Zookas

## Summary

* Zookas are the third troop to unlock, at Headquarters Level 5.
* Zookas have very high DPS, but their health is very low.
* Zookas have longer range than most other troops.

Zookas only is a popular late game to end game troop combination. The zooka is the damage per second queen of Boom Beach, but most defenses in the game can one shot a zooka. All zookas is not a troop combination that you normally want vs a player base or Dr. Terror, but both zooka rushes and the smokey zooka technique are extremely important to the strategy of defeating end game resource bases, Gearhart, and operation bases.

## Visual Appearance

* The Zooka appears as a fair-skinned woman with black hair, a blue singlet, ear protection, light brown shorts, and a bazooka slung across her shoulder.

## Offensive Strategy

* Due to their low health, Sniper Towers can generally one-shot a Zooka. Mortars can easily take out a whole group in one shot. Machine Guns are also effective against Zookas, even at extreme range. Deploy Zookas behind a meatshield of Heavy|Heavies or Rifleman|Riflemen to let them take the damage.
* When using teams of low hitpoint Troops, it is a good idea is to take out Mortars and Rocket Launcher]]s with the Gunboat before deploying Troops.
* Deploy the Zookas a few seconds behind other troops; otherwise, they might get taken down by Mortar shells or Rocket Launchers.
* When using the Heavy + Zooka strategy, remember not to Flare directly on a Rocket Launcher because the Heavy|Heavies will walk into the Rocket Launcher's blind spot, causing the Rocket Launcher to target the Zookas instead.
* The Flamethrower|Flamethrower's range is less than the Zooka's, which generally allows a Zooka to destroy a Flamethrower without taking damage. However, if you are not careful and allow a Zooka to get in range of the Flamethrower, it will kill the Zooka very quickly. In addition, if there is a grouping of Zookas, some of them may get pushed into the range of the Flamethrower, resulting in their deaths.
* At equal upgrade levels, they have the second highest damage-to-size ratio of any troop, behind the Warrior, up to level 8. At level 9 and above, they surpass Warriors and stay that way.
* Always take full advantage of the Zooka's range. Carefully look at the enemy defenses and their attack ranges, and look for the "Zooka pockets", areas where they can hit the primary building (Headquarters, Power Core, etc) outside of the range of any other defenses or at least where a very limited number of defense turrets can attack.
* Because of their high damage output, it often does not take very many Zookas surviving to destroy the primary building. Three level 1 Zookas not boosted by Statues can destroy an un-boosted level 9 Headquarters at full health in less than 2 minutes.

### Strengths

\* Flame Throwers

This is usually out of range to target zookas.

\* Sniper Towers

Time between shots are 1.4 seconds.

\* Boom Cannons

4 seconds between every shot

\* Doom Cannons

Doom Cannons have a 3.5 second wait between shots but now has a small area of effect with each shot.

\* Cannons

3 seconds between every shot.

### Weaknesses

\* Rocket Launchers

Splash damage to zookas

\* Shock Launchers

Stuns zookas not allowing them to attack.

\* Lazors

Depending on the tier of the Lazor Beam, can kill zookas in one beam which is every 4 seconds

\* Mortars

Mortars can kill zookas in one hit every 5 seconds depending on level.

## Defensive Strategy

* Use a Sniper Tower as bait so that all the troops will attack it. Put a Machine Gun on either side of the Sniper Tower. The Machine Gun will spray in a big area and will occasionally hit the Zookas.
* Keep Mortars behind groups of other Buildings. The Mortar shell takes time to reach its targeted location, so it can take out Zookas when they move up to attack another Buildings|building.
* As the Zooka has a very long range, bait them with non-defensive Buildings and place Mines in front of them. One or two Mines are usually enough to take out a group of Zookas.

### Combinations

\* Maxed out a full zooka team does 51,648 damage per second, but has only 25,902 total health.

\* A maxed team of zookas can do 516,480 total damage to a core in the time allowed by one shock.

### Tactics

\* Zookas are fragile so often times you will have to use smoke to get the zookas where they need to be to. This type of attack is called “smokey zooka”.

\* To use smokey zooka you need to get all of the zookas together so they can be protected by the smoke. Find a player base that has all of the defenses in the back and practice deploying your zookas one landing craft at a time so that they clump together as illustrated in this video

\* Here are some other videos that explain the finer points of the smokey zooka technique: landing, flaring, controlling.

## Upgrade Differences

* There are no visual changes between levels, but each upgrade increases the Zooka's hitpoints (by 8.8%), DPS (by 10%), and training cost.

## Trivia

* The name 'Zooka' is a stylized version of 'bazooka', which is the weapon they use.
* The Zooka is the only troop with a higher DPS than Health (Not counting Statue Bonuses).