Arcane Wizard

This article is about the tower in Kingdom Rush. For the enemy in Kingdom Rush: Vengeance, see Arcane Magus.

Arcane Wizard
Type	Magic Tower
Level	4
Introduced	The Citadel
Build Cost	300 G (270 G)
Damage	76-140 (88-161)
Attack Rate	2.0s
Range	Great
Scope in Major Axis	400

“

Klaatu Barada Nikto!

”

The Arcane Wizard, called Arcane Tower on the iPhone version, is a Level 4 Magic tower in the original Kingdom Rush, with a wide range and the highest damage per shot out of any tower. Its spells include Teleport, which instantly moves a group of enemies backwards along the path, and Death Ray, which instantly disintegrates any enemy regardless of health or resistance.

Compared to the other Level 4 Mage Tower, the Sorcerer Mage, the Arcane Wizard tends to be better at cleaning up tougher enemies, but lacks reliable crowd control, like the Sorcerer's Earth Elemental, though this is slightly mitigated by Teleport.

Description

"Arcane wizards focus on altering reality; as well as shooting the deadliest magical ray known to man."

The Arcane Wizard is a true powerhouse. Its high-damage, channeled spell can one-shot most smaller monsters and make short work of other enemies with high HP or armor, be it on the ground or in the air. It also harnesses the power of the deadliest ray known to man: the Death Ray, which can turn any monster to dust in one hit. It is first available at The Citadel.

The actual damage values are 70-140 (80-160) on mobile.

Abilities

Death Ray

"Avada Kedavra!"

Disintegrates an enemy* into fine creep dust.

*: Excludes bosses and mini-bosses.

Level	Cost	Cooldown
1	350	20 seconds
2	200	18 seconds
3	200	16 seconds

Teleport

"Space is merely a perception, a concern for mortal men."

Teleports a group of enemies** back down the path. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)

**: Excludes bosses and mini-bosses.

Level	Cost	Maximum Targets	Transfer Distance
1	300	4	21-30 nodes
2	100	5	26-35 nodes
3	100	6	31-40 nodes

Range

Wizard to Arcane Wizard

Standard range without Upgrades

• 43% wider than Mages Guild
• 25% wider than Adept Tower
• 11% wider than Wizard Tower
• Same range as Sorcerer Mage and Rangers Hideout

Strategy

• The Arcane Wizard is a powerful mage, specialized in decimating enemies one by one. It deals a huge amount of damage with each shot, higher than all other towers in Kingdom Rush, and ignores armor, making it a great counter to heavily armored enemies, and tough enemies in general, such as the Dark Knight, Dark Slayer, Yeti, Magma Elemental, etc. The strength of the wizard is further improved by its abilities, which are more expensive than most other towers' abilities but also more powerful.
• Death Ray is the most reliable instant kill of all instant kills in Kingdom Rush and gains all of its might immediately at level 1, but it suffers from a lengthy recharge. It can be upgraded level 2 or 3 to reduce its recharge time, but it's rather costly, so if the player has multiple Arcane Wizards it is better to upgrade each of them to Death Ray tier I first.
  • Death Ray should be used to quickly eliminate tough enemies, especially Forest Trolls and Troll Breakers, which are extremely durable due to their regeneration rate. Dark Slayers, Demon Lords, Demon Legions, Yetis and Magma Elementals are also good potential targets for the skill.
  • As a mini-boss, Cerberus is immune to all instant kills, including Death Ray, so it cannot be countered by this skill.
  • Death Ray isn't recommended for fast and/or numerous enemies (e.g. Wulves, Worgs, Giant Spiders), since they are individually weak, deal low damage and therefore the skill's potential to kill even the toughest enemies will simply be wasted on them.
• Teleport is the only ability in Kingdom Rush that is able to move enemies backward. The skill creates a whirling purple runic symbol on the path that teleports all enemies on top of it before vanishing. As it vanishes quickly it often teleports less than the maximum number of enemies, meaning it isn't usually necessary to (fully) upgrade this skill.
  • This skill can significantly slow down the progress of small groups of enemies, thanks to its quick cooldown. Use it to counter semi-durable foes that come in numbers, such as Troll Champions, Orc Champions or Demon Legions, to buy more time for the Arcane Wizard and other towers to kill them.
  • Teleport is not very good at holding back fast enemies, such as Wulves, but is able to stall large, slow enemies such as Forest Trolls, Troll Breakers, Dark Slayers, Yetis and Magma Elementals. It can often stall these enemies indefinitely, allowing time for other towers to damage them or for Death Ray to recharge.
  • A Teleport Chain is created by a few Arcane Wizards placed spaced from each other so that when a group of enemies is teleported by one wizard, the next can catch and teleport them back even further. This requires quite a bit of gold, luck and good planning, but usually pays off well when it activates.

Strengths

• The Arcane Wizard has the highest base damage of all towers in Kingdom Rush, making this tower an excellent choice to counter mighty enemies, including bosses.
• The Arcane Wizard specializes in combating larger opponents; Death Ray can kill any non-boss enemy instantly and Teleport can stall slower enemies indefinitely.
• Use soldiers and Reinforcements to hold off weaker enemies, so the Arcane Wizard can focus on the stronger ones.
• It is recommended to place the Arcane Wizard around the back of your defense, where only the strongest foes can make it to. This is so that the wizard can avoid being distracted by lesser enemies, and focus its damage and Death Ray on tougher ones. It can also use Teleport to further stall enemies and send them back to any choke points you have created.
• Placing multiple Arcane Wizards along a boss' route can assist in defeating it, as bosses are slow and have no magic resistance to protect them against the rays of the wizards. Death Ray and especially Teleport may help thin out the hordes that usually accompany bosses, thus allowing your towers to focus on the boss itself.

Weaknesses

• The Arcane Wizard deals purely magic damage, so magic resistant foes, such as Winter Wolves and most Demons, take far less damage from the rays.
• The Arcane Wizard has the slowest fire rate among all magic towers in the series, meaning it has poor crowd control abilities and will struggle against hordes of small or fast enemies, even after Teleport has been upgraded. It can waste a large amount of potential damage on low-HP enemies due to its high damage per attack and its ability Death Ray.
• Winter Wolves and Demon Hounds are the nemeses of the Arcane Wizard; both have quite a lot of health, come in packs, move fast and possess magic resistance. Arcane Wizards are very weak against them.

Additional Stats

• DPS: 38 to 70 (average 54)
• Total Cost: 800 G (720 G with Hermetic Study)
• Cost Efficiency: 14.81 gold per point of DPS (13.33 with Hermetic Study)
• The Empowered Magic upgrade increases the base DPS by 15%: 44 to 80.5 (average 62.25)
• Total Cost with abilities fully upgraded: 2050 G (1970 G with Hermetic Study)

Related Upgrades

• Spell Reach (1 Star)
  • Increases wizard's attack range (by 10%).
• Arcane Shatter (1 Star)
  • Magic attacks destroy a potion of enemy physical armor on every hit.
    • (-3% armor per hit, percentage points, doesn't work on enemies with physical damage immunity.)
• Hermetic Study (2 Stars)
  • Mage Towers construction and upgrading costs are reduced by 10%.
• Empowered Magic (2 Stars)
  • Increases wizard's attack damage (by 15%).
• Slow Curse (3 Stars)
  • Magic attacks slow enemies by half their speed for a moment
    • (half a second, Arcane Wizard the whole one-second beam duration. Also disables Rocket Rider Turbo boost).

Related Achievements

DUST TO DUST Disintegrate 50 or more enemies.

BEAM ME UP SCOTTY Teleport 250 or more enemies.

Quotes

• "Klaatu Barada Nikto!" (main)
• "Avada Kedavra!" (Death Ray)
• "You shall not pass!" (Teleport)

Trivia

• "Klaatu barada nikto"
  •  A line spoken by the character Klaatu in 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still. The phrase was used to stop the robot Gort from destroying the Earth. The phrase has been used in many other games, films and TV shows since.
• "Avada Kedavra"
  • The spoken word for the unforgivable killing spell used in the Harry Potter series (book and film), which kills the target outright. The character Harry Potter is the only person known to have survived the spell.
• "You shall not pass"
  • A line spoken by Gandalf in the 2001 film Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, when confronting a Balrog and stopping it from reaching the other members of the fellowship. The line is slightly different in the original text, reading "You cannot pass.". However, in the Peter Jackson film, the line is 'You shall not pass!'

Gallery

The Arcane Symbol

Zzzap!

Teleporter activated

Teleport successful!

Avada Kedavra!

Title artwork

Arcane Wizard in action

View All Towers