Sir We Have an Orc Problem Getting Started with Sir, We Have an Orc Problem

What you are playing

Sir, We Have an Orc Problem is a single-player incremental tower defense from Mumpitz Games on Steam (app 4594150). You defend a trench base against orc hordes that scale from hundreds of attackers on early maps to well over 100,000 on the final campaign levels. Runs are short, but a persistent upgrade tree carries your account forward whether you win or lose. The full campaign targets roughly four to six hours, so the opening hour is about learning the rhythm rather than min-maxing every node.

The fantasy is simple: orcs behave like a fluid mass streaming through your map, and your job is to slow, burn, and explode that flow before it reaches the base. Turrets include the Gunner, Flamethrower, Mortar, and Cannon, each unlocked through meta upgrades. Active abilities such as missiles, strafing runs, orbital lasers, and nukes give you burst damage when the swarm spikes. None of that needs to be mastered on day one, but knowing the shape of the game prevents early frustration.

Beginner gameplay - first waves, Gunners, and the upgrade tree

Your first session in five minutes

Every level splits into a build phase and a battle phase. During build, you place and reposition turrets along the trench; press Space when you are ready to start the wave. Until you unlock Gunners, your only offense is the starter missile, which fires on cooldown and deals area damage. That is enough to learn that losing still pays meta currency, but not enough to clear later maps.

Your first meaningful unlock is almost always the Gunner tower. Select it from the bottom bar or press 1, then click and drag along the trench to draw a line of turrets. Right-click removes a segment; R recalls all placed towers if you want a clean reset. Watch where orcs actually walk on the first attempt - pathing follows fluid-like rules, so a placement that looks good on paper may miss the main stream. The How to Play guide walks through build and battle timing in more detail.

After each attempt, open the meta upgrade tree and spend whatever currency you earned. Early nodes increase end-of-battle payouts, unlock Gunner damage or fire rate, and raise your maximum Gunner count. Do not hoard resources waiting for a perfect clear; incremental progress is the intended loop.

What to prioritize before level three

New players often ask whether to buy damage or economy first. For the first few maps, a mix works: one or two economy nodes that increase currency per run, then Gunner fire rate and one extra tower slot. Base HP upgrades are cheap safety nets, but stacking only health without DPS leads to slow losses on dense waves.

Once the Flamethrower and Mortar unlock, placement matters more than raw Gunner count. Flamethrowers belong at the front of the flow so every orc takes burn damage; Mortars and Cannons cover the kill zones behind them. That funnel concept is covered step by step in Choke Points and Kill Zones. If you prefer an ordered unlock list instead of experimenting, use Upgrade Priority alongside the Turret Tier List so you know which towers earn their slot on each map type.

Controls worth memorizing early

You can play entirely with the mouse, but shortcuts speed up rebuilds. 1 selects Gunner (other turret types gain their own keys as you unlock them), Space starts battle, R recalls towers, and right-click deletes a segment while placing. Missiles and later abilities sit on separate buttons with their own cooldowns - spamming them at the start of a wave wastes damage on thin lines. Full binding notes live on the Controls page.

How losing fits the design

Failed runs are not resets. Kills convert to meta currency, and surviving longer than your previous attempt still funds the tree. Many players deliberately farm a tough map for three or four losses, buying penetration or fire rate between tries, then push for a clean win once DPS spikes. That pattern becomes essential before the 100k-orc levels described in Beat Hard Levels.

Clean wins - killing every orc without leaking - often grant a bonus currency used for higher-tier unlocks. You do not need perfect clears on every early map, but learning which levels award the bonus helps you plan when to chase abilities versus economy.

Suggested reading order

If you want the fastest route through the campaign, follow this path after your first two runs:

1. How to Play - build phase, battle phase, and the meta screen between maps.
2. Economy and Meta Progression - when to buy payout nodes versus tower caps.
3. Choke Points and Kill Zones - fluid pathing and Flamethrower-first layouts.
4. Upgrade Priority - recommended unlock order by campaign stage.
5. Turret Tier List - how Gunner, Flamethrower, Mortar, and Cannon compare at each phase.

First-map checklist

Before you press Space on a new level, confirm you have placed turrets along the actual orc stream from a prior scout run, unlocked at least one economy node if the map is a repeat grind, and saved missile or strafing-run cooldowns for the mid-wave density spike rather than the first ten orcs. After battle, spend all currency - partial wallets do not carry special interest, and the next node is usually cheaper than another failed attempt.

Sir, We Have an Orc Problem rewards observation: one watch run to learn pathing, one farm run to buy upgrades, one push run to clear. Repeat that cycle and the later horde sizes become manageable instead of shocking.