So here we are... Elemental War Clash. This is a great Tower Defense game and the 3rd Elemental War Title.

Like the other Elemental War titles, you enhance towers with up to 3 elements. There are 7 different elements to choose from (air, fire, earth, electricity, shadow, water, and nature.) This allows for over 60 different towers and the can be updated to 3 different levels.

The gameplay is easy to learn. You start with a basic ballistic tower; as the game progresses, you can call out an element (or have the elements called randomly.) After you kill the element or it leaves the map, you can start adding that element to your towers to upgrade them. You can call each element out on to the map three times. To upgrade towers frank rank 1, 2, or 3, you need 1, 2, or 3 of the respective elements destroyed.

In addition, every time you kill an element, it drops an item as well. there are over 80 different items and they operate in different ways. Some items add a global bonus for you such as increased damage, slower monsters, or less expensive tower building. Others can be placed in towers to add splash and AoE damage, increase attack speed, or even double the amount of shots a tower fires. Some items have a cooldown and can damage every critter on the board, or slow/stop them or even temporarily affect every tower to increase damage or speed.

The game has nearly 40 different maps, 12 scenarios to teach you how to play, 3 different game modes (hero, classic, and survivor), and 5 different difficulty levels. It has multiple features including a leaderboard for each map, online pvp and co-op, random map generator, map editor, and the ability to share your custom maps with others.

The game supports native linux and I have not had any issues using Linux Mint 22. I know the game can use a controller and works on a steamdeck, but I admit I barely touched it on my deck as I much prefer keyboard/trackball for controls.

Overall, I highly recommend Elemental War Clash, it is a worthy successor to the prior games. While easy to play, all the towers and items make it difficult to master. If you are a TD fanatic you will love it, and the map editor and random element selection adds a lot of replayability to the game.

I can't say that I ever played a game like Lumencraft before. It is a unique mix of a mining/tower defense/base building game. However you wish to describe it, it is a fun game to play.

I do not know how they did it, but the mining part seems serene, even the crunch of the drill against the rock seems relaxing like the ocean tide and completely unlike nails against a chalkboard. The controls take a few minutes to get the hang of, (and there is an alternate control option,) but it is done quite well. Controls can be mouse/keyboard (my preference) or gamepad control.

Mining is the biggest aspect of the game, you will need to mine Lumen to upgrade technology, you will need metal to build structures, and you will even need to mine rock just to clear out space to place your buildings.

Tower Defense skills are needed as well. You will build, walls, gates, and various towers to defend against ongoing waves of spiders, worms, trolls, and turtles that want to get into your base and kill you and your power station. You can make clones of yourself in case of death, but once the power station is gone, game over.

Right now there are 3 types of games... Base Defense, Adventure, and Challenge maps. There are only 8 maps currently, but more will come and there is a map editor included with steam workshop support. (Already there are about 100 different maps on the workshop.)

The game has a native linux client that runs well on Linux Mint 20.3 with AMD RX 6600 graphics.
The game also works on the steamdeck. It was working on my deck, however, I personally found it was harder to play on the deck due to the small details in the game being harder to see on the small screen. YMMV.

The developer has already added a new tower, a new weapon, a new map, and a few more critters since the initial release. I expect the rest of early access to be just as fruitful. They are also looking to add online multiplayer to the development roadmap.

If you like base builders or TD games, get Lumencraft, it is well worth the price.