Tesla x104

Tesla x104
Type	Artillery Tower
Level	4
Introduced	The Wastes
Build Cost	375 G
Damage	60-110 (66-121) 55-105 (61-116) Steam
Attack Rate	2.2s
Range	Average
Scope in Major Axis	330

“

Charged and ready.

”

The Tesla x104 is a Level 4 Artillery Tower in the original Kingdom Rush, with decent range and high damage. Its abilities allow its bolt to chain between more enemies, and create a static field that damages all enemies in its range. It is the last advanced tower to be unlocked (only available from Level 10, The Wastes).

It has the highest physical damage per shot of any tower in the entire game but is limited to hitting 3 targets per shot, or 5 targets per shot with Supercharged Bolt fully upgraded. Compared to the 500mm Big Bertha, the Tesla is stronger against spread-out enemies and deals higher single-target DPS. It's also more reliable against flying enemies than the Dragonbreath Missile.

Description

"Dwarven engineering at its finest, harnessing the power of a thousand thunderstorms. Who should we aim it at?"

This tower testifies to the true ingenuity of the dwarven race: the technological advances used in the Tesla are quite 'shocking', to say the least. Channeling electricity through its large coil, it fires a lightning bolt that chains between multiple enemies, even flying ones.

Abilities

Overcharge

"Ride the lightning!"

Whenever the Tesla x104 attacks, a static field is created around the tower, dealing damage to all nearby enemies. This damage is not affected by armor or magic resistance. This ability is effective for dealing with numerous, but relatively weak enemies, such as Wulves and Skeletons.

Level	Cost	Damage
1	250 (187)	5-15* (10-20 on flash)
2	125 (93)	10-20* (20-30 on flash)
3	125 (93)	15-25* (30-40 on flash)

*Note: This is the stated damage value, but it actually deals 10-20 / 20-30 / 30-40 damage (like in the Flash version) according to testing in the mobile version. The in-game numbers have been written in the table to avoid confusion.

Supercharged Bolt

"You've been Thunderstruck!"

Increases the maximum number of targets that the bolt arcs to. Without this ability, the Tesla will only hit up to 3 targets.

Level	Cost	Maximum Targets
1	250 (187)	4
2	250 (187)	5

Range

Howitzer to Tesla

Standard range without Upgrades

• 3% wider than Dwarven Bombard and Dwarven Artillery
• 8% narrower than Dwarven Howitzer and 500mm Big Bertha

Strategy

Strengths

• The main bolt can chain across a considerable distance, allowing the Tesla to effectively deal with spread-out enemies, a typical weakness of artillery towers. With Supercharged Bolt and the Smart Targeting Upgrade the Tesla can deal its full damage to several enemies that may be out of its normal range.
• Overcharge allows the Tesla to reliably damage all enemies in range. This efficiently kills off weaker enemies (Orcs, Bandits, Skeletons), no matter how numerous. Clearing out these weaker enemies allows its main attack, and the attacks and abilities of other towers, to focus on stronger enemies.
• Unlike other artillery towers, the Tesla can hit flying targets with its normal attack.
• The Tesla is one of the strongest towers in the game, if not the strongest, with regard to its raw damage output.

Weaknesses

• Unlike other Artillery, the Tesla can hit only a limited number of enemies with its innate attack and must rely on Overcharge to deal any damage to more than 5 enemies at once. Consequently, too many durable enemies can overwhelm it.
• Tesla Towers deal physical damage. Armored enemies such as Dark Slayers, even though half their armor rating is ignored, resist it nevertheless.
• Tesla's special abilities offer no utility, only increasing damage output.

Additional Stats

• DPS: 27.27 to 50 (average 38.63) | 25 to 47.72 on Steam (average 36.36)
• Total Cost: 1040 G (935 G with Field Logistic)
• Cost Efficiency: 26.92 gold per point of DPS (24.2 with Field Logistic) | 28.6 on Steam (25.72 with Field Logistic)
• The Concentrated Fire upgrade increases the base DPS by 10%: 30 to 55 (average 42.5) | 27.73 to 52.73 on Steam (average 40.23)
• Without Smart Targeting upgrade, the bolt deals 75% damage to the second target and only 50% damage to the third one and beyond.
• Overcharge Level 3 increases the DPS by 6.81 to 11.36 (average 9.09) | 13.64 to 18.18 on Flash (average 15.91)
• Total Cost with abilities fully upgraded: 2040 G (1682 G with Field Logistic and Industrialization)
• DPS with max abilities and upgrades (single target): 36.82 to 66.36 on Mobile (average 51.59) | 34.55 to on 64.09 Steam (average 49.32) | 43.64 to 73.18 on Flash (average 58.41)

Related Upgrades

• Concentrated Fire (1 Star)
  • Increases artillery attack damage (by 10%).
• Range Finder (1 Star)
  • Increases artillery attack range (by 10%).
• Field Logistic (2 Stars)
  • Artillery construction and upgrading costs are reduced by 10%.
• Industrialization (3 Stars)
  • Artillery special abilities costs are reduced by 25%.
• Smart Targeting (3 Stars)
  • Artillery suffers no reduction of splash and chain lightning damage.
    • (Artillery strikes deal the maximum damage at the center of the explosion. At the edges of the explosion and further away from the center, it deals the minimum damage. With this upgrade, artillery strikes deal the maximum damage every time in the entire explosion radius. For the Tesla, all enemies in the lightning chain take a random value in its listed damage range, 66-121, as opposed to half this range, 30-55. This upgrade also affects Musketeer's Shrapnel Shot on non-Flash versions.)

Related Achievements

ENERGY NETWORK Build 4 Tesla towers in any stage.

AC/DC Kill 300 enemies with electricity.

Quotes

• "Ride the lightning!" (Overcharge)
• "Charged and ready." (main)
• "Toasty!" (Supercharged Bolt)

Trivia

• "Ride the lightning"
  • The name of the second album by heavy metal band Metallica. It is also the name of the second track on the album.
• "Toasty!"
  • A line spoken in 1993 game Mortal Kombat II. It started as an easter egg, where an image of one of the game designers would appear on the screen and speak the line if a particular move was performed. Secret characters could be encountered if certain buttons were pressed whilst the image was on screen.

Gallery

Fully upgraded and in action.

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