.Vectoid TD 3D contains examples of:
- Airborne Mook: Many Vectoids have the Flying trait which gives them immunities to all towers that cannot attack flying Vectoids. The Flying group of Vectoids are the first example, and many Vectoids afterward have the trait.
- Anti-Magic: Downplayed since the game doesn't have true magic, but Dark Matter is similarly supernatural and Dark Matter towers can't attack Dark Matter Vectoids. note
- Arc Words: Or rather an arc letter, which is S. It initially shows up in the S Legionaries, and later appears for all postgame Vectoids, ending with the SSSS.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Most upgrades have some reason to be used, but a handful of them have a very hard time finding a place in the Competitive Balance.
- The Stacking Power upgrade for Bullet towers sounds really cool. It gives a HUGE buff to close Bullet towers. The problem? Everything else. It's the second most expensive upgrade in the game, it can only affect Bullet towers which are essentially the cheap as dirt early game towers, and it only has it's effect in a 3x3 radius. The last blow to this is the Booster tower's mere existence, which does nearly everything a x/4 Bullet tower does but better and without attacks.
- The Neuron Deactivation upgrade for Electro towers sounds, once again, very useful. It causes all attacked Vectoids to move backwards for a moment and be unable to regenerate. One catch: all is a bit of an overstatement. Due to Contractual Boss Immunity, Boss Vectoids are unable to receive this effect. Sounds fine until you realize that, by the time you get this upgrade, various Boss Vectoids will spawn on regular waves.
- The Stable Mines and Cold Dark Matter upgrades for DM Mines towers make mines carry over rounds with a bit less power then before and, in the latter's case, quadruples mine power! Unfortunately, these suffer from various flaws. Like the other examples of Awesome, but Impractical here, Cold Dark Matter is very expensive, and Stable Mines is fairly costly as well. Both upgrades are good for stalling, but in this game a Crutch Character is a terrible idea. Oh, and neither of them can attack Flying Vectoids, and at best can attack Dark Matter Vectoids half the time.
- Area of Effect: Sound towers deal damage to every Vectoid in their range when they attack.
- Boring, but Practical: Bullet towers are very simple, yet are very effective.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: There are Flying Vectoids, there are Diamond Vectoids, and there are Flying Diamond enemies. Destroyers also exist and have the Flying, Diamond, AND Dark Matter traits.
- Cool, but Inefficient: The Supernova upgrade for Particle towers is very powerful, however it's very expensive. Especially if you want it to be as useful as possible. Particle towers as a whole are also somewhat this due to their randomness.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Boss Vectoids are immune to all debuffs asides from the Acid Gun tower's Damage-Increasing Debuff. Some endgame upgrades bypass this.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Several towers end up having this.
- All Dark Matter towers can't attack Dark Matter Vectoids, which are fairly common. However, a DM Mines tower upgraded to Antimatter Mines can attack Dark Matter Vectoids with each second mine, and a DM Mines tower upgraded to Going Viral can attack Dark Matter Vectoids with all mines.
- Electro towers are completely unable to attack Flying Vectoids. DM Mines towers also can't attack them unless upgraded to Gravity Mines.
- The Sound tower's low range makes it's usage mostly restricted to bends in the track. Doesn't help that the left path is completely unable to attack Flying Vectoids.
- Down the Drain: The Acid Sewers are the second area in the game. Along with every map being mostly acid, acid spillways that increase or decrease enemy speed appear in this area.
- Eternal Engine: The Dark Laboratory is the third and final area in the game. It contains the majority of the game's electro fences, which prevent tower placement and can be bought to be removed, and elemental fields, which give Vectoids inside either the Dark Matter trait, the Diamond trait, or both.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Several towers and upgrades have abilities which you'd expect. The Regen trait is also what you'd expect. Zig-Zagged with Vectoids, as most early ones have abilities based on their name. Starting with Legionaries, most Vectoids avert this trope. However, all S Vectoids mostly follow the trope, simply being a stronger version of their previous appearance.
- The Goomba: Basics have nothing special whatsoever.
- Healing Factor: Vectoids with the Regen trait begin regenerating their health after not taking damage for a moment. Special shoutout goes to the Regen S which can heal all of it's health in a second!
- The Lost Woods: Diode Forest is the first area of the game. It's generally simple, with the only notable mechanic being unnamed sapling-like hazards that prevent towers from placement.
- Luck-Based Mission: Downplayed. Particle towers attack a random Vectoid in range. Unless your defense is only Particle towers, missions will only be partially luck based.
- Made of Iron: A lot of Vectoids have very high health, but a special shoutout goes to the Behemoth which has 2500 health and moves at fairly high speeds! And don't even get us started on the postgame bosses.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: As mentioned above, Destroyers have all three traits that provide immunities. Only about five towers can attack them, including the No-Sell inducing 4/x Booster. And even that doesn't entirely work! Xenons appear later on and have the Dark Matter and Diamond traits, along with Wenons specifically having Flying instead of Dark Matter.
- Shout-Out: A map in the Dark Laboratory is called "Debug Log". It's design is nearly identical to the "Logs" map in Bloons Tower Defense 6, just with a few electro fences added.
- Splash Damage: A few towers do this.
- Laser towers shoot Vectoid-piercing lasers.
- Electro towers shoot lightning bolts that can do chain attacks on multiple Vectoids, along with slowing non-boss Vectoids.
- Dark Matter towers shoot orbs that explode.
- Particle towers don't follow this by default, but one with the Particle Accelerator upgrade can pierce up to ten Vectoids.
- Spread Shot: The Bullet tower's Triple Shot upgrade is exactly what you'd expect.
- Unique Enemy: The Basic X, Attacker X, Flying X, Heavy X, and Splitter X immediately vanish after their first defeat, along with their weaker counterparts.
- Weak to Magic: Downplayed since true magic doesn't exist in the game, but Dark Matter is similarly supernatural and the towers which use it are the only ones which can attack Diamond Vectoids by default. note
- Zerg Rush: Many waves do this. Attackers, Legionaries, Xenons, and non-boss postgame S Vectoids usually do this.
