Chain Lightning is an Ultimate Weapon that gives your tower a percent chance on each enemy hit to spawn a number of chain lightnings. Each lightning deals a percent of your tower damage, and that damage accounts for your crit and super crit factor and chance.
It is one of nine Ultimate Weapons, and its power is split between stone upgrades in the workshop and several lab researches that add shock effects and bonus damage against specific enemies.
Verified data
Stone costs taken from our decoded save data, not from the wiki.
| Sub-stat | Max level | Total stones |
|---|---|---|
| Damage | 31 | 15,710 |
| Chance | 15 | 2,010 |
| Quantity | 4 | 655 |
| Fully maxed | 18,375 |
Description
Chain Lightning gives your tower a percent chance, whenever you hit an enemy, to spawn a number of chain lightnings. Each lightning deals a percent of your tower damage, and the calculation includes your crit and super crit factor and chance, so it scales with your existing damage stats.
Workshop — Basic Upgrades
Like all Ultimate Weapons, Chain Lightning's basic upgrades live in the Ultimate Weapon menu once you have unlocked the weapon itself. You spend stones on three stats: Damage, Quantity and Chance.
Damage has 31 levels, Quantity has 4 levels and Chance has 15 levels. Maxing all three costs 18,375 stones in total; the cost table below breaks this down per level.
| Damage | Stones (Damage) | Quantity | Stones (Quantity) | Chance | Stones (Chance) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | 0 | 1# | 0 | 5.0% | 0 |
| 3x | 5 | 2# | 30 | 6.5% | 8 |
| 5x | 11 | 3# | 75 | 8.0% | 26 |
| 9x | 17 | 4# | 150 | 9.5% | 44 |
| 14x | 23 | 5# | 400 | 11.0% | 62 |
| 22x | 29 | 12.5% | 80 | ||
| 32x | 35 | 14.0% | 98 | ||
| 46x | 41 | 15.5% | 116 | ||
| 63x | 47 | 17.0% | 134 | ||
| 85x | 53 | 18.5% | 152 |
Workshop — Ultimate Weapon Plus
Ultimate Weapon Plus abilities become available only after you have purchased all nine Ultimate Weapons. Chain Lightning's Plus ability gives every Chain Lightning a chance, equal to your Chain Lightning Chance stat, to deal extra damage equal to a multiple of the current wave's HP.
This bonus can activate up to 100 times per enemy, which makes it a significant source of scaling damage on high-HP waves.
| UW+ Cost Table | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| Cost | Unlocked | 300 | 375 | 475 | 600 | 725 | 925 | 1150 | 1450 | 1800 | 2200 | 2650 | 3150 | 3700 | 4300 |
| Value | 0.0005x | 0.0010x | 0.0015x | 0.0020x | 0.0025x | 0.0030x | 0.0035x | 0.0040x | 0.0045x | 0.0050x | 0.0055x | 0.0060x | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Labs — Chain Lightning Shock
Chain Lightning Shock is the first lab you unlock for this weapon. It gives your chain lightnings a chance to apply shock to enemies they hit, and shocked enemies take increased damage from your tower.
The lab has a single level. At that level the shock chance starts at 2.50% and the damage multiplier starts at x1.10.
| Level | TIme | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0d 23h 53m | 950,000 | Unlocked |
Labs — Shock Chance
Shock Chance raises the probability that Chain Lightning applies shock to the enemies it hits. It has 30 levels and becomes available after you have researched Chain Lightning Shock to level 1.
| Level | TIme | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0d 20h 0m | 250,000 | 3.00% |
| 2 | 1d 4h 21m | 560,000 | 3.50% |
| 3 | 1d 12h 53m | 1,100,000 | 4.00% |
| 4 | 1d 21h 54m | 2,800,000 | 4.50% |
| 5 | 2d 7h 49m | 7,750,000 | 5.00% |
| 6 | 2d 19h 6m | 19,540,000 | 5.50% |
| 7 | 3d 8h 17m | 43,580,000 | 6.00% |
| 8 | 3d 23h 58m | 87,410,000 | 6.50% |
| 9 | 4d 18h 49m | 160,910,000 | 7.00% |
| 10 | 5d 17h 31m | 276,620,000 | 7.50% |
Labs — Shock Multiplier
Shock Multiplier increases the extra damage that shocked enemies receive. It has 14 levels and, like Shock Chance, requires Chain Lightning Shock at level 1 before it unlocks.
| Level | TIme | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0d 20h 0m | 250,000 | 1.14 |
| 2 | 1d 4h 21m | 560,000 | 1.18 |
| 3 | 1d 12h 53m | 1,100,000 | 1.22 |
| 4 | 1d 21h 54m | 2,800,000 | 1.26 |
| 5 | 2d 7h 49m | 7,750,000 | 1.30 |
| 6 | 2d 19h 6m | 19,540,000 | 1.34 |
| 7 | 3d 8h 17m | 43,580,000 | 1.38 |
| 8 | 3d 23h 58m | 87,410,000 | 1.42 |
| 9 | 4d 18h 49m | 160,910,000 | 1.46 |
| 10 | 5d 17h 31m | 276,620,000 | 1.50 |
Labs — Chain Thunder
Chain Thunder is unlocked in Milestones at tier 16 wave 60. While it is active, an enemy's damage is reduced by 10% for every 6% of its health that it has lost to Chain Lightning damage, up to a maximum reduction.
The lab has 30 levels, and each level raises that maximum reduction by 3%, reaching a cap of 90% at max level.
| level | Time | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8d 7h 59m | 100.00B | 3% |
| 2 | 9d 8h 0m | 150.00B | 6% |
| 3 | 10d 10h 52m | 225.00B | 9% |
| 4 | 11d 16h 59m | 337.50B | 12% |
| 5 | 13d 2h 42m | 506.25B | 15% |
| 6 | 14d 16h 28m | 759.38B | 18% |
| 7 | 16d 10h 45m | 1.14T | 21% |
| 8 | 18d 10h 8m | 1.71T | 24% |
| 9 | 20d 15h 11m | 2.56T | 27% |
| 10 | 23d 2h 36m | 3.84T | 30% |
Labs — Lightning Amplifier-Scatter
Lightning Amplifier-Scatter is also unlocked in Milestones at tier 16 wave 60. It increases the damage Chain Lightning deals to Scatter enemies for each consecutive hit on them.
The bonus is additive, meaning each consecutive hit adds its value on top of the original damage from the first hit rather than multiplying it.
| level | Time | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8d 8h 0m | 100.00B | x1.25 |
| 2 | 9d 8h 0m | 150.00B | x2.5 |
| 3 | 10d 10h 52m | 225.00B | x3.75 |
| 4 | 11d 16h 59m | 337.50B | x5 |
| 5 | 13d 2h 42m | 506.25B | x6.25 |
| 6 | 14d 16h 28m | 759.38B | x7.5 |
| 7 | 16d 10h 45m | 1.14T | x8.75 |
| 8 | 18d 10h 8m | 1.71T | x10 |
| 9 | 20d 15h 11m | 2.56T | x11.25 |
| 10 | 23d 2h 36m | 3.84T | x12.5 |
Labs
Chain Lightning's labs are unlocked in Milestones at tier 7 wave 60. The initial unlock gives you access to Chain Lightning Shock; once that lab reaches level 1, Shock Chance and Shock Multiplier become available to research. Chain Thunder and Lightning Amplifier-Scatter are separate Milestone unlocks at tier 16 wave 60.