Arcane Archers

Arcane Archers
Type	Ranged Tower
Level	4
Introduced	Redwood Stand
Build Cost	230
Damage	22-36 (24-38)
Attack Rate	Average (0.8s)
Range	Great
Scope in Major Axis	400 (440)

“

Hado i philinn.

”

The Arcane Archers is an advanced Ranged Tower that appears in Kingdom Rush: Origins. It is first made available on the stage Redwood Stand. This tower has the distinction of shooting two arrows at the same time who weaken the magic resistance of enemies.

Description

"Arcane Archers shoot magical arrows that weaken their target's magic resistance. "

In their enchanted tower, two magic archers shoot at the same time, being able to hit two enemies at the same time. Their magical knowledge allows them to weaken the magic resistance of their target until they have none left. (-3% per shot and 2 shots per volley). The Arcane Archers is the first advanced tower to be introduced in the game.

Burst Arrows further evidence their mastery of magic, shooting special arrows that explode in a icy blue magic burst, doing decent area damage and Slumber Arrows holding enemies still to let your towers put the hurt on them.

Abilities

Burst Arrows

"Let's light 'em up!"

Shoots an explosive magical arrow that deals additional area magic damage (damage area: 115). On the Android, Steam, and Switch versions, the initial arrow deals regular attack damage (half of the listed attack, since it fires two arrows at once) and is affected by Obsidian Heads. This has not been confirmed on iOS. (Cooldown: 12 seconds)

Level	Cost	Damage
1	200	80 (88)
2	200	160 (176)
3	200	240 (264)

Slumber Arrows

"Sweet dreams!"

Shoots an arrow that puts an enemy to sleep for 4 (4.4) seconds.

Level	Cost	Cooldown
1	180	20s
2	180	16s
3	180	12s

Range

• 25% wider than the Level 1 Hunter Arbor
• 12% wider than the Level 2 Watcher Arbor
• Same as the Level 3 Sentinel Arbor

Strategy

Arcane Archer specializes in Crowd Control, wreaking havoc in groups of weak enemies with Burst Arrows, which deals magic damage and catch leaks effectively with Slumber Arrows. Their most notable asset is the ability to shoot at up to two targets in range simultaneously, dealing damage while reducing the magic resistance of those enemies. Arcane Archers should be placed in front, near lines of Mages, so they can thin out the coming horde with their skills, leaving stronger foes for the Mages to kill. This also allows the Arcane Archers' ability to reduce magic resistance to synergize with Mages.

Strengths

• Light crowd control: The Arcane Archers can handle small numbers of enemies quite well thanks to the dual targeting system; however, they fall short to Druids when larger hordes are concerned.
• Multi-purpose: The Arcane Archers have something up their sleeves for any kind of situations, ranging from groups of weak foes to durable, lone ones, and can handle both armored and magic resistant enemies.
• Inexpensive: Arcane Archers do not cost much gold compared to their usefulness. Thus, they are good towers to build first in any stages.

Weakness

• Diluted damage: While the Arcane Archers' arrows can deal huge damage on a single target, their damage output is diluted when more than one foe is within range, limiting their capability of directly killing enemies. This weakness can be fatal, as it leaves the tower more vulnerable to being overrun.

Additional stats

• DPS (total of the two arrows): 27.5 to 45 (average 36.25) ||| 30 to 47.5 (average 38.75) with Master shooter upgrade.
• DPS (one arrow): 13.75 to 22.5 (average 18.125)
• Total cost: 570 G
• Cost efficiency: 15.7 G per point of DPS

Related Upgrades

• Master Shooter (1 star)
  • Increases Archer attack damage (by 5%).
• Treesinged Bow (1 star)
  • Increases Archer attack range (by 10%).
• Obsidian Heads (2 stars)
  • Archers deal maximum damage against unarmored targets.
• Elven Training (2 stars)
  • Improves all Archer special abilities (by 10% of the ability's effect/chance).
• Bloodletting Shot (3 stars)
  • Archer attacks have a 15% chance of causing heavy bleeding over 3 seconds. This deals 23 ticks of damage, where each tick deals 10% of the arrow's damage (after armor), rounded up, as true damage. The bleeding can stack with itself and with other forms of bleeding.

Tower	Maximum Bloodletting Damage
Hunter Arbor	23
Watcher Arbor	23
Sentinel Arbor	46
Arcane Archers	46
Golden Longbows	Long-range shot: 161 Long-range shot combined with a "crit": 299 Short-range shot: 69 Short-range shot combined with a "crit": 115

Related Achievements

RAMBO STYLE Defeat 50 flying enemies with Burst Arrows.

LULLABY! Defeat 50 sleeping enemies.

Quotes

• "Hado i philinn." Lord of the Rings movie quote "hurl the arrows"
• "Sweet dreams are made of this."
• "Natha daged dhaer." another Lord of the rings movie quote. "They are all going to die"

Conclusion

Arcane archers are very useful with the ability to weaken magic resistance and have the ability to do group damage with Burst Arrows, with stalling power in Slumber Arrows. They don't do as much damage as the Golden Longbow, instead they are more focused on utility and crowd control with decent damage and fire rate, shooting two arrows at one time. They don't have the extreme range of the Longbow either, but they make up for this in utility. This however does mean that if there is more than one enemy in their range they will have a hard time killing strong enemies, because they will not fire both arrows at the same target if more than one is in range. Thusly, they are liable to getting overrun on waves where there are hordes of high health enemies (the most they can do is use Burst Arrows which only do 264 damage, not enough to kill strong enemies that show up in hordes on later stages such as Twilight Scourgers), and while the golden longbow can also get overrun, it fares much better with it's range and increased attack speed to enemies close to it. Overall the Arcane Archers are useful in situations with heavy magic resisting enemies while doing mixed damage with their Burst Arrows and stalling enemies with Slumber Arrows, working better as a tower towards the entrances of a level so they can diminish enemy magic resistance and weaken enemies so that mages and other towers can finish off the weakened enemies.

Gallery

Natha daged dhaer.

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