- Map Editor, Steam Workshop & Daily Challenges - 21 June 2026
This is our biggest update yet. Build your own maps, share them with the community, and put your defenses to the test in a fresh challenge every single day. New Map Editor Design your own tower defense maps from scratch. Design the grid, place obstacles, gates, and shape the enemy path however you likeComplete stage editor with waves, formations, timing as well as per wave enemy sequencesLet them get auto generated or hand craft every spawn yourself Difficulty tuningper enemy type stat multipliersspawn limitsenemy variantsper-stage scalingSet starting money, lives, turret limits, upgrade costs, and pre-placed turretsSteam Workshop Integration Share your maps and play maps made by others. Compete in per map leaderboardsPublish your maps to the WorkshopBrowse, subscribe and launch workshop maps directly in the game Maps must be beaten by their creator before they can be publishedPer map l…
- Map Editor [Beta] - 9 March 2026
Custom Map Editor \We are currently working on a custom map editor and want to make our current progress available to the community in a beta branch called map-editor. You can find out how to switch to the branch here Branches (Betas) (Steamworks Documentation).Switching branches will still use your current save, so please back it up from here \\AppData\\LocalLow\\HotRoofStudios\\CrystalTowerDefensePlease keep in mind, as this is a beta, there can be bugs and mistakes.Create your own maps and share them with the community through the Steam Workshop.Grid & Map DesignBuild your map from scratchAdjustable grid sizePlace entry and exit gates anywhere on the gridAdd obstacles to shape enemy pathingPre-place turrets on the gridChoose from our visual themesWave & Stage DesignDesign your challenge with two stage modes that can be freely combined.Manual StagesFull control over every wave. Choose…
- Accessibility Uptade - 13 July 2025
AccesibilityAdded a toggle for high contrast cursor in the settingsAdded a slider to change cursor size in the settings
- Bug Fixes & Chinese Translation - 16 June 2025
TranslationAdded Chinese translation. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please send them to us via Discord. / 添加了中文翻译。如果您有任何改进建议，请通过 Discord 发送给我们。Bug FixesFixed forge upgrade animation getting stuckFixed items disappearing inside the forgeFixed inventory being stuck in dismantle mode
- Quality of Life Improvement - 2 February 2025
Quality of Life Added copy and paste functionality to targeting system Added grey out when the player has not enough money for a turret upgrade Added controls UI in the settings for hotkeys Bug Fixes Fixed wording for new unlocks Fixed selectable enemy types for targeting to appear on the correct wave (UI Bug)
- Fixed Colliders of End Portal - 12 August 2024
Bug Fixes Fixed the projectile collider of the end portal, projectiles now pass through
- Added Setting for Video Background - 21 February 2024
Added setting to disable the video background in the menu
- Improved Targeting & Quality of Life - 15 October 2023
Targeting System Enemy types are now defined by their current HP bar status and not by the type they spawned as. This means if an enemy loses all their armor, they are counted as a normal type. A turret targeting armor, will now switch to the next enemy with armor, once he destroys the armor of the current target. Quality of Life SPACE works as a shortcut to start a new stage. It also functions as a pause/play button during a stage. Bug Fixes Fixed Blaststone not turning blue when it is slowed Fixed wave type not getting saved properly
- New Localization - 30 September 2023
Thank you @berry for providing us with the Russian translation to the game! Added Russian language support If you too, are interested in translating the game, feel free to reach out to us.
- Break down your Items - 19 September 2023
Break Down System We implemented the option to break down any items that you have in your inventory. When breaking down items, you gain Crystals. The amount of Crystals depends on the rarity. Common - 10 Rare - 100 Epic - 300 Legendary - 500 It is possible to multi select items and use buttons to quickly select all items of a specific type or rarity. General Improvements Changed the UI layout to have a cohesive theme Bug Fixes Fixed achievement "The whole Arsenal", the game now checks on startup how many turrets you have unlocked and will unlock the achievement retroactively. Fixed the spent points in the stage selection not being distributed as visualized inside the run Tips Rewards If you are struggling with currency or rewards, make sure you "Take Rewards" after finishing a stage. If you do not take the rewards, but end up dying to the enemies, you only get a small fraction of the re…
- Hotifx - 3 September 2023
Fixed lower graphic settings causing the menu to not appear on startup
- Change Hearts System & Balancing - 3 September 2023
Heart System You now start each run with a maximum of 25 Hearts. Everytime you are under 25 Hearts and complete a stage, you regain 1 Heart. This improves the early game and rewards you for completing stages without leaks as you can rebuild your Hearts Pool. General Improvements Changed Tutorials to represent the new Heart System Added a Tutorial for when you lose the first time whilst being under Stage 9, to explain the mechanic of taking rewards Changed the Game Ended screen to make it more obvious you missed out on rewards Added Hover Text to armor & shield waves to explain the mechanic again Targeting System now focuses the enemy based on spawn values and not current values (HP, Speed) In a run, you can now see the armor & shield damage turrets do. Hover over the turret in the bottom bar, you now have two additional stats. Increased the time for error and info texts showing up in a…
- Video Guide - 29 August 2023
We create a video containing a strategy to get you started in Crystal Tower Defense, explaining what you need to pay attention to.
- New Maps, New Enemy Types, New Items, New Targeting System - 28 August 2023
!This update will reset your current run! !This update will reset your current run! New Maps Unlock three new maps. After reaching the required stage, the map theme gets put into a pool and randomly selected on starting a run. Forest - Stage 20 Ice - Stage 40 Hell - Stage 60 New Enemy Types We introduced two new enemy types. This will improve the late game difficulty and leads to the use of more different turrets. These enemies can also appear from the start, once you start on higher difficulties. Armor Enemies with armor take 60% reduced damage through normal attacks. To be able to penetrate the armor more efficiently, you need to equip the right upgrades. You can spot these enemies by their bronze shield bar and you can spot upcoming armor waves by the bronze color of the formation icon. Shield Enemies with shields can only have one of their shield bars broken at a time, no matter how…
- Preview of upcoming new Maps - 9 August 2023
Teaser for upcoming maps We are currently working on adding more visual variety by adding more themes to the maps. Here you have a preview for two of the themes we are currently working on. Can you guess what themes they will be? Theme A Theme B What other themes would you wish to see, leave your suggestion down in the comments or drop by on Discord.
- Español, Português, Italiano Language Support & Bug Fixes and Improvements - 5 August 2023
New Language With this update we added spanisch, portugese and italian localization to the game. You can now choose between, English, German and French, Spanisch, Protugese, Italian. Bug Fixes Fixed Switching between Ability and Turret Placement via Shortcuts breaking the placement system - it now switches between the Turret and Ability Fixed Achievement "The whole Arsenal" - Turret unlocks were counted multiple times, now only count once Fixed Enemy death animation stuttering - Now drops smoothly onto the ground even on low FPS Fixed having sold blockers broke the save of the run Improvements Added permanently visible Crystal counter underneath the money counter Improved visibility of the range indicator - Width now doesn't scale with radius Improved load time when switching into the Statistics screen Increased number of players shown on the leaderboard from 15 to the complete leaderbo…
- Français Language Support - 31 July 2023
New Language With this update we added french localization to the game. You can now choose between, English, German and French. Bug Fixes Fixed Digging Defender stops shooting Fixed getting stuck in various tutorials Based on feedback received, we are evaluating the current state of balancing internally. Head over to our Discord to give feedback and report any bugs you encounter.
- Save/Reload Fix - 28 July 2023
Fixed Reloading & Saving We apologize for any trouble caused by the defect save & reload feature With this patch we have changed the reload & save feature...once again...this time for the last time. The changes were necessary as we introduced bugs with it, e.g. not being able to save your inventory. In case you previously lost your progress, please contact us [email protected] We should be able to get your progress back, as there are multiple back up systems in place for your inventory/meta progress. If you do contact us, please include a .zip of "\AppData\LocalLow\HotRoofStudios\CrystalTowerDefense". We improved our release testing with various cases, e.g. using saves you sent us to test out our migration system. Thank you for cooperating and providing Logs/Save Files.
- Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements - 26 July 2023
This Patch includes the previously reverted patch. Save migration is fully possible but may lead to longer (a few seconds) load time on the first start up and load of your run. We also reworked how the migration system works, to make rollbacks possible in the future with a normal update, instead of changing files manually. Bug Fixes Fixed Shock Ability & Money Up Ability => now only apply to enemies inside their range and not afterwards as well Improved FPS => Changed Money Pop Up System, Changed Audio System Balancing Adjustments Thundering Turret => Increased the Damage upgrade from 20% to 25% Feel free to drop by on our Discord.
- More Bug Fixes & Slight Balance Adjustments - 24 July 2023
Bug Fixes Fixed low FPS/lag leading to weird enemy behaviour Fixed bullets becoming too slow => Increased bullet speed proportional to enemy speed. Improved bullets circling enemies => Increased enemy/bullet hitbox, increased bullet speed Improved Blinking Boulder (the one that come from the green crystal enemy) => Now spawn in a smaller location and follow the path. If the enemy lands off path, tries to get back onto the path. Fixed Blinking Boulder circling the end portal Fixed Digging Defender range indicator Fixed Digging Defender animation to fit reload speed We implemented more logging to be able to better reproduce bugs and find them faster. If you run into any weird behaviour please contact us about it in Discord or Steam. Known Issues Blinking Boulder has a low chance of becoming indestructible - we received some logs already and are investigating this. If you run into the prob…
