Hello, and welcome to my Sanctum 2 strategy guide. I'll start things off with a small advance description and some reasoning behind this guide's creation.
What this guide contains in spades:
- personal biases and preferences
- suboptimal but fun to execute strategies
- screenshots

What this guide generally avoids:
- Drone Launcher (completely)
- Focus tower (with few exceptions)
- Survival game mode (completely)
- Disabling Feats Of Strength (100% completion, and not a percent less)

This is written on patch 1.4.35442.
Will it be updated? Depends on me discovering something I would like to share, patches and life in general.

1) Lots of players experience problems beating this game on hard difficulty (5 Feats of Strength). Ultimately, when they ask questions on forums and I (or other people) start prying details out of them, the reason is pretty much always the same - failure to assess challenges presented by any given map and adjust character/weapon/perk/tower selection and maze configuration accordingly. It often comes from blindly copying strategies from other maps or game modes. To clarify - I consider Solo and Coop playthroughs to be different game modes, not just Campaign and Survival.

2) A lot of online S2 strategy material relies too heavily on a very limited set of selections, because they are largely percieved as optimal... and, frankly, they are, no way around it. Optimal, as fate would have it, equals boring after you've seen it enough times. These strategies typically allow for victories with the least effort. I feel like spicing up the landscape and showing that there's a lot more to this game than Focus+Range and Drone Launcher Skye.

When you're looking for help in beating a level, you typically want a working strategy. But there's a catch - there has to be someone who can create this strategy in the first place. Someone has to find working synergies between weapons and perks, someone has to make maze layouts that suit certain playstyles... the list goes on. What I will try to achieve here is giving a sneak peek into the mindset of someone who comes up with all this stuff and, hopefully, encourage readers to go out there and try to make their own layouts and strategies. If you're just looking to beat the game without caring about more elaborate details, mechanical depth and fun interactions, this guide is probably not for you. If you're still with me, let's move onto the actual thing.

As the saying goes, Knowledge Is Tower... err, I mean, Power.
First off, I will not waste space by listing numerical information about the game (I will mention certain things in appropriate places where they matter). Here are a couple good places for reference:
1) If you're new to the game and don't know your left from right, you might want to get familiar with this guide by Minoru Leonardo first:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=505739685
It's the only comprehensive guide up-to-date in terms of patches as of this writing. It covers a lot of vast knowledge needed to play Sanctum 2 - towers, mazing, character builds, enemies, weapons - everything you need to know.

2) Sanctum Wiki[sanctum.gamepedia.com] is reasonably well-maintained and has all the numbers for reference (except a few places at the time of writing). The downsides are that it's not really convinient to use in-game (if you don't have multiple monitors, that is), and it's quite unlikely to contain some of the more exotic interactions between perks, weapons, towers etc, of which Sanctum 2 has plenty.

I will provide commentary on various game elements as we move along, but I assume that you are familiar with basic descriptions of everything. If you're new to the game - well, I believe in using multiple reference materials.
What I will do myself is classify things in various ways, so you can easily find "Things that do X". I will also provide a list of common acronyms/names where applicable as well as some terms that will inevitably come up.
I will skip over characters, as their passives are pretty straightforward. Their usage will be demonstrated in Strategy section.

I'm going over them in wiki order, rather than unlocking order, for reference convinience.
Entry format:
Name
Primary: attributes
Secondary: attributes
Notes: if any

Attributes are, basically, some labels that highlight certain important points about weapons. They are mostly self explanatory, with a couple notes needed:
- Fast and Slow refer to fire rate for the purposes of Tactical Juxtaposition perk.
- AoE = Area of Effect, DoT = Damage over Time (I use a broad definition of "has ticks over time").
- Burst refers to high immediate damage output followed by a period of no firing capability.
- Small, Medium and Large AoE are ~1 block, 1-2 blocks, 2+ blocks respectively. Not taking into account Long Range Specialization perk, obviously.
- Explosive - typically means that it can trigger Delayed Explosives when it hits them.

You can search, for example, "Slow", and immediately see all the weapons that are considered to have Slow fire rate.
1) Assault Rifle
Primary: Fast, Single-Target, Sustained
Secondary: Small AoE, Burst, Explosive
Notes: AR is solid, but doesn't really excel at anything in particular.

2) Rex
Primary: Slow, Medium AoE, Burst, Explosive
Secondary: Seeking, Small AoE, Multiple Hits, Explosive, Burst
Notes: rocket jumps are a thing. They even got buffed at some point. Yay!

3) Sniper Rifle
Primary: Slow, Single-Target, High Crit
Secondary: Small AoE, High Crit
Notes: High Zoom; SR is an example of completely outclassed weapon. Plasma Rifle does similar things, only better.

4) Shotgun
Primary: Fast, Close Range, Sustained
Secondary: Fire Delay, Burst
Notes: I'm not the one who thinks it's fast. Tactical Juxtaposition is.

5) Voltaic Hand Cannon
Primary: Slow, Piercing AoE, Sustained
Secondary: Seeking, Sustained
Notes: Quite underappreciated weapon. Admittedly, it's necessary to build mazes that highlight its strength - line AoE.

6) Battle Rifle
Primary: Slow, Small AoE, Explosive, Sustained
Secondary: Delayed Explosive, Medium AoE
Notes: more fun with rocket jumping

7) ETK-Tesla Prototype
Primary: Fast, Sustained, Small AoE
Secondary: Burst, Bounce AoE
Notes: fixed 3 targets AoE on alt-fire. Again, one of the outclassed weapons.

8) Sub-Mini-Gun
Primary: Fast, Sustained, Single-Target
Secondary: DoT, Single Target
Notes: sometimes shots seem to stop registering on targets. Suspending and resuming fire usually fixes that.

9) Ballista
Primary: Slow, Single-Target, Charge
Secondary: Medium AoE DoT, Charge
Notes: High Zoom; One of the most versatile weapons in the game. It can be charged for punch, it can be spammed, it has ticking aoe damage... what's not to like?

10) Gatling Laser
Primary: Fast, Single-Target, DoT
Secondary: Small to Medium AoE, Charge
Notes: The second contender for the most versatile weapon in the game. Works well in just about every situation.

11) Circle Saw
Primary: Fast, Melee, Single-target
Secondary: Ranged, DoT, Single-Target
Notes: every game with zombie-like opposion need a saw-like device.

12) Nailgun
Primary: Fast, Single-Target
Secondary: Single-Target
Notes: a strictly better Sniper Rifle for Simo (sans scope, but who needs it anyway). Also, a portable mine dispenser.

13) Drone Laucher
Primary: Slow(Weapon), Fast(individual Drones), Armor-Piercing
Secondary: Almost Useless (Drone explosion apparently doesn't even apply debuffs)
Notes: This is, in my opinion, the most boring weapon in the game, and, sadly, one of the most effective and thus constantly spammed ones. I have an extreme dislike for it because it has no gunplay to speak of and thus won't use it, as promised in Preface.

14) Grenade Launcher
Primary: Fast, Small AoE, Bounce, Delayed Explosive
Secondary: Large AoE, Bounce, Delayed Explosive, DoT
Notes: Extremely tricky to use, but rewarding when done right.

15) Plasma Rifle
Primary: Slow, Single-Target
Secondary: AoE, Delayed Exlosive, DoT
Notes: High Zoom; Strictly better Sniper Rifle, and the 3rd contender for the most versatile gun. As of 1.4.35442 secondary fire crashes my game 9/10 times both on x32 and x64 OS, so I won't cover this gun until it's fixed, as I can't test any strategies with it.. Secondary fire has a high chance to crash the game if shot anywhere but above enemies' heads. Workarounds that reduce crash rate include using DX11 and disabling Dynamic Lighting. Plasma Rifle won't be present in any of the strategies below.

16) Smatter Band
Primary: Slow, Small Aoe, Delayed Explosive, Sticky
Secondary: Medium AoE, Delayed Explosive
Notes: Primary fire sticks and crits if it's stuck to/near a weakspot.

For towers I will use a different format. I will list certain categories, and then list towers belonging to that category.
Common acronyms - typically equal labels on in-game maps - so you'll have to remember them anyway:
ACP - already an acronym (Automatic Crowd Pummeler)
AMP Spire - Am
Anti-Air - Aa
AR-Mine Dispenser - Ar
Cannon - Ca
Drone - Dr
Focus - Fo
Friendship Laser - Fl
Gatling - Ga
Kairos - Ka
Lightning - Li
Makeshift Cannon - Ms
Mind Control Spire - Mc
Orbital Strike relay - Or
Range Spire - Rs
Rocket - Ro
Rupture Mine Dispenser - Rm
Scatter Laser - Sc
Slow Field Dispenser - Sf
Violator - Vi

Now, onto classification:

1. By type:
Direct Damage - they, well, deal damage: Ca, Ga, Li, ACP, Vi, Ro, Sc, Fo, Ms, Fl, Aa, Dr, Or
Dispensers - give you things to put on the field: Ar, Rm, Sf
Utility - crowd control and multipliers: Ka,Mc, Am, Rs

2. By Effect:
Damage: Ca, Ga, Li, ACP, Vi, Ro, Sc, Fo, Ms, Fl, Aa, Dr, Or, Ar, Ru
Crowd Control (CC): Ka, Sf, Mc
Amps: Am, Rs

3. By Target Group:
AoE: Li, ACP, Ro, AA, Or, Ar, Rm, Ka, Sf, Am, Rs
Single-Target: Ca, Ga, Vi, Sc, Fo, Ms, Fl, Dr, Mc

4. By Targeting System:
This deserves an extra note. You probably noticed that towers have such settings as "Most Health", "Closest" etc. Well, some towers also have a "rescan" mechanic, which is barely described anywhere. Thanks to participants of this discussion for pointing it out and making me test this stuff. Everything below should be easily reproducable. Please notify me if you find some mistakes here.

Following selected target until it's dead or out of range:
Ro - Default, Most Health, Least Health;
Fo - All;

Rescanning and possibly changing targets regardless of death or range break:
Ca, Ga, Fl, Ms - All;
Vi - Default, Most Health, Least Health;

No targeting:
ACP, Ar, Rm, Sf, Amp, Rs

Not tested:
AA - not that many flying units anyway, barring 4th DLC maps (remember, I'm ignoring Survival mode)
Ka, Dr, Or, Mc - Nothing typically stays around for a second shot (either moves on or dies).

If something is missing, it's likely either broken (e.g. Violator's "Closest" doesn't target the closest enemy half the time), or untested.

Notes on interactions:
-Amps don't stack, only the strongest applies (both Rs and Am)
-Drones only apply 1 set per target

Mines are complicated enough to deserve a whole section on their own. Info presented here is a compilation of this discussion, as well as my own testing.

Mine Dispenesers provide you with a set of mines (depending on level) every wave. Mines need to be harvested every wave, as whatever you forget to pick up is lost.
Base damage of individual mine is determined at the moment of harvest. Apparently, actual damage of mines is currently less than nominal (by ~1.7k-2k). At least that's what all my tests have shown in Sandbox.
Range Spire affects range of mines' explosion.
Amp Spire affects damage and is applied retroactively. I.e if you harvest some mines and then build/overcharge an Amp, they will benefit from it.

Perks that work with mines:
Hollowpoint Rounds
Electrical Outburst
Engineer
Slowing Rounds
Zeus Module
Limiter Removal

Perks that don't work with mines:
Synergy
Thor Module

Didn't test:
Exposure Rounds - as in, whether mines apply ER debuff.

Don't ask me "why X?". This list has some things that look as nonsensial to me as it gets (hey there Hollowpoint Rounds, which says "weapon damage"), I'm just reporting what I've found during my tests.

I will list them in a few broad categories and mention details about some particular perks. There will be more explanations in actual strategy section we get to try them. Also, I want to avoid establishing that "X is good, Y is bad", because it runs contrary to the point of this guide.

Unconditional:
Hollowpoint Rounds, Static Discharge, Hip Fire, Overcharge, Exposure Rounds, Electrical Outburst, Explosive Exchange, Spray 'N Pray, Dicey Shootin', Head Start, Stabilizer, Marksman, Armor Shredder

Conditional: Corpse Explosion, Plumber Shoes, Against All Odds, Penetrator Rounds, Consuming Rage, Spiked Armor, Parthian Tactics, Desperate Measures, Bloodletter, Headache, Tech Junkie, Overkill, Steady Aim, Upper Class, Warming Up, Hold your Fire, Long Range Superiority, Core Guardian, Fast Hands, Collateral Damage, Biological Warfare

Notes:
Some things here are highly dependant on commiting to a playstyle, namely Long Range Superiority, Stabilizer, Steady Aim. Of course, it's easy to maintain Long Range Superiority if you are TRYING to. And, sure, you can maintain Steady Aim if you're standing in a faraway corner with Sniper/Plasma Rifle. Point is, you have to actively make effort to do it, whereas Hollowpoint Rounds just work. Basically, "unconditional" are things that "just happen".
Being in one category or the other doesn't automatically make perks good or bad.

Most important ones to remember:
Hollowpoint Rounds - go-to "I need damage" perk. It's never bad.
Stabilizer - you're pretty much always on the move, unless you're playing long range setups.
Corpse Explosion - one of the best AoE Damage perks when set up right.
Parthian Tactics - often overlooked, while being reliable outside of heavy manual kiting setups.
Fast Hands - most weapons can be emptied within 5 seconds of bonus damage period.
Armor Shredder - I included it as unconditional, because it always works. If your enemies have no armor, it's a waste of a slot, sure. Still better than Headache, as quite a few lumes have little bits of armor.
Spray 'N Pray - gives you a harsh spread penalty. You will miss from point blank range. Be really careful around that perk.

Phoenix, Rymdskor, Adrenaline Rush, Slowing Presence, Slowing Rounds, G-2 Companion, Trickster, Frightening Visage, Reinforcements, Best Friends Forever, Hydra Blood, The Doctor Is In, Khronos Device, Concussion Rounds, Blaze of Glory, Roboticist

Notes:
I don't use Phoenix outside of Survival, which is beyond the scope of this guide. I will give my reasons a bit later.
Slowing Presence is generally good for kiting or keeping waves in tower range longer before you setup slowing towers, Slowing rounds work with some setups, Reinforcements might be a decent alternative to manual tanking. Everything else largely does not provide anything vital for solo play in my experience. Don't let that discourage you from trying. Maybe I missed something huge, who knows.

Exposure Rounds, Engineer, Tech Junkie, Synergy, Thor Module, Tinkerer, Limiter Removal, Zeus Module

Notes:
I recommend using Exposure Rounds if you're just beginning to explore Player-Tower Synergy. It doesn't tie you to any particular location and still provides some damage to fall back on.
04/10/2015 UPDATE: It appears Exposure Rounds are currently bugged - debuff duration is 0.5 seconds instead of 5 seconds. As such, the only effective way to use this perk is to put it on Sweet, as her passive burn DoT reapplies debuffs continuously.

Resilient Core, Unstable Core, Shocking Revelation, Core-Tower Synergy, Core Guardian, Radioactive Core

Notes:
As with Phoenix, this is a set of perks I do not use in solo play. Ever. Unless I'm trying something really weird that actually relies on said perks.
The reason is a simple logical loop. If I assume the worst and take Core perks to cover for the situation where enemies get through the maze, then I sacrifice actual damage and utility perks. Since I have no damage/utility, enemies are more likely to make it through the maze. So I need my Core perks as well as have trouble dealing with threats due to lack of damage... Basically, when I take Core perks, I end up needing them because I took them in the first place. Same with Phoenix.
Naturally, this logic only applies to non-survival game modes, because victory conditions are "get through X waves", rather than "survive as long as you can". It also doesn't apply to some other "challenge" kind of gameplay (i.e. beating maps without any use of towers).
A perk that switches the way your weapons work. Everything in weapons section that was Slow becomes Fast and vice versa, with adjusted damage and ammo count.
A few things to know about TJ:

• Some weapons (e.g. Gatling Laser or Shotgun) get nasty animation delays, which adds an extra degree of difficulty in using them. Slow weapons that become fast, on the other hand, often lose their animation delays.
  
• Using or not using this perk can be a very fundamental decision in how a map plays out, so be mindful of it.
  
• Generally, making Slow weapons into Fast ones lets you "spam" shots and get a damage increase that way + you don't need to worry about missing a shot or two.
  
• On the contrary to above, making Fast weapons into Slow ones gives them extra punch at the expense of high DPS cost with every missed shot.

This section exists to list interactions which don't really fall into any cohesive category, but are still worth mentioning.

General
Shield Explorers can sometimes completely stop rhinos. Forever. They just bump into shield and stand there. Most likely to happen when at slow speed turning corners.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=420518836

Roadworks
Apparently geometry on roots in some spots blocks damage from snorkers:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=419296741

The meat of the guide that I promised in description, and probably the reason you came here for.
The following sections will contain playthroughs of all campaign maps except the very first (tutorial) and the very last (because it's a survival map) with all 5 Feats of Strength enabled. Some basic assumpsions and notes:
- Everything is unlocked. My purpose here is to demonstrate variety, not to give a "how to beat the game 5 FoS Solo from the get-go" tutorial. I did just that when I first got the game, and most of it was trial and error. And a lot of retrying. Thanks to that, I got to know lots and lots of things about the game.

- As I've mentioned before, I steer away from Focus tower for the majority of the maps, because just about every other walkthrough will feature it.

- I've chosen a sort of a "Let's play" format with commentary on important decisions and actions, so I might sometimes reference something I've done on previous maps. If you're reading out of order (e.g. looking up a specific map), don't be surprised. The amount and focus of commentary will vary from map to map or strategy to strategy.

-I strongly encourage you to try things out. Everything I've presented here is guaranteed to work. Some strategies are deliberately suboptimal for demonstration purposes. For some more outlandish strategies success could be extremely reliant on personal skill with FPS component of the game.

-Section numbering will be 3.[Area number].[Map Number] according to the in-game World Map

-Above all, no matter what happens:

Park, the first real map of the game, allows for pretty much anything. The only reason to lose it is making a mistake and dying. While Park is easy by the numbers, it introduces some important ideas. For our first exercise, let's explore concepts of victory conditions, as well as try out some melee kiting synergy.
Wave victory conditions (WVC) is a term I use to describe a set of requirements to pass a wave. Basically, asking yourself a question - what do I need to deal with, what types of game elements do I need? Knowing these, we can a) adequately prepare ourselves, and b) given a loadout+maze vs wave, we can evaluate whether this setup is effective against this wave or not.
Preparation victory conditions (PVC) is a set of things you need to know beforehand, in order to prepare for them by adjusting your initial loadout and maze design. Preparation conditions are typically derived from analyzing level layout, the entire wave composition throughout the map, as well as available resources per wave.

Example for WVC: Park wave 3 - 12 Runners, 8 Walkers. You need good single-target damage to deal with Walkers, you need AoE coverage to deal with Runners. Simple, but, hopefully, illustrates the point.
Example for PVC: knowing that Sokol has 4 Patriarchs on Wave 11. Don't tell me you've managed to beat them without doing special adjustments to your loadout up front. Rather, tell me if you actually did. I would very much like to hear about that, no kidding.

Now then, enough with theory, let's get some lumes down.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423160046
I promised some melee kiting, so Circle Saw it is. Nailgun is there for zombie-killing equipment theme more than anyhing else. Skye was also a "why not" choice. Double jumping is an okay kiting tool, and her damage passive is never bad, especially with fast Circle Saw.
Skye is not as good at survival in melee as Haigen, so with that in mind I picked Slowing Presence - it gives enough time to back out when I'm near death. Hollowpoint Rounds synergize well with just about anything, including Skye's passive and Saw, for nice damage addition. In melee you want to get in, kill things fast, and get out if you're low on health. Most enemies on this map actively attack me, so Spiked Armor makes them die even faster. It has no cooldown, so every hit you take is 2000 damage to ~7500 hp enemies, which is not little by any means.
For towers, the only one I actually used was Rupture Mines. These things attach themselves to anything that passes over and deals damage over 8 seconds (~1700 at level 3). It's a pretty pointless tower, but hey. At least it counters regeneration from Hydra Hunter FoS.

Maze by wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423160102
It's a simplistic design which takes advantage of default towers provided. ACP is leveled first, them Ru, then Li
Notice how ACP provides AoE damage to satisfy WVC for wave 3 that I mentioned earlier - that is, I ignore 12 Runners and just let them run to ACP for their death, and focus solely on tanking Walkers.
Soakers on waves 5-6 are dealt with very effectively by Circle Saw and high-crit Nailgun from point-blank range. It's not Sweet's (or even Simo's) level of effectiveness, sure, but still 0 struggle whatsoever.

Damage numbers:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423160128
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423160156
56 kills by me, 16 by towers. 12 of those 16 were specifically expected to happen (Runners at Wave 3). My damage numbers are, naturally, inflated from killing all the Soakers by hand. More interesting takeaway is the high amount of damage taken and amount of jumps - I was low on hp quite a few times, but every hit translates to 2k damage to someone. Walker Pups outright suicide this way.

Second map of the game, another "tutorial-ish" one. Features 2 sides merging together on a vast field with no buildable blocks, so it's fair to expect kiting in an open field with no environmental support.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423187866
I decided to go with Simo for this, because, frankly, he's outclassed by Skye/Sweet/Haigen for many other maps in Solo 5 FoS play. I will bring you some fun Simo strategies later, no worries. I didn't remember wave composition for this map at all, except for a vague hunch that it had the same enemy types as Park, so I went with Tesla for AoE vs Runners (oh boy that wave 2 could be a nightmare if I picked AR), SMG vs Soakers, Ca for heavy-hitting, Sc for middle ground vs fast and heavy units. Dr and Ka were an afterthought just in case. Perk-wise, Marksman is largely an addition vs Soakers, Hollowpoint Rounds because they're never bad, Slowing presence because kiting Walkers and dealing with Runners was expected. Can be Slowing Rounds, doesn't really matter here.

Maze by wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423187891
Not much to comment here, frankly. Scatters are on the side where Runners and Soakers spawn. That's about as much strategy as this map requires. A nice bit of kiting practice before real maps start.
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423187915
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423187944
A much more even damage distribution than what we had on Park, because I actually let my towers stack up Soakers before finishing them off. Really, the only takeaway from this loadout is for Campaign Coop - when you don't need to be the one doing agressive kiting vs multiple threats, Simo can be scary. Just pick up good angles and deal with enemies with easy weakspots - Bobbleheads, Soakers, Hoverers, Patriarchs, Armored Heavies, Super Heavies.

I really like the name for this one, because it's the first serious map of the game. The gate to the real world, so to speak.
Anyways, this map has 2 PVC's: you need to deal with massive amount of Runners, and there's a boss at the end of the level. Me completely forgetting about #1, coupled with holding back on towers, actually led me to a loss on my first try while preparing this. So, proper loadout selection is key.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423240708
I've decided to showcase some more of Simo. Smatter Band is a weapon that fires sticky explosives on primary fire. Those explosives crit for lots of damage if you can get them onto weakspots. Couple that with Simo's passives for accuracy and weakspot modifier. Voltaic HC was picked a) because it's also a slow weapon, and b) for its line AoE.
My tower choice covers 1st GVC: ACP+Slow Field allows me to forget about Runners altogether and focus on other threats. Cannon is decent for cleanup of whatever made it through ACP area. AMP wasn't used, so just a wasted slot.
Tactical Juxtaposition synergises well with both Smatter Band (more stacking crit modifier) and VHC (makes it not completely horrible), Hollowpoint Rounds are never bad, Slowing Presence as a safeguard from dying and extra slow for whatever makes it past ACP.

Early waves:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230199
This is the line of sight I spent most time defending, with occasional ventures here and there. Watch the map to time Smatter Band's alt-fire and mow down everything with piercing hits from VHC.

Simo & Smatter band in a nutshell:
a) vs Heavies:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230235
b) and that's how far a Soaker can get from spawn:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230261

Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230296

6 and 7 are waves that have the most winning conditions:
1-Lots of small fast units
2-Damage threats (both ranged and melee on 6, only melee on 7)
3-Heavy Units (wave 7)
4-Soaker(s)

Here is where preparation shows itself:
1 is handled by ACP
2 is handled by Sf + Slowing Presence
3,4 are handled by our Simo + Smatter Band combo

Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230314
Little bits of everything, the only real problem is Patriarch. Thankfully, his weakspot is really big *wink, wink*. As long as he doesn't break too much of your maze, you're good to go.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230346

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230365
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423230380
As you can see, towers did a lot more killing this time around. Naturally, this comes with all those 50 Runner waves and ACP.
Takeaway for this time: if you've failed to beat the map, try thinking about what went wrong and what gave you the most trouble. Make appropriate adjustments to your loadout and/or maze.

Our next map is an open field. Moreover, much like with The Gate, we can't rely on towers to defend the Core from lumes that get through at all. So, we're going to need some nice damage.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310504
Lots of explosions plus rocket jumping as a safety net. Exposure rounds help our towers pump out some more damage.

Early concept:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310549
Cannon is supposed to deal with Spitflies.
Later down the road:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310568
Straightforward lanes. Towers are concentrated to one side, but Cannons cover pretty good area due to their innate range.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310603
Bummer! We got new types of enemies here, with straight rows being really lackluster against Rhinos. It won't prevent beating the map, but some core damage likely happens here.
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310628
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423310660

But hey, my tower placement this time around was largely not the best. Cannon on the left exists purely because Spitflies, while everything else is being piled on the right. Minimal crowd control and juuust enough damage. Let's improve on our strategy, shall we? And yes, I'm intentionally limiting my weapon selection for now. My purpose for these early maps is to demonstrate variety, rather than absolute best setups.



Loadout mk II:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423392388
I've decided to put some more damage onto my towers with Amp this time around. Thus, CC is going to be handled by myself. Tesla has long sustained fire with small AoE, so Slowing Rounds keep working really well. Spiked Armor is mostly my answer to pesky Spitflies - just don't bother dodging if you have enough HP, and they will fall much faster.

The Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423391100
Revised maze to deal with Rhinos. If there are no corners on the map, we just need to make some. Many corners in a row equals slow advancement. Amp covers all Cannons except the rightmost.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423391365
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423391429
As you see, damage and kill distribution is pretty even between me and my towers. The takeout this time is a little bit cliche: think different. If you can't kill the wave with guns, do it with towers. If you can't slow the wave with towers, do it with guns (and your body). Or come up with a different plan.

This time around, we've got some preparation conditions to consider. Namely, dealing with LOTS of small units and quite a few tanks at the same time. 120 Walker Pups is no joke, when you see it for the first time.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423430975
So, how do we get everything done? We've already had an example of AoE setup to deal with basic Runners (see The Gate). This time, however, simply putting an ACP and hoping that it scales will end up in lots of hassle. Because it doesn't really scale by just getting to level 3. To artificially ramp up its damage output, I picked Synergy and Exposure Rounds. If anything gets through, as well as to help with some early waves, Hollowpoint Rounds... are never bad. It's getting old, isn't it? I'll try to change it up some more.
Shotgun deals well with heavy units if you charge it up, and Ballista's secondary fire consists of 3 AoE procs, so it can continuously apply debuffs from Synergy and Exposure Rounds on multiple targets.

Build notes:
I consider bottom left field to be the correct place to build. Why? Because if you build on top, you'll never be able to use bottom left half of the map. That vertical patch of blocks where you can't build is, of course, the culprit. You can route wave from bottom to top, but not the other way around. It's not that you can't win building on top, it's just that the safety net to deal with mistakes is that much smaller.

Wave 1 is likely to end with some Core damage, because this loadout doesn't deal with Runners well. I opened up with 2 Lightnings, because ACP is useless at this point anyway.
By wave 4-5 your ACP should come online with the help of your perks:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423431033
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423431077

Late build:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423431117
Range is not overcharged at all, all Lightnings are lv 1 and mostly there to deal with wave 10's Spitflies, Kairos was built around wave 7. Spare resources are put in ACP.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423431153
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423431190
Quick demonstration of player-tower synergy, as well as Shotgun's strong point - bearing the burden of single-target heavy-hitting.

A nasty difficulty spike that comes with 2 completely separate paths on the map. Well, technically, they do merge at the very end, and you can see enemies going to the Core on the opposite side of their spawn every now and then, but that's hardly helpful in any way. Throw in measly 300 resources per wave, and it becomes immediately apparent that you can't rely on your towers too much... or can you? Analysing wave compositions nets you the answer. Let's take a look at what goes down each side (waves 3+, since 1 and 2 can be easily handled by hand):
Left:
3- 4x Walker, 16x Runner
4- 2x Hoverer, 20x Runner
5- 1x Hoverer,8x Screamer
6- 10x Walker
7- 2x Armored Heavy, 6x Screamer, 2x Spitfly
8- 4x Rhino
9- 3x Walker Warrior, 10x Runner, 4x Bobble Head
10- 1x Hoverer, 2x Soaker, 6x Screamer, 6x Walker

Right:
3- 12x Walker
4- 6x Screamer, 20x Walker
5- 35x Walker Pup, 2x Walker Warrior
6- 40x Runner, 3x Bobble Head
7- 2x Soaker, 9x Brood Mother
8- 2x Armoured Heavy, 12x Walker, 9x Runner
9- 16x Snorker, 6x Screamer, 6x Spitfly
10- 1x Walker Patriarch, 8x Walker, 20x Walker Pup

By wave 3 you will be sitting on 400+2x325=1050 resources. Reliably handling waves 3,4,5 on right side is pretty much impossible without personally getting there. Moreover, most enemies on the left can be handled by a composition of heavy-hitting tower + Drones. Drones can pick off runners, put some damage on Hoverers and Heavies, only they can deal with Bobble Heads. So, I'm leaving the left side to my towers while handling right side by myself.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872417
Guns: Punch vs heavy threats and AoE punch vs everything. Gatling Laser is just that damn good.
Perks: Damage, Kiting/CC, AoE (mostly important for Runners and Pups, secondary use as finisher on Walkers when you run out of ammo).
Towers: Ca, Dr, Ka - Punch, Drones, CC. Gatling is a wasted slot.

Waves 1,2: by hand. Wave 3 has a limited build phase, so do start building up front.
Until you memorize spawn order for each wave, it's generally a good idea to start up on the left side. Jumping down is easier than climbing up.
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872455
As a general rule, go agressive on the right, try to kill everything as fast as you can. Expect a stray Runner or Walker on the left, your towers lack damage yet.
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872493
Keep prolonging left side, you will need it. 1st Hoverer should spawn way before anything on the right, so pick him off by hand. Then try to get rid of things on the right as much as you can, but don't forget to keep an eye on the map.
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872522
Focus on Runners here. Remeber, you have Gatling's alt-fire as well as Explosive Exchange. Both kill Runners outright. Practice charging Gatling's range exactly to the point of necessity and properly position yourself, so you can get 2-3 shots off.
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872667
Cores:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872589
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872612
I took note of Core health here for proof that nothing really made past the defence so far. This strategy relies quite a lot on player's ability to deal with right side threats swiftly and decisively. Unlike the other 2-sided map - Sokol - this one is fairly forgiving if you fail to do so.

Wave 8:
No need to build anything extra for this one.

Wave 9:
I put up a Cannon on the right to deal with Spitflies. Expect a Walker Warrior to get through on the left. Right side spawns quite a bit of time into the wave, so you aiding your towers on the left is a good idea.

Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872684
Same as Wave 9, you will have some time to spend up on the left. You do want to get down right before Patriarch spawns, so you can try to safely bait a Ground Slam out of him. That allows to cleanly pump a fully charged Shotgun blast into his weakspot.
Also, selling that Cannon on the right and putting it near left-side Core is a good idea. Something (like a Walker and a Soaker) usually does get through there. Yes, I know, losing resources. Still better than having it take 3 shots on Patriarch before getting blown up.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872709
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423872737
State of Cores depends on your ability to contain the right side on wave 10. Focus on killing Walkers and Pups, let the Patriarch break bases. If you've got 1 enemy getting through on the left and 10 Pups on the right - don't panic and deal with Pups first.
The takeaway: carefully analyze your needs. "Towers can do X", as well as "towers can't do X", can both save you from mistakes.

The last map of chapter 2 is a wide open field with very limited tower base supply and 2 bosses along the way.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958259
Ballista for heavy-hitting, Grenade Launcher to deal with crowds.
Corpse Explosion helps with a couple early waves.
I went with Fl and Amp, because I got bored of Cannons for a bit. If you're having troubles, I do recommend putting a Focus to deal with Super Heavy.

Grenade Launcher - How To:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958312
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958482
Setting up timed bombs on the ground where enemies will be going is an easy way to deal with crowds. It's possible to spread shots out for maximum coverage or concentrate them for high dps. It also continually delivers perk debuffs, if any.
Getting a good grasp of bouncing angles requires some practice, as physics on those things takes terrain into account really thoroughly.

Layout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958427
Pretty straightforward, and not even optimal. Cannons and Focuses can make better use of this kind of row arrangement due to their range covering almost the entire path within blocks.
Super Heavy needs to be kited for a while. Thankfully, "that thing is huuuge", so missing grenades is hard.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958524
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423958571

The only map where you have 0 options regarding pathing. All you can do is build towers and shoot stuff. Wave 8 is an insane difficulty spike, victory or defeat basically rests on preparation for that. It has loads of Walkers, Runners and Rhinos, and since that is boring in and of itself, we get Hoverers and plenty of Soakers to boot. Oh, did I mention hardly visible bottomless pits in some places?

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424051173
This set of weapons and perks is one of my favourite all-rounder setups. It has AoE and punching power on both weapons (I didn't describe them as "candidates for the most versatile" for nothing), as well as CC for kiting and some extra AoE in form of Corpse Explosion.
As for towers - it largely doesn't matter what kind of damage towers you bring. Wave 8 is not going to care. ACP is the only one capable of dealing with this level of crowd density, but getting it to ramp up is annoying, as you will need to set up Range Spire (2 waves worth of resources) before ACP will be able to do anything real against ANY wave. There is a different way to meet damage requirements, though, which can be used with a lot less investment - AR-mines. For our initial resources (500), we can get 3x8=24 mines by wave 8. Amp applies retroactively at detonation, so that's 24 mines over 12k damage each. It's enough to take care of whatever makes it past you. Slow Field complements the setup, to give you and Fls time to kill things.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424051408
Build order: AR-mines at wave 1, then Fls on the lowest row corners, then Sf, then Fl in top left corner, then Amp and a final Fl.

Stashing mines in a safe spot is always a pleasant sight:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424051245

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424051470
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424051520

A fairly relaxing map, compared to what we've just encountered on Train Station (spoiler: and what we're about to do for our next maps). This map features another new boss - The Hoverer Queen. Not only she has all the annoying characteristics of Hoverers, she is also capable of temporarily shutting down turrets around her with AoE attacks.

This time, I will start off by going back to meleeing things to death. Melee and Hoverer Queen, as you might suspect, don't go so well together though.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284238
Slowing Presence is a largely must for melee kiting. Corpse Explosion allows you to transfer damage from your current enemy to the ones behind him, giving you single-target Saw a sort of AoE effect. Spiked Armor helps to speed up the demise of Walkers, Screamers and Spitflies.
Melee is hard in this game, and as much as I would like to give you pointers, I find it really hard to explain. Learn to gauge your health and incoming damage, walk down your maze backwards without turning, use corners to limit the amount of enemies you face. If I can ever get a decent recording that doesn't suffer from horrible framerate, I'll put it here to demonstrate.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284297
There are 3 ways to build on Canopy: you can handle waves separately, merge to right entryway (like I did), or merge to left entryway. Whichever way you choose, you'll have to give up a chunk of area due to 2 block wide chokepoints only working one way. I chose the long path alongside the Core, because it gives me extra time to put damage on Hoverers (Wave 9) and Queen (Wave 10).

Primary damage dealers are 2 Gatlings OC'd to ~400 damage:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284265
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284308
These guys can put out a lot of damage and kill any target below 7500 HP in under 2 seconds. I won't bore you with math right now, but everyone's favourite - Focus - can accomplish that only in 2.5+ seconds. I will explain the importance of that on a different occasion.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284323
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424284333
As expected, this setup does not fare well against the Queen, since one of your weapons, as well as passive, are largely useless against her. Resulting Core health is largely dependant on your ability to hit as many Ballista shots on the Queen as possible (don't forget to set Gatlings' targeting for Most Health).

Well then, let's fix the Queen problem and try again.


Loadout mk II:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424357752
Skye's passive is, at least, working against the Queen. So does VHC.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424357777
Let's ignore Gatling overcharging for now and fall back onto something easier to use. I've retained my maze shape, but changed up the setup. Sf's are spread around Cannons.
Lots and lots of short lines of sight are a paradise for VHC. Slowly retreat down your maze spamming Ballista's alt-fire to keep passive stacked up. When things start turning around the corner, VHC's line AoE will deal lots and lots of damage. Most things won't even make it to your turret line. Compare the damage for yourself below.
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424357788
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424357801
Even the most underappreciated weapons can perform amazingly well if you actually try to play around their strengths.

This time around, I bring you something completely different from what has been done so far. That is, the ultimate kiting - the art of beating a map without relying on damage from towers. Well, I do use Anti-Air for convinience purposes. 10 Spitflies on wave 8 can be killed by hand, but missing the timing window by a very slight margin costs extra 200-400 Core Health. It's a very intensive setup with strict execution requirements, that takes into account literally everything on the map - wave composition, resource count, enemy speeds and even some individual spawn timers.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246601
Character: Sweet - that passive is a must vs Soakers and for healing reduction.
Weapons: Gatling Laser + Ballista - one of, if not the the most reliable all-rounder setup that served us well on Train Station. Good vs crowds, good vs Soakers, Hoverers, Bobbleheads, Runners...
Perks:
Corpse explosion - the only way to deal enough AoE quickly enough. Roadworks is quite short on space and timeframe, no matter how you try to stretch it.
Reinforcements - provide a way to cluster things together and keep them occupied while they die.
Fast Hands - can be Hollowpoint Rounds, but I find Fast Hands to be the best fit. It's pretty much The Name of this strat. Alright, it's the second name. First one will come up a bit later.
Towers:
Slow Field, Kairos, Anti-Air, Mind Control
Well, that is the whole point. Might be doable without AA, but seriously inconvinient.

Well, onto the layout we go, and here comes the promised first name - Maze Adaptation
Pre wave 6:
Fairly straightforward, right?
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246645
Wave 6:
The point where things get complicated is wave 6. If the maze is left as-is, at least 1 Hoverer on bottom left will spawn when the main wave is there as well. Meaning you have to risk a lot and probably die.
To avoid that, we reroute the maze counterclockwise with entry at top.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231457
Now we can wipe the floor with everything, killing Hoverers from absolute safety for dessert. They are reaaally slow, and that's the only positive thing about them.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246673
Wave 7:
Remember that we have a perk that spawns shield explorers? Well. Super Heavy, you know, aggroes onto them.
So going back to wave 6, Hoverers hopefully wiped out all of them... except when they didn't die. See second sshot for an example. Whatever wasn't killed by Hoverers will get stuck somewhere. If you can drop a base on them - do it.
Next piece of prep work - reroute the maze back the way it was. You will need it for wave 8.
Note the level 2 AA. Yes, Spitflies are on the next wave. You have to rebuild bottom side maze and run to bottom right corner to upgrade AA to level 3 in 60 second timeframe. Better get ready.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231502
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246713
Wave 8:
So, yes. Repair your maze, length doesn't matter too much. Getting level 3 AA matter a whole lot more, because level 2 will let half of the Spitflies through, and you don't really have time to run to your Core.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231528
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246746
Wave 9:
Time to reroute our maze yet again. Because Hoverers and Soakers need to be delayed as long as possible.
This is a nasty wave, and the point where limiting damage to the Core as much as possible is necessary. It's possible to win from 2.5k, but pretty much not from less.
Positioning Slow Fields is important, so I include an overview.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246891
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246847
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422246815
Wave 10:
Time to rebuild our maze... you didn't think we were done, did you? 4 Armored Heavies and Runners need as long a path as humanly possible. Especially since the path for Heavies will pretty much 100% get cut in half. Killing Patriarch in time is largely impossible with this loadout.
I do not have good sshots, please forgive this one. I've taken and deleted so many, it's not even funny.
Slow fields are to be spread around core from 2 sides (center and left), and alongside the left ramp down.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231569

Win stats:
Core hp - ~600-800
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231608
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231632
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231666
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422231691
If you feel like this way does not suit your expectations of tower defence genre and has too much FPS in it - well, I did it purely for fun. I have warned you about personal biases in the foreword, haven't I? Whether or not you use damage-dealing towers, the key to this level - proper wave routing and threat management - was demonstrated quite effectively, I believe.

The second level of the game with 2 separate paths. I consider Abandoned Lab and Sokol to be one of the hardest maps of this game - one of the 3 that I haven't been able to beat with perfect Core health (the 3rd being our next stop, The Depths). Incidentially, for those 3 maps I will make an exception to my self-imposed rule of avoiding Focus tower. While not strictly necessary for Abandoned Lab, without it Core health goes into unpleasant numbers. (Not true anymore, see below) After stretching the game to its limits on Roadworks, I believe some relaxation is in order.

I'll give you 2 quite similar setups here. One is a bit older than the time of writing (still on current patch), and the other is a slight variation of that. I'll use my old wave-by-wave screenshots, since I used pretty much the same formation.

Loadout I:
Char: Skye
Weapons: Gatling, Ballista
Perks: Slowing Presence, Spray n'Pray, Tacticall Juxtaposition
Towers: Slow Field, Focus, Range spire

Notes:
-look for my character's blue arrow to see which wave I was starting at for each wave.
-leveling order - if not apparent from changed tower color, assume I put spare points into focus. At wave 10 I overcharged range for all resources.
-combat principle - spray ballista's secondary fire to proc passive, then charge gatling to instagib all low-health targets.
-slow fields are all near focuses
-if you're not comfortable with accuracy penalty from Spray n' Pray - you know that one damage perk that's never bad, right?

Wave 1 - no maze, didn't bother screening, full core hp obviously
Wave 2 - full core hp:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554449
Wave 3 - full core hp:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554477
Wave 4 - full core hp:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554496
Wave 5 - full core hp:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554510
Wave 6 - top core 3915, bottom 3850:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554528
Wave 7 - top core 3915, bottom 3850:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554548
Wave 8 - top core 3915, bottom 3850:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554561
Wave 9 - top core 3915, bottom 3050:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554573
Wave 10 - top core 3715:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554600
Endgame screen:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365554618

Loadout II:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425128441
I found VHC to be really effective on this map, as there is plenty of direct lines and clustered Walker groups, especially on the bottom side. Like I've mentioned before, it's a case of playing to this weapon's strengths that really makes it shine.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425128473
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425128535

An overview of Core health right before the win (3185 top, 3600 bottom):
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425128570
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425128609

This is by no means the only working layouts. This map has plenty of pathing options on the top side, and I encourage you to try them all out.


06/05/2015 addition:
Scratch this map off "full Core hp impossible" list. AR-mines allow to breeze through this map.
Loadout: I used a generic Gatling/Ballista Skye with Corpse Explosion setup, but honestly it can be just about anything that gets you through first 3 waves without any towers.

Start by building 3 level 1 AR-mines, then upgrade them by wave 4 to save a neat stash of mines:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214662
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214674
Don't forget to pick 6 environmental mines, these are enough to blow up Armored Heavy. Spread some of them below and ignore bottom side compeletely.
Range Spire should be up by wave 7-8, to make sure mines can easily damage groups of 5 Walkers and Super Heavy. Just keep ignoring bottom side, it's not going anywhere. Waves 4-5 sould give a good grasp on how many mines should be put down there.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214686
Depending on how well you're doing, save some mines for final waves:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214697

Cores by wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214785
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214802

I actually managed to misjump and die halfway through wave 10, but that didn't matter at all. Queen didn't make it even to the bridge, much less anything else.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214812

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214821
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438214835
The most leisurely playthrough I've had on this map ever. I will keep reminding that Hollowpoint Rounds work with mines at the time of writing, but with the abundant amount of mines left I feel it's largely irrelevant for this map.

This map is, in my opinion, the second contender for the highest personal skill difficulty spike (the first one being Sokol). Much like Train Station, this map has a set of open unblockable paths with a few options here and there. It is full of annoying enemies that can kill you with the slightest mistake in positioning (Hoverers and Rhinos), swarming your Core across a vast semi-open space, while those pesky Bobble Heads are looking to sneak on your Focus and tank loads of DPS. Add a severe lack of building space in reach of the Core, average resource count and a Hoverer Queen, and you get a recipe for lots of frustration.

So, how can one combat lumes 100% getting to the Core? Well, there are 2 answers: by sustaining the Core or by killing them REALLY fast.
The 1st approach is never my favorite (I've already outlined my reasons for disliking Core defence perks in solo play), so I bring you the second.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163068
The sniperest of all snipers, Simo is back from a long hiatus with a Sniper Nailgun. Originally I would use Plasma Rifle, but I currently can not (refer to "Weapons" section for details). It is a strictly better choice and allows to swap out Long Range Specialization for just about anything else... except Hip Fire. Don't do that to Simo, ever. Please.
It is a skill-heavy setup, which will require fast thinking, immediate decision-making and complete map awareness.

Early game. Waves 1-4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163147
Proper target prioritization will get you through. Hoverers are your worst enemy here, especially combined with Rhinos for an extra threat from your back. Pay attention to the map and avoid tunnel vision as best as you can.
Mid-game. Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163296
This wave is pretty much the hardest without proper preparation. Thankfully, with our insane accuracy, retreating to the Core and defending the approach becomes reasonably easy:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163336

Late game. Wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163379
Just follow the Queen. Everything else barely matters, it will die eventually.

Sample Core states by waves 5, 6, 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163200
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163271
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163399
The bulk of damage happens at 4, 6, 9.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163429
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425163466
This map really deserves a video a lot more than written description, because it's 90% about what player does by hand.

06/05/2015 addition:
I've found a solution that allows to win with untouched Core. Like Abandoned Lab, the answer is AR-mines.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194003
The idea is simple - no matter how and what towers are positioned, they can't cover enough ground to do real damage that actually kills their target. So what's necessary is a short burst that is guaranteed to kill off whatever actually makes it past the player, which can be flexibly distributed across multiple pathways. AR-mines perfectly satisfy these requirements.

Maze overview by wave 10 + full Core hp:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194028
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194013
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194023

Build notes:
3 level 1 towers at first wave. Then keep upgrading one to level 2 and building another level 1 each wave, until you get 6 towers in total. After that focus on upgrading already existing ones.
Rhinos are largely the worst enemy for this strategy. Spreading mines at spots where they are likely to slow down (turns and slopes) is essential, so they don't run past 4 mines in a line and set them all off.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194035
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438194041
As you see, mines actually did more damage than Focuses in previous loadout. In a sense, it comes from the fact that I deliberately let some targets pass as they wouldn't get to the Core anyway, so I was able to focus on thinning out main threats.

A completely relaxed map where you can largely do whatever and still get through, as long as you have a way of dealing with Bobbleheads and Patriarch. The only thing you can really optimize for here is increasing the length of lumes' path.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425437791
I decided to go the easy way with Patriarch and just blow him up on AR-mines. This map is pretty much strictly close quarters, so Haigen it is. Shotgun because it doesn't get enough love, Tesla to stack up Soakers. Damage and Slow for perks - turrets aren't going to do a whole lot here.
Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425437836
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425437813
Stacked mines on top of tower base - the simplest way to deal with Patriarch. He will always take the path to top Core. At least he has always taken it whenever I played.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425437846
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425437863
Not much to comment on this one. After Train Station, Roadworks, Abandoned Lab and The Depths in short succession, it feels like I'm back to tutorial. I just feel that this map's potential and idea have been wasted too much.

A stark contrast from The Labyrinth, this map features a wide open field. Thankfully, the map does not feature explicitly separated waves this time around. Amusingly enough, by playing coop and checking Youtube, I found out that what I've always considered to be a very natural way to build this map due to tower base limitations is not something people do all that often. Well, to be frank, there are 4 immediately clear ways to route waves on this map, depending on whether you want to open your Core on top or bottom and which side will take a stroll around it. And then there's a few more if you think about it. Hoooray creativity!
Things to prepare for: plenty of Walkers and Hoverers, Patriarch on the left, lots of Spitflies on last wave, virtually no Runners.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523124
I've already shown how Smatter Band and Simo work together back at The Gate. Cannons + Range combo will cover our distance needs. AA is not strictly necessary, but it lets you relax and take a nap on the last wave. Gatling is there because "why not", might as well just leave an empty slot.

Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523145
Environmental mines are a nice safety net for early waves.
By wave 3 we can turn the path around:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523203
That should get you through safely:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523231
After that comes some parallel row-making. It will make dealing with Hoverers really easy later on:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523261
By wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523282
Patriarch should take the left (top on the map) exit. But in either case, I recommend splitting the remaining environmental mines between two exits to speed up his demise. Then just, well, Smatter Band him to death, it won't take too long.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523315
As you see on the map, the other side of the wave is just barely beginning to spawn, so you can take a breather and leisurely prepare.
Waves 8-9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523341
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523366
There's lots of easy and safe angles onto Hoverers, and they are in full view of your Cannons to boot.
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523390
A joke of a wave. 2 level 3 AA's are enough to take care of Spitflies, but you can sell your Cannons and build some more. Every Bobblehead requires no more than 2 primary shots from Smatter Band (assuming 0 passive stacks).

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523409
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425523431
Full Core hp with little effort past waves 3-4. Most of the crowdy wave parts come from the left side, so I really fail to see the appeal of shortening their path and having the right side go around the Core. Don't let that stop you from trying, though. It's important to try and see ups and downs firsthand.

The final pre-DLC level features a wide open field, 1 wave with 6 bosses and a fair share of resources to work with. There are plenty of loadouts that can beat this level, but all that I know of can be classified into 3 major groups by main damage area location: Core builds, Side builds and Shore builds.
I'm really uncomfortable with Core builds and consider them much less fool-proof than 2 other types. I will give you 3 possible different layouts and let you figure out something else that might work.

I - Side build:
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425675559
Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425675606

Notes:
-Range is overcharged so that every Focus can hit the opposite side of the map
-Focuses are overcharged to ~450 damage and have targeting set to Most Health
-ACP is overcharged for the rest of resources (~1200-1300 damage)

I really liked the feel of that loadout from The Depths, so I decided to give it a shot here. The only job is to pick off Bobbleheads, kill Patriarchs and stack Soakers, which is accomplished fairly effectively by this setup.
Patriarch will start breaking the rows that were prepared for him, and it's a matter of win or loss to stop him before he gets all of them.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425675655
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=425675714

II - synergy Shore build:
I re-used my old screenshots here, so please bear with slight difference in format.
I actually forgot to take a shot before starting, so #1 is right after 1st Patriarch, #2 is after 2nd + Queen.
Character - Haigen (could be anything else. Haigen is, in fact, bad. Sweet/Skye should be better at it)
Weapons - Ballista + Gatling
Perks - Synergy (towers + 30% dmg to your targets), Exposure rounds (targets take 15% more dmg from everything), Hollowpoint rounds (any perk here, I guess)
Towers - Gatling, Range, Amp, Kairos
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=384693054
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=384693084

Tower Damage:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=384693132

Notes:
-Kairos because I'm dead tired of slow fields. SF should work just fine.
-Overcharging rightmost gatlings to ~600 dmg, others - depending on res left.
-You should aggro Super Heavies off to the side, so that they stay in range of gatlings longer. Also, if you're not running Sweet, use secondary fire on Ballista and primary on Gatling to prolong perk debuffs.

How does this even work? Well, I did promise to bore you with Gatling vs Focus math once, didn't I? Well here we go.
Gatling fires at a constant fire rate of 6.7 shots per second. Focus (lv 3) fires at 2.5 shots per second and ramps up from initial damage value to 5 times that over the course of 5 seconds. Assuming both towers are overcharged to the same damage number, we can perform a simple dps and accumulated dps calculation.
If you plug numbers into these formulas, you will easily see that Gatling outdamages Focus during first 4 seconds of sustained fire, assuming no target switching from Focus. If the targets are actually switched, Gatling only wins more.
Range consideration: Focus has 1.4 blocks of range advantage over Gatling, and extra damage adjustment needs to be done for each lume type separately. Suffice to say, however, that for fast enemies, that make up a good half of all available threats, this difference is 0-1.5 seconds of extra time for Focus and gives it a chance to even out. As soon as we forget a single enemy assumption and consider a continuous wave, though, Focus immediately loses any range bonus time and its performance takes a dip to originally calculated levels.
So, what does any of this mean in practical terms? Simply put, if your Gatling can kill a target within 1-3 seconds, it will perform better than Focus of the same damage. At 600 raw damage value, Gatling outputs 4020 damage per second, meaning it can drop a Walker in ~2 seconds. If we push it further with our perk selection, giving it 870 effective damage, we get ~5800 dps. Couple that with the fact that we're actually damaging the enemy to get debuffs, and it turns out your average enemy can be killed within about a second. Basically, we get a high stable dps with no drops due to target changes.

With that in mind, we don't even need to aggro Patriarch. Just let him waltz across specially prepared rows of blocks and debuff him with perks. Super Heavy is a slightly more problematic enemy, since he cuts down our Gatlings' efficiency severely, but Focuses can take care of that.

III - Shore at Rank 15:
The End 5 Fos Solo with things available at player rank 15.
Char: Skye
Perks: Hollowpoint rounds (rank 4), Static Discharge (rank 4), Exposure rounds (rank 12)
Towers: Gatling (rank 2), Focus (rank 15) Kairos (rank 7), Amp Spire (rank 12)
Weapons: Assault Rifle (Skye default, locked), Tesla ETK (rank 8)
Maze:
a) before 1st Patriarch (after Queen was dead)
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=392637438
b) after 1st Patriarch
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=392637465

Notes:
-Gatlings are overcharged to ~600 dmg, Focuses to ~700. Amp almost untouched. Kairos is mostly there because "why not".
-Rightmost towers are set for "Most health".
-Baiting Patriarch to right edge for a few seconds is required.
-As usual, Bobbleheads are #1 priority target for player. Other than that, just spraying across mobs to get Exposure rounds going works fine.
-I had to bait Super Heavy's attacks by standing on the rocks to the right of the maze to give Focus enough time to kill him.

It's slightly less convinient without Synergy, but still doable. This was originally devised as a request to win The End by a player who was around Rank 18.

The amount of mazes one can come up with on this map is insane. Plenty of bases to work with (I always end up with more than I need), lots of ways to use alternate pathings. This map introduces new enemies - Mutators and Healers. The former permanently increases hp of lumes it hits with a special attack, while the latter, well, heals its target continuously. These two are high priority targets, en masse or not. That said, the sheer size of this map makes is entirely possible to beat it in the same way as was presented on Roadworks.

Loadout I:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417309381
AoE damage, punch and lots of crowd control. Not dying is pretty much the only concern here.
Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417309414
And that's how far 4 tanks made it while I dealt with 22 Screamer Matriarchs:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417309458
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417309509
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417309536
My damage is slightly bloated from the wave with 6 Soakers and Mutators. Tower damage comes from AA and MC.

Loadout II:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029668
You might notice lack of CC, but, well, the map is huge and nothing really makes it past the killzone.
Early maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029690
Mid-game:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029700
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029740
The biggest problem for this loadout is the wave with 6 Soakers and Mutators, due to poor Soaker stacking capabilities. Notice that it is possible to drop down green, uh, fruits (?) on top of rocks to apply what seems to be a poison dot for some extra stacks.
I wanted to exclude Slowing Presence from perk selection, so I picked Haigen for extra HP as a safety net. Sweet+Slowing Presence has no troubles whatsoever, Soakers or not.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029755
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426029776

I can keep going on with various loadouts, but that would probably take ages. It's really the map where just about any playstyle can fit.

The map with the most satisfying environmental iteraction in the game - a giant moster-gibbing blade. An important note: it does not hit mind-controlled units. Again, there are various ways to route waves on this map, and again it is possible to kite it out.

Loadout I:
Character: Sweet
Weapons: Gatling/Ballista
Perks: Corpse Explosion, Hollowpoint Rounds and Reinforcements.
Towers: Kairos, Mind COntrol Spire, Slow Field Dispenser, Anti-Air

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=420518854
Sf's are positioned on smasher squares.
#1 priority is always taking out Mutators. Make sure to count them not to miss any.
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=420518872
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=420339111
I lost around 1k Core hp because I somehow miscounted bobbleheads on one wave and ended up with a 27k hp monster. Trust me, dealing with that is a real pain if he gets past the Smasher.

Loadout II:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426213868
Right now you should be asking - why on Loek III would I want to combine Tsygan, whose passive reads "bonus damage on last shot", Tactical Juxtaposition and slow weapons? Isn't it counter-intuitive? The answer is "Yes, if I'm not taking Rex". As of patch 1.4.35442 Tsygan's passive applies to every shot if you fully charge Rex's secondary fire. Yes, every individual small rocket.
As for tower choice - Fl for Runners, Lightning because I haven't shown much of it so far.

Early game:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426213917
Mid game:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426213957
Late game:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426213995
Admittedly, this maze is not the best I've come up with, but it still works. As long as you don't get too many mutated Bobbleheads, since Rex is barely useful against them.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426214043
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426214081
If you're not impressed by damage numbers after my explanation on brokenness of Tsygan's passive with Rex - well, I ended up driving it home with primary fire most of the time, because the maze was too short and the crowd was too juicy. Soakers went poof though, as expected.

Widely regarded as one of the most difficult levels of the game, with which I respectfully disagree, at least when it comes to singleplayer. If you've played through this map, you're probably well aware of 2 most difficult waves. And I'm pretty sure your troubles come from taking general approach.
Anyhow, there are 2 fundamental ways to build on this map that I know of - near the Core, which is what I see just about everyone do, and near enemy spawn, which is what I will show here.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864477
I've already made the case for Gatlings in my The End playthrough, but JFC was actually the map which led to that discovery for me. Range Spire will give them an extra push. AA takes care of annoying healers and Spitflies. Mines - well - carry the game.

Maze breakdown:
Note - if I don't mention where I put my resource, I'm probably overcharging one of Gatlings. I noted their damage numbers by wave 9, to give a sense of what to aim for.
Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865506
The wave itself is easy to take care of as Sweet, but it's necessary to build in advance.
Wave 2:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864724
All 1000 resources so far are put into Gatling.
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864822
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864876
Level 3 AA is, in fact, a bad idea, as you will slightly lack damage to comfortably deal with ground threats. Which, as is the case with Mutators, might very well net you 70k Walker monstrosity. After some extra testing, I find that Level 2 AA and one extra Gatling almost trivialize this wave.
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864930
From this point onwards, I left top right spawn merged directly into my killzone for a few waves, because I was confortable with the amount of threats and wanted to speed up my playthrough. In case of trouble, feel free to block it off with 4 blocks (see later) and have the lumes go all the way around.
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864958
A joke of a wave, and time to get Range Spire up.
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426864998
This one is even more relaxing. One more 500-resource Gatling.
Wave 7:
I even forgot to take a screenshot of it. It just went down really quickly, because 2 top spawns were merged in Gatling range while rightmost one was running all the way around. There's really not much to say, as Mutators fail to ramp up anything except a couple lumes from right spawn to decent numbers. Ah, the benefits of a really short path to killzone.
Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865059
Easy wave, but the most important bit of prep work - getting an AR-mine dispenser near Rs. Collect the mines and drop them on top of some tower base behind the killzone. Go get 3 environmental mines from behind your Core and drop them there as well. Have fun with wave 7.
Wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865192
Gatling stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865161
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865093
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865124
The most dreaded wave of the game is trivialized by dropping 2 packs of 2 AR-mines on the path of Walker Warriors near right spawn, and putting whatever you have left (2 AR + 3 environmental) on Matriarchs' path at top right spawn. Now all that's left is debuff those Hoverers. You won't even see any of Walker Warriors ever. A Matriarch might just make it after a while. There, done under a minute with no detriment to previous waves whatsoever.
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865222
Some preparation to ensure Patriarch's route. 3 AR-mines and a dedicated 500-resource Gatling will bring him down in a jiffy with all the debuffs. Well, Synergy seemingly doesn't work with mines, but just fine with the Gatling. Even if you can't kill him immediately, there's plenty of space to work with.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865552

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865607
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426865637
The concept of sustaining on waves 7 and 9 (which is what near-Core builds try to pull off) is just way too ineffective in my eyes after this. I mean, 400 resources invested into AR-mines and adjusted build location and maze formation beat those waves with no sweat, nerves or Core damage.

An extremely fun level with an extremely unfun boss. Fliskeplaske, the annoying flying thing with near-constant stream of target-seeking highly-lethal slowing projectiles and the only place where one can damage it randomly switching after soaking a certain amount of damage.
A short list of strategies that help to deal with it:
1) Drone Launcher, the easiest way to damage the damn thing
2) Being really really good with movement
3) Hydra Blood to increase HP regen
4) Makeshift Cannons
#2 is how I beat this level long ago on my very first playthrough
#4 is probably the most elegant. The credit for the idea belongs to theultramage (YT). I used a different loadout, bringing required tower types down to 2 from 4.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427020942
Makeshift Cannons can proc their stun on the boss, and with right amount they can delay him almost forever. The rest of the setup is one of the best crowd killers in the game. Haigen is safer with extra HP, but might have slight problems with Soakers.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427021142
The build goes from Core towards spawns. Range Spire is not necessary until wave 6-7. Bear in mind that you will be doing A LOT of work by hand. Corpse Explosion makes sure that any crowd goes poof. Using 2 horizontal lasers optimally is essential to ease the playthrough. Nothing should really be able to make it far past the first U-turn of this killzone. AA is optional, since AoE from Gatling and Ballista easily disposes of Healers, as well as Corpse Explosion.

Boss fight:
Set a few Makeshifts to Maximum Health and shoot the boss until ground enemies spawn. At this point comes the hard part - you need to take out the ground wave while dodging endless stream of Fliskeplaske's shots. Sadly, stuns from Makeshifts do not affect his firing ability at all.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427021181
By the time the wave is dealt with, the boss will more or less make it in range of all Makeshifts and pretty much halt his movement. Enjoy your easy mode bullet-dodging action.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427021251

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427021286
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427021327
Original loadout that I saw featured Skye with Juxtapositioned Gatling and Hydra Blood to stay alive, but I really didn't like how this map played out without some form of CC (and I'm not a fan of ACP, honestly, just because that sound kills my ears), so I bet on my dodging skills instead of HP regen. If you're not good at tracking and dodging homing shots while shooting other enemies, you might want that "safety measure" perk.

The most vertical map of this game with nice panoramic views of the maze. Things to watch out for are few - Jumpers and Hoverers are pretty much the only real problem. That said, last wave is a nasty surprise, with 10 Hoverers spawning close to the Core and 8 Walker Warriors and Screamer Matriarchs catching up from above. Resource count is also cut down significantly from previous maps: 150 less per wave (350 vs 500) nets a whole 1350 resources down from our previous experience. That's 2 level 3 towers and some extra. Or 3 Mine dispensers.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420066
This map features some heavy crowds, as well as a lot of annoying Jumpers, so splash damage and seeking projectiles make the map less frustrating. For defending near the Core, Lightnings take care of multiple threats reasonably well. Slow Field is a must, as the map is really tight with no ability to create paths going back and forth like on Cluster or Jellyfish Cove. Drones are not too important, whereas mines will fix the critical lack of DPS on towers.

Maze:
By wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420116
This arrangement makes sure that Jumpers that make it to defence line meet your Lightnings crowded up. Jumpers can only cross single block lines.
Note unspent resources - those will be need before the next wave.
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420145
This is the time to start stacking AR-mines. Level 3 AR-mines cost 400 (100+150+150), which is why I've saved resources from wave 4. They won't be needed until wave 10, so just stack them on top of something.

This is why VHC is a nice choice on this map:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420190
Seeking damage that travels over 10 blocks? Sign me up. Shooting the other spawn from this spot will also make lumes meet electric orbs. Just don't forget to factor in travel time.

First of the 2 actually hard waves - the Hoverers:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420211
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420239
Give Soakers on the bottom spawn a few stacks via Rex's alt-fire and ignore them. Drones and Lightnings will take care of them.
As for the real threat - Hoverers - you have to pick good angles against them. U-turn on top is the first spot, and that long straight row right before the killzone was made specifically against this threat. If you get knocked down or feel like you need to jump down and help with Soakers/Runners - there's plenty of good places to let all Hoverers past you and start dealing with the last one, working your way towards the first. Remember, the most important thing when combating waves containing Hoverers is safety.

After that come LOTS and LOTS of Jumpers:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420261
Note how double block cutoffs prolong the path of Jumpers (top left, bottom right).
That said, the place where the majority defence takes place is near you Lightnings. They are not capable of dealing with this Jumper density. Moving slowfields around helps to ease things up.

Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420317
By this time AR-mine dispenser has produced 18 mines. This is our damage against Walker Warriors and Screamer Matriarchs. U-turn on top is a good place to spread sets of 2 mines:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420288
Bottom wave doesn't spawn immediately, so it's fine to kill a couple threats up top, but then they can be safely forgotten about.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420344
As you see, all Warriors and Matriarchs are already gone. Now, dealing with Hoverers is hard with this setup, since Rex requires a lot of accuracy to do anything real here. Amending weapon or character choice to better accomodate Hoverer-killing should be easy enough by now.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420373
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427420396

Welcome to Sanctum Z - the zombie survival simulator. This map has the strongest environmantal hazard element - toxic waste, staring with wave 3 in singleplayer and wave 2 in coop. There are various ways to build on this map, with typical focus on Core protection. Cramming yourself into a corner is not fun, though, so I will demonstrate a slightly different maze.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494603
This map is extremely Grenade Launcher friendly, much more so than Outpost where I've shown it first. Perk selection is "simple, but effective" - crowding things up is essential for effective GL use, unless you want to run Slowing Rounds. Corpse Explosion is just too good to pass by against humongous crowds of this map (and, spoiler alert, the rest of Ruins of Brightholme DLC maps). Tower choice will be explained later. This time, I will present all 10 waves of the maze with some commentary after.
Maze:
Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494649
Wave 2:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494676
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494761
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494793
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494849
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494892
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427494923
Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495004
Wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495043
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495086
Given the fact that Cannon has a range of 4.1 blocks, it's probably clear why it works well in this setup. I really like it more than Focus here, because it allows me not to care about interruptions in range and simply build a maze that gives a long path, has a lot of safe-to-step-on squares (vast majority of what's within quartercircle I'm standing on in Wave 10 screenshot has no toxic waste) and forces Jumpers to go through all Cannons.
I've already tried to explain how to use GL once, but let's go over it again - its secondary fire is the most useful one. Set timed bombs up to cover a lot of area or cramp them near a huge crowd (Slow fields and perks help with that a lot) and watch the fireworks. It's absolutely useless against things like Bobbleheads or in emergency "I need damage right this instant" situations, so pick your secondary accordingly.
On early waves with Jumpers, focus on them. Set up GL's alt-fire in advance as they spawn and clean up with Gatling's aoe. Cannons can pick up whoever makes it through with a slick of health.

On wave 10 focusing on the Queen is essential. GL is pretty useless against her, and Cannons are not the best either, so she will make it pretty far.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495125
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495180
Even so, due to the maze directly merging into her spawn, you can see on the minimap how far the majority of the wave actually is, so you can leisurely get back there and take care of them.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495230
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427495263

Open field map with 2 Cores becomes really difficult to maze when you add enemies that can cross walls. The fact that you're not allowed to completely block off either Core pretty much makes leftmost quarter of the map wasted. Unlike Abandoned Lab, where lumes pretty much never follow the trail connecting 2 Cores from the side, here if you give them an exit leading to both Cores, they WILL spread out between the two. Needles to say, dealing with that is hard as it is, and coupled with pretty big crowds, zombie survival, Hoverers and whatnot, beating this map with full HP Cores requires some work.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427658724
Heavy AoE loadout with emphasis on getting rid of crowds by hand. Towers are picked to complement relative lack of consistent punch in high stress situations. The only thing this loadout has trouble with are Soakers, but there are not too many of them here.

Maze:
The approach I take is to cut off 1 Core completely and funnel lumes down a path with no variation for Jumpers to take. Should things go horribly wrong for whatever reason, with some rearrangement this maze can be turned around, cutting off the other Core and sending waves in an opposite direction.
Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427658783
Wave 2:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427658831
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427658910
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427658973
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659020
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659062
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659093
Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659195
Wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659240
Cores before 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659282
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659325
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659354

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659410
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427659448
Alternative to ridiculous amounts of character damage is Synergy/Exposure Rounds combination, but I find it more stressful to pull off.

Widely recognized as the most difficult map of Sanctum 2, Sokol is, to put it simply, an "up to eleven" version of Cliff Lodge. The key to success on this map lies in understanding that there is only so many resources available and left side has crowds way beyond the ability of towers to handle, whereas the right side has a peculiar set of enemies low in number and easily susceptible to Focus and Drone combination. And 4 Patriarchs on wave 11 for a topping.

With that in mind, comes the loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427705869
Maze:
Modus operandi is the same for every wave - kill left side as fast as you can and rush over to the right. Timings are really tight on Sokol if you want to minimize Core damage (and I sort of missed a couple windows when I was replaying the map for this guide, hence 930 HP lost).
Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427705922
Wave 2:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427705968
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706020
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706075
Building a 2-block wall leaving 1 square alongside the map edge is a slightly better way to ensure the route of Jumpers.
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706120
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706178
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706225
Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706273
Wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706352
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706395
Wave 11:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706498
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706555
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706596
I had 24 mines so 4 packs of 6 (remember - HP Rounds seem to work on mines for some reason). Focus fire on left side, as it doesn't have enough towers to soften Patriarchs. If you ever feel the need to go into their attack range, position yourself against the mid-map wall to not get blown off the edge.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706631
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427706703


01/05/2015 addition:
Took me long enough, but I finally managed to create a viable way to beat Sokol with left-side only towers. There is a way to handle those crowds after all.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435454748
Since we're handling right side by hand this time, Simo became my choice as the best specialist at killing Soakers, Hoverers and Bobbleheads, as well as someone able to deal substantial damage to Patriarchs. The unfamiliar perk - Tinkerer - increases the damage of last 3 towers built by 30%. It's a very efficient artificial boost which works in my absence.
Maze:
Wave 1:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435454819
Wave 2:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435454859
Quickly deal with the left side and rush over to the right. That hole in the fence will see quite a lot of usage:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435454891
Wave 3:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455000
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435454954
Same as previous, help your towers on the left until Hoverers get to the final U-turn:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455027
Wave 4:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455113
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455071
Blocking off Jumpers is essential, and at this point they won't make it past towers. 5 Walker Warriors are just enough to kite by retreating down the maze.
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455157
Time to get 2nd ACP up. This will make sure nothing gets past.
Wave 6:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455195
After leveling up ACP, helping left side or not is largely optional. Relaxing in a fence hole until Bobbleheads make it there works just fine:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455223
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455247
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455322
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455281
This is probably the nastiest wave in this setup. It's necessary to either stay on the left for a bit to slow the crowd and give some extra damage with Gatling Laser's AoE, or start on the right and be ready to rush back to kill one-two targets that make it through. Tanks are quite likely to make it to the Core here and cause some havoc.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455356
Waves 8-9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455422
Pretty straightforward, just overcharging ACP gets the job done. However it's necessary to build a level 2 mine dispenser and stash those 2 mines for wave 10.
Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455490
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455462
Build level 3 AR-mine dispenser and scatter mines to soften up Matriarchs. Try to avoid letting stray shots hit the Core like I did.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455525
Wave 11:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455590
ACP's are pretty useless here. Selling them for AR-mines will give just enough damage to get rid of Patriarchs, provided you soften them up with Simo's weakspot damage. And no, Tinkerer bonus is not retained if mines are harvested and then additional towers are built. So getting 2 level 3-s is actually better than getting 3 level 2-s like I did.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455643
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455678
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435455753
The Core didn't fare so well because I prompted one Patriarch to ground slam near it. Overall, I find this strategy to be more stressful than Corpse Explosion one.

08/05/2015 addition:
Betting everything on AR-mines brings full Core HP victory here as well. I used the same loadout as the first strategy (Haigen with Gatling/Ballista, HPRounds, Slowing Presence, Corpse Explosion) with a different tower selection - AR-mines, Range and Amp. Range and Amp were build at waves 6-7, before that just 4 mine dispensers. Most of the time mines are to be scattered on the right side, but I do recommend throwing a few to help out on the left, especially on waves with Jumpers. Keeping 2-3 alongside the chokepoint near 2-block wall is a good way to make sure you don't need to chase that random Jumper that somehow got through.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439197910
Core state:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439197936

Wave 11/Victory:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439197952
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439197963
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439197991
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=439198006

The entirety of The Pursuit DLC features dense crowds of lumes with a few waves full of Broodmothers thrown in for extra annoyance. Towers with punch and Armor Shredder are pretty much a must. One would think Drone towers could be of help, but their attack speed and damage is nowhere near enough to deal with this DLC's crowds.
On this huge map all that can really give a headache is getting through a few early waves - Heavy Pups, Walker Warriors, Broodmothers, Bobbleheads - a wide variety of enemies with little resources to speak of. I also wanted to steer away from Gatling Laser here, since I've used it for 3 maps in a row.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427801256
By this time I can probably get rightfully accused of overusing Slowing Presence. It comes from my preferred playstyle of being in the face of enemies and manually tanking and grouping the wave. Check some previous victory stat screns - my "damage taken" stat hovers around 1500-2000 sometimes going over 3k on maps like Power Relay and Slums. This pretty much means that I'm in a near death state 1.5-2 times per wave on average. If I didn't carry a personal range slow, all that would have become an actual death.

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427801870
There's lots of options, but I didn't even bother rebuilding the original too much. Retreating down long straight lanes is comfortable, it's also easy to deal with Hoverers when they appear. As for towers - I went with Lightnings because they're great against armored crowds. Amp was the last thing I built to deal with 2 Super Heavies on wave 10.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427801937
Incidentially, all I did on wave 10 was standing on top of the Core leisurely raining down charged Ballista shots and grenades from AR. Nice trajectory practice, I must say.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427801978
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=427802022

Armored crowds. Unarmored crowds. Broodmother crowd. 2 Queens with 15 Soakers for a finisher. 200 resources per wave. That should be enough info to nail down a working set of choices.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350450
Most of it is self-evident:
-Simo kills Soakers fast, Simo kills Queens fast - see The Depths
-Armor Shredder because Heavy Pups
-Slowing Presence because there's no way to survive 60 Walker pups (wave 2) without it and no AoE weapons
-ACP softens crowds and stops Broodmothers
-AA for a couple waves
-Sf because Range Spire is too expensive to get up in time
-Drones because 15 Soakers is a bit too much

Weapon choice is based on a few simple facts:
-Most typical enemies on this map - Heavy Pups - have giant glaring weakspots on their side
-Stacked up Soakers take huge crits from Nailgun
-Hoverers/Queens are almost weakspot-only enemies

The thing about Nailgun is that while it has huge kick, it also has a very fast accuracy recovery. Try using it on semi-auto at around 2-2.5 shots per second instead of hammering down the trigger, and you'll end up with fully controllable Sniper Rifle without huge animation wobble after shots.

Maze:
Waves 1-9 are handled by overcharged ACP. There's lots of leading Pups by the nose around the field involved. Within the maze it's better to stand on the bases and shoot Heavy pups in general direction of their weakspot. At worst, you deal normal damage, and at best they die really fast.
Wave 5:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350500
Wave 7:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350555
Wave 8:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350601
Selling AA after wave 7 is pretty much mandatory, as there won't be enough resources to upgrade Sf to Lv 3 and overcharge ACP to 1000 damage otherwise. Both are strictly necessary to handle wave 9's Broodmothers, as you can do nothing with this loadout if they actually make it to the Core.
It's also a good time to fish for fun crit death ragdolls:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350670
Oh, and 80 Core damage there is me aggroing a couple Spitflies from a wrong position and dodging shots. Entirely avoidable for untouched Core playthrough.
Dealing with wave 9 becomes easy with preparation:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350735
Just follow Hoverers and pick them up. Don't worry about Broodmothers whatsoever.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350783
See, I come back and set up nails for them do step on, but nobody makes it to my Second Field of Death *sob*.

Wave 10:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350830
ACP is worthless now, so what I did was set up a ton of Drones to put stacks on Soakers. Then simply focusing on 2 Queens makes for an easy win.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350889
By the time both Queens are dead, first batch of Soakers is neatly stacked up:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350953
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428350992
And those that make it past the entire field of Drones will get critted even harder:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428351026
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428351102

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428351133
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428351162

This map has largely the same characteristics as others in Chapter 7. Same types of enemies, same problems. Except only 1 boss, which is a little bit of a relief.
Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428457783
Playing this map without Slowing Presence is, again, suicide, as the maze is be pretty vast and a lot of damage needs to be done by hand. I did vary my damage perk this time around to help with Runners/Broodmothers and swarming crowds of Armored Pups.

Maze:
Early game is all about making 1 entry point and defending it to death. By mid-game it's possible to start making turns and prolong the path:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428457895
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428457943
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428457980
AR-mines were set up around wave 5-6, AA at appropriate points.
By wave 9:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428458146
Combat tactic is simple - slowly retreat from the entrance while laying down Grenade Launcher's secondary fire, then finish packed crowd up with Explosive Exchange and Gatling Laser. The only real trouble is 10 Bobbleheads, as Grenade Launcher is useless against them completely.

At wave 10 I went a little overboard with precautions against Patriarch.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428458265
He was not going to make it even to the first line. Selling AA gives some spare resources to set up for shallow water Patriarch fishing. Hook, line and sinker, all perfectly prepared:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428458212

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428458375
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428458431

Second only to The End in Boss count, this map features 3 Super Heavies and the usual Pursiut DLC style crowds.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428501895
The point of this setup is to deliver continuous AoE slow via Grenade Launcher's and Ballista's secondary fire across long distances. Sweet does this even better due to her passive. In fact, Skye has quite serious problem with Soaker wave on this map.
Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428501969
I had AA for 1 wave, but sold it immediately after.
All that matters on last wave is to stay safe and deliver slowing effect to bosses. One of the few cases where Slowing Rounds have a clear advantage over Slowing Presence - when high delivery range is what matters.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428502033
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428502159

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428502265
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428502482

Chapter 8 introduces new enemies - Spore Keepers and Spore Pods. Well, technically, Pods finally make their return from S1 in a slightly revamped form with a weakspot. Keepers have a couple unique features which will be discussed later.
This map features a reasonably limited amount of ground enemies, at least compared to previous maps, making an emphasis on quality over quantity. That allows me to demonstrate one more strategy - the mine field.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428990287
Most enemies here have easy to hit weakspots, so Simo plays out really well here. An already familiar set of perks and weapons that work well together. Explosive Exchange is there to cover for complete lack of AoE, as Keepers will crowd up fairly easy and Jumpers are the biggest pain (and the only unit that has a real chance to make it to the Core).
As for towers - AA is a good pick regardless of strategy, AR-Mines are our damage-dealer, Amp will push them into a strong anti-Keeper device (of which there's going to be a lot), Slow Field Dispenser was a wasted slot.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428990334
There's not much to say about the maze, as the basic one works fairly well. What's important is mine placement and promised Keeper features.
Firstly, Keepers die to Simo at a decent pace because of that weakspot on their head. Secondly, spores that they shoot during attack will travel back to them upon being hit, dealing AoE damage with 3 second (give or take) stun.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428990383
You can see by the trail from the yellow orb that it's going back to Spore Keeper. This ping-pong can buy a lot of time, not to mention several thousands of damage. By the way, those Simo units you get as reinfrcements sometimes hit those spores when shoting Keepers. They can also get on top of bases if you order them to, so they don't get overrun by enemies.
As for what to use mines for - highly depends on a wave and available mine count. For example, on the wave with 5 Walker Warriors and 7 Mutators I had enough mines to get rid of the latter (~8 level 3 mines), but not the former, so I did just that. Generally, trying to save as many as possible for last waves is a good idea, but stashing them is counter-productive. Putting them closer to the end of the maze will give enough time to soften up enemies and crowd them up with Slowing Presence before watching the whole group blow up.
Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428990403
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428990427
I did lose about 900 Core HP to Jumpers. I managed to misplace 5 mines on that wave, so my trajectory prediction skills are 100% to blame.

A leisurely map with LOTS of Spore Pods (20+ every wave), coming to us almost straight from Sanctum 1.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019668
The queen of hybrid support/damage loadouts for coop campaign on many maps, raining death and portable slow field from above and beyond. Upper Class and Long Range Superiority, as well as GL/Battle Rifle/Smatter Band are interchangeable, depending on whether there's more of above or beyond component. Train Station, The Depths, The End, Jellyfish Cove, Smasher, Sokol, The Bog... just about every map, honestly.

Maze:
There's not too much to discuss here. AA's are need from the get-go, and first wave is quite likely to end up with a few Spore Pods getting to the Core, as both GL and Upper Class are absolutely useless. Mountable cannon off to the side can alleviate that issue.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019807
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019783
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019724
The platform provides a nice vantage point to the majority of the map, as well as Upper Class bonus. Spore Keepers will still be able to target you there. 2 AA's take care of all Pods completely. This works as a better version of what I did with Skye on Last Chance - spray GL's secondary fire for effective AoE slow field that hurts a lot. Rex can pick up low-hp targets or just be some extra dps while GL is reloading.

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019826
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429019842
Don't get fooled by damage numbers. AA damage does count towards it, and that's 225 Spore Pods x 7500 HP each ~= 1.7kk damage. Ground damage is ~600k from ACP versus 1.9kk from Sweet.

Our last stop (I'm not doing The Last Stand, as I've explained before) is a relaxing map that gives a good chance to try less generalist setups. Most waves' ground part is simple slow to medium speed agressive enemies: Walkers, Havy Pups, Spore Keepers, Screamers etc. No crowds, no bosses, but a couple waves with lots of Spore Pods yet again.

Loadout:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429169054
I really just wanted to show a different setup. There's little need for active slow, as vast majority of untis is aggressive towards player. Also, this is probably the only map where Violators are just suboptimal, rather than extremely horrible. Did I mention that G-2 is the cutest tank you could ever hope for in this game?

Maze:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429138385
Long enough to keep things occupied. Wave 5 (6 Keepers, 4 Soakers) was a bit hard to deal with, but nothing too horrible for a setup that was not supposed to deal with this kind of wave. Throwing in a Gatling to stack Soakers should help out a lot. Or any towers, really. 400 resources per wave is a lot to experiment with. Also, G-2 can tank a suprising lot of damage.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429169226

Victory stats:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429169294
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=429169358
Even with a few Soakers thrown in, still a pleasantly surprising amount of damage. How it works on other maps - I'll leave it to your imagination.

Whew, that wasn't so easy after all. I really hope I've managed to provide enough food for thought on how it is possible to play this game and have fun with it. Admittedly, I overused a couple things a little, but if I come up with some more fun strategies relying on different perks, I will probably add them here.
If you note some mistakes, factual or formatting, please let me know. I'll do my best to get things fixed up.