500mm Big Bertha

500mm Big Bertha
Type	Artillery Tower
Level	4
Introduced	Icewind Pass
Build Cost	400 (360)
Damage	50-100 (55-110)
Attack Rate	Very Slow (3.5s)
Range	Long
Scope in Major Axis	360

“

Say hello to my little friend!

”

The 500mm Big Bertha is a Level 4 Dwarven Bombard in Kingdom Rush with high damage and an even larger damage radius. The range is the same as Dwarven Howitzer's. Its two abilities are the Dragonbreath Launcher, which shoots long-range missiles, and the Cluster Launcher Xtreme, which fires bomblets that explode along the path.

While the Tesla x104 is good at taking out flying enemies and tanks, the Bertha specializes in killing huge numbers of weak enemies.

Description

"The 500mm siege gun, AKA "Big Bertha," is the biggest, baddest, piece of artillery in the block."

The Big Bertha is the final product of years of crafting and refining in dwarven metalworks. The Cluster Launcher Xtreme can damage a dozen units in a single shot, and the Dragonbreath Launcher will target air and ground enemies alike, never missing its target.

Abilities

Dragonbreath Launcher

"Guaranteed mayhem. Use with discretion." (Flash) "Guaranteed mayhem!" (Steam and Mobile)

Launches a seeking missile with extra range that never misses. They find another target if they lose the current one. (Cooldown: 13 seconds <14.1s on Steam/Android>; 6.5 seconds when shooting only missiles)

The Dragonbreath Launcher will target the enemy unit closest to the exit and can also target flying enemies.

Level	Cost	Damage*	Detection Range
1	250 (187)	100-140	120%
2	100 (75) 125 (93) Flash	140-180	140%
3	100 (75) 125 (93) Flash	180-220	160%

*: These are actual damage values. The in-game description may be misleading.

Cluster Launcher Xtreme

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning..." (Flash) "...smells like victory!" (Mobile and Steam)

Fires a special bomb which will explode in the air dropping multiple bomblets in the area.

(Cooldown: 17.5 seconds–once every 5 attacks, 12.5 seconds on Flash)

On mobile and Steam, Cluster Launcher interferes with basic attacks.

Level	Cost	Damage	Number of Bomblets
1	250 (187)	60-80	3
2	150 (112) 125 (93) Flash	60-80	5
3	150 (112) 125 (93) Flash	60-80	7

Range

Howitzer to Big Bertha

Standard range without Upgrades

• 12.5% wider than Dwarven Bombard and Dwarven Artillery
• Same as the Level 3 Dwarven Howitzer
• 9% wider than Tesla x104

Strategy

• One should use the Big Bertha against tightly grouped swarms of enemies, to take advantage of its high damage and large explosion semi-major axis of 67.5.
• Cluster Launcher Xtreme works well against flying enemies if there are ground enemies below them. It can annihilate entire rows of Gargoyles in one shot.
• Although the primary weaponry of the Big Bertha is rather ineffective when dealing with scattered enemies, the Cluster Launcher Xtreme provides wider coverage.
• Unless the player is facing dense, sustained waves of enemies, it is recommended to purchase Dragonbreath Launcher before Cluster Launcher Xtreme, since the former generally provides more DPS and has a faster cool-down.
• The Big Bertha should be used near enemy-spawning spots such as graveyards - no other tower (except Tesla) is as efficient when it comes to hordes of lesser enemies.
• Using artillery in combination with some troops (Barracks, Reinforcements, or Heroes) will increase their efficiency. Holding a group of enemies in one place allows artillery to utilize its area damage to its fullest.
• Against fast enemies, such as Wulves or Worgs, the Big Bertha may miss.
• Big Bertha should be used in straight lanes and/or split paths where Tesla would be a poor choice. Tesla is far superior in U shaped paths.
• Killing quickly the enemies on range while Dragonbreath Launcher is on the air makes the rocket search enemies on other lanes, making the ability a somewhat map-wide coverage.

Additional Stats

• DPS: 14.29 to 28.57 (average 21.43)
• Total Cost: 1065 G (958 G with Field Logistic)
• Cost Efficiency: 49.7 gold per point of DPS (44.7 with Field Logistic)
• The Concentrated Fire upgrade increases the base DPS by 10%: 15.71 to 31.43 (average 23.57)
• Cluster Launcher Xtreme Level 3 increases the DPS to 22.86 to 38.86 (average 30.86)*
• Dragonbreath Launcher Level 3 increases the DPS by 20 to 23.63 (average 21.82) | 27.5 to 32.5 on Flash (average 30) | to 27.5 to 42.14 on Steam (average 34.82)
• Total Cost with abilities fully upgraded: 2015 G (1668 G with Field Logistic and Industrialization)
• DPS with max abilities and upgrades (single target): 42.86 to 62.49 on iOS (average 52.68) | 50.36 to 71.36 on Flash (average 60.86) | 51.62 to 54.46 on Steam/Android/Switch (average 53.04)**

*Note: Cluster Launcher Xtreme changes the attack pattern of the Big Bertha. In a 17.5 second cycle, it will fire 4 normal attacks and 1 Cluster. Assuming a particular enemy is large enough to be hit by 3 bomblets, this gives an average DPS of 30.86 ((4×82.5+3×70)/17.5) over the period.

**Note: On Steam, with both Cluster Launcher Xtreme and Dragonbreath Launcher upgraded, the Big Bertha's attack pattern changes. In a 17.5 second cycle, it will fire 4 normal attacks and 1 Cluster. Dragonbreath fires independently. This gives an average DPS of 39.86 ((4*110+3*80)/17.5) + 200/14.1.

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

ROCKETEER Shoot 100 Missiles.

CLUSTERED Drop 1000 or more bomblets with the cluster bomb.

Quotes

• "Say hello to my little friend!" (main)
• "Rest in pieces!" (Cluster Launcher Xtreme)
• "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!" (Dragonbreath Launcher)

Trivia

• "Say hello to my little friend"
  • A line spoken by the character Tony Montana in the 1983 film Scarface.
• "Rest in pieces!"
  • A quote made by the character Duke Nukem in the 2002 Xbox 360 game Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
• "Yippee ki-yay, mother-******!"
  • A line spoken by the character John McClane in the 1988 film Die Hard. Though it only has context in the first film, it becomes the character's catch-phrase in the sequels that followed. In the game, the curse is bleeped out.
• Big Bertha is based on a German howitzer with the same name used in World Wars I and II although the caliber in real life is 420mm, smaller than the 500mm of the in-game Big Bertha.
• The satellite dish on the Big Bertha implies that the dwarves have a working satellite network, although this is never stated. Or, it may be just the antenna to send guidance commands to the rockets.
  • The rockets fired by the Big Bertha can change direction and strike with decent accuracy and capable of changing target, this combined with the "Smart Targeting" upgrade and it's icon imply that the dwarves have guided missile systems
    • These and the existence of a working tesla tower imply that the dwarves maintain sophisticated technology

Gallery

Bombs away!

Dragonbreath Launcher

Cluster Launcher Xtreme. Look closely, and you can see the actual bomblets.

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