Orcs Must Die! Unchained – FAQ/Walkthrough

Heroes

Deadeye

Overview

My Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Deadeye is a ranged Hero that deals physical damage. She also has a few various tricks and gadgets at her disposal, which allows her to deal extra damage, slow enemies, and roll out of danger.

Abilities:

Bouncing Bomb (L2) - Deadeye tosses a bomb in front of her, which (surprise) bounces along the ground for a few steps. If it hits an enemy, it will explode, dealing damage.

• Mana cost: 30
• Cooldown: 8 seconds

Elven Razorweed (Triangle) - Deadeye places the Razorweed a few steps in front of her (which is about the width of a regular floor trap). If minions cross the Razorweed, they will not only take damage, but will also be slowed for a few seconds.

• Mana cost: 20
• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• Duration: 6 seconds

Ready, Steady, Fire (Square) - Deadeye remains stationary, and unleashes a barrage of arrows in a straight line in front of her for 5 seconds. Deadeye can only be rotated slightly while she uses this ability (with the right analog), and if she moves regularly (using the left analog) it will stop the ability.

• Mana cost: 50
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Outta The Way (L3) - Deadeye will roll in the direction that is pressed while using this ability. As she rolls, Deadeye is completely invincible from damage, and she also gets a buff that increases her Primary damage by 50%, which lasts 5 seconds.

• Mana cost: 10
• Cooldown: 2 seconds
• Buff duration: 7 seconds

Passive: Infamous - Deadeye gains a stack of Infamy for every kill. Infamy does nothing in a single stack, but once Deadeye reaches 12 stacks of Infamy, her Primary attack changes to give it a slight area-of-effect. All Infamy stacks are lost after 10 seconds (note: it doesn't really work out that way, see the Synopsis for more details).

Pros

Deadeye gets a decent amount of variety, and unlike a lot of Heroes, they are mostly damage-focused. This means that her abilities tend to be less situation-oriented, which encourages you to use them regularly.

For her Primary attack, you may notice something about it - the cross-hairs never in fact get larger. This means that she stays accurate no matter what range she is, and no matter how long you hold the Primary button down (which is very much unlike Max and Gabriella).

The second great thing about her Primary is how it changes with Infamy stacks. At 12 Infamy, although Primary damage is reduced, most of the time it is worth the trade-off, because the added area-of-effect is large enough to hit at least 2-3 minions, depending on how close they are together. Given Deadeye's fast attack speed, this also allows her to excel in clearing groups of Runners; the Primary damage reduction makes little difference when killing Runners, and the explosion ensures that you're killing them without having to be perfectly accurate.

Bouncing Bomb is her main burst-damage attack, as it is much stronger than her Primary, and it doesn't have too long of a cooldown. I would argue it's mostly supposed to be utilized against larger minions with more HP, but it's equally as viable to use at any point, due to its large explosion radius. Although a good ability by itself, it can be further upgraded to either stun or place a Fire damage-over-time effect on minions, making it even more useful.

Elven Razorweed's slow and damage isn't exactly anything to note, but I think it's benefit is with how simple it is to use. All you really have to do is throw it down and then you never need to even think about it. It really becomes significantly more useful if you upgrade it to take the bleed effect, because at that point it does even more damage. Given its short cooldown (which allows only 6 seconds between placements) it can provide a constant source of damage, all the while slowing minions, without ever putting any real effort beyond just remembering to place it.

Ready, Steady, Fire might currently be the most powerful ability in the game. The damage output is so fast, it's difficult to tell the exact amount of damage it does, but it is quite enormous. Again, Deadeye gets a significant upgrade for it at level 10, which allows it to pierce targets. This means if you can line all the minions up in more or less a straight line, you can clear almost entire waves in a single use.

Cons

Deadeye actually doesn't really have a lot of problems with her. She does have a couple of problems with her ability design, but overall it's really nothing that glaring.

The main problem I have with her is that I feel she's a little slow to start. Although she does good damage, I feel that starting off, every single one of her abilities (except Ready, Steady, Fire) is just slightly below average. Due to this, if you're not actively using all of her abilities, you may find that she gets a little overwhelmed.

There are a few (albeit minor) functional issues with some of her abilities:

• Bouncing Bomb's "bounce" animation is quite bizarre at times. Sometimes it really seems like the thing is made out of rubber, and it'll bounce in really odd ways. You also have to be careful about aiming it near environmental hazards, as if you miss, it'll go right off the ledge, wasting the ability. Due to these reasons, I always find it's better to use it when you're basically in melee range of whatever you want to hit.
• Elven Razorweed is a bit odd in getting it to work. I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason, you need to completely stop shooting at times for it to be properly placed, as if the ability doesn't properly attack-cancel. In other words, if you're holding down Primary, sometimes Elven Razorweed will properly overwrite it (and be placed down seamlessly), other times, you have to stop shooting entirely in order to place it.
  • Similar to this, I also notice this when placing down traps with Deadeye. Sometimes you have to wait for her entire "placement animation" to complete in order to place the next trap. It's a mild annoyance, but it's something you should pay attention to.

Outta The Way is mostly not that useful. The extra 50% damage to Primary is indeed nice, but you'll find that Outta The Way is at best, only used sparingly. The reason why is because her abilities are on short cooldowns, and they should be used when they're up. This means that you won't really have time to find chances to use Outta The Way, because you'll be too busy either placing down Razorweed or firing off Bouncing Bomb. You then have to consider that the roll animation is fairly long as well, which means it's not really optimal for your damage to continually use it (as you're wasting time doing nothing, rather than firing). I think this is intentional in design though, as it's really meant to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

Ready, Steady, Fire, is a fantastic ability, but does have two problems in design (although this seems intentional):

1. You can aim (somewhat) with it, but not move with it - So obviously the closer minions are, the worse the ability gets. You normally never want to start firing if something is in melee range, because you run the risk of just sitting there and taking damage. Second, if you take the battle level 10 upgrade which allows it to pierce (and you always should), a minion in melee range may force you to readjust your aim, and thus you run the risk of losing all of the piercing damage.
2. It can't pierce shields - This goes at all times, including when you take the level 10 upgrade. Since you can't move after you fire, you do have to be really mindful that you're not going to hit a Shield minion. If the Shield minion is out in front of the group, it's obvious enough, but if they're mixed into the middle, it's entirely possible to kill the minions in front first, then end up wasting the rest of the ability on those Shield minions in the middle of the group.

Upgrades

Upgrades I use:

• Spring-Loaded (Level 2)
• Razorweed Rend (Level 4)
• Burnin' Hate (Level 7)
• Clear 'Em Out (Level 10)

Upgrades Analysis:

• Level 2:
  • Spring-Loaded: I always choose this upgrade, because it's a simple damage-per-second increase for your Primary, which you constantly use. It's automatic, so you don't have to even think about, which makes it easy to see how it benefits your main source of damage.
  • Deadlier-Eye: I've never chosen this upgrade, but I assume the increase is 50%...of the 50% increase. So this means that the Outta The Way buff goes from a 50% increase to Primary damage to a 75% increase. Even it does increase it to a 100% damage buff, I still wouldn't choose it, because Outta The Way is probably the least utilized ability in Deadeye's arsenal.
  • Hold'em Back: This suffers a similar problem as Deadlier-Eye, but it's even more difficult to see. Since it's not designated how much of a movement Slow Elven Razorweed does, it's even further difficult to tell what the addition of "15%" is; if the initial Slow is 50% (which, I don't think it's that high), is it 15% of 50%? Or is it 15% + 50%? You can test to see if you wish, but personally I never have.
• Level 4:
  • Razorweed Rend: This is a really nice upgrade, and the one I constantly choose. It basically turns Razorweed into its own Fire trap (only that it deals physical damage obviously); all you need to do is place it down and you can see the damage roll out. This in turn means that it is absolutely fantastic for Runners; just as long as you have your Razorweed down, they'll be killed without having to put any real effort into it. The damage is actually decent as well, and thus, if you're using it constantly (and you should be) it's a good damage increase.
  • Goin' Down In Infamy: A completely worthless upgrade in my opinion. Infamy stacks are not hard to get, which means that you shouldn't have any real issue triggering Infamous. To take an upgrade that makes it easier, is pretty pointless.
  • Spurred Boots: Another upgrade for Outta The Way, but it still kind of sucks even if you use it regularly. Being able to damage with Outta The Way makes little sense, because it should always be used defensively. Hence, you should always be rolling away from enemies, not into them. Being reliant on Outta The Way indirectly indicates that you're staying in mid or close range, which is really bizarre given Deadeye's superb accuracy.
• Level 7:
  • Burnin' Hate: This is the upgrade I generally choose, as it performs better than it looks in the description (which is unusual). The nice thing about this upgrade is that it will produce a "cloud" effect in the form (and size) of the Bouncing Bomb explosion. This actually is much larger than you might realize; it's roughly the same size of Razorweed Rend, but it's floating in midair, giving it a circular shape. It's difficult to describe, but in terms of function, it basically turns into a Razorweed that deals Fire damage (without the movement Slow). Of course, it stacks with all other damage-over-time effects, which means it's a fantastic damage increase.
  • Hard Knocks: I've never actually chosen this upgrade, but this is one that may actually be somewhat useful. It does give Deadeye some crowd control, which she is really lacking, so I suppose it boils down to personal preference. I generally like to take things that increase damage over crowd control.
  • Fistful of Brambles: The last Outta The Way upgrade, and as you can imagine, I never take it. A "bramble drop" means Deadeye drops Elven Razorweed when she uses Outta The Way. Although this seems kind of interesting at first, it's again, added to a defensive ability. That means that, in order to get its full use, the best place to be is near the front of the group of minions (close to mid range), and I would argue that is completely unnecessary for Deadeye.
• Level 10:
  • Clear'Em Out: This is a fantastic upgrade, and I would highly recommend it. Giving Ready, Steady, Fire the ability to pierce is a GIGANTIC damage increase, and you'll be surprised how great it is when you test it out. A good place to see what it can do is Banquet Hall Endless; if you can set things up so all of the minions walk in a straight line, line them all up and use Ready, Steady, Fire with this upgrade. You'll see that Deadeye completely tears through all of them.
  • More Misdeeds: When I first used Deadeye, this was the upgrade I normally chose. It's not a bad upgrade by any means, because my thinking at the time was "oh that's good, it's a piercing ability on my Primary, which I am constantly using". This was more attractive at the time, because I'd rather have the pierce ability (albeit it doesn't hit as many targets) on something I'm constantly using, rather than something that has a long cooldown. In practice though, it just pales in comparison to what Clear'Em Out is capable of; once I actually tested Clear'Em Out, I never went back to this upgrade. You can certainly test it though to see if you have a preference for this over Clear'Em Out.
  • Bramble Barricade: Although having a damage reflection shield up while you use Ready, Steady, Fire would certainly be nice, in reality, even a 400% damage increase isn't all that much. If you pay attention to how much damage you take (by looking at your Hero's portrait while being attacked) most minions don't deal that much damage. For reference, Gnoll Hunters hit for about 20 or so, and Trolls hit for about 80 (I think). Given how much HP minions have (particularly the Trolls), 320 damage per hit doesn't really flinch their HP much. So unfortunately, this doesn't really compete with Clear'Em Out or More Misdeeds.

Synopsis

Deadeye is probably one of the best ranged Heroes in the game, and it's mostly because of how consistent she is.

She is unique in the sense that her abilities are basic and not dependent on pretty much anything - she doesn't need any kind of Mana management (like Blackpaw); she's not reliant on specific abilities to ensure she's doing damage (like Cygnus); she doesn't have situational or crowd control abilities (mostly), as almost all of her abilities are focused on dealing damage.

From her basic foundation, she gets consistent improvements via her upgrades; all of her upgrades (that I recommend at least) push her damage even further. By the time she's level 10, she gets quite the synergistic effect, because all of those basic abilities were upgraded into something above average, and using them all combines them to some stellar damage output.

Outside of some design issues (which I feel are mostly intentional), her simplicity is also a little bit of a crutch at first. Unlike most Heroes, because she is so focused on damage, she doesn't get much variety in terms of utility. While other Heroes can do nifty things to help increase their damage output, crowd control, or survivability, Deadeye gets little in that regard. This in turn means any single ability Deadeye has can't be too effective, otherwise she's dealing too much damage (thus, this is why each ability is below average at first).

The consequence of this is that you have to be very active in playing Deadeye; making sure you are constantly placing Razorweed down, using Bouncing Bomb with stronger enemies, and using Ready, Steady, Fire on the largest threats. Although this takes more effort at first, by the time Deadeye hits level 10, you'll be so accustomed to playing actively, that it becomes second nature, and as a result you'll be able to maximize your damage with all of your chosen upgrades.