Most Legion TD 2 games are decided before the middle waves — not by which fighters you build, but by whether your send timing is faster than your opponent’s income recovery. A team that sends a tank wave during the wave 10 build phase, before the opponent finishes upgrading, forces simultaneous fighter and mercenary defense at the worst possible moment. That single timing advantage compounds across waves 11–15 as a gold lead that rarely closes.
This guide covers the full wave composition system: how the income mechanic works, the three send archetypes and when to switch between them, a phased decision framework from waves 1 to the endgame, how to pick mercenaries by counter-typing, and what to watch in opponent behavior before committing a send.
Verified against the official Legion TD 2 game manual and wiki.gg mechanics pages. Values may change with updates.
Quick Start: Wave Composition in 5 Steps
- Send income mercenaries every wave in waves 1–10 — never save three or more consecutive waves during the eco phase.
- Target 120+ income and 11–18 workers before Granddaddy (wave 10) lands.
- On wave 10’s build phase, send tank mercs (Snail, Dragon Turtle) before your opponent upgrades.
- From wave 11 onward, coordinate with your teammate for 2-wave saves that force leaks.
- Only send power mercs when you’re confident you can break the opponent — otherwise default to Pack Leader or cheap income sends.
How Waves and Sends Actually Work
The wave loop runs in two phases: the build phase (you place fighters, spend mythium) then the battle phase (combat resolves). Mercenaries hired during the build phase attack at battle start. Mercenaries hired during the battle phase attack at the next wave’s battle start — there is always a one-wave lag. This means every send decision is a bet on a wave you haven’t seen yet.
Each worker generates 1 mythium per 10 seconds. After wave 10, worker output scales up — Season 2025 added a per-wave scaling multiplier post-wave 10, which makes late-game worker investment compound faster. Your income (the gold you receive at wave-end) increases permanently any time you spend mythium, whether on mercs or king upgrades.
Reading the Recommended Value HUD: the number displayed before each wave suggests how much gold to spend on fighters to hold without leaking. It accounts for potential enemy sends and Legion Spells but does not factor in your unit typing advantages or positioning. A green indicator means you’re within 10% of the target. Yellow means 10–20% off. Red means 20%+ over or under. If you consistently clear red-under (spending less than recommended and still holding), that gap is your send surplus — money your opponent doesn’t know you have.
Leak penalties hit three ways simultaneously: you miss wave-end gold, your opponents earn bonus gold, and your king takes damage. A small controlled leak under 20% in waves 1–5 is sometimes a valid eco tactic when you’re intentionally under-building fighters to stack workers. After wave 10, leak penalties scale and a significant leak gifts your opponents an income lead that rarely closes.
The Three Send Archetypes
Every send strategy maps to one of three archetypes. The choice isn’t permanent — move between them as the game state shifts.
| Archetype | Send frequency | Income gain | Wave pressure | Best used when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Income | Every wave | Maximum | Minimal | Can’t identify weak wave; waves 1–7 |
| High Income | Every other wave | High | Medium | Balancing sends with king upgrade defense |
| High Pressure | Save 2–3 waves | Reduced | Lethal | Clear opponent weakness identified; waves 11+ |
The default for the early game is Max Income. Sending something cheap every wave — Brutes, Snails — keeps mythium flowing and removes your opponent’s safe build window. The moment you stop sending, they get a free round to reinforce without uncertainty. Saving is hiding your move; autosending applies pressure and generates income simultaneously.
High Pressure only pays out when you’ve identified a specific weak wave. Without that read, you’re sacrificing income for pressure that doesn’t land. Skipping three waves of income sends to hit a wave your opponent holds comfortably puts you behind on a net-negative trade.
The Wave Phase Framework
Waves 1–10: The Eco Phase
The first ten waves are an income race. Your goal is to out-worker your opponent while maintaining enough fighter value to hold your lane. The 40-mythium heuristic applies here: for every 40 mythium your opponent spent last wave, they likely trained one worker. Track their spend and match or exceed it.
Milestone targets for a healthy eco:
- Wave 6: 7–9 workers
- Wave 10: 11–18 workers, 120+ income
Avoid saving longer than two consecutive waves during this window. A 3-wave save in waves 2–5 misses multiple income ticks — the gold generated from sending three times exceeds the pressure value of a single concentrated send against an opponent who isn’t leaking anyway.
The Wave 10 Pivot: Granddaddy
Wave 10 is the sharpest decision point in Legion TD 2. Granddaddy is a single-creature boss — Impact attack type, Arcane defense — with a total bounty of 150 gold (125 based on damage dealt, 25 for the kill). Because it’s a solo unit, single-target fighters outperform AoE builds here: Berserker, Daphne, Holy Avenger, Millennium, and Radiant Halo all perform disproportionately well.
On the send side, tank mercenaries sent in the wave 10 build phase force your opponent to account for two threats landing simultaneously — Granddaddy plus your mercs. High-effectiveness options for this wave include Snail, Dragon Turtle, Fiend, Dino, Ghost Knight, Pack Leader, and Hermit. In testing across competitive gold-parity matches, a tank-heavy send just before the wave 10 upgrade deadline forces overspending that creates an income gap holding into wave 12. (Community-observed pattern; results vary by build matchup.)
Waves 11+: The Kill Shot Phase
Post-wave 10 the math inverts. Larger saves carry compounding kill potential — a 2–3 wave accumulation can land enough pressure to break a lane outright. With workers now scaling per-wave, your mythium generation accelerates independently of sends, meaning larger accumulations don’t carry the same income sacrifice as they do in the early game.
The rule flips: consistency wins waves 1–10. Saves win the game in waves 11+.
Choosing Mercenaries by Type
Picking the right mercenary is a counter-typing problem, not a tier-list lookup. The attack and defense type system creates damage multipliers ranging from 75% to 125%. Sending a mercenary whose attack type exploits the defense type your opponent is running deals significantly more effective damage per gold spent.
| Attack type | Strong vs. (over 100%) | Weak vs. (under 100%) |
|---|---|---|
| Pure | Neutral against all | — |
| Magic | Natural (125%), Fortified (105%) | Arcane (75%) |
| Impact | Arcane (115%), Fortified (115%) | Swift (80%), Natural (90%) |
| Pierce | Swift (120%), Arcane (115%) | Natural (85%), Fortified (80%) |
The practical application: if your opponent is running Natural-defense fighters (common in early rolls), Magic-attack mercenaries deal 125% damage to their board. Running Fortified-defense fighters? Impact mercenaries hit at 115%. Send what their fighter lineup is weakest against, not what looks strongest in isolation.
The community principle is consistent: send mercenaries with different attack and defense types to those of the current wave. Players build fighters to counter the incoming wave — a mercenary with opposite typing hits the coverage gap in their existing board.
Spawn position determines exposure. Tanks spawn at the front of the formation. Melees spawn inside. Ranged mercenaries spawn behind. A tank merc sent against a board loaded with frontline DPS gets eliminated before applying pressure. A ranged merc positioned behind enemy tanks survives longer while your fighters handle the primary wave. Match spawn position to the defensive layout you’re targeting.
Power mercs vs. income mercs: power mercenaries — 4 Eyes, Shaman, Ogre, Centaur, Witch — are stronger in some way but give reduced income. The trade is only correct when you’re confident you can force a leak. Sending a power merc against an opponent who holds comfortably costs you the income edge and returns nothing. Default to Pack Leader (aura, melee spawn) when you can’t read the matchup — consistent income with minor pressure at any wave.
Reading Opponent State Before You Send
The timing of your send matters as much as the composition. Three signals to read before committing:
Power Score gap: if you hold an 800–1000+ power score advantage, you have the board strength to absorb an aggressive send without collapsing your own defense. Power Score combines fighter value, gold, worker investment, income, and current mythium — it’s a total economic position snapshot, not just fighter count.
Opponent mythium accumulation: if your opponent hasn’t sent for two or more waves, they’re saving for a kill shot. Don’t push workers into that window — build fighter value instead. A team that walks into a 3-wave save with an underbuilt board leaks and falls behind on both gold and king health simultaneously.
The undercut: when you know an opponent is saving toward a specific wave, send one wave earlier. The undercut lands when their fighters are sized to hold the normal wave, not an additional pressure wave — it forces a reactive gold spend that disrupts their planned timing. It only works when they’ve been saving long enough that the current wave is weak for them.
In 2v2, coordination multiplies all of this. Aligned sends from both teammates force lane-wide pressure no single opponent reliably holds. Aligning sends with your teammate is consistently the highest-leverage play once you’ve identified a break window.
Wave Composition by Player Type
| Player type | Priority | Send archetype | Default mercenary |
|---|---|---|---|
| New player | Hold waves, build workers, never over-save | Max Income | Brute (wave 3), income auto-send |
| Casual player | Hit wave 10 benchmark (120+ income) | High Income + king upgrades | Pack Leader, king upgrades alternating |
| Competitive optimizer | Counter-type sends, read opponent saves, coordinate team sends | Max Income (waves 1–10), High Pressure (waves 11+) | 4 Eyes / Shaman on break windows; Pack Leader otherwise |
Decision tree for any wave:
- Can I identify my opponent’s weak wave? → Yes: save two waves and hit with High Pressure → No: Max Income every wave
- Is it before wave 10? → Yes: never save three consecutive waves; push workers per the 40-mythium rule → Wave 10: send tanks in build phase before Granddaddy lands
- Is my opponent hoarding mythium? → Yes: strengthen fighters, do not push workers → No: safe to train workers and send income
FAQ
What is the real difference between income and power mercs?
Income mercs give full mythium-to-income conversion — you’re stacking gold, not trying to break anyone. Power mercs sacrifice income for stronger wave presence. The trade is only correct at confirmed break windows where a leak is near-certain. Default to income sends for every wave where you can’t guarantee a break, and reserve power mercs for the specific waves where you’ve identified your opponent is thin.
Should I ever intentionally leak?
Yes, but only in waves 1–10 and under 20%. A small intentional leak in waves 1–5 lets you under-build fighters and redirect gold to workers. The income compounding over the next five to seven waves offsets the king damage penalty if you recover quickly. After wave 10, leak penalties scale sharply — handing an opponent a significant income lead at that point is nearly impossible to close from behind.
What sends work well on the Granddaddy wave?
Tank mercenaries survive Granddaddy’s heavy single-target output longest: Snail, Dragon Turtle, Fiend, Dino, and Ghost Knight are the primary options. Pack Leader and Hermit also perform well due to high effectiveness on boss waves. The critical timing: send in the build phase before wave 10 starts, not after. That forces your opponent into a split defense decision at the worst moment.
How do I know when my opponent is about to send?
The Recommended Value indicator rises when the game detects potential enemy sends. Watch for the number climbing without a wave difficulty change — that’s enemy mythium accumulating. Also track their send history: a high-worker team that hasn’t sent for two or more waves is telegraphing a kill shot. Build fighter value into that window rather than pushing workers.
Keep Building Your Legion TD 2 Knowledge
Wave composition is the lever that decides most gold-parity games. The framework: eco through wave 10, hit the income benchmark, send tanks on Granddaddy, then shift to coordinated saves and counter-typed pressure from wave 11 onward. The single highest-leverage habit to build first: spend mythium every wave without exception during the early game. Income is compounding — a wave-3 skip costs you multiple income ticks across the next seven waves.
For a complete overview of unit picks, fighter builds, and co-op strategy that complement the send system above, see our Legion TD 2 hub guide.
Sources
- Official Legion TD 2 Game Manual — AutoAttack Games
- Attack & Defense Type Table — Official Legion TD 2 Website
- Mercenary — Legion TD 2 Wiki (wiki.gg)
- Wave 10 Boss: Granddaddy — Legion TD 2 Wiki (wiki.gg)
- Recommended Value — Legion TD 2 Wiki (wiki.gg)
- The Legion TD 2 Guide by LForward [Updated 2.10] — Steam Community
- A General Essentials Guideline to Ranked 2v2 (2200 ELO) — Steam Community
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.