Picking Ultimate Weapons matters more than most decisions in The Tower because each new pick costs more than the last. Every UW has a use, but some pay off immediately while others only shine once you have labs, upgrades, or other UWs to back them up.
Skye's tool at what-uw-should-i-pick.netlify.app walks you through the right choice based on what you already own and what options you're offered. It isn't fully up to date, but it's still useful for understanding the reasoning behind why a given UW is or isn't worth taking.
Picking Ultimate Weapons matters more than most decisions in The Tower because each new pick costs more than the last. Every UW has a use, but some pay off immediately while others only shine once you have labs, upgrades, or other UWs to back them up.
Skye's tool at what-uw-should-i-pick.netlify.app walks you through the right choice based on what you already own and what options you're offered. It isn't fully up to date, but it's still useful for understanding the reasoning behind why a given UW is or isn't worth taking.
General Ranking
1. Golden Tower Golden Tower is a huge economy boost that makes overall progress feel noticeably faster. Simply unlocking it gives an immediate 20% increase to both cash and coins. It should be your first priority over any other pick.
2. Black Hole Black Hole feels weak when you first unlock it, because most of its power comes from labs. Its labs let it generate coins and deal damage equal to a percentage of enemy health per second. Be careful with cooldown reduction here: most of its economic value comes from being synced with other UWs, especially Golden Tower, since the coin bonuses stack multiplicatively. A well-levelled Black Hole duration and cooldown, combined with its damage percentage, also helps kill protectors on any build.
3. Death Wave Since the 0.24.3 rework, Death Wave is a strong pick at nearly every stage of the game. Without labs it gives 1.5x coins on enemies it hits and boosts your health up to 5x. Labs raise those to 2.5x coins and 12.5x health, and can add up to 3x Elite Cells, currently the only way to increase Elite Cell gains within a run. The bonuses apply on hit rather than on kill, so they stay useful well past the point where Death Wave can still kill things. Syncing it with the UWs above is again valuable because the coin bonus stacks multiplicatively.
4. Spotlight Spotlight seriously improves your damage and also has a coin lab. Taking it early can feel strange since damage may not be your focus yet, but it's still worth picking over most other UWs. It provides a 3x coin bonus with constant uptime, and at max coverage it can easily cover most of the area. The SLM lab plus its damage boost also make your damage much stronger through the mid game.
5. Chrono Field Chrono Field is the king of crowd control. After its first activation it can stay up 100% of the time. The slow makes it far harder for enemies to reach and hit you, and increasing its range stops more enemies from slipping past your orbs.
Note: if you're grabbing your 5th UW before you can dedicate a 3x lab boost, take Chrono Field 5th. If you can run a 3x lab boost continuously, take it 6th or 7th instead, since the boost greatly reduces its lab time.
6. Chain Lightning Chain Lightning used to be a support UW, good mainly for stripping armor or applying debuffs. The 0.24 update buffed its damage scaling, turning it into a much stronger damage dealer than before. It's also fairly cheap to upgrade into a powerful state, giving strong mid-game damage that helps you handle elites while you build up Chrono Field.
Note: if you can run one 3x lab boost constantly, take Chain Lightning 5th when you have the choice.
7. Smart Missiles Smart Missiles are your main damage output in the late game, dwarfing every other damage source, especially when paired with Spotlight. Their labs make them even deadlier by turning the damage into AoE and amplifying it. The cost of making Smart Missiles fully outperform Chain Lightning is the main reason to take Chain Lightning first.
8. Inner Land Mine Being listed second-to-last doesn't make Inner Land Mine bad. It has a stun with a great radius once upgraded, letting you stun bosses and elites so Smart Missiles get more time to fire on a closer, more concentrated target. The rotation also allows stun-locking for a good stretch of time, enabling even more Smart Missile barrages. It's cheap to upgrade, so its effects show quickly. It was stronger in a damage-focused meta than in the hybrid meta most players currently run.
9. Poison Swamp Poison Swamp was heavily reworked in V26. As it stands, it's a very impactful UW once you have a developed Chrono Field, ideally with CF+ levels. Developing it before then isn't advised, since its consistency will be low and it will underperform almost every other UW. It can deal very high damage if enemies can be poisoned and then kept away from your tower for a long time, because its damage ramps up over time.