Swat

From Dead Ahead Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Swat
Regular
Builders
Emergency
IF
Swat Atlas.png
Swat Foreman x2.png
Firestarter Sprite.png
Cleaner Sprite.png
A mix of incendiary bullets with ordinary ammunition turned out to be a nice idea!
Main Stats
Type
Shooter
Rarity
Exclusive
Health-Healing.png Health
350
Bullet-Electricity.png Ranged Damage
40
Melee.png Melee Damage
60
Fire.png Fire Damage
20-40 (debuff tick)
Fortune.png Crit. Chance
  • 1% (displayed, range only)
  • 40% (undocumented, melee only)
Crit damage.png Crit. Damage
1%
Speed.png Speed
12
UnitPrep-Duration-Period.png Prepare Time
40s
Icon cost.png Courage Cost
30
Behavior Stats
Agility.png Agility
60
Aggression.png Aggression
85
Radius.png Detection Range
200
Agility Penalty
50%
Aggression Penalty
50%
Morale Stats
Icon charisma.png Charisma
150
Icon valor.png Valor
600
Charisma Radius
80
Abilities
Perks
HighFireRate.png FireDamage.png ResistanceBullets.png NoZombieChance.png ResistancePoison.png
Special Ability.png Special Ability
Ranged Damage is increased by 250 for each 90 points of Charisma
Ranged Data
Ammo Capacity
12 (3x4 bursts)
Firing Period
3.2s
Reloading Period
  • 0.7s (base)
  • 0.5s (Cap's ability)
Radius.png Range
160
Bullet Spread
40°
Resistances
Icon bullet resist.png Bullet
90%
Poison resist.png Poison
100%
Unlock Requirements
Price
925 Cash.png (TMF Pack)
Player Level
Any

TMF logo.png Swat is a TMF member specialized in long-ranged and prolonged combat. He is armed with a FN Scar L and dressed in a black full-body, bulletproof armor suit, a black gas mask with red lenses, a black combat helmet, and a bright yellow ammunition pouch.

Builders logo.png Foreman is Swat's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a FN Scar L and dressed in a gray T-shirt underneath a yellow safety vest, black pants, a utility belt with pouches and tools, a clear full-face gas mask, and a yellow hard hat.

Emergency logo.png Firestarter is Swat's second exclusive skin. He is armed with a FN Scar L and dressed in a yellow firefighter suit with white reflective strips,a black armored vest, a bright red ammunition pouch, a red firefighter's helmet, and a firefighter's open-circuit SCBA full-face mask.

IF logo.pngCleaner is Swat's third exclusive skin. He is armed with an FN Scar L, wears a blue IF helmet, gas mask, black body armor, shoulder pads with a blue logo, urban camouflage long-sleeve shirt and pants, and brown gloves. He has an ammunition pouch on his waist.

He can be obtained by purchasing the TMF Pack alongside Cap, Flamethrower and Soldier for 925 money.

Overview

Swat is a Shooter. He has average damage for his class, along with above average health, and high courage cost and movement speed.

Swat fires his assault rifle in three-round bursts up to four times before having to perform a very fast reload. His firing speed is a little slower than on most shooters.

Swat's bullets have a 16% chance to set his targets on fire, with the effect dealing 20-40 damage per tick. Each bullet counts as an individual source, allowing to stack the debuff. Missions with rainy weather will prevent him from igniting enemies.

Swat is immune to poison, and has 90% resistance to bullet damage. He won't turn into a zombie on death. Unlike most ranged units, Swat does not have Fat Zombies among his prioritized enemies.

Special Ability

Swat's special ability grants him +250 ranged damage for each 90 points of charisma. With his base charisma of 150, he is guaranteed to receive one tick of the buff. The maximum possible bonus is +1500 damage.

This ability acts as a massive boost for Swat, allowing to compensate for his bad accuracy with very high single bullet damage. While it requires to improve a stat that's not very useful for him in the long run, the bonus is generous enough to compensate for Swat missing out on any of the other improvements. There's generally no reason to skip this ability if you are frequenly running him in any of his teams, and it borders on being obligatory in case you use Swat on his own.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

On paper, Swat seems to be a great ranged unit due to his ability to set enemies on fire from a safe distance, possessing several resistances that can prove to be useful, having a fast movement speed as well as his special ability that can potentially increase his damage output drastically. While it is true for early game, towards the mid-game, he quickly becomes an underperforming unit, as the fire damage his bullets cause is very low, forcing players to focus more on upgrading ranged damage instead of relying on his sub-par fire debuff damage. Taking almost a minute to get prepared for battle, having his unique perk tied to RNG, and possessing questionable accuracy that causes his DPS to fluctuate, Swat is generally not well-suited for most missions, especially towards those in later stages where full-fire-resistant enemies become increasingly present, and consistent DPS is required. It may be better to consider using other stronger and cheaper ranged units such as Sonya and Carlos, with the latter possessing the identical ability through his special ability with much greater fire damage. With Team Power he gains explosion resistance like the rest of the TMF units, however it doesn't negate the fire damage done by Rebel (zombie), Firefighter (unit and zombie) as well as units that explode on death such as his fellow team member Flamethrower.

Despite his glaring flaws, once his special ability is unlocked, Swat will prove to be a decent ranged unit in general, dishing out a high damage output which somewhat offsets his poor accuracy and short firing pattern. However, he still needs to be paired alongside other ranged units, preferably a shotgunner or another shooter due to the aforementioned flaws.

Skirmish

In League, his bullet resistance and speeds do make Swat a decent ranged unit to use. His fire bullets might turn out useful from time to time as his low fire damage can deal additional damage to bullet-resistant enemy units, albeit very low. With his special ability, Swat with proper Charisma-boosting items can allow him to shred through any enemy without bullet-resistance, while dealing good chip damage to bullet resistance ones should they be in his line of sight. Once again, however, it must be emphasized that Swat suffers from low accuracy and tends to miss a lot of his shots when shooting at a distance, resulting in decreased DPS. He pairs well with his fellow TMF squadmates Cap, Soldier and Rogue, all of which has bullet resistance and synergize well with each other in Skirmish, leading to a very powerful combination in a deck if combined. Players should be conscious of his reliability and the fact that he also has a high courage cost, hindering team compositions.

Item Sets

Like any shooter, Swat benefits most from the Hunter set, as it provides him with highest increase to raw damage, which can become outright devastating should you take advantage of his special ability. In case his poor accuracy becomes a significant issue, however, using Military can also be fruitful, as extra bullets spawn with their own trajectories, providing a safety net.

In context of skirmish, Hunter and Tactical are the best options, in a fashion typical for the mode. Hunter might be more preferable, thanks to access to legendary items. However, at top level play the best set for him ends up being Lucky Guy, as it can help Swat avoid getting two-tapped by maxed out Polina. Missing out on potential damage shouldn't be a problem, in case his SA is unlocked. What is noticeable is the Firefighter set is the only thing that increases Swat’s main damage mainly when he sets an enemy alight.

Swat benefits most from flat boosts to health and damage. Percentages are only effective for health on him. Among books, +% health is the best option, since Swat's poor accuracy makes critical builds even more unreliable on him in PvE, meanwhile in PvP any form of extra protection is always important. Being a ranged unit, a prep. time watch is the best option, especially with Swat taking longer time to prepare than any other shooter. Improving agility at least a bit is also advised, since Swat might become prone to losing his targets at lower levels of it.

It's important to mention that once his SA is unlocked, buffs to charisma become more valuable than direct buffs to damage. Using four legendary items with at minimum +60 charisma is the best way to improve his offensive abilities without missing out on much of the other stats. That being said, pursuing maxed out charisma is also illadvised, since this requires acquiring four items with +100 charisma, which is extremely difficult to do.

Skins and Synergies

Swat, along with his respective skins, is a part of four teams: TMF, Builders, Emergency, and Internal Forces.

Name Swat Foreman Firestarter Cleaner
Skin Swat Sprite.png Foreman Sprite.png Firestarter Sprite.png Cleaner Sprite.png
Unlock Req. 925 Cash.png
(TMF Pack)
300 Cash.png /
5000 classs=pixelated
300 Cash.png /
5000 classs=pixelated
300 Cash.png /
5000 classs=pixelated
Team TMF logo.png
TMF
Builders logo.png
Builders
Emergency logo.png
Emergency
IF logo.png
IF

In all those teams, Swat proves to be a generally useful unit, courtesy of being a more or less competent shooter. This is especially prominent in Builders, who lack self-sustainable ranged units. Even though Swat has little to no synergy with any of their powers, he still proves to be a consistently great pick. The same is true for TMF, who have even more questionable units in their roster.

Trivia

  • It's unknown if Swat would have been an A-Team reference alongside his fellow members, as Cap, Soldier, and Flamethrower all had their backstories deleted prior to his inclusion in the game. However, he stays in line of being a reference to HUNK from Resident Evil series.
  • Swat's Firestarter skin inspired by Reddit user u/Microwaveson's post.
  • Like the rest of the TMF Squad members, Swat was available for purchase with coins. Swat's requirement was level 13, and his price was 19,000 coins.
    • Because Swat wasn't originally a part of TMF pack, he was available for purchase with coins for one more day before the devs changed it.
  • Swat's poor aim was justified by developers as a balancing decision, as stated in a QnA.[1]

Gallery

References