The Deadly Striker Tower (DST) is an Apprentice/Adept defense. It fires fast-moving, high-damage bolts at a very slow rate. It can also shoot through any and all map obstacles: walls, floors, ceilings, etc.
It has the longest range of any defense in the game, but a thin 90° firing cone. Once it begins charging a shot, it will track and fire at a single enemy, even if the target later leaves the tower's range.
DSTs have the least amount of health out of all Apprentice/Adept towers, so they should be placed where they can be well-protected from critical damage.
Target Priority[]
The Deadly Striker uniquely favors attacking certain enemy types over others. It treats them as if they were closer to the tower than they actually are, therefore prioritizing them. The weight values assigned to the following monsters are divisors to their distance away from the DST.
For example: a Djinn that is 5,000 Unreal Units away is instead 1,000. Between an Ogre that is 1,200 units away and a Goblin Copter 3,600 units away, both enemies are equidistant according to the DST.
Enemy Type | Weight |
---|---|
Djinn | 5.00 |
Wyverns and Wasp | 4.50 |
Sharken | 4.00 |
Goblin Copter | 3.00 |
Dark Elf Mage | 1.75 |
Everything Else | 1.00 |
Stat Scaling[]
- Stats measurements taken without extra buffs & applied skill points.
- All mage towers have 1.625x more health and attack damage on Nightmare and Ascension.
Upgrade Table[]
- Numbers taken here are without applied skill points or Nightmare & Ascension difficulty buffs or active builder bonus.
PC[]
Console[]
Strategies[]
- These towers prove to be quite useful for the Death From Above challenge, as they can deal huge damage to Wyverns as they fly in from far away.
- On PC, Deadly Strikers synergize extremely well with Lightning Towers. A group of LTs will often clear out most low health 'trash mobs' for the DSTs to focus on Ogres and their high priority targets. They also help in taking out any stragglers the lightning chains did not catch.
- At very high stats, even on Nightmare difficulty, many DSTs aimed where a given map's single boss mob spawns can kill it in seconds with the help of Tower Boost, a Buff Beam, one or more Huntress Guardians and the builder hero's physical presence.
Tips/Notes[]
- Although the DST has increased priority towards the enemies weighted greater than 1.00, those not listed can still distract the tower from hitting key targets from afar, notably Spiders and Dark Elf Warriors up close.
- A Deadly Striker bolt will despawn after traveling 10,000 uu if it does not hit an enemy, regardless of the tower's attack range. DSTs able to shoot further than that will unfortunately waste shots on out-of-reach targets when prioritized.
In Other Dungeon Defenders Games[]
Deadly Striker Towers were very dominant in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, prior to the Warden's debut and her Wisp Dens. DSTs take less time to lock-on to their target, and their bolts travel faster, ultimately improving their accuracy. If boosted to extremely long range via Striking Gemstone, the tower has no issues hitting far away enemies, without their shots despawning midflight. However, Massacre difficulty reduces the range of DSTs by 0.7x, in addition to nerfing their attack rate.
DSTs have also had their target priority reworked. They use the "special enemy" targeting list, meaning that the tower now has different priority weights on every single enemy type, instead of only a handful. Ogres, bosses and Lycans are some of the new targets DSTs take relatively high priority over other foes. Up until the first major balance update after Lycan's Keep in 2021, the Deadly Striker Tower would always attack bosses above all else.
Version History[]
Vanilla[]
- CDT Update ?: Bolts travel faster.