Bugler

Article

Gallery

---

"Supports your team with extra bonuses." - Shop Description

Description

Bugler is a support tower capable of increasing the range and decreasing the cooldown of nearby towers, and can use the Snare Drums ability to further amplify the cooldown bonus for a long duration. It is only available to be purchased if you are Level 25+. Path 1 Bugler is capable of increasing firerate and decreasing cooldown even further, while Path 2 Bugler further increases the range of other towers, and comes with 2 abilities that help towers in different ways.

Appearance

The Bugler has a very different look from other towers. It wields a bugle and has an appearance of an Napoleonic era soldier with a modern twist to it. It wears a shako and a black coat.

Lore

"Music, marching band and the military go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, the Bugler is a descendant of this placed of fabled history - utilizing drums, horns and other sounds in conjunction to indicate things in battle. Perhaps what is most important is patriotism - hearing the music you've listened to back home whilst on the battlefield. Notheless, the Bugler is a incredibly impractical and inefficient, and the UEC have already inserted what are referred to as 'Captains' onto the field. However, maybe due to tradition, the Bugler continues to see a rare use in combat today. What is more rare, however, are the robotics variants of the Bugler - a relic of experimentation with some spare parts during the Winter Construct conflict."

Upgrades

Stats Table

Abilities

3-X

Snare Drums Towers within 1.5x range of Bugler gain a temporary firerate boost. Level 1 (3-X) Towers gain +20%. Lasts for 15s. Cooldown of 60s. Global cooldown of 30s. Level 1 (4-X) Towers gain +20%. Lasts for 15s. Cooldown of 60s. No global cooldown.

$0

X-3

Unit Commander Towers within range of Bugler can be commanded to target a selected enemy, regardless of tower targeting. Cooldown of 5s.

$0

X-4

Directed Power A selected tower gains a massive firerate boost. Selected tower gains +100%. Lasts 75s on T0 tower. Lasts 72s on T1 tower. Lasts 68s on T2 tower. Lasts 64s on T3 tower. Lasts 59s on T4 and T5 tower. Cooldown of 70s. Global cooldown of 10s.

$0

Comparison

4-2 Bugler ( 20,850) 35% Cooldown Boost 10% Range Boost 1 Damage Boost 31 Range Snare Drums Ability

2-4 Bugler ( 20,350) 20% Cooldown Boost 30% Range Boost 0 Damage Boost 28 Range Unit Commander Ability Direct Power Ability No Snare Drums Ability

Tactics

• Unlike various other support towers from different tower defense games, one player cannot "chain" the Snare Drums ability, unless they have at least five 3-X Businessmen to lower the ability cooldown and have all 3 Buglers on top path. Although another expensive but effective workaround is to "micro" Bugler, by selling and replacing it with another to skip the Snare Drums cooldown.
  • If you intend to use this micro method, it is recommended to only upgrade the Bugler when you are micro managing to 4-0, and have other Buglers maxed on both paths so that the towers in range still receive the maximum passive buffs.
  • This same micro method can be used for X-4 Bugler, which allows the player to use direct power on multiple towers in a short period of time.
  • Don't micro Snare Drums with 3-X Bugler, as it gives a global cooldown of 30 seconds. So make sure to buy 4-0 Bugler before using the ability, or else your DPS will be even lower.
• 2-2 Bugler can be good enough for mid-game, as they can provide +20% fire rate and +10% range for 4,850.
• It is recommended to have at least one 4-2 Bugler, one 4-0 Bugler, and one 1-4 Bugler in later waves, as this allows nearby towers to receive the maximum passive buffs, which are +35% fire rate, and +30% range, and being able to use snare drums without having global cooldowns.
  • X-4 Bugler Direct Power ability is kind of underwhelming, as it can only buff 1 tower. But the upgrade still shows its usefulness with the additional 10% range buff, and the Direct Power ability can be useful in the final wave of Expert Mode, where most players would stockpile on cash.
  • One tower could have up to +155% fire rate with a 4-2 Bugler, snare drums, and direct power active.
  • It's recommended using the Direct Power ability on very powerful towers like Lightbeamer and Electricizer.
• Path 1 Bugler has very good firerate buffs which can massively increase the DPS of the towers. The Snare Drums can be very useful if you feel you are going to struggle a part of a wave, or just to increase DPS even further in late-game.
• Path 2 Bugler benefits all towers equally with its range and fire rate bonuses. It is essential for Expert Mode as its Unit Commander ability becomes a necessity in later waves.
• You can chain Bugler's Snare Drums ability, simply place 3 4-X Buglers and activate the ability when the other one ends. However, after chaining the third Bugler, the ability has about 15 seconds of cooldown left, so use a few 3-X Businessmen to avoid this.
  • Leaving a 5 second gap between each Bugler ability activation can also make this less impactful. Only using the abilities when required can also allow the cooldown to recharge while there is less or no enemies in range.
  • Alternatively, you can also use a 4th Bugler from another player to consistently chain the ability, but it may be difficult as it requires accurate timing and coordination from both players.
  • Therefore, the second method is quite pointless as the second player can just bring Businessman to lower the cooldown (Unless they do not have it).
  • If you are in a solo Expert run, it's not recommended to have all buglers at 4-X, as the Unit Commander ability is pretty much mandatory for Overlord's Amplifiers, and also because of the fact that you will lose the 20% extra range buff that can be very useful for some towers such as Vulcan. (This also applies if you are in multiplayer, and you are the only player using Bugler in the server).
• Unlike some may think, Bugler doesn't buff Recon Base and other units. So don't waste useful spots putting Recon Base at a place where towers like Electricizer or Vulcan could had been placed on with the Bugler buffs.

Trivia

• The "Direct Power" ability seems to be based of the Overclock from Bloons Tower Defense series.
• Although if there are some towers slightly out of the range of the Bugler, towers can still get the buff.
• The hat that Bugler wears is the Marching Band Cap.
• Bugler is confirmed to be a self insert, since Oster is in a marching band (That is why updates are slow).
  • Additionally, Oster is currently a student (which he said in Discord) and is the main developer who does majority of the stuff in Tower Blitz. The other developer being Beefchoplets, who had made and assisted with most of the maps in the past.
• The sound of the bugler is the same sound used by the Buff Banner and The Battalions Backup from Team Fortress 2.
  • However, you should not confuse the Buff Banner and Battalions Backup sound with the Concheror's one
• Obtaining Bugler will award you with the Drum Major badge.
• Being different from support towers from other tower defense games, the Bugler is completely unique as it is using drums and direct power giving abilities to boost cooldown.
• When "Snare Drums" ability is activated, APM - Drilldown will be played as the song.
  • At 0:05 is when the Bugler will start playing his drum.
  • At 0:19 is when the music will end.
• The boosts were actually able to stack during it's release.
  • However it was taken out after a day or two.
• During it's release, the tower was very buggy as well.
  • The range was being boosted by 2x it's original range, the boost was invisible and it only showed the normal range. Upgrading the range by normal means seemed to have affected the boosted range. However, attempting to boost it with other Buglers doesn't seem to have affected the boosted range.
  • When a tower goes beyond 2-2, the boosts on the tower will stop updating.
    • This can result in Snare Drums and Direct Power ability not working beyond 2-2.
    • Able to persist the Snare Drum and Direct Power ability's boost by upgrading the tower beyond 2-2 while using it's ability on it.
  • This resulted OsterDog having to rework the Bugler for the Blissful Revelation update despite saying that he wouldn't be doing any bug fixes.
• The 4-2 upgrade, Cysian Overseer, shares a part it's name with Cysian Master.
  • According to OsterDog, Cysian is a blanket term for a special type of material used from some combined elements.
• The sound that comes from the bugle the Bugler plays at the start of each wave is from the Buff Banner on the Soldier in Team Fortress 2.
• Fire rate buff is calculated as: tower fire rate / ( 1 + buff ), where buff is in decimal form. (1% becomes 0.01, 10% becomes 0.1, 100% becomes 1)
  • This means that the buffs are inverse, where a +100% fire rate buff only halves the tower's fire rate, and a +50% buff reducing 1/3.
  • The way the DPS increases is linear with this formula however, meaning a +50% fire rate buff is equivalent to 50% more DPS.
• If not mistaken, player need to purchase Bugler if they want the Major role in the Discord server.

Update History

(1/4/21) Scrapped Bugler as part of an April fools joke. (25/4/21) Added Bugler. (17/9/21) System reworked. Bugs regarding range, towers' boost, and ability's boost not being updated above 2-2 has been patched. Bugler's ability to give flying detection to other towers was removed. Replaced by a new ability which set towers’ targets to a specific enemy. (21/9/21) 1-X Cost reduced from 400 to 350 (-50). X-1 Cost increased from 230 to 320 (+90). X-2 Cost increased from 615 to 680 (+65). (29/9/21) 4-X Cost increased from 12,000 to 13,000 (+1,000). X-3 Cost reduced from 2,600 to 2,200 (-400). (13/11/21) 4-X Cost reduced from 13,000 to 12,500 (- 500). X-3 Cost reduced from 2,200 to 2,000 (- 200). X-4 Cost reduced from 9,000 to 8,000 (- 1,000), Direct Power buff increased from 20% to 30% (+10%). (17/12/22) Revamped Bugler Removed Flat Damage Boost from 3-X and 4-X. 2-X's Title has been changed from Snare Drums to Better Firerate. 2-X Ability moved to 3-X. 3-X's Title has been changed to Snare Drums. Using the ability now gives 30 second global cooldown. 4-X now removes the global cooldown for Snare Drums. Cost increased from 12,500 to 13,000 (+500). X-1's Title has been changed from Binoculars to Plume. Cost increased from 320 to 500 (+180). X-2's title has been changed from Extra Storage to Cape. Cost increased from 680 to 1,750 (+1,070). X-3 Cost increased from 2,000 to 3,500 (+1,500). X-4 Cost increased from 8,000 to 12,000 (+4,000). (26/12/22) 4-X Cost decreased from 13,000 to 12,000 (- 1,000), Firerate Bonus increased from +10% to +15% (+5%).

Towers
Shop	Slinger • Crossbower • Gunslinger • Freezer • Demolitionist • Techblade • Sniper • Sharpshooter • Market • Vulcan • Electricizer • Trapper • Bugler • Recon Base
Contract	Elite • Businessman • Mechanic • Lightbeamer • Surveyor
Special	Magician
Removed	Delinquent • Conscript

Units
Normal	Mercenary • Operative • Ghoul • Ghoul M2 • Missile Truck • Tank • Lightstriker • Javelin • Scyther Tank • T2 Operative • Operative Squad • Private Squad • Phantom • Fireteam Solemn • Bliss of Finality • Burst Drone • Radar Drone • Cryo Drone • Sentinel Drone • Bomber Drone
Exclusive	bobo • tell • untell • friendly ok
Turrets	Turrets • Special Turrets • Teslas
Removed	Private

Gallery Pages
Current	Slinger • Crossbower • Gunslinger • Freezer • Demolitionist • Techblade • Sniper • Sharpshooter • Market • Vulcan • Electricizer • Trapper • Bugler • Recon Base • Elite • Businessman • Mechanic • Lightbeamer • Surveyor
Removed	Delinquent • Conscript