Drop Ship

"Packed to the brim with bones instead of bombs. Skeletons leap out of these balloons directly next to the enemy!"

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Level 1-4	Level 5-8	Level 9-12	Level 13-16	Level 17-18

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• Summary
  • The Drop Ship is a balloon that flies in the air and drops Skeletons on its target.
  • The Drop Ship itself doesn’t deal any damage except upon destruction by way of its ability.
  • Its special ability, Skeleton Burst, activates when it is destroyed and causes the Drop Ship to deal damage where it was destroyed in addition to spawning extra Skeletons. This is unlocked at level two, like with most other Builder Base troops.
  • Drop Ships have no preferred target when attacking; they will simply attack the closest building to them. However, once they become aware of enemy Guard Post troops (either by being attacked themselves or being near another friendly troop under attack), they will leave their previously targeted building and engage the enemy troops instead. Once all of the nearby enemy troops are defeated, they will proceed to attack the nearest building from their current location.

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• Offensive Strategy
  • Make sure you bring support troops like the Baby Dragons and Beta Minions to support the Drop Ship, as it and its skeletons don't do much damage by itself and will get taken out easily.
  • The Drop Ship can trigger Mines and Mega Mines without taking much damage and protecting the troops behind it.
  • Although having a lot of hitpoints, the Drop Ship can still be quickly worn down by multiple Firecrackers targeting them. The Mega Tesla can greatly damage two Drop Ships at once.
  • It is recommended to destroy distracting buildings first before deploying them as they are easily distracted due to its slow movement speed.
  • Try to avoid the Crushers as they will crush all the Skeletons. Even though the Skeletons will get one hit each before getting crushed, the Drop Ship will stay there for a very long time dropping Skeletons, rendering them useless.
  • Drop Ships can pair well with Night Witches. Their subtroops can distract both ground and air defenses, allowing each other to survive for longer amount of time.
  • Spreading your Drop Ships out or delaying the deploy of some of them can prevent them clustering up and being killed quickly by splash defenses.

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• Defensive Strategy
  • Space out your Firecrackers and your Air Bombs so there are high-hitpoint buildings between them but still within each other's range to protect each other.
  • The Roaster can target both the Drop Ship and the Skeletons it drops as long as they are close together.
  • The Multi Mortar and Giant Cannon are both effective tools at wiping out Skeletons. Be sure to consider their location when attacking, as allowing either or both of these defenses to stand will greatly hinder the Drop Ship's damage potential.
  • The Drop Ship is weak against the Guard Post. As Drop Ships deal no damage themselves (with the exception of the ability), the skeletons are left to kill the defending troops, which can be wiped out easily. Placing the Mega Tesla near the guard post with several Firecrackers will make a good combination against them.
    • The defensive troops can also cause multiple Drop Ships to group together, which makes splash damage (from the Air Bombs, for example) more effective against them, and may also make other air troops (like Beta Minions) more vulnerable to the defenses.

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• Upgrade Differences
  • At level 1, it looks like a balloon with a skull in front and three compartments carrying Skeletons.
  • At level 5, the places where the ropes intersect are tied up with more ropes.
  • At level 9, the horns on the skull which is at the front of the balloon become golden.
  • At level 13, the balloon gains wooden armor plates on the side similar to the level 3-4 Balloon.
  • At level 17, the compartments receive iron lining and bolts.

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• Trivia
  • The skull on the Drop Ship resembles the skull on a Witch's Staff.
  • If you view the Drop Ship image in the Barracks, the balloon appears to be blue, while in combat, the balloon appears to be purple.
  • The home base Balloon targets Defensive Buildings, but mentioned above, the Drop Ship attacks anything.

Gold Pass modifiers

Input Gold Pass boost to modify the statistics in the tables below accordingly

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Number of Units per Army Camp	Preferred Target	Attack Type	Movement Speed	Builder Barracks Level Required	Range	Skeletons Summoned	Special Ability
2	Any	Area Splash (Ground Only)	12	9	0.5 tiles	3 (max 9)	Skeleton Burst

Level	Skeletons Summon Cooldown	Hitpoints	Skeleton Burst Damage	Skeleton Burst Spawned Skeletons	Research Cost	Research Time	Star Laboratory Level Required
1	6.0s	1,320	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	6.0s	1,320	100	4	1,100,000	12h	6
3	6.0s	1,452	100	4	1,200,000	12h	7
4	5.2s	1,452	100	4	1,300,000	1d	7
5	5.2s	1,597	100	4	1,400,000	1d	7
6	5.2s	1,597	150	6	1,500,000	2d	7
7	5.2s	1,757	150	6	1,600,000	2d	7
8	4.5s	1,757	150	6	1,700,000	3d	7
9	4.5s	1,933	150	6	1,800,000	3d	7
10	4.5s	1,933	225	9	2,000,000	3d	7
11	4.5s	2,126	225	9	2,200,000	3d	7
12	3.9s	2,126	225	9	2,400,000	3d	7
13	3.9s	2,339	225	9	2,600,000	3d	7
14	3.9s	2,339	300	12	2,800,000	3d	7
15	3.9s	2,573	300	12	3,600,000	4d	8
16	3.4s	2,573	300	12	3,800,000	4d	8
17	3.4s	2,830	300	12	4,300,000	5d	9
18	3.4s	3,113	300	12	4,500,000	5d	9