Gameplay basics

Deathtrap is an unique game and mastering it requires practice and understanding the differences between it and other games in the genre.

General

 * Whatever happens, always pay attention to the minimap. It shows all incoming monsters and their avenues of approach. It's easy to miss a handful of monsters as they take a detour and hit your portals from another side entirely.

Heroes

 * By default, the hero will head to whatever location you click on the main screen. To avoid ending up in the middle of a horde by accident, use the Shift key to keep them in one spot.
 * Traps are not enough to kill off entire waves on their own. Keep your hero close to the frontline and make liberal use of the various skills at your disposal.
 * Good equipment is necessary to survive. Upgrade whenever possible, there's no shortage of resources in the game.
 * You can use your hero to bait enemies. Attacking a monster will cause it to break away from the path and attack the hero, same as if the hero enters their aggro range. Note that if you put too much distance between you, the monsters will return to their path and make a beeline for the portal.

Traps

 * Good trap placement is essential to victory. While you only have a pre-defined amount of slots available for the various traps, study the wave makeup carefully and deploy traps as necessary.
 * Towers dear modest damage, but they have the advantage of being able to attack both land-based and flying enemies. They can also be set up in combinations to provide overlapping fields of fire, increasing the damage sustained by monsters passing through or baited with the hero to remain in range.
 * Pairing traps is good, especially when you can set up a floor trap that weakens the monster right before a high damage trap.
 * Summoning traps are extremely effective at delaying waves, especially when paired with a tower.

Monsters

 * Not all monsters are created equal. Tailor your strategy to your target and pay close attention to their special abilities.
 * With special Champion or Boss quality monsters, maintain crowd control by killing off weaker minions, but don't forget to take care of them as soon as possible. Their special abilities can overwhelm your defense if not mitigated early.
 * Use your skills and spells often. Freezing a batch of monsters, even for a few seconds, help keep them under control.