Unit Placement: Where to Put What
What this page helps you decide: where to put each unit type in the room you are about to play
The same team wins or loses depending on where it stands, and the documented clears across Floors 1 to 4 and Horror Mode all follow a small set of rules. This page collects them, explains why each one works, and marks the room shapes where the rule reverses - because it does reverse, and that is where most runs are lost.
Range decides depth, not power
The recurring pattern is that short-range area and beam units go near the front corners or the first bend, while long-range units go toward the middle. The reasoning is about coverage rather than strength: a short-range unit only ever sees the tile it stands on, so it should stand where enemies bunch and slow - corners, T-intersections, the approach to the exit. A long-range unit placed at the centre reaches several lanes at once, and its value scales with how many paths its circle touches rather than with how close it is to anything. Putting a long-range unit at the front wastes most of its range on empty space behind it.
Heavy single-target damage belongs behind everything else
Across the published clears, heavy hitters go deep - past the area units, closer to the exit. That looks wasteful, since they engage last, but it is the correct order: anything that reaches them has already survived the cheap damage, so it is by definition the target worth spending expensive damage on. Placed at the front, the same unit spends its time killing trash that the area units would have handled anyway. The Floor 4 Room 5 clear states this explicitly - set your strongest single-target and Secret units to attack the strongest enemy while area units control everything else.
Exits beat entrances when entrances outnumber you
Rooms with many entrances invert the usual advice. The Toy Chest has five entrances feeding one exit, and Floor 4 Burning Throne has seven. No layout covers five or seven spawn points at full strength, so defending entrances spreads you into ineffectiveness. The single exit is the leverage point: every enemy in the room must converge there, so damage near the exit sees everything while damage at an entrance sees a fraction. The rule flips again in rooms with multiple exits - Floor 3 Containment Breach has three exits and no convergence point at all, so concentrating anywhere leaves routes unguarded by construction, and each route needs its own independent coverage.
Spacing and upgrade order
One documented Horror Mode clear spaced its heavy units roughly five metres apart and maxed the copy nearest the entrances first. Both halves matter. Spacing prevents several units from sharing the same short stretch of path, which is the most common invisible waste in a layout. Upgrading front-to-back matters because damage applied early compounds: an enemy weakened at the entrance is easier for every unit behind it, while the same upgrade at the back only helps against what survived. At high health values, one fully upgraded unit reliably outperforms three partly upgraded ones, so finishing one upgrade path beats starting three.
Open with something durable, not something expensive
Several clears mention leaning on one cheap, durable early unit to hold the line while money accumulates. This matters more in Horror Mode and Floor 4, where boss waves arrive as late as wave 21 and income before them is the real resource. The early unit does not need to kill anything efficiently; it needs to prevent leaks long enough for the board to be funded. Spending your opening money on a strong unit you cannot yet upgrade is the common mistake - it performs like a weak unit for the first ten waves and leaves you unable to react.
Step-by-Step
- Put short-range area and beam units at corners and bends where enemies bunch.
- Put long-range units near the centre so their range touches several lanes.
- Put heavy single-target damage deep, near the exit, so it only meets survivors.
- In many-entrance rooms defend the exit; in many-exit rooms cover each route separately.
- Space heavy units apart and finish upgrading the front one before starting the next.
- Open with a durable cheap unit and let the early waves fund the real board.
Data Tables
| Room shape | Example | Where to concentrate |
|---|---|---|
| Few entrances, one exit | Floor 1 Bedroom | Stack on the single path |
| Many entrances, one exit | Toy Chest (5), Burning Throne (7) | Near the exit, where everything converges |
| Two exits | Floor 2 Funny Face | Split coverage, no single choke point exists |
| Three exits | Floor 3 Containment Breach | Independent coverage on each route |
| Constrained tiles | Floor 4 Burning Throne platforms | Rank units by damage per slot, not per team |
Figures are player-reported in community video BG3CrpQ_V8I by Rubenakayoshii, not developer-published. Ratios, shares and expected values are our own arithmetic on those figures. Checked 2026-08-27.
Tips & Notes
- Heavy damage placed at the front kills trash the area units would have handled - depth is what makes it expensive damage well spent.
FAQ
Where should I place AOE units in The House TD 2?
At crossroads, T-intersections and corners where enemies bunch and slow, or at the centre if the unit has long range and can touch several lanes.
Should I defend the entrances or the exit?
The exit, whenever entrances outnumber what you can cover - every enemy converges there. In rooms with several exits there is no convergence point, so cover each route.
Is it better to upgrade one unit or place more units?
At high health values one fully upgraded unit outperforms three partly upgraded ones, so finish an upgrade path before starting another.