Cameraman Tower Defense Units Guide: Crate Odds, Costs and Best Carries

This guide explains where every unit in Cameraman Tower Defense comes from, how likely each pull is, and what it costs on average, so you spend coins and gems on units that win. Most of the numbers here come from a video by the channel Vaulted Values X, which says it read many crate lineups and winning Insane runs. Treat its figures as good estimates, not official rates, and check the in-game odds before you spend. If you are new, start with our beginner guide first.

The Basic Crate: coins and rotation

One summon costs 100 coins and ten cost 900, so pulling in tens saves 100 coins each time. The crate has six slots, and each slot holds one unit at a time. The video says the lineup changes about every 30 minutes and that a timer at the top of the panel counts down to the reset. That means you can only pull the unit that is in the slot right now. If it is not the one you want, wait for the next reset before you spend.

The slot odds the video gives, which match the odds in the AllThingsHow guide:

• The two bottom slots make up about 80 percent of all pulls (plain Cameraman, plus Brown Cameraman or Car Speakerman).
• The rare slot switches between TV Man and Popcorn Cameraman.
• The epic slot is 4 percent and rotates Large Cameraman, Large Speakerman, Large TV Man and the Camera Helicopter.
• The legendary slot is 1 percent and rotates Ninja Cameraman, Titan Cameraman, Titan Speaker Man and Laser Car.
• The mythic slot is 0.1 percent, one pull in a thousand, and rotates Titan Cinema Man, upgraded Titan Speaker Man, Glitch Cameraman and two prototypes.

What a pull really costs on average

Averages are not promises, and bad luck is normal. The video's estimates, counting ten-pulls:

• Epic: about 25 pulls, roughly 2,250 coins.
• Legendary: about 100 pulls, roughly 9,000 coins.
• Mythic: about 1,000 pulls, roughly 90,000 coins. The video says even 100,000 coins spent can leave about one player in three with no mythic.

The video says the best coin farm it found was Insane with the double health mobs modifier, at about 150 coins a minute, and that hard wins paid under 30 coins a minute. On those numbers a legendary is about an hour of play and a mythic about ten hours. When the game runs a double coins event, every win pays its base amount again, so that is the time to farm. A double luck game pass exists (it costs real money, so ask a parent first), and the video says it only doubles slots under 10 percent. A luck potion stacks with it.

Units worth knowing

Figures below are maxed damage per second and the cash needed to max, as the video reports them from winning runs:

• Popcorn Cameraman (rare): the unit to keep. It is a farm that pays up to 200 cash a wave at max, and you can place up to three.
• Large Cameraman (epic): the video says every one of the three Hard wins it studied used it.
• Large TV Man (epic): the cheapest partner for a carry, and one Insane win used only a jetpack unit and Large TV Man.
• Ninja Cameraman (legendary): the usual opener. 11 of the 20 Insane wins placed one. It maxes at 1,000 damage a second for 1,800 cash.
• Titan Cameraman (legendary): 3,000 damage a second at max.
• Laser Car (legendary): carried two Insane wins with no mythic at all, placed 11 at a time at 7,000 cash each to max.
• Glitch Cameraman (mythic): the cheapest mythic to max, 6,000 damage a second for 13,500 cash.
• Titan Cinema Man (mythic): about 40,000 cash to max, but it hits an area, and it appeared in five of the Insane wins.

Titan TV Man, a legendary, was missing from all 15 Basic Crate lineups the video checked from the last week, and the video says it may have left the crate. It is also described as the weakest carry for its cost, so do not wait for it.

The Woman Crate

This crate cannot be bought with coins. It only drops after a win: about 2 percent of Easy wins, 4 percent of Normal, 6 percent of Hard and 10 percent of Insane. So one Insane win is worth about five Easy wins for this crate. Inside, Dark Camera Woman is 78 percent, Speaker Woman 20 percent and TV Woman 2 percent. Speaker Woman is the one to grind for: about 11 of them carried an Insane win on Desert, and she maxes at 3,500 damage a second. Dark Camera Woman is common and deals only about 400 damage a second at max, but her attack range of 40 is the longest the video has seen.

The Spider Crate and gems

Gems come from quests, which open after 20 wins and pay 5 gems each, with four on the board at a time, so a full board is 20 gems. One try costs 100 gems and ten cost 1,000, so there is no discount for pulling ten. The odds are Speaker Spider 90 percent, Camera Spider 9.8 percent and TV Spider 0.2 percent. A Camera Spider takes about 10 tries (around 1,000 gems) and maxes at 3,500 damage a second with a range of 35. TV Spider takes about 500 tries, which is 50,000 gems or 2,500 full quest boards, so treat it as a lottery ticket. The card shows a range of 40, but the video says that is how far it walks, and its attack only reaches 20.

Paid units and what to run without them

Scientist, Large Scientist and Engineer come from a paid crate, which costs real money. The video says a maxed Scientist donates 500 cash a wave and costs 3,900 to max, so it pays back in about eight waves, and you can place four. Even so, 7 of the 20 Insane wins it studied never placed a Scientist, because Popcorn Cameraman can be your farm. Jetpack comes only in a paid pack. Three mythics that look like paid items (Glitch Cameraman and the two prototypes) can also be pulled with coins from the Basic Crate mythic slot, so check the slot before you pay for the pack.

A simple plan

1. Open with a Ninja Cameraman and farm with Popcorn Cameraman, both from the Basic Crate.
2. Pull in tens only when the legendary or mythic slot holds a unit you actually want.
3. For Insane without a mythic, the video's proven carries are Laser Car and Speaker Woman.
4. Play Insane, because it pays the most coins and drops the Woman Crate five times as often as Easy.
5. Save gems for a Camera Spider.

We have not played every unit ourselves. Numbers can change in a game update, so recheck the shop and crate odds after one.