Ranger

Ranger

Regular

Marines

TMF

Military

A fearless warrior that fights for honor and glory! But with a shotgun.

Main Stats

Type

Shotgunner

Rarity

Common

Health

400

Ranged Damage

100

Melee Damage

20

Crit. Chance

1%

Crit. Damage

5%

Speed

11

Prepare Time

35

Courage Cost

25

Behavior Stats

Agility

80

Aggression

100

Detection Range

150

Agility Penalty

50%

Aggression Penalty

50%

Morale Stats

Charisma

300

Valor

600

Charisma Radius

80

Abilities

Perks

Special Ability

Some shots knock the enemies back.

Ranged Data

Ammo Capacity

4 (4x4 pellets)

Firing Period

1.9s

Reloading Period

2.0s

Range

85

Bullet Spread

35°

Resistances

Bullet

90%

Knockback

70%

Unlock Requirements

Price

15,000

Player Level

12

RangerTactical RangerTMF RangerArmy Ranger

Ranger is an IF member that fights for honor and glory. He is armed with a SPAS-12 combat shotgun and dressed in an urban camo T-shirt with a blue arm patch, a black armored vest, urban camo pants with several pouches, light gray gloves, a black balaclava, and a blue IF combat helmet.

Tactical Ranger is Ranger's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a SPAS-12 combat shotgun and dressed in a grey shirt with a blue patch underneath a black tactical vest with pouches, a tactical belt with pouches and gun holster, urban camo pants, blue gloves, a black balaclava, and a black combat helmet with raised ballistic goggles hidden under a black goggle cover sleeve. There is a handgun in the gun holster.

TMF Ranger is Ranger's second exclusive skin. He is armed with a Mossberg 870 Tactical with yellow highlights and dressed in a black full-body, bulletproof armor suit with neck protection, a toolbelt with ammunition pouches, a face shield, and a black combat helmet with a red LED light (seen via death animation).

Army Ranger is Ranger's third exclusive skin. He sports a black cap alongside green and gray ear defenders, a black balaclava, green army pants alongside a green army shirt, a bulletproof vest, pouches, and a military-grade radio backpack.

He can be unlocked for 15,000 coins after reaching player level 12.

Overview

Ranger is a Shotgunner. He has relatively high stats for his class, including fast movement speed.

Ranger uses a pump-action shotgun that fires 4 pellets in a cone at decent speed. His reload sequence always makes him insert 4 shells, regardless of how many he actually fired. If approached suddenly or without ammo, he does a quick melee attack. Alternatively, when sensing an enemy may attack him via melee, he might do short back hops, which act as a dodge. He’ll continue using his melee on an enemy and can continue dodging as to not die, which can prevent him from dying to a Tough Blue or any other AoA enemy. Despite how his dodge can look like a lackluster, it can prove it’s effectiveness very accurately within terms of Skirmish and the Campaign.

Ranger has 90% resistance to bullet damage. Some time after dying, he turns into a Sergeant that can't revive.

Perks and abilities

Ranger's special ability enables guaranteed knockback on his ranged attacks. Each pellet will knock its target back by 5 pixels.

This perk proves to be quite effective, allowing to use Ranger as a supportive unit for his teammates by stalling certain threats from a safe distance. Even though some of the more dangerous zombies in end-game stages are immune to knockback, all other notable enemies—such as Escapee and Twins—are not. There's generally no reason to skip this SA.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

Ranger is a somewhat versatile unit with his average mobility, health and cost. His bullet resistance isn't all that great for how late he is obtainable and cheaper shotgunners like Farmer exist, but he can still be a serviceable and reactive source of firepower, especially considering he has a chance of dodging if enemies get too close for comfort. He competes with Policeman Diaz due to the latter's accessibility and far superior durability with melee resistance, though given Policeman's higher cost, lower range and not-so-great special ability, Ranger has a few points in favor, and they can be used in tandem. Whereas Policeman's lower range allows him to function as a good tank, Ranger can take cover and rain fire behind him, or even knockback zombies once his own Special Ability has been unlocked.

Skirmish

In League, Ranger is a fairly strong unit to use. As a shotgunner, he's effective at taking out groups of vulnerable enemy units at once with spread damage, and his bullet resistance allows him to withstand enemy ranged attacks better, though his dodge perk is next to useless. While he does do decent chip damage against bullet-resistant enemy melee units up close, he's still fairly vulnerable to them. With knockback enabled, he easily impedes enemy units with his special ability, however due to the large presence of units resistant or immune to knockback such as Soldier or Juggernaut, its effectiveness remains questionable.

The best option is to pair Ranger with a frontline heavyweight, such as the aforementioned two, and place Ranger behind them. Making use of this with the Tactical item set can prove deadly against teams that tend to use the same tactic, shielding Builder Abby, who relies on these units to protect her. He is the only shotgunner available with bullet resistance, minus Flamethrower, automatically making him a deadly threat with how potent shotgunners can be at killing enemies in the backlines due to their bullet spread.

Item Sets

Like most bullet-type shotgunners, Ranger can meaningfully benefit from every ranged-damage oriented item set, be it Hunter or Military. While the former might sound like an odd choice, Ranger's short range doesn't prevent this set from majorly increasing his single pellet damage. Military is only preferable if you struggle with getting items that can improve Ranger's range. Tactical also proves to be a notable option, as it allows Ranger to counter certain enemies better than other ranger units can.

Like most ranged units, Ranger benefits most from +% health books. This is in part because of his dodge being useless, limiting the extent of his self-defense. However, it's possible to achieve good results by giving him +% crit. chance / +% ranged damage instead, since he has one of the highest base damage stats among shotgunners. It must be said, though, that the latter works best only when Ranger is close to being maxed out.

Ranger benefits most from flat extra buffs, with health being the most desirable one. Preparation time watches are the better option as usual, but slightly improving Ranger's agility through extra buffs is still advised.

Skins and Synergies

Ranger, along with his respective skins, is part of three teams: Internal Forces, Marines, TMF and Military.

Name	Ranger	Tactical Ranger	TMF Ranger	Army Ranger
Skin
Unlock Req.	Player Lvl. 12 15,000	300 / 5000	300 / 5000	300 / 5000
Team	IF	Marines	TMF	Military

In the all of the teams above, Ranger is never a bad option. He is a good choice for any synergy thanks to his speed, overall damage output, and moderate preparation time.

In the IF, Ranger is the most efficient ranged unit for any synergy when compared to Pepper and Surgeon Lt, being able to get the full use out of the 2/2 and 3/3 powers which circumvent his somewhat lacking survivability and allow him to provide actually meaningful support at a very reasonable cost. This notably has synergies with the likes of Grenadier and Light Soldier, prolonging their lifespan by hitting threats from a distance.

Meanwhile, in the Marines, Ranger is a good filler to activate the 2/2 Team power and benefit Private Rodriguez, if players prefer to have a shotgunner over shooters or snipers like Sonya and Sniper Polina in the deck. Although he is unable to get the full use of the 3/3 and 5/5 powers, this is rather the fault of the synergies themselves and it doesn't impact his use as much. He does have some use with the Marines as to not pause after being knocked back, which is useful against enemies like Escapee or a Psy.

In the TMF, Ranger, despite not being the best option, is actually among the more competent ranged units avaliable, costing less than his other equivalents without their crippling drawbacks, and provides adequate support to their melee units. Although he can avoid most explosions by himself, the 2/2 power does improve his matchups against them, and his low cost makes the 3/3 power easier to activate. He is also one of the best picks for 5/5 builds, should they be used in regular missions. But often enough, with Ranger in a 3/3 Synergy of TMF, it may be proven useful, sending a second Ranger without the need to wait, but he is preferably better in Skirmish and the Halloween Event, applying anything he has whilst keeping him in the deck or just to assist on the battlefield, including the Christmas Event.

Within Military, Ranger is overall exceptional. Due to his reliable speed and overall covering fire, he can suppress enemies and also keep them back, should he have his SA. What also helps is a 2/2 activation, allowing him to survive anything that comes in his way, especially if he is brought within a team of 5/5.

Trivia

• In the game files, Ranger is referred to as "Hero."
• Ranger's SA description used to imply only some of his shots would knock enemies back.
• Ranger’s bio claim he “fights for honor and glory”. This is quite similar to the game Kingdom Rush, where upon getting a Milita Barracks and up (besides the special variants) and moving their placement, they’ll yell “For honor and glory!”, which could be a potential reference.
• Ranger is only unit whose name remains unchanged, with only an addition at beginning

Gallery

• 

  Ranger's dodging animation
• 

  u/Burrito_tryhard_2140's fanmade sprite used as inspiration for Army Ranger's design.
• 

  Vigi's fanmade sprite used for inspiration for TMF Ranger's design.