Laser (Tower)

Fires a laser beam that passes through entire map and causes damage to first enemy hit. It has an infinite attack distance, but a finite detection range.

## Unique Characteristics

Laser has Batteries capacity as its Unique Characteristic.

**Batteries capacity** - the duration (in seconds) each laser beam lasts for.
Levelling the tower increases Batteries capacity.

*Batteries Capacity: 2.5 + 0.1/Tower Experience Level*

## Other Characteristics

Laser does not have attack speed stat, instead it has a "Charging speed" characteristic which is not affected by attack speed bonuses. The Charging Speed is the rate in % at which the Laser charges up to fire a laser beam. Once it reaches 100%, the Laser will aim and fire its laser beam when an enemy is in its range.

The time needed to fire the laser is as follows: *Reload Time = 100* */ Charging Speed %/s*

The laser beam itself depends on the Battery Capacity stat, with each point of this stat indication how many seconds the beam lasts. Enemies that are hit by the laser beam take 105% of the tower's Damage stat per second.

Laser fires a laser beam that damages the first enemy it comes in contact with. The beam length covers from the tower's center point to where the beam hits its target. With High frequency, the beam can penetrate through multiple enemies, extending to the limits of the map if its pierce cap is not reached. It is possible for the beam to damage enemies that are beyond the Laser tower's attack range, though Laser will only fire laser beams if enemies are in its Attack Range.

While the Laser beam is fired, the Laser Tower normally can't rotate. Large batteries allows for some rotation once the beam has been fired, though the rotation speed is also reduced.

## Statistics

Laser Tower Stats (not including research , PWR tower from Exp Levels, and Tile Bonuses)

## Abilities:

 Mirrors system
 Large batteries
 Ionization
 Powerful

**High Frequency** decreases Laser Damage stat by 60%, turns laser beam blue, and allows the beam to hit up to six targets at a time. If the pierce cap is not met, the remaining beam continues to travel to the end of the map. Hitting the cap of enemies stops the beam at the last hit enemy.

**Mirrors System** decreases Laser Damage stat by 55% and will fire two additional lasers. The additional lasers create a 35° angle (can be decreased with Research). Both lasers behave similar to the primary laser, applying the ability modifiers of High Frequency if it is used.

**Large Batteries** increases **Battery Capacity** characteristics by 40%, extending the duration of the beam. It also decreases the damage of the beam by 15%, as well as allowing the beam to be slowly rotated once it begins firing.

**Ionization** increases Charging Speed stat by 50% however any tower within 1 tile range from laser loses 10% of that bonus. Note that bonus cannot go be negative so 8 towers near laser tower does not decrease Charging Speed overall.

## Strategy:

Laser Tower serves as a high single-target damage source at its base, similarly to the Sniper or Minigun towers. To vary usage between these three, the Laser changes out an aiming or acceleration mechanic for a single focused beam of damage which has a charging interval between shots. The beam itself stays in one location initially, and extends to the first enemy it hits or the level boundary if nothing else obstructs it.

These qualities allow a Laser to output a high amount of damage as long as it keeps enemies in its beam, making long lines of the track a great asset to ensure enemies are always hit once the beam is set. Changing Target priority to Last is optimal, as it makes the Laser target the furthest enemy in range, allowing it to line the shot more accurately.

**Best tile placement:** Damage

**Damage** directly increases Laser's damage output, making it the optimal choice. **Range** is very situational, as it allows Laser to fire earlier and more accurately, but can also make it target wrong enemies and waste a lot of potential damage.

**Optimal 2 Abilities: Large Batteries**, Mirrors System(required Shooting Angle Research Lv.3)

**Large Batteries** provides a small damage loss from the base attack, providing several situational bonuses which can make up that penalty. Extending the battery capacity allows the Laser tower to be firing off for longer, allowing it to improve its damage output by reducing how frequently it needs to stop attacking and recharge.

**High Frequency** sacrifices the single-target damage of the Laser tower in exchange for hitting multiple targets at once. While the damage penalty may seem bad at first, the potential benefit of multiplying damage output by up to six targets completely makes up for the initial reduction in most cases. Having a focus on multiple targets also makes the positioning of the Laser tower even more crucial, where straight lines of oncoming enemies maximizes the amount of targets hit every shot.

The second bonus is being able to continuously aim the beam at targets, which can allow a beam to remain on a single enemy for longer and increase overall damage. For strategies with High Frequency however, following a target as it possibly moves away from the corridor poses an issue, making pairing with that ability precarious.

**Mirrors System** makes the tower fire 3 laser beams with 45% damage each, potentially granting a 35% damage increase with all three beams connecting to targets. The issue is that those added beams are fired off away from the target, making aim and contact with enemies too cumbersome to make the 2 additional beams useful.

There is notable conflict with High Frequency, as aiming down a long track fires the added beams off to hit nothing, serving to reduce the overall damage output of the tower. The only potential use of Mirror Systems is when not using High Frequency, where hitting three targets in a corner is much more feasible.

**Ionization** reduces the time needed to charge the next shot by 50%. This bonus is reduced down to a minimum of 0% if adjacent towers are placed, making a lone Laser at the end of a track or isolated away from the rest of the defensive line more desirable. Boosters are not considered for this ability, making separation of towers to make the best use of boosters is doubly helpful for Laser towers.

## Research

(Does not include endless research)

These research are exclusive to Laser Tower Only. To see all researches, see Researches

**Damage** - Damage dealt to enemies

**Max Upgrade Level** - Upgrade Level Limit

Increases the max upgrade level of the tower (Upgrade level). At level 0, the max tower upgrade level is 3.

**Max Experience Level** - Experience Limit in levels

Increases the max experience level of the tower (EXP level). At level, the max tower experience level is 4.

**Range** - Range in tiles

**Price** - Tower Price in Coins

Reduces the cost to build Laser Tower. By default it costs 100 coins.

**Charging speed** - Speed of batteries recharge

**Charging speed** is multiplied by this value. (multiplicative)

**Rotation Speed** - Degrees per second

**Experience Multiplier** - Each XP point is multiplied by this.

**Upgrade Price** - Price of tower upgrades in coins

**Battery Capacity (Unique Characteristics)** - Affects duration of laser

**Battery Capacity** is multiplied by this value. This increases **Battery Capacity** from 2.5s - 4.4s to 3.25s - 5.72s (Based on Tower EXP level)

Damage bonus stacks additively with Damage research.

**Starting Level** - Initial Tower Level

When purchased, Laser Tower will immediately start at that EXP Level. At Max level, Laser Towers will start at EXP Level 4 with 1 Ability Unlocked.

**Passive XP at max upgrade level** - Amount of tower gets per second on max upgrade level.

If not at max level, the formula of XP/second goes by (XP rate / 10 \* tower upgrade level)

**Charging speed - Ionization** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Charging speed - Ionization** and adds it per level. (Additive)

**Charging speed reduce - Ionization** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Charging speed reduce - Ionization** and adds it per level. (Additive)

**Damage - High frequency** - Tower ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Damage - High frequency** and adds it per level. (Additive)

**Max enemies - High frequency** - Tower ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Max enemies - High frequency** and adds it per level (Additive)

**Damage - Mirrors system** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Damage - Mirrors system** and adds it per level (Additive)

Shooting angle - Mirrors system - Tower Ability Upgrade

Reduces the angle spread between two lasers

**Damage - Large batteries** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Damage - Large batteries** and adds it per level (Additive)

**Rotation speed - Large batteries** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Rotation speed - Large batteries** and adds it per level (Additive)

**Duration - Large batteries** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Duration - Large batteries** and adds it per level (Additive)

**Bonus damage - Ultimate** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Bonus damage - Ultimate** and adds it per level (Additive)

**Duration - Ultimate** - Tower Ability Upgrade

This uses the base value of **Duration - Ultimate** and adds it per level (Additive)

**First Generation** - Significant Increase of Characteristics

-Rotation Speed + 10% / Damage + 5%

**Second Generation** - Significant increase of Characteristics

-Attack Range +5% / Battery Capacity + 10%

**Third Generation** - Significant increase of Characteristics

-Upgrade price - 2%, Damage + 10%

## Advinas Dialogue

### 5.7

**Advinas**: The finale is near, and I have something very powerful for you - the Laser.

**Advinas**: The main great advantage of this tower is that the beam crosses the entire map and causes damage to all enemies through which it passes.

**Advinas**: It can cause really huge damage, not comparable to the damage of any other tower, but still it is not perfect

**Advinas**: This tower has a small rotation speed and it cannot turn while the laser is active.

## Trivia

* Along with Flamethrower, Gauss, and Crusher, Laser is one of the four towers not present in the first *Infinitode* game.
* Before the 1.8 Update, the Laser tower behaved radically differently than its current version.
	+ Its laser beam originally dealt less damage, but penetrated a seemingly infinite amount of enemies at a time, doing so without any abilities required.
	+ High Frequency originally gave the Laser tower 300% damage in exchange for hitting only one enemy at a time.