Blacksurge

Blacksurges are heavily armored Deep Devil spellcasters, encountered during the Rising Tides mini-campaign.
==Overview==
These armored abyssal devils wield ancient magics from the ocean's depths.
Blacksurges are one of the nastiest and most annoying enemies encountered in all the Kingdom Rush games. Like Nazeru, they possess a tower-disabling ability (cooldown 5.0s, duration: 7.5s), which cannot be dispelled and is used faster than the effect wears off, allowing up to four nearby towers to be disabled at once. This ability might quickly topple your defenses and allow other enemies to cross unscathed.
On land, Blacksurges also possess the ability to retreat into their shells if their health drops below 30% (252 / 288 / 360) of their full health, becoming temporarily immune to all attacks except for some instant kills, and regenerating 540 health. To top it all off, Blacksurges already have high physical armor, and this ability substantially boosts their durability, making them extremely hard to kill. Blacksurges cannot use this ability near to an exit or on the sea.
==Strategy==
* Barracks and the Battle-Mecha T200 are generally effective against Blacksurges.
** The Mecha deals less damage to Blacksurges than mages would, since explosive damage only ignores half of enemies' armor. However, the Battle-Mecha T200 cannot be disabled by Blacksurges, since they can only affect the launch pad, not the Mecha itself - it won't be able to be upgraded or moved via rally points, but is otherwise unaffected.
**The Battle-Mecha T200 can also stun Blacksurges with Shock and Awe. Stunned Blacksurges cannot disable towers nor turn invulnerable. However, Blacksurges that have retreated into their shells cannot be stunned.
**Knights Templar with Arterial Strike or Assassins with Sneak Attack are all able to deal significant damage to (in case of the former) or instantly kill the Blacksurges (in case of the latter) while blocking them for a considerable time, thanks to the enemy's fairly minimal damage output.
* Blacksurges can only disable two towers at once, so use this to your advantage. Build Archmages on the back of your defense, where Blacksurges can't disable them, and buy Crossbow Fort's Falconer to boost its range so it can damage them.
* If possible, use a hero's instant kill (e.g. Sha'tra's Abduction, Ashbite's Feast...) to quickly get rid of Blacksurges. When a Blacksurge retreats into its shell, it only becomes immune to damage, not totally invulnerable, and thus is still affected by instant kills.
* Totem of Spirits is somewhat useful, but most of the time, the tower gets disabled by the Blacksurge before it can cast the Totem, because of its limited range. Similarly, aid it with Crossbow Fort's Falconer to boost its range.
** As a matter of fact, silencing Blacksurges will not stop them from hiding in their shells when they lose enough health, it only stops them from disabling towers.
* On water, Blacksurge is extremely vulnerable, unable to use either of its abilities, so use this as your chance to lay off damage.
* DWAARP's Core Drill is still effective against them. Once Core Drill is deployed, they cannot stop it with their ability.
* On some mobile versions, Blacksurge cannot disable the Battle-Mecha T200. The tower base will be immediately re-enabled after being targeted. it was unclear whether the difference was on purpose, or whether it was a bug. In Steam, it will be completely disabled for 7.5s.
* On iOS, the Barracks Tower itself is immune to being disabled. On Steam, barracks can be treated as other towers being disabled. However, the soldiers will continue doing their job, although they cannot be upgraded, rallied, or sold and will not respawn until the tower recovers. In addition, Blacksurge's tower ability on Battle Mecha will automatically be removed just after the ability is in effect.
==Appearances==
* Port Tortuga
* Storm Atoll
* The Sunken Citadel
Category:Kingdom Rush: Frontiers
Category:Enemies
Category:Armored Enemies
Category:Tower disablers