How to Place Units in 8 Bit Tower Defense (And See Their Attack Range)

Quick answer

Select a unit from the bottom bar, then tap a lit (highlighted) spot beside the road. The circle around that spot is the unit's attack range — once placed, the unit attacks any enemy that walks inside its circle.

• Valid placement spots are the pre-lit tiles beside the road enemies travel.
• The attack circle is visible during placement and stays visible afterward; placement targets sit inside it.
• Tapping outside the valid area fails with an 'out of bounds' rejection.
• Placed units cannot be moved. To change a spot, sell the unit and place another one there.

Placement is the first action the game teaches — the official description is simply "Place your units, upgrade them, unleash their abilities and take down every boss" — and the tutorial sums it up in a single line: "Now tap the lit spot beside the road. Your unit attacks anything inside its circle."

How to place a unit, step by step

The on-screen tutorial walks you through placement in the training match (Waves 1–4), and the same steps apply any time you add a unit during a match:

1. Select a unit from the bottom bar. Your units sit in the bar along the bottom of the screen.
2. Find a lit spot beside the road. Valid placement tiles are highlighted, and they sit beside the road your enemies travel.
3. Tap the lit spot. The unit is placed there, with its attack circle showing around it.
4. Place more units the same way. After the first placement, the tutorial tells you to "Place the Honey Bee and the Dart Dragonfly the same way."
5. Press START when you're ready. That sends the first wave down the road.

What the circle around a unit shows

The circle is the unit's attack range. It appears around the spot while you place — the lit placement targets sit inside the unit's attack circle — and it stays visible after placement, so you always know where the unit can act. Enemies only get attacked once they enter the circle, and because enemies follow the road toward your outpost and must not reach it, the spots beside the road are what put passing enemies inside your units' circles. For more on unit range, see the unit range guide.

Placement limits in a match

You can't stack unlimited copies of a unit. In one observed match, the player hit a per-unit-type cap — "I have a max amount with them... I can only place four" — and also ran into a live deployment limit: "I would love to spam with so many of these, but like I can't. Only two can be sent out at once."

Those numbers came from a single mid-match session, and exact slot counts may vary by unit or progression. The practical takeaway: don't plan a defense around endless copies of one unit — expect a cap per unit type and a limit on how many can be out at once.

Fixing a placement mistake

If a placement fails with an 'out of bounds' rejection: the tap was outside the valid placement area. One player attempting a placement in a Normal-difficulty match got an 'out of bounds' rejection and adjusted to a valid spot.

If a unit ends up on the wrong spot: it stays there. A placed unit cannot be moved — a direct attempt failed ("Can you move it? Like, no, I can't move it") — so the way to reposition is to sell the unit and place another one at the spot you want. Remember that the replacement costs the cash you had put into that slot.

Where placement fits in a match

The tutorial sequence has you place your first units before you press START to send the first wave, and placement stays available during match setup and between waves. That timing matters because enemies follow the road to your outpost, so every unit you place beside the road is positioned to catch passing enemies inside its circle.

Placement is step one of the loop the official description lays out — place your units, upgrade them, unleash their abilities, take down every boss — so once your units are down, upgrades are the usual next move. New to the game? The how to play guide covers the full match loop, the how to get units guide helps you grow your roster, and the defense strategy guide covers the bigger picture of where everything goes.