When it comes to placing Traps in Orcs Must Die 3, players are going to want to find some harmony between placing Traps that deal damage and Traps that essentially snare enemies so that damage dealing Traps can have some extra time to clock in some damage.
Since the beginning of the Orcs Must Die franchise there have been a number of Traps that were meant to snare enemies and ensure that there is some extra bought time for players to ensure that they safely secure kills before enemies leak from a map and the Ceiling Pounder has made it through almost if not all versions of Orcs Must Die.
While the Ceiling Pounder has made it through so many renditions of Orcs Must Die, to me the reality is that the Ceiling Pounder isn’t the strongest Trap that players can place as it is a Ceiling Trap with limited range and isn’t the most effective at stunning enemies or ensuring that enemies have time to actually be damaged by other Traps.
The Ceiling Pounder’s main issue is its range, though for players just starting out on maps this shouldn’t be as much of an issue, though I will cover this shortly.
HOW TO UNLOCK THE CEILING POUNDER
The Ceiling Pounder is going to be a Trap that players have to pay Skulls in order to actually obtain, making it a Trap that players will have to think about before acquiring.
In my opinion, the Ceiling Pounder is going to be a good Trap for players who are taking the game slowly and aren’t hoping to dump a great deal of resources into as it only costs 5 Skulls to unlock and all of it’s upgrades are reasonably cheap, though if players are quickly blitzing through the game or are jumping into harder content immediately, this is going to be a Trap that you avoid purchasing as it will quickly become out beat by Traps that cost more.
CEILING POUNDER’S STATS
While I classify the Ceiling Pounder as a snare Trap, the reality is that every hit it takes will damage an enemy by 65 damage.
Realistically, 65 damage isn’t something to shrug at, as players can essentially damage multiple enemies at a time using this trap, dealing much more damage than this if enemies are clumped up together.
The Ceiling Pounder has a fairly short range, being only 4 squares under it, or 2 standard squares under it, making it a bit useless in harder maps and making it less reliable than other Traps. The main benefit of the Ceiling Pounder is it’s size as it is a 2×2 Trap that can essentially fill in space and ensure that your Ceilings aren’t too overwhelmed.
The Ceiling Pounder with no upgrades will trigger every 13 seconds, making it a Trap that has a relatively long cooldown, though this can be reduced using Level Upgrades, which we will cover shortly.
The Ceiling Pounder is a really cheap Trap, only costing 500 enemies, making it extremely useful for beginner players or players who can dish out a lot of stuns.
CEILING POUNDER’S UPGRADES
As is with most standard Traps, the Ceiling Pounder has two forms of upgrades that players have access to, the standard Level Upgrades which are unlocked immediately and the Unique Upgrades which will require players to deal 2,500 damage to enemies to unlock.
Realistically, I would say that a Ceiling Pounder that doesn’t have Unique Upgrades is pretty useless and gaining access to the Unique Upgrades will help make the Ceiling Pounder much more useful and versitile.
The following are the upgrades players will be able to select when using the Ceiling Pounder.
LEVEL UPGRADES
All Level Upgrades will provide players with the ability to reduce the cool down of their Ceiling Pounders.
By far the Level Upgrades for the Ceiling Pounder are much cheaper than the upgrades for many other Traps.
The first upgrade only costs 4 Skulls and will reduce the Ceiling Pounder’s cooldown from 13 to 12 seconds.
The second upgrade only costs 6 Skulls and will reduce the Ceiling Pounder’s cooldown from 12 to 11 seconds.
The final upgrade costs 8 Skulls and reduces the Ceiling Pounder’s cooldown from 11 seconds to 10 seconds.
While I wouldn’t suggest that players upgrade the Level Upgrades on their own, the Level Upgrades can help ensure that players are able to unlock the Unique Upgrades which is where the Ceiling Pounder really begins to shine.
UNIQUE UPGRADES
As mentioned, the Unique Upgrades will require players to deal 2,500 damage to enemies in order to unlock.
The Unique Upgrades will essentially help the Ceiling Pounder deal more damage or help mitigate damage better.
The first Unique Upgrade costs 6 Skulls and will begin stunning enemies for 3 seconds, being the better choice in my opinion as getting more stuns on your enemies can never be a bad idea as players can essentially take this time to damage enemies by using their auto attacks or can leave Traps to deal their damage.
The second Unique Upgrade costs 6 Skulls and will increase the damage dealt by the Ceiling Pounder to 150, though only to stunned enemies.
The only reason I don’t think the second Unique Upgrade isn’t as powerful is the fact that it will rely on other Traps to be ready to stun enemies or will require a player to take a Trinket that will stun enemies.
While a substantial amount of damage, being more than double, if players are unable to secure a stun when the Ceiling Pounder is ready to trigger, this may actually be a bit of a downfall.
IS THE CEILING POUNDER GOOD?
In my opinion the Ceiling Pounder is a Trap that can be glossed over, my main reasoning being its long cooldowns and the fact that players will have to really think about how they place Traps and strategize to get the best out of it.
While the Ceiling Pounder can be extremely useful for stunning enemies, this doesn’t really beat any other Traps in my opinion, especially as you get better at getting kill streaks and combos to secure more Coins.
Essentially the second upgrade for more damage is truly the better upgrade in the long run, but it can be very tricky to ensure that players are actually able to successfully deal the damage using this method, making it a bit of a pipe dream for me.
I would say avoid this Trap unless you are simply looking for a cheap Trap to place in the early game or if you feel comfortable enough with the risks that the Ceiling Pounder comes with.
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