Cluster Mortar: Tower Stats and Tips: The Cluster Mortar in Blockade Brigade: 250 gold, a lobbed shell that bursts into up to 12 bomblets. Levels, blast sizes, research and FAQ.
Plain-text version for AI assistants: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms-page-towers-cluster_mortar.txt. Site guide: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms.txt
Arcing bombs with huge splash, ground only
250 goldGround onlyResearch 40000
The Cluster Mortar lobs a heavy shell high over the path. Where it lands it blows up, hitting the enemy it aimed at and splashing everything around it, then bursts into a ring of bomblets that scatter and blow up too: 3 bomblets at level 1, one more every level, 12 at level 10. It costs 250 gold, never overheats, and level 10 does about 8 times the damage per second of level 1. The catch: it hits ground enemies only, it fires slowly, and it cannot shoot anything within 2 of itself.
Base numbers: no research, cards or neighbours. (+n) is the change from the level before.
One shell hits its target for full damage, every other enemy within 3 of where it lands for 60% (the blast grows to 5.52 at level 10), and then its bomblets pepper the ground around it. The tighter the pack, the more each shell does.
It cannot target anything within 2 of itself; the red circle in its range display shows that blind spot. Build it a little away from the path, where the path runs through its range but outside the blind spot, and keep another gun close for anything that slips inside.
The shell flies to where its target was when it fired and does not follow it. A Cold Snap nearby keeps enemies bunched up and inside the blast when the shell comes down.
The Cluster Mortar hits ground enemies only. Keep a Cannon or another gun that hits air close by for anything that flies.
Between shells it does nothing. Fast towers beside the same stretch pick off what survives the blast.
Each Cluster Mortar on the four sides of another gives it +15% damage and +10% fire rate (up to +60% and +40%). Each level of hill or platform gives +8% damage and +0.5 range; on bare grass it loses 5% damage, unless it stands on a platform. Every bomblet gets the extra damage too.
Pick a level, research, end-of-wave cards and where it stands, and see what your Cluster Mortar ends up doing, worked out the way the game does it: the shell's hit, its blast, and how many bomblets it scatters and what each one does. Share the build with a link.
Each wave offers 3 cards. Up to 5 cards of each stat a game, then that stat comes only as grey Endless cards (a random amount in the range shown). Percent per card:
| Card | Normal | Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | Mythical | Endless |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage | 2% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 25% | 35% | 1-5% |
| Fire Rate | 2% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 25% | 35% | 1-5% |
| Range | 2% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 25% | 35% | 1-5% |
| Deep Wound | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 1% |
| Poison | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 1% |
| Armor Damage | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 2% |
| Shield Damage | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 2% |
Unlock: 40,000 XP; its upgrades: 120,000 XP for all.
#build:l10~r.damage.5~c.damage.55555~e.damage.5x10: damage 1486.88, fire rate 0.85/s, DPS 1,264, range 12.5.#build:l10~r.damage.5~c.damage.55555~e.damage.5x10~n3~h15: damage 4743.13, fire rate 1.105/s, DPS 5,241, range 20.A build is the page address + #build: + parts joined by ~, in any order; parts left out are 0 / none. Opening the link loads the build and scrolls here. Links shared from the page also carry ?utm_source=...&utm_medium=...&utm_campaign=tower_build&utm_content=... before the hash; they are optional.
l<N>: tower level 1..10r.<stat>.<N>: research level 0..5 of a research item (damage, fire_rate, range_radius, deep_wound, poison)c.<stat>.<digits>: end-of-wave cards of one stat, one digit per card = its rarity (0 Normal, 1 Common, 2 Rare, 3 Epic, 4 Legendary, 5 Mythical); at most 5 a state.<stat>.<amount>x<count>: Endless cards of one stat: count cards of +amount% (only once that stat has 5 cards)n<N>: same-type neighbours touching it, 0..4h<N>: height: hill + platform levels, 0..15g: standing on bare grass (no platform)s<N>: level of the Cold Snap over it, 0 = none (1..10)sp0: that Cold Snap has no power (it cools nothing)w<N>: water tiles beside it, 0..4 (sides not taken by neighbours)k<N>: towers in its connected chain, itself included (at least neighbours + 1)kw<N>: water tiles beside the whole chainBase numbers: no research, cards, height or neighbours. Damage is the shell's hit on the enemy it aimed at; damage per second = damage x fire rate on that one enemy, before the blast and the bomblets. Splash is the size of the shell's blast. Power is what it needs while it has a target.
| Level | Upgrade | Total spent | Damage | Fire rate | DPS | Range | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | build 250 | 250 | 80 | 0.4/s | 32 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | 375 | 625 | 105 | 0.45/s | 47 | 8.5 | 10 |
| 3 | 562 | 1,187 | 130 | 0.5/s | 65 | 9 | 11 |
| 4 | 843 | 2,030 | 155 | 0.55/s | 85 | 9.5 | 13 |
| 5 | 1,265 | 3,295 | 180 | 0.6/s | 108 | 10 | 14 |
| 6 | 1,898 | 5,193 | 205 | 0.65/s | 133 | 10.5 | 16 |
| 7 | 2,847 | 8,040 | 230 | 0.7/s | 161 | 11 | 18 |
| 8 | 4,271 | 12,311 | 255 | 0.75/s | 191 | 11.5 | 19 |
| 9 | 6,407 | 18,718 | 280 | 0.8/s | 224 | 12 | 21 |
| 10 | 9,610 | 28,328 | 305 | 0.85/s | 259 | 12.5 | 22 |
Every levelOne more bomblet (3 at level 1, 12 at level 10), a bigger blast (3 to 5.52), bomblets that scatter further (2.5 to 5.02 from where the shell lands) and blow up a little wider (1.4 to 1.94). The blind spot stays 2 at every level.
GoldEarly levels are the best damage for the gold: level 2 adds 4 damage per second for every 100 gold. Upgrades get dear later (level 10 alone costs 9,610 gold).
Research (main menu, Upgrades & Research) makes every Cluster Mortar you build stronger. Each item has 5 levels for 250, 750, 2,000, 6,000 and 15,000 XP (24,000 XP for all 5).
+10% damage a level, +50% at level 5. The blast and every bomblet grow with it.
+6% fire rate a level, +30% at level 5.
+6% range a level, +30% at level 5. The blind spot does not grow with it.
Each level: every enemy the shell, its blast or a bomblet hits takes 1% more damage from every tower for 4 seconds (5% at level 5). Wounds from different kinds of tower add up.
Each level: every enemy the shell, its blast or a bomblet hits is poisoned for 1% of the damage it took, every second for 4 seconds (5% at level 5). Poison goes straight to health, past shield and armour.
No question matches. or ask on the forum.
No. It targets ground enemies only. Keep a Cannon or another gun that hits air near it.
That is its blind spot: it cannot target anything within 2 of itself, at any level. Upgrades and range research make its range longer but not the blind spot smaller. The blind spot is measured in a straight line from the tower, so up on a hill it covers less of the path below. Build it a little back from the path, or keep another gun close for enemies that get inside.
The shell is lobbed at the spot where its target was when it fired and does not follow it. It takes a moment to come down, about 1.6 seconds at the edge of its level-1 range. The target takes the full hit only if it is still within the blast (3 at level 1) when the shell lands; a fast enemy can outrun it. Enemies standing in the blast are still splashed and the bomblets still scatter. A Cold Snap slowing the path helps a lot.
When the shell lands it bursts into 3 bomblets at level 1, one more every level, 12 at level 10. They scatter all around the landing spot, up to 2.5 away at level 1 (5.02 at level 10), and each one blows up where it lands, hitting every ground enemy within 1.4 of it (1.94 at level 10) for 15% of the shell's damage. Bomblets do no extra damage to armour or shields. They come even if the target died while the shell was in the air.
The enemy it aimed at takes the full damage, if it is still in the blast. Every other enemy in the blast takes 60%. Then every bomblet adds 15% to each enemy near it, and bomblets landing close together each count, so an enemy in the middle of a pack can be hit by the shell's blast and several bomblets. The levels table's damage per second is the shell's hit only.
Yes, for its direct hit: the shell does +40 damage to armour and +15 to shields on the enemy it aimed at, and 60% of that to the others in its blast. Bomblets do not. Armour Damage and Shield Damage cards from the end of a wave add more.
No. Cluster Mortar shells and bomblets only do damage; they do not push enemies back along the path.
Upgrades add damage and fire rate and also grow everything that makes it good against crowds: one more bomblet every level, a bigger blast, a wider scatter. A second Cluster Mortar beside the first costs 300 gold and, with the neighbour bonus on both, adds about 49 damage per second of direct hits; upgrading the first to level 2 costs 375 gold and adds 15, plus a bomblet and a bigger blast.
It does not overheat, so it is either short of power, or every ground enemy in range is inside its blind spot. LOW POWER means it can track but not fire, NO POWER means it does nothing. A Cluster Mortar needs 8 power at level 1 and 22 at level 10.
Only 1: with no target it stays on standby, lights and radar on. It uses its full power only while it has a target: 8 at level 1, 22 at level 10 (the tower panel says "uses N when firing, 1 on standby"). If the grid cannot give it that, it stays on standby too: it keeps tracking enemies but cannot fire (LOW POWER). The panel's Switch off button turns it off completely: it draws nothing and does nothing until you Switch on again, so you can choose which towers run when power is short.
Still stuck? or ask on the forum.
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