Splash Damage

Splash Damage is a statistic applied to certain towers, allowing the tower to deal damage to enemies within the explosion radius. While some towers can inflict damage on multiple enemies, such as the Gladiator or the Archer, they are not considered Splash Damage Towers as they do not create an explosion radius. Prior to the MEGA Update and Frost Invasion Update, there were two entirely different systems of explosion damage. This is elaborated on detail below.

Present

Currently, these towers use the Splash Damage mechanic:

Demoman	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Rocketeer	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Mortar	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Projectile-based, cluster bombs, from Level 4+ Regular damage is linked to the stated statistic; cluster bomb damage is not linked to the stated statistic.
Paintballer	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Commando	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Ace Pilot	Non-projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Swarmer	Projectile-based, stings all those in the splash radius, ability only, from Level 4+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic.
Military Base	Projectile-based, cannon, from Level 4+ All forms of damage are independent from one another.
Pursuit	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Engineer	Projectile-based, from Level 6 Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Elf Camp	Non-projectile-based, explosion on collision, from Level 3-4 Projectile-based, snowballs, from Level 5 Projectile-based, gift bombs, from Level 5 All forms of damage are independent from one another.
Ranger	Non-projectile-based, from Level 4 Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent. Does full damage regardless of enemy distance and can only hit up to three enemies.
Jester	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Regular damage is linked to the stated statistic. Does full damage regardless of enemy distance, does not ignore defense and can only hit up to five enemies.
Trapper	Projectile-based, from Level 3+ Damage is not linked to tower statistic.
Mecha Base	Projectile-based, rocket launcher, from Level 1+ Non-projectile-based, explosion on collision, from Level 0+ All forms of damage are independent from one another.
War Machine	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.

In general, towers use their displayed damage statistic for their splash damage. Some towers, such as the Ace Pilot and Swarmer, use a splash damage statistic that is detached from their main damage. Each explosion has an explosive radius that inflicts damage on all enemies caught in it. There are two ways the damage is dealt. For most towers, the actual damage will vary based on which sphere of the explosion the enemy is in. Enemies in the inner sphere will be dealt 100% of the stated damage, while the damage in the outer sphere decreases linearly. The inner sphere takes up about 45% of the explosion, while the outer sphere takes up about 55% of the explosion. For some towers, like the Ranger, the damage is always the same, regardless of enemy distance from the center of the explosion. Some towers also have a limit on how many enemies an explosion can hit.

For projectile-based sources, the epicenter of the explosion is where the tower was originally aimed at (the enemy it was initially targeting). Due to the delay in reaching that point, the enemy it was aiming at may have moved out of the way and may not have been dealt 100% splash damage. Some towers, such as the Rocketeer use path-based movement prediction, which helps these towers hit quick enemies or enemies that are far away from the tower more accurately. This, however, is not the case for other towers, such as the Ace Pilot or Pursuit.

Enemies that have defense (Giant Boss, Abnormal Boss, etc.) will not reduce the damage of the explosion from most towers.

Enemies that are immune to splash damage (Ghost, Wraith, etc.) are not affected in any way by splash damage towers, even if they were the ones that were directly attacked. These enemies do not appear in any main gamemodes and only appear in some events.

Prior to the Frost Invasion Update

This part of the page describes the situation prior to the 8th of May 2021.

These towers used the Splash Damage mechanic:

Demoman	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Rocketeer	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Mortar	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Paintballer	Projectile-based, from Level 0+ Damage is linked to the stated statistic.
Commando	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Ace Pilot	Non-projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Swarmer	Projectile-based, stings all those in the splash radius, ability only, from Level 4+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic.
Military Base	Projectile-based, cannon, from Level 4+ Non-projectile-based, explosion on collision, from Level 4+ All forms of damage are independent from one another.
Pursuit	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.
Mecha Base	Projectile-based, rocket launcher, from Level 1+ Non-projectile-based, explosion on collision, from Level 0+ All forms of damage are independent from one another.
War Machine	Projectile-based, from Level 2+ Damage is not linked to the stated statistic, as splash damage is independent.

In general, towers used their displayed damage statistic for their splash damage. Some towers, such as the Ace Pilot and Swarmer, used a splash damage statistic that was detached from their main damage. Each explosion had an explosive radius that inflicted damage on all enemies caught in it. Actual damage would vary based on how far an enemy was away from the center of the explosion radius. For enemies in the epicenter of the explosion radius (where the projectile was intended to land), they would be dealt 100% of the stated damage. Damage dealt to enemies not in the epicenter of the explosion decreased linearly.

For example, taking a hypothetical tower that has an explosion radius of 6 and a damage of 10:

• Enemies where the projectile exactly lands will be dealt 100% of the stated damage.

  In this example, the damage dealt is 10.

• Enemies at distance of 25% away from the explosion center will be dealt 75% of the stated damage.

  In this example, 25% away is 1.5 studs away, and 75% of the damage will be 7.5, rounded down to 7.

• Enemies at distance of 50% away from the explosion center will be dealt 50% of the stated damage.

  In this example, 50% away is 3 studs away, and 50% of the damage will be 5.

• Enemies at distance 75% away from the explosion center will be dealt 25% of the stated damage.

  In this example, 75% away is 4.5 studs away, and 25% of the damage will be 2.5, rounded down to 2.

• Enemies not in the explosion radius will be dealt no damage.

For projectile-based sources, the epicenter of the explosion is where the tower was originally aiming (the enemy it was initially targeting). Due to the delay in reaching that point, the enemy it was aiming at may have moved out of the way and may not have been dealt 100% splash damage.

Enemies that are immune to splash damage (Ghost, Nuclear Fallen King, etc.) were not affected in any way by the splash damage tower, even if they were the ones that were directly attacked.

Prior to the MEGA Update

This part of the page describes the situation prior to the 13th of October 2019.

50% Rule

These towers followed the general rule for splash damage towers:

Demoman	Paintballer	Outlaw	Rocketeer

In the case of the Outlaw, it could only deal Splash Damage at Level 4 and Level 5. All other towers dealt splash damage from Level 0.

For these towers, the rule was that Splash Damage was half of the Direct Damage. Direct Damage was the damage listed for the tower and was only inflicted on the enemy that the tower was specifically targeting. For example, a tower with a quoted damage of 4 had a Direct Damage of 4. This damage was only dealt to the specific enemy that the tower had targeted. Since Splash Damage was half of that, the Splash Damage for this tower would be 2. This Splash Damage was applied to all enemies within the explosion radius, including the targeted enemy. This meant that the targeted enemy was dealt with 6 damage, while all other enemies in the explosion radius were dealt 2 damage.

Exceptions

These towers did not follow the general rule for splash damage towers:

Commando	Military Base

In these cases, Splash Damage was detached from the main damage. All enemies within the explosion radius are dealt the same damage, no matter if they were targeted or not.