Marrow March

Tower defense games with skill trees

Updated

A skill tree turns a tower defense game into a long project: every level or run earns points, and the tree decides what kind of defender you become. In these games the tree is part of the strategy, not a menu on the side.

We make Marrow March, so it is on this list; it is marked as ours and it comes last. The rest are games we would point a friend to.

  1. Bloons TD 6

    Ninja Kiwi · Windows, Mac (Steam), iOS, Android · Paid

    Monkey Knowledge, more than 100 permanent upgrades bought with points you earn by playing, sits on top of every tower's three upgrade paths and decides which monkeys carry your games.

  2. Infinitode 2

    Prineside · Windows (Steam), Android, iOS · Free

    A research tree of more than 400 entries that unlock abilities and improve towers, miners and bonuses, for an endless defense on huge maps. Free, on Steam and on mobile.

  3. Dungeon Warfare 2

    Valsar · Windows, Mac (Steam) · Paid

    Three skill trees of eleven skills each, fed with skill points from experience, beside passive upgrades for every trap.

  4. Samawa Idle

    Windows (Steam), Android, iOS

    An idle tower defense with roguelike runs and a skill tree of six paths: what you spend your skill points on shapes the towers that fight on their own.

  5. Mindustry

    Anuken · Windows, Mac, Linux (Steam) · Paid

    A factory game with tower defense at its heart, and a tech tree to match: you research new blocks, from turrets to conveyors, and supply the defenses that hold your sectors against waves.

  6. GemCraft – Frostborn Wrath

    Game in a Bottle · Windows (Steam, GOG) · Paid

    Skills you unlock as you level up, and battle traits for replaying a field, shape the gems you combine and place, across more than 100 fields of battle.

  7. The Tower – Idle Tower Defense

    Tech Tree Games · iOS, Android · Free, with in-app purchases

    One tower against endless waves, and a workshop of permanent upgrades that every run pays into: here the tree is the reason to play one more round.

  8. Marrow MarchOur game

    Enes (us) · Desktop browser · Free

    Our tree is the Essence Tree: 100 permanent upgrades in 205 steps across 6 disciplines, no step over five levels, grown with the Essence every fall pays. A whole tree opens a second one, the Ancestral Sky, with 30 stars for the lines that pass into it. Free in a desktop browser.

How we chose

We picked games whose tree changes how you play, and say what kind of tree each one is: skill points from experience, a research tree, or meta-upgrades that carry from game to game. Facts were checked against each game's store on 1 October 2026.

Questions

What is a skill tree in a tower defense game?

A set of permanent upgrades, laid out as branches, that you unlock with points earned by playing. It lets you specialise your defense over many levels or runs.

Do these skill trees carry over between games?

In most of them, yes: Monkey Knowledge in Bloons TD 6, research in Infinitode 2 and the Essence Tree in Marrow March all stay unlocked from one game or run to the next.

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