Income Mechanics & Timing Guide

Income is the heartbeat of Lanefall TD. Understanding how it works—and how to maximize it—separates expert players from casual ones. This guide breaks down the mechanics and shows you how to turn sends into gold.

How Income Works

Every unit you send into an opponent's lane permanently increases your income. The amount depends purely on the unit's cost—not its tier, and not its body size: a cheap Tier 1 unit adds roughly 0.9-3.0 gold per 10-second payout, a Tier 4 unit adds 87-211, and the Tier 5 Colossus adds over 2,600. This incentive is Lanefall TD' defining feature: attacking is not just about breaking mazes—it directly powers your economy.

Income stops increasing if it gets too large. A softcap prevents infinite scaling: once your income reaches 320 gold per payout (in early game), additional sends yield diminishing returns. This softcap gradually increases over time, but it prevents runaway snowballing and keeps late-game income competitive. The exact formula: income bonus = (unit income × softcap) / (softcap + current income).

You earn income in gold every 10 seconds, paid from a global pool. Miss a payout window by being dead? You don't get retroactive gold. Time your deaths carefully in late-game scenarios.

Late-game payout acceleration: At 12:00 (the 12-minute mark), the payout interval halves to 5 seconds—doubling income frequency for late-game intensity. This payout overdrive ensures that even small income leads become exponentially significant in the final stages.

The 10-Second Payout Cycle

Income arrives at fixed intervals: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 seconds, etc. If you have 40 gold per payout, you earn 40 gold every 10 seconds—4 gold per second. Smart players time their sends and purchases around these payouts. Sending a unit right after a payout gives you a full 10 seconds of income (from the boosted rate) before the next payout. Sending right before a payout wastes precious seconds of the new income rate—you only get partial benefit before the cycle resets.

Gold banking happens instantly: you earn your payout at the exact tick. If you have 50 gold and your payout is 30, you instantly have 80 gold. This lets you burst-spend on a tower or coordinated sends immediately after payouts. Watch your opponents' gold after payouts; sudden spikes often signal incoming sends or large tower investments.

Tempo Streaks Reward Consecutive Sends

Spend at least 20 gold on sends during consecutive payout intervals to build a tempo streak, up to a maximum of four intervals. At streak 1–4, your income conversion multiplier is 1 + 1.5 × streak / 4: 1.375×, 1.75×, 2.125×, and finally 2.5×. If an interval ends without at least 20 gold sent, the streak resets to 0.

This creates a direct tradeoff between frequent sends and banking. Saving for a larger wave can still be useful, but missing a payout sacrifices the streak; maintaining a 20-gold send cadence earns up to 35% more income conversion while keeping pressure on the opponent.

Tempo Sends vs Eco Sends

Not all sends are created equal. A tempo send is small, fast, and designed to apply immediate pressure. Sending a single Tier 1 unit every 30 seconds costs 25 gold but permanently raises your income. Over 10 minutes, that's 20 sends = 20 small income boosts. The damage is minimal—it rarely leaks—but the income boost is consistent and forces your opponent to constantly reinforce their maze.

An eco send is slightly larger: 2-3 Tier 1 units or a single Tier 2. It costs more (50-100 gold) but applies real pressure and significantly boosts income. Eco sends are riskier; if your opponent's maze is strong, your units die for minimal effect. But if the timing is right or the maze is weak, an eco send can leak multiple units, snowballing your advantage.

Coordinated sends are large, expensive, and rare: 5+ Tier 2 units, or a mix of Tier 2 and 3. These cost 200+ gold but are designed to break maze sections and leak decisively. Coordinated sends usually happen mid-game when both players have built strong economies. They're all-in: if the send leaks, you're way ahead; if it dies completely, you've wasted massive resources.

The best players mix all three: constant tempo pressure to wear down mazes and build income, eco sends to exploit weaknesses, and rare coordinated sends to break open strong defenses.

Income Banking & Efficiency

Banking gold can fund a stronger wave, but it now has an opportunity cost: missing an interval resets your tempo streak. If you're about to send 200 gold worth of units, preserve the streak with at least a 20-gold send in the current interval when possible, then use the next payout to fund the larger attack.

Income-per-gold gets better as units get more expensive, not worse. The yield curve rises with cost: a 15-gold Scud returns ~0.9 income (6.0% of its cost per payout), a 700-gold Divider returns ~56.7 (8.1%), and a 26,000-gold Colossus returns ~2,620 (10.1%). So the cheap-spam-forever plan is the weakest economy in the game—cheap sends are for the opening, when they are all you can afford and you need the income clock started. Every gold you can push up the ladder buys a permanently better rate.

The only real counterweight is the softcap, which bites harder the richer you already are. Bounty does not punish you for sending big: the defender collects a flat ~5% of a unit's cost whatever you send, so a Colossus refunds them no more per gold than a Scud does. Upgrade your sends as fast as your gold allows.

Watch enemy income trends. If an opponent's income is growing faster than yours, they're sending more units. Either speed up your own sends, or invest more into maze to neutralize their sends. Income gaps are self-reinforcing: a 10-gold-per-payout advantage compounds over time into insurmountable gold leads.

Apply These Concepts

Start every game with a tempo-send strategy. Build just enough maze to survive, then send constantly. As your income grows, shift toward eco and coordinated sends. Study how strategy principles interact with income mechanics, and explore maze design to understand how to defend against income-boosted attacks.