# Terrain Is a Weapon

> Height, platforms and the bulldozer in Blockade Brigade: +8% damage and +0.5 range per level, platform sizes and stacking, digging, filling and the Airport.

- Page: https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/terrain
- Site: Blockade Brigade, a tower defense game for Windows PC (https://blockadebrigade.com/)
- Last updated: 2026-10-22
- Text generated: 2026-11-02 07:35 UTC

In Blockade Brigade the ground is not scenery. Every level a tower stands above the flat makes it hit harder and see further, and you can dig, fill, level and build the land to suit you.

- Height
- Platforms
- The bulldozer
- Grass, water, ramps
- Airport ground work

### Height: +8% damage and +0.5 range a level

A tower's height is the hill under it plus any platforms it stands on. Each level adds 8% to its damage and half a tile to its range, with no cap. That is why the best spot on a map is rarely the flat ground beside the path.

| Height | Damage | Extra range | Where you find it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | 100% | +0 | Flat ground |
| 1 | 108% | +0.5 | A Small Platform on the flat |
| 3 | 124% | +1.5 | A Large Platform, or a low hill |
| 5 | 140% | +2.5 | The tallest common hill; the Grand Canyon's mesas |
| 9 | 172% | +4.5 | Three Large Platforms stacked on the flat |
| 12 | 196% | +6 | The Islands volcano's summit |
| 15 | 220% | +7.5 | The tallest hill: rare on Standard maps, your choice on a Custom Map |

- Tips
- Height helps long-range guns most: the extra range lets a [Sniper Tower](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/sniper) or [Missile Silo](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/missile_silo) on a hilltop cover the path from far back, out of the way.
- A hill beside a bend is the best spot on any map: height and two passes at every enemy.
- Height counts for the [Power Plant](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/power_plant) too: it makes 8% more power per level.
- For a [Miner](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/miner) only the hill counts: +15% income per level of hill, up to a hill 5 high. Platforms under it add nothing. See [Gold, Miners and reward cards](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/economy).

### Platforms

Platforms lift a tower anywhere you can build. They are unlocked with the Platforms research card:

| Platform | Height | Price | Research level |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Small Platform | +1 | 25 gold | 1 |
| Medium Platform | +2 | 50 gold | 2 |
| Large Platform | +3 | 100 gold | 3 |

- **Stacking.** Research level 4 lets you stack platforms 2 high, level 5 lets you stack 3 high. Three never goes higher, so three Large Platforms (+9) is the most a stack can add.
- **Prices climb.** Every platform you buy makes the next one of that size cost a tenth more (Small: 25, 28, 31 ...). Plan stacks for your best towers, not for every tower.
- **Where they go.** On any land that is not path, water or blocked by a tree or rock, on hilltops and on ramps. On a ramp, a platform is the only way to build.
- **Stack on hills.** A Large Platform on a hill 5 high puts a tower at 8: +64% damage and +4 range.

### The bulldozer

The TERRAIN tab of the build bar holds the bulldozer's tools. Most of them earn **terrain**, shown in the top bar; Fill spends it.

| Tool | Cost | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Clear | 50 gold | Removes a tree or boulder. Earns terrain: 3 for a tree, 5 for a boulder. |
| Level | 100 gold | Flattens a ramp. Earns 25 terrain for each level of ramp. |
| Dig Hill | 100 gold × height | Lowers a hill one level and earns 25 terrain. Not under a tower or platform. |
| Fill | 100 gold + 100 terrain | Turns a water tile into ground you can build on. |
| Pave | 50 gold | Paves grass, so towers there lose the 5% grass penalty. |
| Dig | 250 gold | Makes a water tile, for a Water Pump or to cool a hot gun beside it. |

- Tips
- Clearing and levelling pay you in terrain: save it up, and Fill opens new ground on watery maps like Islands.
- Dig Hill gets dearer the higher the hill. Dig the small ones that are in the way; keep the tall ones for your towers.
- Rock peaks on scenario maps cannot be built on, dug or changed at all.

### Grass, water and ramps

- **Grass** is soft ground: towers on it do 5% less damage. Pave it, or build on rock.
- **Water** takes no ordinary tower, but the [Water Pump](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/water_pump) stands only on water and gets stronger for every water tile next to it. Water beside any hot gun cools it (see [Power and heat](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/power-and-heat) ).
- **Ramps**, the slopes between heights, take no tower or Miner on their own: put a platform on them, or flatten them with Level.
- **Hilltops** are where Miners go, and only there.

### Airport ground work

The [Airport](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/airport) takes 8 tiles (press R to turn it) and never goes on a platform. On uneven ground it prepares its own site as you place it: it digs hills down, fills water, levels ramps and clears trees and rocks. That work is added to its price and is not refunded if you sell it, so look for the flattest spot you can before you build. Its planes fly, so the ground under the Airport does not change their damage.

The Clanker says

Is the ground... supposed to wiggle like that?

[← Your first ten waves](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/first-ten-waves) [Next: Gold, Miners and reward cards →](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/economy)

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About the whole site: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms.txt