, does that look like a maze to you? It barely passes for a labyrinth!
This level is also blissfully ninja-free, which is a good thing, because it’s very difficult to ninja proof. You do have the benefit of plenty of snow and two high grounds, which should, assuming you are a rational human being, lead you to the obvious conclusion of building your friend, the Chilling Crypt, absolutely everywhere.
Beyond this, your best bet for trapping the ninjas that do show up is a Den on the spur of grass in the upper left. The mana pools are conveniently placed for towers, as well. And the convenient “gates” to your gem cave are an obvious spot for a Temple and a Den.
Level 9 – Crossroads
Difficulty: Normal
Waves: 30
Hi!
I say hi because there is a very good chance that this is your first visit to the walk-throughs of this game. All the previous levels could theoretically be beaten by someone who is blundering around, experimenting, and not really knowing what they’re doing, but this is the point where the game expects you to stop just spamming Chilling Crypts and to learn to hate the ninja.
A Burning Temple goes on the high ground in the center of the map. I shouldn’t even need to say this. Don’t bother trying to level it too much – ninjas starting showing up on the map way too soon unless you have sufficient ranks in Basic Training and Demon Lord.
Evileye Temples go on the other high-grounds: they’re well-placed for ninja trapping, and good ninja trapping is vital on this level, because there’s a lot of them and the distance to your gem caves is pretty short.
Build on the two mana pools near your gem caves first. These won’t steal experience from your central Temple, and they’ll be able to shoot ninjas as their smoke bombs wear off. You should also set up redundant defences – Crypts in the northwest, Dens in the southeast. The Dens can be placed basically anywhere, but the Crypts should be staggered so that they don’t all waste all their ammo on the first ninja they see.
This level requires a lot of tenacity, and possibly even a bit of emergency Meteor use, but stick with it and you should pull through.