Railgun Tower: Stats, Upgrades, Tips: The Railgun in Blockade Brigade: 450 gold, a charged slug that pierces a line of up to 7 enemies. Levels, heat, research and FAQ.
Plain-text version for AI assistants: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms-page-towers-railgun.txt. Site guide: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms.txt
Charged shot that pierces a whole line of enemies
450 goldGround + AirResearch 120000
The Railgun charges for a moment, then fires one slug in a straight line that punches through every enemy in its way, out to the end of its range: 3 enemies a shot at level 1, up to 7 at level 10. Each enemy further down the line takes a little less. It hits ground and air, and each enemy it strikes takes extra damage to armour and shields. It is slow, and every slug heats the barrel a lot: fired nonstop with nothing cooling it, a Railgun overheats at every level and loses shots. Line it up along a straight stretch of path and give it water or a Cold Snap.
Base numbers: no research, cards or neighbours. (+n) is the change from the level before.
The slug flies in a straight line from the barrel to the end of its range, through the enemy it aims at and everything lined up before and behind it. Build it at the end of a long straight stretch, looking along the path, not across it.
One enemy alone takes one hit every few seconds. A queue of enemies takes 3 hits a shot at level 1 and up to 7 at level 10; each enemy after the first takes 85% of what the one before took, never less than 40% of a full hit.
A Cold Snap over the path packs slowed enemies into a tight line, and its snow also cools the Railgun if the gun stands inside its range.
Every slug adds 220°C. Fired nonstop with nothing cooling it, it overheats at every level and fires about 85% of its shots at level 1, 50% at level 10. Water on one side stops it overheating up to level 2; a level-1 Cold Snap or water on two sides up to level 7.
Each level of hill or platform gives +8% damage and +0.5 range, so a longer line. On bare grass it loses 5% damage, unless it stands on a platform.
Between slugs it does nothing. Fast towers beside the same stretch pick off the enemies that slip through between shots.
Pick a level, research, end-of-wave cards, where it stands and what cools it, and see what your Railgun ends up doing: one hit, the whole line of enemies a slug can pierce, and how many shots it keeps once heat is counted. 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: 120,000 XP; its upgrades: 120,000 XP for all.
#build:l10~r.damage.5~c.damage.55555~e.damage.5x10: damage 2559.38, fire rate 0.43/s, DPS 1,101, range 21.2, cooling 1x, needs 2.23x to never overheat (overheats).#build:l10~r.damage.5~c.damage.55555~e.damage.5x10~n3~h15~s10~k4~kw3: damage 8164.41, fire rate 0.559/s, DPS 4,564, range 28.7, cooling 8x, needs 2.9x to never overheat (stays cool).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 one full hit, on the first enemy in the line; damage per second = damage x fire rate on that one enemy, so a slug through a crowd does several times more. Power is what it needs while it has a target (1 on standby). The last two columns are for nonstop fire: how hot the barrel gets right after a shot, and how much faster it must shed heat to never reach 400°C.
| Level | Upgrade | Total spent | Damage | Fire rate | DPS | Range | Power | Nonstop fire peaks at | Cooling it needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | build 450 | 450 | 120 | 0.25/s | 30 | 14 | 28 | 472°C | 1.3x |
| 2 | 720 | 1,170 | 165 | 0.27/s | 45 | 14.8 | 34 | 498°C | 1.5x |
| 3 | 1,152 | 2,322 | 210 | 0.29/s | 61 | 15.6 | 39 | 523°C | 1.6x |
| 4 | 1,843 | 4,165 | 255 | 0.31/s | 79 | 16.4 | 45 | 549°C | 1.7x |
| 5 | 2,949 | 7,114 | 300 | 0.33/s | 99 | 17.2 | 50 | 575°C | 1.8x |
| 6 | 4,718 | 11,832 | 345 | 0.35/s | 121 | 18 | 56 | 601°C | 1.9x |
| 7 | 7,549 | 19,381 | 390 | 0.37/s | 144 | 18.8 | 62 | 627°C | 2x |
| 8 | 12,079 | 31,460 | 435 | 0.39/s | 170 | 19.6 | 67 | 653°C | 2.1x |
| 9 | 19,327 | 50,787 | 480 | 0.41/s | 197 | 20.4 | 73 | 679°C | 2.2x |
| 10 | 30,923 | 81,710 | 525 | 0.43/s | 226 | 21.2 | 78 | 705°C | 2.3x |
Levels 1-4Each slug pierces more enemies every second level (3 enemies at level 1). Even level 1 overheats if it fires nonstop with nothing cooling it; water on one side fixes that up to level 2.
Levels 5-10Every 4th shot is supercharged: 1.6x damage and a 1.6x wider line. The line reaches 7 enemies at level 10, but the gun runs hotter: from level 3 it needs more than one water tile to never overheat.
1.5x
One water tile beside it; +0.5x for each more, up to 3x. A connected row shares up to 12.
2-6.5x
Inside a powered Cold Snap's range, level 1 to 10. Only the strongest one counts.
2.5x
A level-1 Cold Snap and one water tile: the two add up.
Research (main menu, Upgrades & Research) makes every Railgun 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, on every enemy the slug pierces.
+8% fire rate a level, +40% at level 5. More slugs means more heat: without cooling, most of the extra shots are lost to overheating.
+6% range a level, +30% at level 5. The slug flies to the end of its range, so the line gets longer too.
Each level: every enemy the slug passes through 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 slug passes through 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.
3 at level 1, one more every second level, up to 7 at level 10. The slug flies in a straight line to the end of its range and hits the nearest enemies on that line first. Each one after the first takes 85% of what the one before took, never less than 40% of a full hit. The line is narrow, about one enemy wide, so build it looking along a straight stretch of path.
It charges up for 0.6 seconds, then the slug leaves. The charge-up does not slow it down: the reload runs during the charge, so it still fires its full fire rate. If the target moves while it charges, the slug goes where the target is when the charge ends; if the target dies, it fires at the spot it was aiming at and still hits anything on that line.
Every slug adds 220°C, and the barrel jumps far above its average right after each shot. Fired nonstop with nothing cooling it, a Railgun overheats at every level: it shows OVERHEATED, skips the shots that come due until it is back under 250°C, and keeps only about 85% of its shots at level 1 and 50% at level 10. Water on one side stops that up to level 2, a level-1 Cold Snap or water on two sides up to level 7, and water on three sides (2.5x) or a level-2 Cold Snap (2.5x) at every level. Or it may be short of power: it needs 28 power at level 1 and 78 at level 10.
From level 5, every 4th slug is supercharged: it does 1.6x damage, including its extra armour and shield damage, and its line is 1.6x as wide, so it catches enemies a little off the line. It still pierces the same number of enemies.
Yes. On top of its big hit, each slug does +60 damage to an enemy's armour and +40 to its shield, on every enemy it pierces (a little less down the line, like the damage). Armour Damage and Shield Damage cards from the end of a wave add more.
Yes. It hits ground and air, and the slug ignores height: ground and flying enemies lined up on the same line are all hit by one shot.
Upgrades add damage on every enemy in the line, a little range and, every second level, one more enemy pierced, from level 5 supercharged shots too. A second Railgun costs 540 gold, upgrading the first to level 2 costs 720. But each Railgun needs 28 power and a long straight view of the path, and more fire rate means more heat. Upgrade the Railguns on your best straights and keep them cool before you add more.
At the end of a long straight stretch, looking along the path so the enemies queue up in its line, up high for more damage and range, and beside water or inside a Cold Snap's snow. A path that bends away from its line wastes most of each slug.
The tower panel works it out for you: under its heat gauge it says "Fires nonstop without overheating up to level N; from level N+1 it overheats" (or "at every level"), or, if it already overheats, how much more cooling it needs. It uses the Railgun's fire rate at each level and the cooling it has right now (Cold Snaps in range, water beside it), and it changes when you add or upgrade a Cold Snap or add water. Nonstop fire is the worst case: with gaps between enemies it stays cooler.
Only 1: with no target it stays on standby, lights and radar on. It uses its full power only while it has a target: 28 at level 1, 78 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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