DWAARP

DWAARP
Type	Artillery
Level	4
Introduced	Buccaneer's Den
Build Cost	400 G
Damage	25-45 (28-50)
Attack Rate	Very slow (3.0s)
Range	Average (Long)
Scope in Major Axis	360

“

Rrrready to rrrrumble!

”

The DWAARP, short for Drilling Weaponized Auto-Attack Rumble Platform, is a Level 4 Dwarven Bombard in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. It creates localized earthquakes that deal damage to enemies and slow down them by 60% for 0.4 second in its area of effect. Its single-target DPS is low but it compensates for this with its wide area of effect, dealing damage to all grounded enemies in its range with extreme accuracy.

Description

"The pinnacle of dwarven mining, its quakes damage and slow all enemies around it."

Forgoing the cannons of the basic towers, the DWAARP instead uses a giant mining apparatus as its primary weapon, dealing damage to all enemies in its range. However, it possesses terrible single-target DPS, the lowest among the advanced towers, and even lower than the Level 3 Dwarven Howitzer, making it ill-suited against individual targets with high armor or HP.

Compared to the other Level 4 Artillery Tower, the Battle-Mecha T200, the DWAARP is better against large numbers of spread-out enemies (especially when it covers multiple paths) due to its much wider range. However, it is less effective against more durable enemies.

Abilities

Core Drill

"They can't see what hit em!"

Sends an automated mining drill towards an enemy*, reducing it to a mound of gibs.

*Excludes Bloodshell, Phantom Warrior, Ghost, and mini-bosses.

Level	Cost	Cooldown (With the Gnomish Tinkering upgrade)
1	400	26 (23) seconds
2	200	23 (20) seconds
3	200	20 (17) seconds

Furnace Blast

"Give me fuel, give me fire..."

Burns all enemies in close range over 4 seconds, dealing true damage. (Cooldown: 15 seconds - once every 5 attacks)

A rotating beacon on the tower flashes red when the ability is ready. When this ability is used, it also deals the primary 25-45 (28-50) explosive damage to enemies in range.

Level	Cost	Max Damage*
1	300	100 (4 per 0.2s)
2	250	175 (7 per 0.2s)
3	250	250 (10 per 0.2s)

*: The affliction lasts for an extra 1 second. Therefore, enemies are burnt for 5 seconds at most.

Range

Howitzer to DWAARP

Standard range without Upgrades

• 12% wider than Dwarven Bombard and Dwarven Artillery
• Same range as the Level 3 Dwarven Howitzer

Strategy

Strengths

• The DWAARP is good against waves with a large or concentrated number of enemies, as it will be able to output huge amounts of damage and clear out weaker foes. Try to place the DWAARP on strategic points where the tower's range fills the entire path; especially curved or circular paths or choke points.
• It is excellent at attacking and slowing the various hound enemies - Sand Hounds can be killed instantly while War Hounds are damaged significantly. It is also extremely effective against Jungle Matriarchs - any Spiderlings are killed in one hit, and similarly, it can counter Sand Wraiths - with sufficient track coverage, it can destroy unlimited numbers of Fallen while damaging the Wraith itself.
• It is very effective against invisible Saurian Nightscales, as it can hit them with collateral damage while targeting a different, visible enemy.

• Furnace Blast is one of the most powerful upgrades in the game, and is absolutely worth upgrading. At Level 3, it deals a whopping 200 True Damage over 4 seconds to every single enemy in range, killing any weaker enemies and damaging even heavily armored ones.
  • Note that the Crossbow Fort's Falconer does not increase the range of this skill. While Falconer is a very strong buff for the DWAARP to have, it may end up wasting Furnace Blasts. This is because the ability is activated as soon as an enemy enters the DWAARP's normal attack range, which when buffed by Falconer, extends past Furnace Blast's area of effect.

• Core Drill is the only guaranteed Instant kill upgrade among regular towers, and is useful for mitigating the DWAARP's weakness against bigger enemies.
• Furthermore, Core Drill cannot be cancelled if its target dies, which might waste the ability. However, if the tower uses the ability and its target dies while another enemy is still in range, the drill will be retargeted. This can be combined with support towers to filter out weaker enemies so that the drill can be utilized to its max potential.

Weaknesses

• The DWAARP is completely harmless to flying enemies.
• The DWAARP is the most expensive tower in the game, with a total cost of 1065 Gold. Its special abilities are also very expensive, costing 800 gold each to max.
• The DWAARP's horrendous single-target DPS (the lowest amongst advanced towers) makes it lose much effectiveness against enemies with high armor or HP.
• Core Drill is not reliable as a counter against strong enemies, as it targets the enemy closest to the exit. This will often be a faster enemy, which normally has a low amount of HP, making it a less desirable target.
• Lycans in human form and Immortals are not instantly killed by Core Drill. Lycans transform into their werewolf form and Immortals turn into Fallen.

Notes

• Core Drill has a wider range than the DWAARP's normal attack, while Furnace Blast has a shorter range than the DWAARP's normal attack.
• Although Bloodshells are immune to artillery damage, Furnace Blast still works on them. However it will not trigger if a Bloodshell is the only enemy in the DWAARP's range.

Additional Stats

• DPS: 8.33 to 15 (average 11.67)
• Total Cost: 1065 G
• Cost Efficiency: 91.29 gold per point of DPS
• The Improved Ordnance upgrade increases DPS by 10%: 9.33 to 16.67 (average 13)
• Furnace Blast Level 3 increases DPS to 20.8 to 26.67 (average 23.73)*
• Total Cost with abilities fully upgraded: 2665 G
• Max DPS with max abilities and upgrades (single target): 26 to 33.33 (average 29.67)**

*Note: Furnace Blast doesn't change the attack pattern of the DWAARP. In a 15 second cycle the DWAARP can use 5 regular attacks and 1 Furnace Blast. Over this period the average DPS is 29.67 ((5*39+250)/15).

**Assuming that Furnace blast deals max damage against single target.

Related Upgrades

• Smoothbore (1 Star)
  • Increases artillery attack range (by 10%).
• Alchemical Powder (1 Star)
  • Artillery has a 10% chance of dealing maximum damage with no splash reduction.
• Improved Ordnance (2 Stars)
  • Increases artillery attack damage (by 10%).
• Gnomish Tinkering (3 Stars)
  • Reduces artilleries' special abilities reload times. (by 3 seconds)
• Shock and Awe (3 Stars)
  • Artillery towers have a 20% chance of stunning their targets for 2 seconds on every attack.

Related Achievements

 DEATH FROM BELOW Kill 100 enemies with the drill.

 POPULAR BBQ Set 20 enemies on fire at the same time.

Quotes

• "Rrrready to rrrrumble!"
• "Grrrreat Scott!"
• "Shake and bake!"

Trivia

• "Ready to Rumble!"
  • Part of the catch-phrase of Michael Buffer, a ring announcer for professional wrestling and boxing. The full quote features exaggerated on the 'r' sounds, "Let's get ready to rumble!"
• "Great Scott!"
  • The catch-phrase of Doctor Emett Brown in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
• "Shake and bake!"
  • A food package made by Kraft Foods. A bag of bread crumbs or flavouring to which meat is added, shook up, then sealed and baked to release the flavouring of the power.
• "Give me fuel, give me fire"
  • A line from the song Fuel by Metallica.

Gallery

Blast Furnace

Core Drill (Deployed)

Core Drill (Surfacing)

DWAARP in action

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