Defense Grid: The Awakening

Update April 2019: Hypercrate has temporarily made the videos private (the one embedded works but not the playlist). I have reached out to him to see if he will open them up again.

Hey all, huge fan of this DLC, and a lot of the reward is in completing it yourself, however, this playlist has all the story challenge missions gold videos you need to get through. For some levels, 'Surprise Party' and 'Divided Attention' in particular you have to pay particular attention to the timings in the videos for you to succeed.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE138460AC6CC27A7

All credit goes to him but if you have any issues with any of the achievements I have played it extensively and will be willing to help out.

The only exception to his videos working is the story challenge version of 'Command decision'. For that we would recommend the video posted below.

Stuck on "Command Decision", that stupid level where GLaDOS controls all towers? I was too! The reason is that there's tiny little differences between the PC and 360 versions and the enemies on 360 seem to have slightly more health. The PC strategy thus falls apart very quickly and can't be used on 360.

Here's a link to a 360 video that works flawlessly and is very easy to follow.

Only thing to note is that on wave 10 (I think), I didn't have enough money to place that third diagonal tower before the shield wave showed up like he does in the video. Instead, I skipped the third vertical tower (over on the left in the same area) and set up the diagonal tower before the shielders showed up. Then I set up the last vertical tower before they got to that point. Might've been a minor money glitch but that's the solution if it happens to you.

Since there are no current videos on the site that work for any level except Command Decision, I went digging for ones that will actually work for the Xbox360.

Typical You Tube Disclaimer: I take no credit for any of these videos. That belongs to the poster of the video.

Mission 1: Ghost in the Machine - For the most part this video works really good. I was typically far ahead of the video as far as resources go throughout the mission. It's really hard to follow though since the poster was not planning this as a guide. Make sure you have a lot of patience available for this to back up and replay the video to figure out what's going on.

Also of note, there's a very close call near the end where you need to kill a core carrier right after a Seeker passes him (around 12:57 in the video). I just upgraded the two cannons near the right temporal a little earlier and upgraded the two cannons that nearest the exit just to be sure instead of trying to get the timing right to repeat what the video does. My point total at the end was still 1,5k more than the video.


Mission 2: Divided Attention - This video appears to have been made on the console, so it is much closer to what you need to do than the previous.

One issue I had was being able to consistently repeat clearing wave 8 the way the video maker did (I accomplished it once the way he did, but I had to rewind because I placed the wrong tower and didn't realize it until too late). To solve this, I placed the meteor tower as soon as I could instead of waiting for the wave to clear. I caught back up to his resource count by delaying my build of the two concussion towers, and fully upgraded the command tower before upgrading the gun towers.

Also, on my first run, I wasn't able to clear the final wave properly. I was feeling impatient, so when I backed up to the last check point, I quickly fully upgraded the meteor tower and completed the level with ease. I ended with 5k less than the video poster, but it was still good enough to get a gold medal. So who cares...


Mission 3: Lack of Support - At level 10/11 where the video puts in a second command tower, the technique breaks down. Instead of putting in a command tower here, I upgraded the tesla towers to the immediate left and right of the two that were already upgraded (he skips one to the right, but I upgraded it) and the cannon that's nearest the core receptacle. I then built and fully upgraded the command tower as shown in the video.

Because I upgraded an extra cannon, my resources were always behind what the video showed. I just continued upgrading the same towers he did when I was able. I ended the level with 1k less than the video, but I still got a gold medal.


Mission 4: Restricted Access - Though this is on the PC, it's good enough for the console. The video's resources tended to be greater than mine throughout the mission, so I wasn't always able to place/upgrade towers when he did. I tried to copy him as soon as I could, and I was still able to complete the mission with a gold, even though I was 1.5K less than his score.


Mission 5: Command Decision - See other solutions here. They all have a video for this level that works.

Mission 6: Interference Pattern - This level is excessively easy (and very high scoring) with this video. I had no issues with this one.


Mission 7: Portal II - Another good video. The only problem is that at level 23/24, he has a bad build and had to jump back a check point. I was feeling impatient, so I didn't to it. I was slightly ahead of his resources at this point and I kept the upgrades on the towers in the lower right, and then added the two gun towers to the lower left and was able to keep pace with his resource count until he eventually upgraded the lower right towers after the check point jump. I finished the level nearly 2k points more than him.


Mission 8: Surprise Party - The biggest problem with this video is that if you save this level for last, it makes getting this achievement anticlimactic. (If you don't know what anticlimactic means, this is a very good video for the level).


Again, all credit for these videos goes to the content creator. I only found and tested each of them for the console version. If any of these links fail in the future, please send me a message so I can update the solution.

If you can find a video that works better, let me know that as well, as quite of few of the videos I found had some issues (but not uncorrectable issues) with them.

The command decision story challenge mission is glitched, and can make this achievement impossible if you don't know how to unglitch it.

If you can't get the achievement with this video:


It's because your temporal tower on wave 4 is speeding the enemies up rather than slowing them down. It's a glitch that occurs from when you fail in a later wave, restart the mission and the temporal tower remains a speed boost rather than a speed reduction tower, making the mission impossible as the cores get too close to the exit.

So what's the fix? Exit the mission and go back into it manually, don't restart from the "restart mission" button in the pause menu. When you navigate back to Command Decision - Story Challenge and try again, it will give you the option to continue (A) or restart (X) - pick restart (or it will resume your glitched save.) Now when you get to wave 4 the temporal tower will work as it should and will not glitch and speed up the enemies, allowing you to beat the level with the above video.