How to beat archer towers and bosses in Magnet Mob

How archer towers work

An archer tower stands in one lane with skeleton crossbowmen on top. You meet the first one at River Crossing, level 3. Early towers have two archers; later ones carry up to four. In the later ages the tower changes its look, but the rules stay the same.

• They warn you first. Archers only open fire once the tower has been on screen for a moment and your army is inside their range. Before every volley they visibly take aim and you hear a cue.
• Arrows aim ahead of your march. Volleys arc down where your army is heading. They track your forward movement fully but only partly follow a sideways swerve.
• Big crowds are big targets. An arrow that lands in a dense mob takes more soldiers with it, so a huge army loses more per volley than a small one.
• Bullets only chip stone. Your soldiers fire at a tower they are lined up with, but shots do a fraction of their normal damage to it.
• A tower in your path stops you. Your army halts at its face and pulls it down: every soldier touching the base drains its health, and a wider army gets more hands on it. The archers keep shooting point-blank while you pull.
• A fallen tower pays. When it topples, the archers die, captives run out and join your army, and it drops gold.
• A tower you pass keeps firing until the back of your army is past it.

Four ways to deal with a tower

1. Pull it down. Take this when your army is big, when the tower guards the better gate, or when you want the freed captives. Line up with it early: your army shoots it the whole way in, and campaign towers are sized so a lined-up army has done much of the work before contact, leaving a short pull.
2. Attract the base. The Attract vortex grabs the tower's iron-banded base and pulls its health down fast, on top of your soldiers' grip. Fire Attract just before you reach the tower so the vortex, which forms a little ahead of your army, lands on the base. It turns a long pull under fire into a short one.
3. Repel a volley back. Once you have Repel (it unlocks on level 9), wait for the archers to take aim and let the volley leave the bows. Fire Repel as the arrows come down over your army. Arrows caught in the shockwave fly back at their tower, damaging it and knocking one archer off for each volley you return. Two good Repels can leave a four-archer tower half empty.
4. Go around. If the tower sits in the other lane and nothing you need is behind it, steer past with sharp sideways swerves. The archers lead your forward march, so a quick swerve makes their arrows miss. Do not drift in a straight line beside it.

Two common mistakes: walking into a tower with a tiny army (it pulls slowly while archers pick soldiers off) and firing Repel too early, before the arrows are in the air. Repel only catches arrows already in flight.

How bosses work

Each chapter has a boss at level 5 and a bigger one at level 10, so there are six in the 30-level campaign. Every boss follows the same four rules.

• Every attack is telegraphed. A red ring, a raised blade, target rings, a glowing lane or strip, a laser line or a cannon taking aim appears before the hit lands, with at least a second of warning in the first chapter.
• Health comes in bars. Each bar you break makes the boss faster and can add new attacks, so the last third of a fight is the hardest.
• Each boss has a weak window. For a few seconds it takes two to three times your normal damage. Each boss opens its window a different way, and a magnet power can open or stretch it.
• Beaten bosses come back. After you beat a boss, a lighter version with fewer attacks can walk in with ordinary enemy waves later on. The same tricks work on it.

Read the telegraph, then move

Every boss, one at a time

The Foreman (level 5, the mine)

He slams the ground under you, bowls boulders down the rails and calls in skeletons. After each slam his weapon sticks in the ground: that is the weak window. Dodge the ring, then pour fire into him while he pulls it free. Fire Attract on the stuck weapon to hold it down longer, once per slam. Boulders come more often after his first health bar breaks, so dodge their lane and keep firing.

The Iron Warlord (level 10, the castle courtyard)

The Warlord lines up on a lane, which glows, then charges down it past your army and back. Sidestep the strip and wait for him to return. After each charge he is winded: that is the weak window. Fire Attract on him while he is winded to chain him down for longer. He also slams, and from his second health bar he calls in skeletons through portals. On his last bar he charges twice in a row down different lanes, and faster, so move as soon as the second strip lights up. Beating him opens Rift Run.

The Rift Warden (level 15, the foundry)

The Warden hides behind a shield held up by two pylons, one on each side in front of it. Your shots do nothing to the Warden while the shield is up. Break both pylons, or get close and fire Repel to crack the shield at once; Repel also gives you a slightly longer window. The shield goes back up each time a health bar breaks, so keep enough magnet for a Repel every bar. Between shields, line up with the gap in its laser wall and keep clear of the barrage rings.

The Chrome Colossus (level 20, the citadel core)

The Colossus rains missiles on rings across the road and always leaves one lane clear: get into it. After each salvo its heat vents open for a few seconds of heavy damage. You can open them early by firing Repel just before the missiles land; the missiles fly back into it, and every extra missile you return keeps the vents open longer. Its other attack is a laser beam that rakes across from your side of the road and stops short of the far lane, so cross over when the cannon aims at you. From its second bar it calls in droids and fires a second salvo with a new clear lane, and on its last bar the laser comes back the other way.

The Twin Champions (level 25, the temple)

Two bosses at once. The Blade, on the left, sweeps its half of the road and slams; after a slam its weapon sticks, just like the Foreman's, and Attract holds it there longer. The Shield, on the right, throws barrages and calls in enemies, and its raised guard blocks most frontal shots. Its guard drops while it attacks, and Attract yanks the guard aside for a few seconds. When one twin falls, the other gets faster and meaner, so finish one and go into the second with a full magnet meter.

The Bronze Titan (level 30, the summit)

The final fight, with three health bars. In the first bar it only slams and sweeps, so it is a straight race: dodge and keep firing. From the second bar it adds barrages and summons, and its chest core opens after each barrage for a few seconds of heavy damage. You can open the core early by firing Repel into a barrage: a returned orb knocks the Titan off balance and cancels its attack. In the last bar, columns start toppling along the lanes, so watch for the strips while you chase the core.

Before a big fight

1. Grow the army. Take the better gate every time on the way in. A larger army ends the fight sooner, which means fewer attacks to dodge.
2. Arrive with magnet to spare. The meter fills from defeated enemies, energy gates and scrap pickups, and a little from hitting the boss. A short cooldown follows every power, and Repel costs more than Attract, so do not spend the last of it just before the boss.
3. Spend your gold. Firepower, Armour and Magnet upgrades all help. A boss's health is set by the level, never by your upgrades, so every upgrade makes the fight shorter.
4. Read the defeat tip. If you lose, the defeat screen names what cost you the most soldiers and how to handle it. If you lose the same level a few times in a row, the game eases its threats a little until you win.

Try it in Magnet Mob

Magnet Mob: Crowd Army Runner is coming soon to iPhone, iPad and Android. It is free to download, with ads and optional in-app purchases.

Mechanics in this guide were checked against the current game build. See the game overview and common questions for more.