Dark Assassin
Dark Assassin
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| Information | |
| Enemy Types | Melee, Chaos, Flying |
| Lane Type |  Ground
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| Appearances | Expeditions, Onslaught, Incursions, Mastery, and Survival |
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Shadowy foes that latch onto their prey, the Dark Assassin is a featured Chaos enemy.
Contents
Behavior
Unlike most conventional enemy types, the Dark Assassin's core purpose is disrupting the function of a player's hero. The attack pattern starts when a Dark Assassin has randomly chosen a player target. Teleporting to it's victim, it grabs on, stabbing them multiple times before disappearing back to spawn to begin the pattern again.
Being grabbed last for about 5 seconds before the Assassin lets go. Players are unable to attack or upgrade/sell/repair defenses while grabbed, but can still move around (double-jumping seems to be disabled). While multiple Assassins can swarm a player, the duration of a hero being grabbed fortunately do not extend. After retreating, Dark Assassins may also heal before attacking again.
Whispers can be heard if they are nearby. Indicators that Assassins are about to attack are the purple glowing and swirling fog surrounding the neck and head of its victim, coupled with a unique targeting sound effect.
Strategy
A good strategy for dealing with Assassins is standing in auras or in front of heavy hitting towers so that for the duration you are unable to attack, your towers/auras can. Towers with the ability to stun or knock enemies up, such as the Viper's Fangs or Geyser Trap, can remove the Assassin. Pet Abilities can be utilized, even while under attack, so it is a good idea to activate it to kill the Assassin. You are not safe from the Dark Assassin if using the Lavamancer Submerge/Emerge.
Activating Barbarian's Turtle Stance will have a player be immune to being targeted by Dark Assassins and if the stance is triggered when an Assassin's targeting is in effect, the player will not be grabbed when the Assassin teleports to them. Also having a Quality 10 Tenacity Chip in all four armor pieces grants the equipped player full immunity to being grabbed.
Shards like Taser Suit or Mods like Shackled will have a chance to stun Dark Assassins off when they're attacking a hero. Pest Repellant Chip an also be used to increase survivability to an extent against Dark Assassin attacks.
A common issue players will have with Assassins is their splash damage when they first grab a victim. This splash can damage, or destroy, a core if the hero picked by the Assassin is near one at the time of their attack. It is a good idea to stay away from the main objectives in Chaos V and above.
Appearances
For Expeditions, Incursions and Mastery, Dark Assassin first appears in Chaos 5 and all subsequent Chaos tiers. They spawn from ground lanes.
In Onslaught, the Assassins starts appearing in floor 17 onwards as part of air lane schedules with "Stabby" prefixes. Other schedules include:
- Carnival Flyer
- Air Raid
Skarnash the Terrible
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| Information | |
| Enemy Types | Melee, Chaos, Miniboss, Flying |
| Lane Type | Ground
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| Appearances | Expeditions, Onslaught, Incursions, Mastery, and Survival |
| Schedule Icon | 
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Miniboss Variant - Skarnash the Terrible
The mini-boss variant for Dark Assassin is Skarnash the Terrible, a silver and black armored Dark Assassin. Just like regular Dark Assassins, Skarnash teleports to players from spawn. It is immune to being knocked up, but can still be stunned.
Skarnash usually have a chance appear at wave 5 in Chaos V Expeditions or in Omega Waves at the Lost Temple for Onslaught.
Incursion Variant - Altar Assassin
This variant of Assassins found only in Altar of the Athame Incursions visually resembles a regular Dark Assassin, only bigger in size. The main difference comes in behavior - unlike those Chaos V enemies where they teleport to attack players, Altar Assassins will just slowly float toward their target (towers or heroes) without any tricks.
Aside from differences in behavior, their main gimmick is tied to how the Incursion works where Altar Assassins are invulnerable to any forms of damage - in this state, these Assassins are entirely covered in purple color to visually indicate their invulnerability. This immunity can only be removed by completing the Incursion's Dark Ritual has been completed and deafeating all of them will end a wave. The Altar Assassins can also be stunned by activating Assassin's Bells found within Crumbled Bulwark.
Notes and Trivia
- Altar Assassins were originally introduced before Dark Assassins. Because of how content revolves more around Chaos tiers as updates passes by, Incursions ended up falling out of prominence resulting in Dark Assassins becoming the main thing that comes into people's mind when it comes the Assassin's enemy model.
- Tier 1-3 forms has already been concepted for Assassins. However only Tier 3 version has been used for both Dark and Altar Assassins. Even Skarnash is a retexture of a Tier 3 Assassin.
- The icon for Dark Assassins features the head of a Tier 2 Assassin instead of Tier 3.
Gallery
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History
- [Early Access] 19.0 : Introduced Dark Assassins.
- [Early Access] 15.4 : Introduced Altar Assassins.