Hex Formation is a compact tower defense game played on a grid of hexagons. Green spinning enemies roll out along a winding gray road, and the turrets you place beside it have to wear them down before they reach the exit. If you want Hex Formation unblocked for a quick strategy session, it runs right in the browser with nothing to install. Because every six-sided cell touches up to six others, picking the right cell for each turret is what the whole game comes down to.
The Goal and the Rules
You start each map with 100 cash and 10 lives. Every enemy that rolls off the end of the road costs one life, and losing the tenth ends the game as a loss. Survive ten waves and you win.
Each destroyed enemy pays cash equal to twice its starting health. That money is your only income, so a strong early defense also makes you richer for the later waves.
Picking a Map
The opening menu shows three maps, labeled alternating, zig-zag and loopback, each with a small preview of its road. The waves, prices and starting cash are identical on all three, so only the path shape changes. That makes the map choice a pure test of placement: a cell that covers two stretches of road on one map may not exist on another.
Your best winning score is saved under each map’s button, which gives you a reason to replay all three.
How to Play Hex Formation, Wave by Wave
You can place turrets before the action begins, so use that time. Choose a type in the side panel, then click an empty dark hexagon. Moving the mouse over the map shows a preview of the turret on the cell under the cursor.
Press Start Game when your first turrets are down. Enemies enter at a pace of two per second. When every enemy in a wave is gone, the next wave starts on its own. Once a wave has fully entered the map, the button turns into Next Wave, which lets you call the following group in early.
The waves grow quickly. Here is the full lineup from the game code:
| Wave | Enemies | Health each |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 3 |
| 2 | 10 | 5 |
| 3 | 20 | 6 |
| 4 | 20 | 8 |
| 5 | 10 | 12 |
| 6 | 10 | 16 |
| 7 | 20 | 20 |
| 8 | 20 | 25 |
| 9 | 10 | 35 |
| 10 | 20 | 40 |
That is 145 enemies in total. A tenth-wave enemy has more than thirteen times the health of a first-wave one, so your defense has to scale with it.
The Three Turrets and Upgrades
- Standard (50 cash) fires one yellow shot per second and reaches about three cells. It is the cheap backbone of most builds.
- Rapid Fire (70 cash) shoots five small bullets per second but reaches only about two cells. Put it right against a bend.
- Laser Beam (120 cash) has the longest reach, about four cells, and holds a steady red beam on its target instead of firing bullets.
Click a turret you already built to see its range circle, level, damage, and the price to upgrade or sell it. An upgrade raises damage and stretches the range a little. The first upgrade costs 20 for a Standard, 30 for a Rapid Fire and 60 for a Laser, and each later level costs more. Dots on the turret show its level. Selling returns roughly 70 percent of its base price plus its next upgrade price, rounded down.
One quirk: selecting a built turret clears your chosen turret type. Pick a type in the panel again before you try to build.
Hex Formation Tips and Strategy
- Spend all 100 cash before you start. Two Standard turrets fit the budget exactly and are firing at the first enemy.
- Hunt for cells that touch two road segments. On every map there are spots where the road passes on both sides. A turret there gets twice the shooting time.
- Upgrade early rather than spreading thin. The first upgrade of a Standard costs less than half a new turret and makes it much stronger.
- Save for lasers before wave 7. Waves 7 to 10 send 70 enemies with 20 to 40 health each. Long-range steady damage is what holds them.
- Place Rapid Fire at the tightest turns. Its short reach wastes nothing when the road curls around it.
- Call waves early only when the road is empty. Stacking two waves overlaps their enemies and can swamp turrets that were coping fine.
Mistakes New Players Make
New players often place turrets along straight stretches. A turret there sees an enemy for only a moment, while the same turret on a bend keeps firing much longer.
Another trap is hoarding cash for score. Leftover money counts for only 1.5 points per coin before the ×10, while a single saved life is worth 1,000. Spend freely if it keeps enemies off the exit.
Finally, remember that every wave has to be finished before the game ends. A leak in wave 10 costs exactly as much as a leak in wave 1.
Controls, Devices and Who It Suits
Everything runs on clicks or taps. Pause freezes the action so you can plan, and End Game asks you to confirm before quitting. There is no keyboard control and no sound, so it is fine in a quiet classroom.
The layout was built for a computer screen and scales to fit, so a Chromebook or laptop gives the best view. A full run of ten waves takes several minutes, which suits a lunch break more than a 60-second pause.
For more planning games, browse the strategy games page:
- Canvas TD is another tower defense game with its own path and towers to master.
- PoliGuard has seven tower types and endless waves instead of a fixed ten.
- Missile Defense swaps planning for aiming, as you shoot down incoming rockets yourself.
