First waves
Build a Dino Defense Beginner Guide
Learn the four top buttons, buy the green index cards you can afford, and treat wave 10 as Titanhorn rather than a mystery boss.
Build a Dino Defense Guides
Short routes for the first waves, the buttons, the buy order, the boss cards, and the Royal Egg. Every price below is on a screenshot on this site.
Buttons
Build a Dino Defense Controls
Every control this page names is a word on a screenshot. If a button is not in that set, it was not on the HUD we recorded.
Buy order
Build a Dino Defense Progression
Spend in the order the headers unlock. The shop's thousands and the Elite Trap's hundred-thousands come after the index, not before it.
Later waves
Build a Dino Defense Advanced Guide
Past wave 37 the index stops being cheap, bosses get huge HP and tiny SPD, and the timer shop finally has prices that match a long run.
Boss order
Build a Dino Defense Boss Order
The order is the wave printed on the card. Mini-bosses are the gold MINI BOSS headers. Bosses are the red BOSS headers.
Royal Egg
Build a Dino Defense Royal Egg
The Royal Egg grid is five portraits and five percents. HATCH [E] costs 79 of the hexagon currency. Frost Egg at $10000 is a different label.
The six guides in the order they help
Two guides cover the first run. Beginner starts before wave 1 and ends at the Titanhorn fight on wave 10. Controls is the lookup page for every button and key named on the HUD; read it when a label in a screenshot is unclear, not as a step in the route.
Progression is the buy order. It assumes you already know the buttons and asks where the next dollar goes: an index card first, a shop restock or Elite Traps later. Advanced picks up at wave 37, where boss HP starts to outrun dino damage.
The last two are branches rather than stages. Boss Order lists the wave printed on every red and gold card, and Royal Egg explains the five-result hatch panel and the separate Frost Egg label.
| Guide | Stage / reader | Open it when | Answer in one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | First run / new player | Before wave 1 | Four top buttons, green cards under $30, wave 10 is Titanhorn. |
| Controls | Reference / any player | A HUD label is unclear | Every named button and key, with the screen it appears on. |
| Progression | Buy order / first $100 | Cash first passes $100 | Spend in header order: index first, shop and Elite Traps later. |
| Advanced | Later waves / wave 37+ | Wave 37 and beyond | Boss HP grows, dino SPD stalls, shop prices start to match a long run. |
| Boss Order | Boss check / any wave | Before a boss wave | Titanhorn at 10 through Grovebreaker at 250, with headers. |
| Royal Egg | Side system / egg panel | The hatch panel is open | Five portraits, five percents, 79 hexagons, Frost Egg at $10000. |
A clickable path from first wave to late game
The short path is Beginner, then Progression, then Advanced. Controls sits beside all three as a lookup page, and the two branch pages wait until the run reaches a boss wave or the egg panel.
Following that order keeps one question per page: what the buttons do, where the cash goes, then what changes after wave 37. Opening Advanced first gives advice about boss HP before the first green card is bought.
What these guides do not cover
There is no damage formula, no tier grade for all 50 cards, and no drop table in these pages. The index card does not print any of those values. The numbers that do appear are the pills on the card and the prices on the shop row, each tied to a screenshot.
A wave in a guide means the wave printed on the card header, not the HUD counter. The HUD counter moves with every fight; the card wave does not. When the two disagree, the card is describing its place in the index and the HUD is describing the fight you are in.