Assassin

Stats

Base Cost

300

Base Damage

3

Damage Type

Single, Pierce (Level 2+)

Fire Rate

0.6

Hidden Detection

Level 2+

Immune

None

Placement

Ground

Range

6

Role

Offense

Selling Price

100

Unlock Cost

800

Description

The Assassin is an intermediate melee tower that attacks enemies with a knife. It can be purchased from the store for 800 Coins. The Assassin will attack enemies in its range, initially dealing just single target damage. At Level 2+, it gains the Whirlwind Slash, turning its every third hit into a whirlwind that deals damage to every enemy caught in it. The whirlwind replaces the main attack, dealing a percentage of the main attack's damage in its own whirlwind range. At Level 4, it gains an additional ability, Fan of Knives, where it will throw three knives in a fan shape at enemies every time it deals 500 total damage. These knives will hit up to three enemies each. These deal damage different from the main attack and have separate, farther range. Both the main attack and Whirlwind Slash can be used to increase the damage threshold, but the Fan of Knives passive ability itself cannot be used. The damage added to the threshold is the damage dealt by the previous attack, not the current. If the damage dealt exceeds the threshold, any excess damage will be carried over to the next counter. For example, if the Assassin deals 60 damage and has a threshold of 400, it will start throwing knives after dealing 420 damage. The additional 20 damage will not be removed, but instead carried over to the next throw, meaning the counter seen on the tower will start at 20/400. The Assassin is mostly considered an early to mid-game tower.

Statistics

To see all the previous statistics of this tower, see the history page.

Strategy

The Assassin can be an effective early-game tower, due to its cheap cost and decent DPS. At the beginning, it is recommended to place down two Level 0 Assassins, which should be upgraded to Level 2 once the cash is available. Later on, it is recommended to fully upgrade Assassins, as lower levels will struggle to handle higher health enemies like the Slow Boss or Fallen Giant. While it can become ineffective during late-game, It can shred or decrease hordes of lower-health enemies like Hazmat or Breaker4, allowing other towers to target the stronger enemies on the lane. Due to the Assassin's low range, it is quite important to maximize how much path it can cover. Poor placement will lead to it performing poorly. Ideal spots for it are small bends, like the multiple u-turns on U-Turn or the u-turn at the beginning of Simplicity. Other decent options are spots which enemies cross over multiple times, such as the center of Crossroads. By late-game, the Assassin will be unable to fight off the far stronger enemies. It is recommended to invest in far better towers by then. The Assassin benefits greatly from the Firerate Buff and Damage Buff. The Firerate Buff makes it attack faster, reaching its three hit and 500 damage thresholds quicker and increasing its DPS. The Damage Buff does not just boost the damage from the main attack, but also the damage of the whirlwind and the knife throw, boosting the DPS of all of its three attacks. The Range Buff is not that effective on the Assassin, as it only boosts its main attack range.

Patch history

The Assassin is the second left-handed tower in the game, with the first being the Harvester. All other towers are either right handed or use both of their hands from Level 0. In the official trailer for the Assassin before its release, it was misspelled as Assasin due to an oversight. The Assassin's Level 4 upgrade name is a reference to a member of the balancing team named Tom Da Ninja. The acronym for "Death Arms" is DA, so the upgrade name Death Arms Ninja also spells out DA Ninja, as in Tom Da Ninja.