Strategy Guide for Paladin

A lot of people seem to dislike the paladin while in my opinion he tends to be one of the best and most essential characters for beating the game. This is a guide that shows my general strategies for each monster and what some of the better upgrades for him are. With these tactics and upgrades I managed to beat the game on the hardest difficulty with only the Paladin.

Quick Reference Guide

Monsters

• Melee
  For the most part against melee enemies you can cluster them up and take them out as a group, you will need to have sufficent attack to do so. There are a few melee enemies that you will have to look out for, which can be found in the monsters section.
  
• Ranged
  For ranged enemies you want to get them in a long drawn out line as they chase you. Then you simply turn and do a walk attack to take care of them. Watch out for liches you cannot Shield their attacks.
  
• Towers
  
  • Flower Towers
    For Flower Towers clear the enemies around them then walk in a circle around them while attacking. ALWAYS stay moving
    
  • Nova Towers
    Get as close as you can, hiding behind walls and pillars, get a time between attacks, then charge at them and attack and leave before the next attack. (Normally need to do this 3-4 times)
• Mini Bosses
  Hit and run, these will take a bit of time to ride yourself of. You can also try and get them caught on a wall by taking a hard right turn at a corner to get them caught, but where is the fun in that?
  

  General

  Paladin	Health	Defence	Damage	Mana (Regen)	Speed
  Starter	75	2	9	50 (0.91)	0.9
  Upgrade 1	120	4	14	75 (1)	1
  Upgrade 2	165	6	20	100 (1.11)	1.1
  Upgrade 3	210	8	26	125 (1.25)	1.2
  Upgrade 4	255	9	32	150 (1.42)	N/A
  Upgrade 5	300	10	38	175 (1.67)	N/A

  
  

  Skills

  • Charge - 10 mana to dash in the direction you are moving.
    

    Charge	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
    Damage	1.75x	2x	2.25x	2.5x
    Range	3	4	5	6

  • Shield - deflects ranged attacks
    

    Shield	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
    Arc Angle	60	120	180	240

  • Sword Arc - melee attack arc range
    

    Sword Arc	Starting	Up 1	Up 2	Up 3	Up 4	Up 5
    Arc Angle	90	120	150	180	210	240

  • Divine Wrath - stun chance when attacking
    

    Divine Wrath	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2
    Stun Chance	10%	20%	30%

  • Healing - heal damage to all nearby players
    

    Healing	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
    Efficiency	5 HP	6 HP	7 HP	8 HP
    Mana Cost	10	8	7	6

  • Holy Strom - attack and move at the same time
    

    Holy Storm	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2
    Damage	1.5x	2x	2.5x
    Duration	4	6	8

The Paladin

In my personal opinion the Paladin is one of the best characters due to his ability to deal massive damage, take a massive amount of damage and his ability to move quickly. His biggest and really only disadvantage is his range, which is melee only.

Here is a table to show his Health, Defense, Damage, Mana, and Speed progression.

Paladin	Health	Defence	Damage	Mana (Regen)	Speed
Starter	75	2	9	50 (0.91)	0.9
Upgrade 1	120	4	14	75 (1)	1
Upgrade 2	165	6	20	100 (1.11)	1.1
Upgrade 3	210	8	26	125 (1.25)	1.2
Upgrade 4	255	9	32	150 (1.42)	N/A
Upgrade 5	300	10	38	175 (1.67)	N/A

The Paladin starts with the least amount of damage of all the orginal characters (New ones being the Preist and Thief who both have less), however once you have all gotten Upgrade 5 You have the highest attack, only matched by the Warlock. The Warlock, however does not have the Shield skill. That is what makes the Paladin the top character for melee encounters. able to deal massive amounts of damage in a wide arc in front of himself at an unlimited speed the only thing holding you back is how fast you can press the attack button. Most other characters don't have the ability to attack a large group of enemies like the Paladin with just their basic melee. This is what make the Paladin, in my opinion the best melee character of the game.

The Paladin has the most health of all the other characters as well as the most defense. Making him the tank(damage sponge) of all the characters. So defensively he is the best as is, but he also has a skill Shield that allows him to block incoming light range attacks. Which allows you to simply walk up to ranged enemies for a quick disposal. With these two things going for him it is hard to argue against him being the best defensively.

All characters have the same speed and same upgrades as everyone else. But the Paladin has something more, he has a skill Charge that allows him to quickly dash from point to point. So he can escape when surrounded by a group of enemies, something that no other character can do. I believe that these 3 things are what make the Paladin the best character.

All charts are made off information from hammerwatch.wikia.com and all of its contributers.
The image of the monsters was made using Hammerwatch Editor

Skills of the Paladin

These are all of the available skills for the paladin and how to best use them. Whether or not you want to get them is mostly up to you.

Here is a list of all of the paladins skills and upgrades. While it would be nice to have all of the upgrades, it is not always possible. In the following table the skills marked with a "Y" under the upgrade are the skills you should definitely have up to that level.

Skill	Start	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3	Upgrade 4	Upgrade 5
Charge	Y	Y	Y	Y	N/A	N/A
Divine Wrath	Y	Y	N	N/A	N/A	N/A
Healing	Y	Y	N	N	N/A	N/A
Holy Storm	Y	N	N	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sword Arc	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N
Shield	Y	Y	Y	Y	N/A	N/A

• Charge

  Charge is one of your biggest skills and you should be using it almost all the time compared to your other skills. Charge allows the paladin to dash forward through his enemies dealing damage to them. It costs 10 mana the entire game so you are able to use it about 5-6 times before you run out of mana at the start. The Charge skill has many offensive and defensive uses. Offensively it can be used to take out a large amount of weaker enemies very quickly. Defensively it can be used to escape the monsters if you mistakenly trap yourself. Additionally it can be used for speed runs to help quicken the pace. In my opinion Charge is one of the top skills of the Paladin and one of the reasons he is the best character. His ability to escape the enemy is what puts him above all other characters in my mind. I myself personally will almost always use this skill for that one purpose, to get away. The paladins basic attack Sword Arc is more than enough to take out large groups of weak enemies.
  Note: The less mana you have the less you can use it Defensively.
  

  Charge	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
  Damage	1.75x	2x	2.25x	2.5x
  Range	3	4	5	6

• Divine Wrath

  Divine Wrath is a very helpful skill to get, what it does is it gives the Paladin a 10% chance (Improvable with upgrades) to stun the enemy for 2.5 seconds. This may seem a little insignificant but, most paladins will average anywhere from 5 - 10 attacks per second so this will allow you to make about 12 extra hits to the enemy, enabling you to do massive damage while they are stunned. Divine Wrath is a skill I pick up the moment it is available to me. It is a terrific skill and great through the entire game.
  

  Divine Wrath	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2
  Stun Chance	10%	20%	30%

• Healing

  Healing is a very nice skill while not required, it is highly recommended, once you get it, you should use it whenever you have a free moment and don't have full health to heal yourself. Additoinally this skill can be used to heal your teammates as well. Essentially this skill gives the paladin unlimited health as long as you retreat and heal yourself, as mana recharges with time all you have to do is wait and recover your health.
  

  Healing	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
  Efficiency	5 HP	6 HP	7 HP	8 HP
  Mana Cost	10	8	7	6

• Holy Storm

  Holy Storm is a very interesting and kinda fun skill, it allows the Paladin to spin in a circle doing massive damage to enemies. While it is a very good skill in some situations, the massive amount of damage that gets applied is very slow where simply attacking would do more damage. The one advantage to it is it allows you to attack and move at the same time. To use the skill it costs 50 mana. Personally I don't tend to use this skill very much, I more tend to stand my ground in one spot and use Sword Arc to my advantage to deal massive damage. I always get at least the first level of Holy Storm just incase the need to use it arises, which sometimes it will.
  

  Holy Storm	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2
  Damage	1.5x	2x	2.5x
  Duration	4	6	8

• Sword Arc

  Sword Arc is a fantastic but also simple skill. Sword Arc determines how large of an angle in front of the paladin that damage is applied. It ranges fro 90°-240° which at the upper levels helps to wrap around behind yourself. Sword Arc is a skill you will want to upgrade whenever you get the chance.
  

  Sword Arc	Starting	Up 1	Up 2	Up 3	Up 4	Up 5
  Arc Angle	90	120	150	180	210	240

• Shield

  Shield is much like Sword Arc but instead of applying damage it helps prevent it. Shield is probably the best skill that the paladin has, it allows him to block incoming light ranged attacks as long as they are within the range of the angle of the shield, which starts at 60°. If a ranged attack his that angle on your character then the attack is blocked.
  Note: Shield does not block all ranged attacks such as those from turrets, minibosses and bosses.
  

  Shield	Starting	Upgrade 1	Upgrade 2	Upgrade 3
  Arc Angle	60	120	180	240

Monsters and How to Beat Them

Here is a picture of all of the monsters from the first campaign of the game. Each row has consists of the monsters fromt that act. So row 1 is Act I row two is Act II and so on.

Act 1

• Ticks
  
  • Small - Grey in color, best thing to do is a quick double attack and they should be taken care of.
    
  • Medium - Green in color, best thing to do is a quick triple attack and they should be taken care of.
    
  • Spikey - Green with multipule spikes, these cannot be defeated in a single quick attack. You must preform a few in sucession taking a step back each time. Unless you manage to stun them.
    
  • Miniboss - Large and red, you must preform multiple quick attacks in sucession while taking a back step each time. Charge can be used to dash behind him. Fight him alone.
• Maggots
  
  • Small - White in color, best thing to do is a quick double attack and that should take care of them.
    
  • Normal - Gold in color, best thing to do is a quick triple attack and that should take care of them.
    
  • Elite - Gold in color with red spikes on its back, simply walk up to it and attack until it is dead.
• Bats
  
  • White Eyed - Black with white eyes, a single attack is all that is needed.
    
  • Red Eyed - Black with read eyes, faster than the white eyed counter part, but still only needing one hit to finish them.
• Towers
  
  • Flower Tower - Tier 1 - Clear the area around them, then walk in a circle around them while attacking. ALWAYS keep moving.

Act 2

• Skeleton
  
  • Small - Tier 1 - White with small bits of blue, a single attack or possibly two should be enough to kill them.
    
  • Normal - Tier 1 - Black armor with blue trim, also wielding a shield, be careful here takes 3-4 quick attack hit they will sometimes get you, if so do multiple quick attacks.
    
  • Elite - Tier 1 - Black armor with blue trim, wielding a shield and red spikes on head. These cannot be defeated in a single quick attack. You must preform a few in sucession taking a step back each time. Unless you manage to stun them.
    
  • Miniboss - Large skeleton has a spin move like holy storm that activates every 15-20 seconds so be careful. In order to beat him you must preform multiple quick attacks in sucession and be wary of the spin attack so you can keep your distance. Fight him alone.
• Archer
  
  • Normal - Skeleton with a green hood, simply approach and finish them.
    
  • Elite - Skeleton with a red hood, shoots multiple arrows, simply approach and finish them.
• Tower
  
  • Flower Tower - Tier 2 - Clear the area around them, then walk in a circle around them while attacking. ALWAYS keep moving.
    
  • Nova Tower - Tier 1 - Get as close as you can with out getting hit, normally be hind a pillar or around a corner, then get a feel for the timing of the attack. After the orbs blow up charge out to it and hit it, but be ready to run. Normally takes 3-4 times to destroy it.

Act 3

• Demon Eyes
  
  • Normal - Small eyeball, depending on where your attack is they may take a quick double to quadruple attack, I advise finding out how many it takes before trying to do it all at once.
    
  • Elite - Larger Eye with visible blood vessels in the eye, depending on where your attack is they may take 3-5 attacks. I advise finding out before trying to do it all at once.
    
  • Miniboss - Very large Eyeball witha blue back. Summons Elite Demon Eyes about every 5 seconds, this was one of the hardest for me to fight. You have to attack and charge him as well as take care of the Summoned Eyes. You should be able to out run him so if there are too many of the Elite Demon Eyes just run and get some to follow you and try to get him alone again. Fight him alone.
• Wisps
  
  • Normal - Green wisp, shoots very slow shots, just walk up and kill them but make sure to get away as they explode on death, which will burn you.
    
  • Elite - Blue wisp, shoots very slow with a double shot, walk up and kill them but make sure to get away, because like their green friends they explode.
• Lich
  
  • Normal - Skeleton in green robes, shoots a tracking orb that does high damage, try to dodge and weave up to him. Charging through him normally works best but you may have to attack him again after the charge. They can teleport away.
• Towers
  
  • Flower Tower - Tier 3 - Clear the area around them, then walk in a circle around them while attacking. ALWAYS keep moving.

Act 4

• Skeletons
  
  • Small - Tier 2 - Skeletons wearing a helmet, should be able to walk up to them and do a quick double attack to defeat them.
    
  • Normal - Tier 2 Skeletons wearing a blue helmet and carrying an orange shield. A quick triple attack should be enough to take care of him.
    
  • Elite - Tier 2 - Fully armored Skeleton with a large red cone on its head. These cannot be defeated in a single quick attack. You must preform a few in sucession taking a step back each time. Unless you manage to stun them.
    
  • Tier 3 - Skeleton in purple armor, very weak but very fast and can out run players who don't have max move speed. A simple attack is enough to finish them.
• Liches
  
  • Elite - Green robes with no face but red eyes, shoots two tracking orbs that do high damage, try to dodge and weave up to him. Charging through him normally works best but you may have to attack him again after the charge. They can teleport away.
    
  • Tier Two - Skeleton wearing light blue robes heals nearby enemies, including himself, and has a frost attack that slows when in close range. Try to get close and get a stun on him then finish him off. They can teleport away.
    
  • Tier Three - Skeleton in purple robes with skull visible. Summons Tier 3 Skeletons simply get to them and attack. They can teleport away.
    
  • Miniboss - Larger Lich in purple robes has 2 main attacks, summons white bats that are easy to dispose of, and also fires a fire nova round himself in 8 directions. Its normally hard to dodge but just get close and hit him as many times as you can. They can be very difficult. They can teleport away. Fight him alone.
• Archers
  
  • Tier Two - Black face with read eyes in a green hood, simply walk up and attack them to kill them.
    
  • Tier Three - Skeleton in a gold hood, deals high damage, but with your Shield skill it shouldn't be a problem, just walk up and kill them.
• Towers
  
  • Flower Tower - Tier 3 - Clear the area around them, then walk in a circle around them while attacking. ALWAYS keep moving.
    
  • Nova Tower

Bosses

• The Queen - For the Queen it isn't a super tough fight as much as a long one. Her only attack is a double posion nova, when you see her glow green hit a button and hide behind the pillar. Make sure the area is clear of maggots when fighting her, they can make it a lot more challenging. As long as you dodge the posion nova and keep her minions down it is an easy fight.
  
• The Knight - This is a long and tough fight, as a Paladin you have to get in melee range to hit him, you can do so, and get a couple of attacks in but then you need to move back because he only misses his first attack. Other than that he has 3 other attacks, one is a spin move that shoots spike in all directions so you have to actively dodge them. He hits the ground which sends a pulse at you, if you are moving it will normally miss. and he drops bombs all over the room, just stay out side of a ring if possible to dodge.
  
• The Lich - The third act in general is a very hard act to play, the lich is no easy feat himself. He replicates himself 8 times times, only one being real that takes damage, but the rest summon bats that chase after you, they are easy to kill, but your main focus needs to be on the lich. He also has an attack that he shoots at you that is hard to dodge when in close range. If you can see it coming Charge behind him. Make sure you have lots of lives.
  
• The Dragon - I actuall felt the dragon was one of the easiest bosses. He spawns a doomsday spawner that spawns all basic enemies, no elites, so you can just walk around it in a circle to kill it and any enemies that are standing infront of you. It is a very easy thing to do. Once you destroy the spawner just run up behind him attack until you die. You should be able to get him down a quarter of his health before he even gets you. Each quarter spawns a new doomsday spawner.

[smoaz.cj]

i always choose paladin

[Imagine being ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Just wow, been playing this game with friends and having a blast and now seeing people devoted to it is just heartwarming. Keep it up!