Forest Keepers

The Forest Keepers are a level 4 Melee Tower in Kingdom Rush: Origins, unlocked in stage 8, Grimmsburg. They are well-rounded, powerful in both attack and defense, and have a ranged attack - however their number is limited, as each barracks only has the capacity for two Keepers. They regenerate 35 hit points per second when idle.
==Description==
Guardians of the forest, they command the powers of nature to help protect the realm.
==Abilities==
===Circle of Life===
 Nature protects its own. 
Heals themselves and nearby allies over 4 seconds. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)
Level	Cost	HP healed
1 	185 	80
2 	185 	160
3 	185 	240
===Eerie Gardener===
 The forest awakens! 
Covers an area with barbed vines, slowing and damaging enemies.(Cooldown: 16 seconds)
Level	Cost	Damage	Slowdown	Duration
1 	285 	72 	50% 	4 seconds
2 	285 	144 	50% 	6 seconds
===Ancient Oak Spear===
 You! Catch! 
Empowers the Forest Keepers' spears, making them deal True Damage.
Level	Cost	Damage
1 	250 	90
2 	250 	125
3 	250 	160
==Strategy==
Forest Keepers are exceptionally good at reinforcing a choke point. This is thanks to their arsenal of abilities capable of slowing enemies, healing allies and dealing hefty True Damage from range. Their strong ranged combat and ally healing cement their role as powerful support units for more durable allies in front.
* Circle of Life provides ample healing over a few seconds, and is fairly cheap to get. In most scenarios, it should be a priority to purchase and upgrade this skill, since it allows the Forest Keepers to function as front line, as well as aiding the survival of nearby units.
** At tier II and III, this skill is strong enough to sustain the Forest Keepers against damage from most enemies while it is active, allowing them to tank despite lack of armor.
** When paired with Perfect Parry III Bladesinger Hall, the Bladesingers are nearly unkillable. This is very useful when stalling bosses or late Endless enemies.
** Using only Forest Keepers becomes a semi-viable tactic with this skill. The group healing effect allows them to easily shrug off the attacks from weaker enemies, although they will still be slain quickly when facing powerful AOE attacks or enemies adept at killing barracks, such as Twilight Heretics. This is also a poor tactic when facing enemies such as Gloomies or Cloud Stalkers, as the former can become too numerous to destroy, and the latter will be able to easily take advantage of the massive number of sluggish troops.
* Eerie Gardener creates a wide slowing field, and is exceptional at stalling the onslaught of many enemy units. Its area-of-effect is often longer than the range of most ranged attackers, and covers the whole path, slowing all ground enemies no matter their strength.
** Spending gold on this skill is advised if you are expecting large hordes of ground enemies. It provides safe stalling for a few seconds at minimal cost and great effectiveness.
** Powerful but slow enemies, such as Twilight Golem and the Twilight Avenger are greatly hampered by this skill because makes their approach to vulnerable barracks much slower. It is also effective against Hyenas due to it reducing the effectiveness of their speed burst and inflicting enough damage to kill in most cases.
** NOTES: This skill has no effect on Bandersnatch, which is immune to slow effects when rolling. Charging Razorboar can also bypass the spiky vines with ease.
* Ancient Oak Spear permanently buffs the ranged attack of Forest Keepers to pierce armor and deal heavy damage. It is an expensive skill, but possesses incredible damage output at tier III.
** Since this damage ignores all resistances, it is exceptionally effective against enemies who rely on their armor to survive, such as Satyr Hoplite, Twilight Avenger, and the Twilight Harasser. They will die incredibly quickly when at the receiving end of these magical spears.
** Large enemies such as Bandersnatch, Twilight Golem, Twilight Heretic, and all bosses can survive many spears. They can also easily kill the Forest Keepers should they get close enough, so you should use other towers and more soldiers to help stall or kill them. Once again Bladesingers provide excellent front line support, and will hold back most giants while the Keepers quickly drain their health, regardless of any protection.
** NOTES: Forest Keepers throw their spears every 3.1s, and thus do not provide a constant stream of damage but rather bursts at interval. Make sure you have proper support to protect them while they rain spears on enemies.
* WEAKNESS:
** The Forest Keepers are NOT very useful without their abilities, aside from being semi beefy meat shields. This, combined with the high base cost (300g) and fairly expensive upgrades, make them a poor choice when money is tight.
** The Forest Keepers are unarmored, and thus are vulnerable to burst damage especially from the arrow volley of Twilight Harasser. They are not true tanks and should not be treated as such, even with Circle of Life III. It is best that they receive protection from other units.
** Even though they possess a ranged attack, it is very slow and ineffective against the small, quick and numerous aerial enemies (Gloomy, Cloud Stalker). Make sure you have other towers to handle these enemies.
** The Twilight Heretic can disable both Forest Keepers with his Grip of Darkness from faraway, and will then kill them with Soul Consumption once he closes the gap. For this reason Heretics remain one of the greatest threats to even upgraded Forest Keepers.
** Despite having high damage and mild crowd control in the form of Eerie Gardener, Forest Keepers are still generally poor at crowd control, and will quickly be overrun by horde enemies if not assisted by artillery or other towers more fit for that role.
== Additional Stats ==
* Enchanted Armor gives +10% armor, increasing their natural armor to 10%.
*In total with all upgrades, their EHP* is 333 points of physical damage per soldier (2 soldiers equals 666 EHP).
* The cost of the Forest Keepers is 810 Gold, 759 if upgraded.
*Gold spend per EHP (for all 3 soldiers) is 1.22 (1.14 if upgraded).
*This makes Forest Keepers the least cost-to-EHP efficient Barracks across all three games.
Note: Effective Hit Points = how much damage a unit needs to take before dying.
==Related Upgrades==
* Expert Tactician (1 star)
**Increases barracks rally point range.
* Enchanted Armor (2 stars)
**Barracks equip soldiers with improved armor. (+10%)
* Moon Forged Blades (2 stars)
**Soldier attacks deal additional magic damage.
* Blessing of Elynie (3 stars)
**Soldiers have a 10% chance of cheating death when dealt lethal damage. (Soldiers revive with full health when proced.)
==Related Achievements==
 1, 2, 3... PLANT! Grow 100 barbed vines!
 KINGSFOIL LEAVES Give regeneration 25 times to the same soldier.
==Quotes==
* "Nature is calling."
* "You reap what you sow."
* "Live long and prosper."
* "Strong, like an elk."
==Trivia==
*The Forest Keepers are based on the Night-Elf hero-unit of the same name appearing in Warcraft III. They share the same name, appearance and abilities as their Real Time Strategy counterparts.
*Forest keepers' encyclopedia image shows them killing a gnoll reaver. However, gnoll reavers were only present in the first environment, while Forest Keepers' were introduced in the enchanted woods environment, where gnolls did not appear. This seems to imply that gnolls were originally planned to be in many more levels in the game. 
*"You reap what you sow"
** A person is rewarded only by what they put in. Here it is paraphrased from the bible passage in Galatians 6:7
*"Live long and prosper"
** A phrase said by Vulcans in Star Trek, it is commonly associated with the character Spock.
* The names of the Keepers are a reference to many horses or horse-like characters, both real and fictional
** Bucefalus is a misspelling of Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great.
** Incitatus is the favorite horse of Roman emperor Caligula.
** Khartoum is the horse of Jack Woltz in The Godfather
** Mandarb is the horse ridden by Lan Mandragoran in A Wheel of Time
** Othar is Atilla the Hun's horse.
** Quiron is a Spanish form of Chiron, a centaur from mythology
** Shadowfax is Gandalf the Grey's horse from The Lord of the Rings
** Shadowmere is a red-eyed horse from the Elder Scrolls video games.
** Stonebrow is a centaur from the Time Spiral TCG.
* "The forest awakens!"
** Likely a play on the title Star Wars: The Force Awakens
** This quote is also shared by the Weirdwood as the line played when it is constructed.
Category:Kingdom Rush: Origins
Category:Towers
Category:Melee Towers
Category:Units