At Tier 1, players rely mostly on their Y axis of awareness. Players mostly focus on defending the third of the map they spawn on. Players are able to teamshoot across the map in some cases to help out, but primarily all players need to do at tier 1 is focus on winning their side. Imagine Boneyard defense. The Bravo team focuses on holding off the lobby, the Alpha team focuses on holding the cliff Stairs and Alpha Stairs, and the Middle Team focuses mostly on defending whatever side the opposing middle team has gone off to. Conversely, the attackers on Boneyard focus along the same lines of pushing mostly right or mostly left. The awareness required to win tier 1 here focuses on locality and linearity. This translates well to Spire, but is diminished slightly on Breakpoint due to the smaller nature of the tier 1. However, players on Breakpoint still focus mostly on winning their side. At this point, players are mostly working on their Y-axis, dealing with players coming in front or behind them.

At Tier 2, the X axis gains new importance. Now, players continue to focus on holding their side, but they must remain aware of flanks from their left and right as well. Players all spawn with mid-to-long-range weaponry now, and can affect each other across the map along the X- and Y-axes. Now, the Bravo team holding the Junkyard of Invasion must be aware of players moving along the Conveyor Belt because those players could flank from behind them, attack Alpha, or simply shoot them in the side. Similarly, Spire Elites must teamshoot from multiple angles to keep the Spartans back, and Spartans must take advantage of flanking angles to pick the Elites off of the Spire. This also plays out well on Breakpoint, as Elites need the combined directional flanks of a Wraith from Bridge and/or Elites from the Main Tunnel to split Spartan attention enough to push a bomb through. Now, players are working with their X- and Y-axes, dealing with players coming from the front and back, and from each side.

Now, at Tier 3, an additional Z-axis comes in play in the basic map design, the new loadouts, and the aircraft added to the map. Imagine the inside of the Boneyard base. Players sitting at the weapon spawn must stay aware of Elites flanking them from the side, dropping to the second level from the roof, rushing the core from the bottom floor, or coming in through the side doors of the second floor. Then, if they go outside, they must also beware Elites holding the Conveyor Belt, jetpack Elites with power weapons, and an aerial threat in the Banshee. On Spire, Elites defending the top floor must concern themselves with Spartans lifting up to them, Spartans lifting above the Spire and dropping through the roof, a Falcon or Banshee flying around the outside, and guys running around the ring. On Breakpoint, the Banshee and Falcon add much verticality, and the jetpackers make the Spine an important playspace. All three axes are important at Tier 3.

Once again, the awareness Invasion players must possess to succeed at each tier increases relative to the Tier. At tier 1, they must focus on things happening in front of them, with some small local flanks. At tier 2, they must focus on things happening in front and around them. At tier 3, they must also concern themselves with things coming above and below them.