Orc Problem 5.1: Triple Threat and the Rear

Last reviewed: 11 September 2026 · Newest game update reflected: 2026.08.18.12.05 (published 19 August 2026). Triple Threat asks you to survive level 5.1 with only three types of towers and no abilities. 17.2% of players have it, which makes it the second-rarest achievement in the game — and yet the one guide this site holds that describes the attempt calls the level "pretty easy." Both of those things are true, and the reason they are compatible is the most useful thing about this level.

Rarer than harder

Here is the part of the achievement table that reads backwards, as the all achievements page lays it out:

More turret types allowed, fewer players finishing. The constraint is loosening and the completion rate is falling.

The explanation on the 6.1 page applies just as well one level down: the type allowance tracks the level, so the number of types is a proxy for which map you are being asked to do it on. 5.1 is not harder than 3.1 because three is harder than one. It is harder because it is 5.1.

That is also why "pretty easy" and 17.2% sit together without contradiction. The unlock rate measures how many people tried, and nothing in the game prompts anyone to attempt a self-imposed constraint — the no-turret run page makes the same argument about an achievement whose author said it needs no guide at all.

What the one published account says

A second community guide, covering the harder achievements and cited on the all achievements page, describes clearing 5.1 with defences set up covering the rear. Its author adds a detail that is worth more than the layout itself: the bottom two cannons and machine guns could have gone elsewhere, because so few enemies reached them.

Read that carefully and it tells you three separate things.

The composition included cannons and machine gunners. That is two of the three types accounted for, both of them from the power side of the role framework — the cannon at 34.5 DPS with 31 penetration, the gunner at 24 shots per second with a penetration of 3.

The rear needed covering at all. On a level where everything walks one way, "covering the rear" would not come up. It is the clearest signal this site holds that 5.1 asks you to hold more than one approach — the same property the 6.1 page blames for that level's difficulty.

The rear was over-built. The author's own verdict is that those turrets were wasted where they stood. So the level demands rear coverage and then does not send much through it, which is a nastier design than it sounds: you cannot tell from a successful run how thin that side could safely have been.

Choosing your three types

With abilities forbidden, the three-way split on the turret roles page is the whole planning exercise, because three types is exactly enough to take one of each job and nothing spare.

Power — a cannon or a laser, aimed along the line orcs walk rather than across it. This is the type you cannot skip; nothing else in the roster deletes the body of a wave.

Support — the grenade launcher's 60% slow for 3 seconds and the 30% extra damage slowed orcs take is the largest single multiplier available, and the mortar's knockback across a 28 m blast is the alternative if you want a choke physically held shut.

Cleanup — the tesla coil, set back from the line. Its 360° aim is the argument for it on a level with more than one approach, since it is the only turret in the game that cannot be flanked.

The guide's own composition leaned on two power turrets rather than one, and it also reported over-building the quiet side. Those two observations point the same direction: if you have to choose, the type you are most likely to waste is a second power turret, and the type you are most likely to miss is the one holding the flank.

The order to attempt it

Clear 5.1 normally first, then go back for the constrained version — the same order the 6.1 page recommends, for the same reason. Knowing where the routes are turns the run into a placement puzzle instead of two problems stacked.

In the sequence the achievement tracker suggests, this is the fourth constrained run, after 1.1, 3.1 and 4.1, and immediately before 6.1. If 6.1 is where the lesson about composition gets graded, 5.1 is the last rehearsal.

A note on the numbers drifting

Global unlock rates move as more people play. This page uses the set captured on 7 September 2026, where Triple Threat reads 17.2%. Earlier captures on this site record it at 17.1% and, in August, at 15.6% — the glossary gives the range rather than a single figure for exactly this reason. Treat the ranking as stable and the decimals as a snapshot.

What we have not confirmed

Neither logged patch on the update history page names level 5.1.

We do not have the wave composition, enemy counts or map layout for 5.1, and the account above does not include a diagram or a full turret list — cannons and machine guns are named, the third type is not. We do not know which approach the rear defences were covering, or how many routes the level has. We cannot say whether the achievement is enforced on 5.1 or simply attempted there, and no source addresses whether selling a fourth type mid-run voids it.