Empty Barrel

Barrels stolen from a warehouse. Strong and heavy enough to throw on someone from above or to block someone's path.

## Abilities

### Perks

 Non-documented:

* Knockback resistance
* Explosion resistance

## Unlock Requirements

### Stars

1

**Empty Barrel** is a slightly-dented blue steel drum.

It is a star reward, obtained for free when players collect 1 star and is the first unit reward to be earned.

## Functionality

### Basics

Empty Barrel is a **support item**, meaning it can be used to support units on the field with direct control by players over where it is placed. It requires rage to be deployed.

Empty Barrel is a simple but effective stationary unit. For a very low rage cost, it has a short preparation time and does decent damage. Although it doesn't have the greatest health, it is still a serviceable amount for the most part.

After losing all of its health, Empty Barrel will disappear.

### Perks and Abilities

Empty Barrel is sent from outside of the bus, able to be put almost anywhere the player chooses by being placed directly on the battlefield.

Fire resistance protects it from receiving damage from fire pools and the fire debuff.

As a stationary unit with health, Empty Barrel possesses several undocumented perks:

* Poison resistance grants it immunity from the poison debuff that causes damage over time.
* Full knockback resistance prevents it from being pushed back entirely.
* Partial explosive resistance prevents it from taking damage caused by grenades and fiery explosions, but not blood-based explosions.

## Gameplay

### Main Campaign

Upon application, Empty Barrel will fall from above on the area the player selected, dealing melee damage to units, enemies, and other rage abilities with health. Empty Barrel will act as an obstacle once placed on the field, stalling most enemies until it is destroyed. For most missions, Empty Barrel cannot be used to directly destroy the barricade, much like other rage abilities players will unlock later in the game.

Empty Barrel's uses are versatile. Having offensive, defensive, and supportive applications allow it to damage or kill cluttered enemies, be placed ahead of time to serve as a stalling tool or defensive wall to help allies that are low on health or have slow reloads, and eliminate stragglers or running enemies from approaching the bus. Thanks to its combination of very low rage cost and short preparation time, Empty Barrel can be used very frequently and easily.

Despite its versatility and usefulness, Empty Barrel becomes somewhat inefficient in the later progress of the game, as enemies have increasingly higher health and damage, rendering its performance inadequate as its main purpose is neutralized entirely. And since it has nothing else to offer, it is superseded by other rage abilities, namely Red Barrel, whose has the same preparation time, a slightly higher rage cost, lower damage but compensates with a little more health, a small explosion that can cripple enemies and a residual burn effect to continue chipping them.

### Skirmish

Like all rage abilities, it is unavailable in League. However, it can appear through Specops' special ability. For players, the Empty Barrel is one of the most underwhelming items that Specops can summon after being killed. The damage it can cause from being dropped is typically inconsequential should it actually manage to land on someone. It cannot be used as an obstacle since enemy player units will move past them. Although it can stop zombies like in the main game, this rarely happens given the fast pace nature of Skirmish matches.

## Trivia

* Before update 2.7.0, Empty Barrel used to be an initially available unit, just like Redneck. It would be unlocked after starting Mission 2.
	+ It still technically is as it's impossible to fail the first mission of the game, and upon entering Mission 2, players will be instructed to deploy Empty Barrel.
* According to its description, the Empty Barrel was stolen from a warehouse. Mission 3, takes place at a location called Liberty Warehouse, which could be the warehouse in question. Additionally, several Red Barrels appear in this mission as well, which imply they, too, are also recovered from various sources before being put to use.
* Interestingly, Empty Barrel's damage always exceeds its health.

 Humans
 TMF Squad