Builder

Builder
Regular College
Building walls was his main occupation - now he knocks them down.
Main Stats
Type	Damager
Rarity	Stars Reward
Health 54 Melee Damage 24
Crit. Chance	30%
Crit. Damage	10%
Speed	10
Courage Cost	25
Behavior Stats
Agility	60
Aggression	90
Detection Range	80
Agility Penalty	50%
Aggression Penalty	50%
Morale Stats
Charisma	200
Valor	200
Charisma Radius	80
Abilities
Perks
Knockback Strength	15
Special Ability	Does double damage to the barricade.
Resistances
Bullet	90%
Knockback	50%
Unlock Requirements
Stars	10
Player Level	Any

Builder is a construction worker now using his tools for destruction. He is armed with a red offset pipe wrench and dressed in a yellow safety vest with white reflective strips, a black T-shirt, yellow pants, a brown leather tool belt pouch, and a yellow hard hat over a black beanie.

1998 is Builder's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a baton and dressed in a maroon and yellow-striped jersey with shoulder pads, light gray pants with red and yellow highlights, white socks, black cleats, and a maroon and yellow football helmet with a yellow grill face mask.

He is a Star Reward, obtained for free when players collect 10 stars.

Overview

Builder is a Damager. His stats are average for his class, and he does slow swings, together with fast critical kicks.

Builder has 90% bullet resistance, and causes knockback on his critical hits. Some time after dying, he turns into a Builder (Zombie).

Special Ability

Builder's special ability grants him a 100% damage buff against the barricade.

Unlocking this special might not be the best investment. It can help with finishing missions quicker, but Builder generally struggles with reaching the barricade on his own in the first place. It's best to consider it only if you often use him as a member of Builders.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

Builder is one of the first available units that can knock enemies back. His knockback perk is powerful as it comes in the form of a critical hit, an attack that deals double damage. It can also keep most enemies away from certain stationary units, the bus, or even other units who lack the knockback perk. In some cases, knockback can push enemies back into fire pools created behind them. In most cases though, the knockback perk greatly preserves a unit's own life as it puts a bit of distance between them and their target while potentially avoiding an attack. Builder's knockback perk is delivered in the form of a swift push kick, which is not only his most damaging attack but also his quickest compared to his regular attacks which both come out comparably slower.

Builder is also one of the first available units to have bullet resistance. Although this perk is negligible for the most part as many enemies rely on just melee damage, he sees use against certain gun-toting marauders in stage 3 where he can shrug off enemy ranged attacks and easily hit them. Few units are able to match him in this regard this early into the game.

Being an early star reward unit, his high base health and damage make him an excellent unit to use for low-level players. Builder is useful for melee support and dealing with both cluttered bundles of weak enemies and marauders wielding ranged weaponry alike.

Guard and Grenadier can be considered Builder's direct upgrades. They share the same bullet resistance and boast higher stats, with Grenadier having a powerful grenade throw and higher overall DPS. While Guard can be often ignored due to the higher cost, it's often recommended to phase out Builder for Grenadier.

Skirmish

In League, Builder is a good unit to use in early low-level Skirmish thanks to his high health, bullet resistance, and good damage output. This allows him to act as a tank against low-level enemy ranged units and kill them easily. His fast critical hit speed allows him to possibly kill any enemy melee units before they can retaliate. However, towards the later levels of Skirmish, Builder's strengths may seem to waver. Some other bullet-resistant units may outperform Builder, be it in strength, speed, or overall better base stats for either the same courage cost or just slightly higher. Grenadier, for example, not only possesses an extremely effective manual ability to throw a grenade but faster attack speeds as well. Guard, as mentioned above, acts as a better version of Builder for only a bit more courage. It'll be very essential to replace him at some point with another damager class unit with bullet-resistance.

Item Sets

Because of his ingrained mediocrity, Builder isn't able to achieve any sort of impressive highs. Gentleman is the safest bet of all, as it allows to significantly improve his DPS by forcing Builder to do more kicks while also increasing his damage for that. Gambling can technically achieve the same effect, but it's best treated as a tool for getting the most out of Builder's knockback perk, rather than a way to boost his damage. Surgery is a poor choice, as it makes Builder miss out on his criticals.

Like most damagers, Builder gets most use out of prep. time watches, with agility bonuses acquired as secondary buffs. He can receive a significant boost from percentage bonuses, but only when he's close to being maxed out. At low-to-mid levels, flat buffs are more preferable. +% Crit. chance books are the best option for him. In case you decide to accentuate his role as a Builders 2/2 activator, prep. time reduction buffs become crucial. Cost reduction is also generally helpful for Builder, although there's not much point in going above -5 reduction.

Skins and Synergies

Builder, along with his respective skins, is a part of several teams: Builders and College.

Name	Builder	1998
Skin
Unlock Req.	-	120 money
Team	Builders	College

In all of the above teams, Builder is merely one of the better units available for use. He is the only one who can realistically enable the 2/2 synergy of Builders, meanwhile in College team, he gets a lot out of the anti-zombification perk.

Trivia

• The 1998 skin for Builder bears a heavy resemblance to the uniforms worn by the Washington Football Team (fmr. Washington Redskins).
• Before update 2.8.2, the 1998 skin was shortened from its old name, "Builder 1998."
• Before update 2.7.0, Builder is unlocked at bus level 2 for 90 coins.
• Builder used to have a different sprite in Dead Ahead: Quarantine.

Gallery

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  Builder's DA:Q sprite