The Master is one of the many upgrades of the Overseer at level 45. It does not upgrade further. Idea by Diepmon.
Design[]
It is a circle with 3 drone spawners evenly spaced at 120-degree increments, exactly like the first design of the now-removed Master.
Technical[]
It combines all the drones of the Overseer branch all into one: One spawner spawns up to 6 controllable triangle drones, the next tank upgrade spawner can summon up to 4 tank minions, and the last spawner is a combination Necromancer spawner that allows you to control up to 5 square drones as well as being a Battleship drone spawner.. With the last one, reload still functions as normal but now the upgrade button reads "Reload/Drone Count". Each upgrade point of reload allows for 1 additional square drone, so there can be a max of 12 square drones. As for the Battleship drone aspect of it, lifetime is increased to 6 seconds and reload is increased by 25% (the normal Battleship has 4 spawners anyway.)
With so many kinds of controllable ammunition, this tank may seem overpowered, but there's a catch: only one type of drone can be manually controlled at one time. However, the drones that you aren't controlling don't disappear all of a sudden. They just hang around like normal drones not under manual control (i.e. Auto Fire off) and auto-attack only polygons nearby. (In the case of the Battleship drones, they will just disappear when their lifetime is up.) If those uncontrolled drones are destroyed, however, the spawners will not fire out new ones until you are controlling that drone group.
To clarify, here's an example: You are controlling your triangle drones. The tank minions and square drones spin around. A Twin comes and blasts away one tank minion, two square drones, and one triangle drone before you maul it. That one triangle drone will be fired out again by that specific spawner, but the tank minion will not be reloaded until you swap over to that drone set. In addition, you cannot just bump into squares while you are still controlling your triangle drones just to get square drones. It doesn't work that way. You have to be in that specific drone set to capture squares with your drones or your body. To swap to a different drone set, press G. A notification will appear telling you which drone set you have swapped to. Drones that are not being controlled have a grayer color than normal. Your idle (unused) drones will not attack the enemy until you command them to, they will only go for polygons. Your idle drones will still damage enemies if they are touched, though.
Strategy[]
Strong Against: Anything not listed below
Weak Against: Paladin, Overlord, Necromancer, some Smasher branch tanks, bullet spammers and high-spread tanks, Destroyer branch tanks, Trailblazer branch tanks, Winged Hussar, and Booster if unprepared
As the Master[]
- Like with most drone tanks, avoid going head-on against bullet spammers and high-spread tanks. Approach from the back, and strike with either the triangle drones or the square drones, not the minion tanks.
- When using this tank with triangle drones, play it like a Manager that can't go invisible: Medium-slow reload but with 6 drones instead of 8. When using it with your square drones, play it as a Necromancer. Use the minion tanks only for herding tanks into your other drones or farming. Use Battleship drones only for farming.
- Simply put, play the triangle drones like an Overseer, play the square drones like a Necromancer, play the minion tanks like a Factory, and use the Battleship drones for farming.
- One possible tactic goes like this: Use a 4/0/0/7/6/6/7/2-4 build. This build allows for some mobility and some regeneration while maintaining fast drones. Use the Battleship drones for farming and keep all other drones near you. When an enemy approaches, first use the Factory drones to distract them (this works 3 out of 4 times) and then suddenly swap to the triangle drones to finish them off. If that proves not enough to defeat it, then sweep it with the Necromancer drones. Remember that your idle (unused) drones will not attack the enemy until you command them to.
Against the Master[]
- If you are not using one of the types of tanks listed above under "Weak Against", back away. You have no chance against the Master in a 1v1.
- If you are using a bullet spammer, just spam (or spread) your bullets everywhere to easily demolish the Master's drones.
- If you are using a strong drone tank like the Overlord or Necromancer, wait until the Master is weakened and then jump in. Overlords can use hit-and-run tactics with their drones, although this is admittedly much harder to do than it sounds.
- Destroyer branch tanks can annihilate scores of a Master's unused (and commanded) drones if they can maneuver to avoid them first. Trailblazer branch tanks and Boosters can catch the Master off guard by weaving in and out of the drones. Thruster is especially useful for that, because its side lances can damage the drones while the front lance damages anything in front of the Thruster.
- Smasher branch tanks, Winged Hussars, and Paladins can use their massive health to charge in, dealing heavy damage and then retreat again. Since the latter two have charge abilities, going in strong and coming out with a sizeable amound of health left is easy. The first group will have problems with that strategy if they lack movement speed, so it is better to wait until the Master is distracted.
Trivia[]
- Based on the very first vanilla Master design, but remastered (not intended) with an all-new unique mechanic.
- Note that while you are not controlling some of your drones, those still follow your tank around. They just won't follow your cursor.