Bugler

Article

Gallery

---

This article is about Bugler. You might be looking for Mechanical Bugler, a Cold Construct 2021 Event/2022 enemy.

Bugler
Prices
Token Cost	2,500
Placement Cost	750
Information
Type	Support
Placement Limit	3
Requirement	Level 25+
Initial Statistics
Cooldown	N/A
Damage	N/A
Range	25
DPS	N/A
Flying Detection	N/A
Defense Piercing	N/A

Description

Bugler is a support tower capable of increasing the range and decreasing the cooldown of nearby towers, and can use the Snare Drums ability to further amplify the cooldown bonus for a long duration. It is only available to be purchased if you are Level 25+. Path 1 Bugler is capable of increasing firerate and decreasing cooldown even further, while Path 2 Bugler further increases the range of other towers, and comes with 2 abilities that help towers in different ways.

Appearance

The Bugler has a very different look from other towers. It wields a bugle and has an appearance of an Napoleonic era soldier with a modern twist to it. It wears a shako and a black coat.

Lore

"Music, marching band and the military go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, the Bugler is a descendant of this placed of fabled history - utilizing drums, horns and other sounds in conjunction to indicate things in battle. Perhaps what is most important is patriotism - hearing the music you've listened to back home whilst on the battlefield. Notheless, the Bugler is a incredibly impractical and inefficient, and the UEC have already inserted what are referred to as 'Captains' onto the field. However, maybe due to tradition, the Bugler continues to see a rare use in combat today. What is more rare, however, are the robotics variants of the Bugler - a relic of experimentation with some spare parts during the Winter Construct conflict."

Upgrades

• Path 1
• Path 2

Top Path ( 17,850)

Louder Calls Increased influence range Changes   Range increased from 25 to 28 (+3)

$350

Better Firerate Increases firerate on surrounding towers from 10% to 15% (Actually 5% to 10%) Changes   Firerate boost increased from 5% to 10% (+5%)

$1,500

Snare Drums Towers in range get +20% firerate bonus from drums, now also has +1 flat damage. Changes   Gives +1 damage to all nearby towers. Snare Drums Ability: Towers in range get +20% firerate for 15 seconds Effective range is about 1.5x as large as Bugler's range Has a cooldown of 60 seconds and a global cooldown of 30 seconds.

$4,000

Cysian Overseer Firerate bonus is massively increased, more range. Changes   Cooldown buff increased from 10% to 25% (+15%) Range increased from 28 to 31 (+3) No longer gives global cooldown to Snare Drums ability.

$12,000

Bottom Path ( 17,750)

Plume Nearby towers have 10% increased range Changes   Increases range of nearby towers by 10%.

$500

Cape Firerate bonus increased Changes   Cooldown buff increased from 5% to 14% (+9%) (When Bugler is upgraded to 2-X, this gives +10% cooldown buff instead of +9%).

$1,750

Unit Commander Ability - command towers to target an enemy. increased range bonus Changes   Unit Commander Ability Command towers in range to attack a selected enemy no matter the towers targeting. Quits when the selected enemy has perished, or if another enemy has been selected. It has a cooldown of 5 seconds. Range buff increased from 10% to 20% (+10%)

$3,500

Directed Power Ability - select a tower to be heavily boosted for 25 seconds (Actually ability lasts much longer.) Changes   Range buff increased from 20% to 30% (+10%) Direct Power ability. Select a tower to give it a whopping +100% cooldown buff. Stacks with Snare Drums. Lasts for ~75 seconds on a tier 0 tower, lasts ~72 seconds on a tier 1 tower, lasts ~68 seconds on a tier 2 tower, lasts ~64 seconds on a tier 3 tower, lasts ~59 seconds on a tier 4 tower, and has a cooldown of 70 seconds.

$12,000

Stats Table

• Path 1
• Path 2

Level	Total Price	Range	Cooldown Boost	Range Boost	Damage Boost
0-0	750	25	5%	0%	0
1-0	1,100	28	5%	0%	0
2-0	2,600	28	10%	0%	0
2-2	4,850	28	20%	10%	0
3-2	8,850	28	20%	10%	+1
4-2	20,850	31	35%	10%	+1

Level	Total Price	Range	Cooldown Boost	Range Boost
0-0	750	25	5%	0%
0-1	1,250	25	5%	10%
0-2	3,000	25	14%	10%
2-2	4,850	28	20%	10%
2-3	8,350	28	20%	20%
2-4	20,350	28	20%	30%

Abilities

3-X

Snare Drums (Level 1) Towers within 1.5x range of Bugler gain a temporary firerate boost. Statistics   Towers gain +20%. Lasts for 15s. Cooldown of 60s. Global cooldown of 30s.

$0

4-X

Snare Drums (Level 2) Towers within 1.5x range of Bugler gain a temporary firerate boost. Statistics   Towers gain +20%. Lasts for 15s. Cooldown of 60s. No global cooldown.

$0

X-3

Unit Commander Towers within range of Bugler can be commanded to target a selected enemy, regardless of tower targeting. Statistics   Cooldown of 5s

$0

X-4

Directed Power A selected tower gains a massive firerate boost. Statistics   Selected tower gains +100% for a varied duration. Lasts 75s on T0 tower. Lasts 72s on T1 tower. Lasts 68s on T2 tower. Lasts 64s on T3 tower. Lasts 59s on T4 and T5 tower. Cooldown of 70s. Global cooldown of 10s.

$0

Comparison

4-2 Bugler ( 20,850) 35% Cooldown Boost 10% Range Boost 1 Damage Boost 31 Range Snare Drums Ability

2-4 Bugler ( 20,350) 20% Cooldown Boost 30% Range Boost 0 Damage Boost 28 Range Unit Commander Ability Direct Power Ability No Snare Drums Ability

Skins

To see all upgrades of each skin, see the gallery page.

Name	Blue	Kugelblitz	Dutchman	Conductor
Cost	4	20	350	180
Obtainment	Colored Crate Daily Store	Kugelblitz Crate	Terror Blitz Battlepass	Cold Construct 2021 Battlepass
Name	Night Raider
Cost	220
Obtainment	Cold Construct 2022 Battlepass

Tactics

• Unlike various other support towers from different tower defense games, one player cannot "chain" or have the Snare Drums ability constantly active, unless they have at least five 3-X Businessmen to lower the ability cooldown and have all 3 Buglers on top path. Although another expensive but accessible workaround is to "micro" Bugler, by selling and replacing it with another to skip the Snare Drums cooldown.
  • Another player could place a 4th Bugler (requires coordination) or more 3-X Businessman to avoid this issue.
  • If you intend to use this micro method, it is recommended to only upgrade the Bugler to 4-0 (when microing and to avoid a 30 second global cool down when using 3-X), and have other Buglers maxed on both paths so that the towers in range still receive the maximum passive buffs.
  • This same micro method can be used for X-4 Bugler, which allows the player to use direct power on multiple towers in a short period of time.
• 2-2 Bugler can be an okay option for mid-game, as they can provide +20% fire rate and +10% range for 4,850.
• It is recommended to have at least one 4-2 Bugler, one 4-0 Bugler, and one 1-4 Bugler in later waves, as this allows nearby towers to receive the maximum passive buffs, which are +35% fire rate, +1 flat damage, +30% range, and being able to use snare drums without having global cooldowns.
• X-4 Bugler Direct Power ability is slightly underwhelming, as it can only buff 1 tower. But, the upgrade still shows its usefulness with the additional 10% range buff, and the Direct Power ability can be useful in the final wave of Expert Mode, where most players would stockpile on cash.
  • One tower could have up to +155% fire rate with a 4-2 Bugler, snare drums, and direct power active.
  • It's recommended using the Direct Power ability on very powerful towers like Lightbeamer and Electricizer.
• Path 1 Bugler has very good firerate buffs which can massively increase the DPS of the towers. Its Snare Drums can also temporarily increase the DPS of a player's towers, proving useful if a player starts to struggle.
• Path 2 Bugler benefits all towers equally with its range and fire rate bonuses. It is essential for Expert Mode as its Unit Commander ability becomes a necessity for the Overlord Amplifier and other enemies.
• Unlike some may think, Bugler doesn't buff Recon Base or other units. Place these unit spawning towers away from the path to allow for attacking towers.
• The damage boost allocated at 3-X and 4-X can be very useful for low damaging towers (top path Vulcan, top path Sharpshooter, etc.) and can massively increase their dps.

Trivia

• The "Direct Power" ability seems to be based of the Overclock from Bloons Tower Defense series.
• If there are some towers slightly out of the range of the Bugler, towers can still get the buff.
• The hat that Bugler wears is the Marching Band Cap.
• Bugler is confirmed to be a self insert, since Oster is in a marching band.
  • Additionally, Oster is currently a student (which he said in Discord) and is the main developer who does the majority of the stuff in Tower Blitz. The other developer being Beefchoplets, who had made and assisted with most of the maps in the past.
• The sound of the bugler is the same sound used by the Buff Banner and The Battalions Backup from Team Fortress 2.
• Obtaining Bugler will award the player with the Drum Major badge.
• Being different from support towers from other tower defense games, the Bugler is unique in its design and usage of drums to boost towers.
• When "Snare Drums" ability is activated, APM - Drilldown will be played as the song.
  • At 0:05 is when the Bugler will start playing his drum.
  • At 0:19 is when the music will end.
• During Bugler's release, the tower was very buggy as well.
  • The abilities could stack, but this was removed 1-2 days later.
  • The range was being boosted by 2x it's original range, the boost was invisible and it only showed the normal range. Upgrading the range by normal means seemed to have affected the boosted range. However, attempting to boost it with other Buglers doesn't seem to have affected the boosted range.
  • When a tower goes beyond 2-2, the boosts on the tower will stop updating.
    • This can result in Snare Drums and Direct Power ability not working beyond 2-2.
    • Able to persist the Snare Drum and Direct Power ability's boost by upgrading the tower beyond 2-2 while using it's ability on it.
  • This resulted OsterDog having to rework the Bugler in the Blissful Revelation update despite saying that he wouldn't be doing any bug fixes.
• The 4-2 upgrade, Cysian Overseer, shares a part it's name with Cysian Master.
  • According to OsterDog, Cysian is a blanket term for a special type of material used from some combined elements.
• Fire rate buff is calculated as: tower fire rate / ( 1 + buff ), where buff is in decimal form. (1% becomes 0.01, 10% becomes 0.1, 100% becomes 1)
  • This means that the buffs are inverse, where a +100% fire rate buff only halves the tower's fire rate, and a +50% buff reducing 1/3.
  • The way the DPS increases is linear with this formula however, meaning a +50% fire rate buff is equivalent to 50% more DPS.
• It is likely that the player needs to purchase Bugler if they want the Major role in the Discord server.

Update History

(1/4/21) Scrapped Bugler as part of an April fools joke. (25/4/21) Added Bugler. (17/9/21) System reworked. Bugs regarding range, towers' boost, and ability's boost not being updated above 2-2 has been patched. Bugler's ability to give flying detection to other towers was removed. Replaced by a new ability which set towers’ targets to a specific enemy. (21/9/21) 1-X Cost reduced from 400 to 350 (-50). X-1 Cost increased from 230 to 320 (+90). X-2 Cost increased from 615 to 680 (+65). (29/9/21) 4-X Cost increased from 12,000 to 13,000 (+1,000). X-3 Cost reduced from 2,600 to 2,200 (-400). (13/11/21) 4-X Cost reduced from 13,000 to 12,500 (- 500). X-3 Cost reduced from 2,200 to 2,000 (- 200). X-4 Cost reduced from 9,000 to 8,000 (- 1,000), Direct Power buff increased from 20% to 30% (+10%). (17/12/22) Revamped Bugler Removed Flat Damage Boost from 3-X and 4-X. 2-X's Title has been changed from Snare Drums to Better Firerate. 2-X Ability moved to 3-X. 3-X's Title has been changed to Snare Drums. Using the ability now gives 30 second global cooldown. 4-X now removes the global cooldown for Snare Drums. Cost increased from 12,500 to 13,000 (+500). X-1's Title has been changed from Binoculars to Plume. Cost increased from 320 to 500 (+180). X-2's title has been changed from Extra Storage to Cape. Cost increased from 680 to 1,750 (+1,070). X-3 Cost increased from 2,000 to 3,500 (+1,500). X-4 Cost increased from 8,000 to 12,000 (+4,000). (26/12/22) 4-X Cost decreased from 13,000 to 12,000 (- 1,000), Firerate Bonus increased from +10% to +15% (+5%). (30/03/25) Added back Flat Damage Boost on 3-X with +1 Damage. Direct Power Ability now buffs by 100% instead of 30%. Direct Power now has a global cooldown of 15s.