Lu Ban Academy is a tower defense mode where you work together as a team to defend waves of enemies from reaching the blue circle.

Teleporters
There are large glowing green circles that teleport you and your units toward the other teleport portal directly north or south of you. Stand your hero within a circle for 5 seconds to teleport. They are important so that you can get around the map quickly. Remember that your units will teleport with you, no matter where they are and what they are doing. Don’t teleport your melee units and leave your remaining allies surrounded. Do teleport your range units away to safety.


Mode Specific Mechanics
There are new hotkeys.
G (Default: Pick Up Item): cycle between placing buildings or using consumables
I (Default: Advanced Info): opens up the talent selection window
P (Default: Open Store): opens up a description window of all the buildings
7: places a Ballista that hits like a hero, breaks shields (level 3), triple-shots (level 4)
8: places an Arbalest that slows units (level 4) and does AOE damage (level 3)
9: places a Scorpion with a splash damage attack and amplifies damage (level 4)
0: places an Outpost in the lane that spawns melee units
7/8/9 (when cycled): Bandage/Forage/Hammer

Buildings
Buildings can only be deployed at certain places along the map. Metal-plated squares around the sides of the lanes will accept siege machines. Wooden circles on the ground in the middle of the lanes will accept outposts. These cost supply points to build or upgrade, and can be upgraded to a max of level 4. You can only upgrade your own buildings, and do so by standing near it. You can also change the orientation of Outpost units to put them closer into the lane.
There can be 8 siege weapons of each grade at a time.

Ballista (7) - 4000
800 cost | Fire arrows at enemies
800 cost | Increases Damage
1000 cost | Breaks Shields | Increases Damage
1400 cost | Fires Triple Arrows | Increases Damage

The highest damage turret in the game. You can never go wrong building more of this. Always fully upgrade it.

Arbalest (8) - 4800
800 cost | Fire bolts at enemies
1000 cost | Increases Damage
1250 cost | AOE bolt every 4 seconds
1750 cost | AOE Slow bolt every 10 seconds

Only useful for the slow. I recommend no more than 1 of these per area.

Scorpion (9) - 7600
1000 cost | Fire bolts at enemies
1600 cost | Increased dmg
2200 cost | Increased dmg, AOE Dmg, AOE size
2800 cost | Increase dmg, debuffs enemies with +100% damage taken

Very expensive and should only be placed at choke points. The debuff is a must for later waves. I recommend building 1 at the bottom left and right corners.

Outpost (10) - 4000
800 cost | Spawn Melee units on the outpost
800 cost | Increases HP
1000 cost | Increases HP, Attack Speed
1400 cost | Increases HP, Attack Speed, Spawn Rate

Not necessary in early rounds if your team does not leak, but all outposts should be built and fully upgraded by the later rounds.

Basic Units
Frederick:
Will relentlessly attack any nearby unit, Very easy to pull around.
Paths along the sides or through high ground
Will not go into the blue circle

Richard:
Will overextend to attack your archers

Dogs:
Goes straight to the blue circle without stopping or attacking
Paths along the sides

Zhuge Liang:
Targets: Blue Circle without stopping
Very fast.

Hanzo:
Super accurate shurikens (almost hitscan level), deals moderate damage
Prioritizes archers/heros with shurikens
Paths through middle and splits left/right

Zhang Bao: these chase archers

White Cav (Stephanie Awakening Skin):
Targets: Blue Circle
Paths through the middle or sides

Black Cav (Gerald Awakening Skin):
Targets: Units
Does a lot of damage/CC

Archers:
Paths up to high ground

Caesar Testudo:
2 variants: regular skin and Augusta legion skin
Augusta is much heavier armor and more dmg/attack speed.

Godfrey Units:
High Damage

Mulan Units:
Super fast units

Enemy Heroes
Centurian (Caesar):
Faster after shield breaks
2 Variants- Elite and non-elite.

Dragon Hero (Lyu Bu, unmounted):
Will relentlessly attack any nearby unit chase
Can one shot heros
Should be ignored as these will just run from one outpost to the next

Asurindaka (Zhang Fe Awakening Skin):
25% damage to base
Very high HP and very slow
Goes straight to the blue circle without stopping.
Can be body blocked
Can be kicked to stop his motion

Death Lord (Gerald Awakening Skin):
100% damage to base
Charges at heroes
Do not stand near the blue circle as he will charge in

Notable enemy spawns to watch out for:
wave 1 has bladesmen through the middle only
wave 2 has dogs that can through units on left and right sides
wave 3 has archers followed by hanzo
wave 4 has fast zhuge units
wave 5 has Centurions and archers
wave 6 has white cav, dragon warriors, and bottom left spawn gate
wave 7 has Asurindaka, greatswords, and black cavs
Wave 8 has white cav on sides lanes, greatswords, and white cav though middle, upgraded hammers, and bottom right spawn gate
Wave 9 has upgraded caesar testudo followed by caesars that javelin, hammers, upgraded greatswords, then eventually 1 Asurindaka on each side
Wave 10 has a lot of everything. Eventually the Death Lord will spawn. Good luck!

Ability point conservation is also key. It is wise to save one or two points in the earlier waves to unlock the fourth ability early and take advantage of the first tier abilities. These first tier abilities tend to be incredibly advantageous and the most effective for their price.

Huang Yueying
1) +12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
2) Increases Huang Yueying’s headshot damage by +10/16/22/30%. (I recommend maxing this before Wave 7 to take out Asurindaka faster)
3) When Huang Yueying kills an enemy, increases ranged damage of heroes and units by +15/25/35/45% dmg for 10 seconds
4) Boosts the movement speed of Heroes and Units
After disengaging, Heroes restore 5/10/15/20 HP and troops restore 2/4/6/8 HP every 3s

Joan
1) +12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
2) Ally Aura: Heals 4/6/8/10 hp every 5 seconds to nearby allies/outposts
Stacks with Joan’s natural 6 hp/5s aura
3) Gilles Passive and Joan Passive:
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of Gilles and his units.
-5s to Rally cooldown for every kill by Joan (same reduction at all ranks)
4) Passive: Replenish 2 Joan units every 25/20/15/10 seconds until capped at 32 (Max Second)

Sun Shangxiang
1) +12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
2) Ally Aura. +8/12/16/20% ranged damage aura to allied heroes, units, and siege weapons (Max Second)
3) Increases movement speed
+HP/s when out of combat
4) Army Passive: Adds Attack Speed

Ling Tong
1) +12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
2) Last Stand activates upon reaching 30% hp. 2 min CD.
Last Stand: +40/120/160/200 HP for 30 seconds
3) Replenish HP when disengaged from combat
4) Passive: Replenish 2 Ling Tong units every 25/20/15/10 seconds until capped at 40 (Max Second)


Lu Bu
1) +12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
2) Enemy Aura. +10/20/30/40% melee dmg taken by enemies (Prioritize this if you are fighting around your melee teammates a lot)
3) Hero Buff. +2/3/5/6% hero damage on each enemy Lu Bu kills for # seconds
Stacks up to 10 (20/30/50/60% max) (Prioritize this if you are fighting alone often)
4) Horse Passive. Does not affect units’ horses.
+10/15/20/25 Charge value
-15/25/35/45% damage received
+40/60/80/100 HP per second when out of combat

Ling Tong: LT
Huang Yueying: YY
Lu Bu: LB
Joan: J
Sun Shangxiang: SS

The General Strategy
LT and YY builds and defends on the left side. LT is the tankiest and best equipped to deal with Asurindaka when it moves down the left lane on Wave 7. YY has the highest dps to burn it down.
J and SS builds and defend on the right. J can send Gilles to help assist other lanes during the early waves. J is the best at taking out cavs and should prioritize them whenever they spawn.
LB builds down the middle and is responsible for building the indoor area that will be referred to as the killbox. He should be roaming round and chasing after leaks. LB should use his Q ability whenever it's up on blobs. I recommend leaving his units behind one of the middle outposts to help block enemies from getting through. It is vital to keep his units alive so they can block white cavs.

Wave 1-5 are fairly easy. The key here is to build up money. Try to fight at chokes so multiple teammates can secure assists for bonus money. Any unassisted kills are lost money for the team. Start building the front turrets and outposts first and work your way down. Killing fast is important if you want to have enough time left to beat wave 10.

Wave 6 - Bottom left spawns
YY should have the bottom left corner built up with 2 outposts and 4 fully upgraded ballistas. YY will be soloing this corner on this wave. LB and J should be watching out for white cavs coming down the middle.

Wave 7 - Boss

When Asurindaka spawns, everyone should retreat from the front to the next outpost. He will go down the left lane. J and SS should leave their troops to hold the right side and bring their heroes to the left to help take out the boss. Body blocking and kicking are effective against him.

Wave 8 - Bottom right spawns

LT and YY defends at the outpost second from the front. J and SS defend the bottom right choke. Watch out for White Cavs running down left and right lane. Later, the White Cavs will run down middle. Joan and Lu Bu should position themselves to stop them.

Wave 9 - Double Asurindaka Bosses

There should be 1 fully upgraded scorpions at each of the bottom corners. Everyone can start at the front to take out Centurions then retreat to bottom corners and defend near their scorpions. LB should pull the troops left behind by the Centurion into the killbox.

When Asurindakas arrive, they should be fought in range of the scorpions. 1 trick is for the melee to use F4 (Retreat) to keep their troops behind them to block the Asurindaka . Archers should find an angle to headshot Asura, whether it be at point blank range or high ground.

Wave 10 - Final Boss

Everyone should move to the front before start of round and do as much damage as possible. The key is to take out any Centurions you see. Everyone should retreat via the teleporter before bottom corner waves spawn. It’s very important that everyone is at full strength after retreating. Priority units to watch out for are hammers. The key here is that once the Centurions are killed, they will agro anyone in range. LB should agro them and pull them away from the rest of the team into the killbox

If you manage to survive long enough, the Death Lord will spawn and run down the middle lane then goes left or right lane. He will charge at you. Be careful not to stand near the blue circle as he may charge in.