Defense Grid: The Awakening Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts

This guide provides a useful list of keyboard shortcuts that aren’t mentioned anywhere in the game or its manual.

Mouse Shortcuts

At the start of a mission, before you have placed any towers, you can right-click to begin the mission instead of placing a tower like the prompt in the Tactical Recon bar says to. This allows you to accrue slightly more interest without having to waste some Resources building a tower.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you hover over an empty space that you can build a tower on, you can press the following number keys (located on the top row of the character keys) to build the tower without having to use the mouse:

• 1 – Gun
• 2 – Inferno
• 3 – Laser
• 4 – Temporal
• 5 – Meteor
• 6 – Cannon
• 7 – Tesla
• 8 – Missile
• 9 – Concussion
• 0 – Command

Additionally, if you hover over a space that already has a tower on it, you can press the following keys to upgrade or sell the tower:

• U – Upgrade
• Shift + U – Sell

Notes:

• These keyboard shortcuts cannot be performed with your keyboard’s numeric keypad (which is the 3×3 cluster of numbers on the right side, if applicable).
• If you have the tower context menu open (to build a tower, or upgrade or sell it), you have to close it. The keyboard shortcuts only work if the tower context menu isn’t open.
• These number key shortcuts are always associated to the listed tower even if you do not have access to certain towers during a mission.