What are some good general strategies to get past the moon levels in Revenge of the Titans?

I can't get further than the moon levels in Revenge of the Titans. I don't seem to be able to end each game with enough money to purchase more than the basic weapons and upgrades. Does anybody have any good general strategies for this game?

Solution 1:

there is a nice little tips guide over here. Also, it's worth noting that if you mine all crystals before the enemy spawning progress bar on the right runs out, you get a bonus $500. And don't be afraid to use a powerup now and then, berserk on the big guys can really make all the difference.

Solution 2:

One thing that I didn't realize was that the money used in-game, used to research, and the money you start a mission with was all the same pool - I don't know why I didn't make the connection, but realizing that helped me a ton.

Anyways, some bullet points, I just recently started the game myself so there's a lot of fundamentals - I hope it's not too patronizing.

• You get money back for buildings still around after the mission, so I build the better guns because having fewer guns with the same amount of firepower in most cases is easier to keep them alive. Also easier to pack together around power-up buildings.
• Destroyed buildings are lost cash after the mission is over. For a while I didn't know why my money was going down even though I didn't research.
• Keep out of the Titans' general walking path (usually roads) to get attacked less, and mine everything you can because that money caries over to the next missions. I prefer to build things that I end up not needing and getting refunded over not getting all the money I can from the mission because of fear of over-mining.
• Use high quality barriers to block them from attacking your buildings, but don't block their path unless you need to, and be clean about placement because there's a limit to how many you can have at one time.
• In order to make sure you have a good early foundation to buy those good buildings, giving you a critical level of power from the start that the enemy can't break, skip researching if you're going to start with too little money. The game will usually warn you about those things before a boss level.
• For the Moon/Mars, get the blast cannons, use the blast cannons, as early as possible.
• Up to 4 of the same power-up buildings can stack their effects an any given building, so if you need to, build a few in the same area.
• If you have half a second of extra idle time, harvest those refineries early and reload turrets that aren't in an area with too much action, even if it's not really too low on ammo.