The Tower Ultimate Weapons: All 9 UWs, Stone Costs and UW+ Abilities

How Ultimate Weapons work

Ultimate Weapons (UWs) are bought with power stones, which come from tournaments, medal exchanges, weekly mission rewards, milestones and store packs. When you buy one, the game shows three random weapons from the ones you do not own, each equally likely, and you choose one.

You can close that menu without buying. The three options do not change until you make a purchase, so backing out and reopening will not reroll them. If none of the three is what you want, the only way to see different options is to buy one.

Every UW you own is active in every run at once, along with any weapon handed to you mid-run by the Random Ultimate Weapon perk. Weapons with a cooldown fire on their own when the timer reaches zero, and the timer restarts right away, even while the effect is still running. That is why duration and cooldown together decide uptime.

Unlock costs

The price depends only on how many weapons you already own, not on which one you pick. The first is nearly free at 5 stones and the ninth costs 3,000, for 9,705 stones in total.

The fifth weapon costs more than the first four combined. From that point on it is worth weighing each new unlock against upgrades to the weapons you already own, since a new weapon arrives at base stats.

The nine Ultimate Weapons

Each card shows the three stats you upgrade with stones, from base value to maximum, and the stones needed to max all three. The order follows the commonly recommended pick order covered further down.

• Golden Tower Economy

  Turns the tower golden for a set time. While it is active, enemy kills pay a multiplied amount of cash and coins. It is the standard first pick because everything else in the game is bought with coins.

  • Bonus: x5.0 to x21.0
  • Duration: 15s to 53s
  • Cooldown: 300s to 100s
  • Stones to max all three: 27,186
  • UW+ ability: Golden Combo
• Black Hole Control and economy

  Opens a black hole that drags enemies toward its center. On its own it is modest. Labs add a coin bonus for enemies killed inside it, damage based on enemy health, and a second hole on the opposite side of the tower.

  • Size: 30m to 70m
  • Duration: 15s to 38s
  • Cooldown: 200s to 50s
  • Stones to max all three: 9,723
  • UW+ ability: Consume
• Death Wave Damage and economy

  Sends out Effect Waves, then a Death Wave that stays in range until its stored damage pool is spent. Enemies hit give bonus coins, and each one killed adds max health. Labs add elite cell bonuses, damage amplification and armor stripping.

  • Damage: x2 to x9,119
  • Effect Waves: 1 to 5
  • Cooldown: 300s to 50s
  • Stones to max all three: 29,391
  • UW+ ability: Kill Wall
• Spotlight Damage boost

  Rotating beams of light around the tower. Enemies inside a beam take multiplied damage from every source that is not based on enemy health or wave stats. Labs add a coin bonus for kills in the light and missiles fired from the tower.

  • Bonus: x8.0 to x50.0
  • Angle: 30° to 90°
  • Quantity: 1 to 4
  • Stones to max all three: 53,486
  • UW+ ability: Light Range
• Chrono Field Control

  A field that slows every enemy inside it. It is the only cooldown weapon that can be active all the time, since its duration can outlast its cooldown. Labs add duration, range beyond tower range and damage reduction while it is up.

  • Duration: 5s to 40s
  • Speed Reduction: 20% to 75%
  • Cooldown: 180s to 60s
  • Stones to max all three: 9,946
  • UW+ ability: Chrono Loop
• Chain Lightning Damage

  A chance on each enemy hit to spawn chain lightnings that deal a multiple of tower damage. It runs on chance instead of a cooldown. Labs add Shock, which makes struck enemies take more damage.

  • Damage: x2 to x7,961
  • Quantity: 1 to 5
  • Chance: 5.0% to 27.5%
  • Stones to max all three: 18,375
  • UW+ ability: Smite
• Smart Missiles Damage

  Launches homing missiles that explode on impact for a multiple of tower damage. Labs add explosion radius, damage amplification and missile barrages, and it pairs with Spotlight for late-game damage.

  • Damage: x10 to x9,219
  • Quantity: 5 to 20
  • Cooldown: 180s to 20s
  • Stones to max all three: 39,177
  • UW+ ability: Cover Fire
• Inner Land Mines Damage and stun

  Spawns a ring of mines near the tower that explode on contact for area damage. Labs add blast radius, rotation speed and a stun. The activation cooldown is hard capped at 37 seconds.

  • Damage: x10 to x9,219
  • Quantity: 3 to 6
  • Cooldown: 200s to 50s
  • Stones to max all three: 23,042
  • UW+ ability: Charged Mine
• Poison Swamp Damage over time

  Drops a swamp that damages enemies every second, with the damage ramping up the longer it ticks. Poisoned enemies move 25% slower while inside. With enough duration and cooldown it can be permanent, and two can be kept up at once.

  • Damage: x10 to x9,219
  • Duration: 30s to 100s
  • Cooldown: 125s to 50s
  • Stones to max all three: 34,226
  • UW+ ability: Death Creep

Black Hole placement depends on tower range: a larger range pushes the hole further out, and it moves out faster than the range line does. The tower range simulator shows where it lands at your range.

Stat ranges and stones to max

Maxing all three stats on all nine weapons takes 244,552 stones on top of the unlocks, so nobody maxes everything early. Spotlight is the most expensive at 53,486 stones and Black Hole the cheapest at 9,723.

Stone totals are summed from the per-level costs. Labs, perks and core module sub-effects can push stats past these values.

Cost is not spread evenly. Damage multipliers are long tracks with expensive final levels, while quantity stats are a handful of large purchases. Spotlight angle alone has 60 levels and costs 29,690 stones, more than the whole of Golden Tower.

Hard caps

• Chrono Field speed reduction tops out at 75% from stones and is capped at 90% once sub-effects are added.
• Inner Land Mines cooldown cannot go below 37 seconds, whatever you stack on it.
• Chrono Field uptime: with stones alone, duration maxes at 40s against a minimum cooldown of 60s. The Chrono Field Duration lab adds up to 30 seconds, which is what makes it permanent. A new activation does not stack with the old one, so any leftover time is wasted.

How UW damage is calculated

Damage-dealing weapons scale off your tower damage, so workshop damage, crit stats and your core module all feed into them. The number shown on the UW screen during a run already includes average crit and super crit.

UW damage = UW multiplier x core module multiplier x tower damage x (1 + crit factor x crit chance) x (1 + super crit mult x super crit chance x crit chance)

The Ultimate Crit card adds a separate chance for a UW hit to crit using your workshop crit factor. It does not apply to percent-based damage.

Spotlight sits outside this formula. It multiplies damage from every source hitting an enemy in the beam, except damage based on a percentage of enemy health or on wave stats.

Ultimate Weapon labs

Stones are only half of a weapon. Each one has labs bought with coins that unlock at tier milestones, and for the economy weapons the labs are where most of the value is. The number in brackets is the lab's max level.

Later labs listed on the wiki without a milestone: Chain Thunder (30) and Lightning Amplifier (30) for Chain Lightning, Recharge Missile Barrage (7) for Smart Missiles, Swamp Rend for basic (30) and additional (6) enemies for Poison Swamp, and Inner Land Mine Chrono Jump (10), which needs the ILM plus ability.

Black Hole Coin Bonus lab

x11.00 at level 20

Death Wave Coins Bonus lab

x2.50 x1.5 before labs

Spotlight Coin Bonus lab

x3.00 at level 20

Golden Tower Bonus lab

+3.75 +0.15 per level, 25 levels

Death Wave Health lab

x12.5 x5 before labs

Death Wave Cell Bonus lab

x3.00 elite cells

These coin bonuses apply to enemies killed inside the effect, not only to enemies the weapon kills itself. They multiply with each other, which is why syncing Golden Tower, Black Hole and Death Wave is the core of most farming builds. A weapon granted by the Random Ultimate Weapon perk does not give access to its labs.

Ultimate Weapon Plus (UW+)

UW+ abilities open once you own all nine weapons. Each weapon has one. Unlike the weapons themselves, you choose which ability to buy, and the price rises with each one you unlock: 500 stones for the first up to 3,800 for the ninth, 14,650 stones for all of them. An ability starts at level 0 and is then upgraded with more stones.

Values come from each weapon's own wiki page. For Cover Fire the value is seconds between missiles, so lower is better.

Golden Combo follows bonus = (1 + 0.0003 x (level + 1)) ^ kills - 1. It compounds per kill, so it rewards a long Golden Tower duration and a high kill rate much more than a single level suggests. Chrono Loop also slows enemies beyond the listed rotation, according to community testing recorded on the wiki.

Which Ultimate Weapon to pick first

You only ever choose between three random options, so a pick order is really a ranking: take the highest-ranked weapon on offer. This is the general community ranking recorded on the wiki. It favors economy first, because coins pay for the labs that make every weapon good.

One adjustment is commonly suggested for the fifth pick. If you cannot keep a lab running on a 3x speed boost, take Chrono Field fifth. If you can, Chain Lightning fifth works and Chrono Field can wait until sixth or seventh, since its long labs become much shorter with the boost.

Perks, modules and Dissonance runs

• Perks: each weapon has a one-time perk that only appears if you own it, such as Golden Tower Bonus x1.5 or Black Hole Duration +12s. The Random Ultimate Weapon perk lends you a partly upgraded weapon you do not own for the rest of the run.
• Core modules: the core module main effect multiplies UW damage, and its sub-effects add flat stats to specific weapons, including cooldown, quantity and duration. The reroll simulator helps price a target set of core sub-effects.
• Unique effects: several core epics change how weapons behave. Multiverse Nexus forces Death Wave, Golden Tower and Black Hole to fire together, and Primordial Collapse adds another Black Hole.
• Dissonance: if you play Dissonance runs, including the Ultimate Weapon variant, the Dissonance Run planner covers the settings and bonuses.

Frequently asked questions

How many power stones does it take to unlock all Ultimate Weapons?

9,705 stones. The nine unlocks cost 5, 50, 150, 300, 800, 1,250, 1,750, 2,400 and 3,000 stones in that order, whichever weapons you choose.

Which Ultimate Weapon should I get first in The Tower?

Golden Tower, if it is offered. It multiplies cash and coins from kills, and coins fund everything else. The usual ranking after it is Black Hole, Death Wave, Spotlight, Chrono Field, Chain Lightning, Smart Missiles, Inner Land Mines and Poison Swamp.

Can you reroll the three Ultimate Weapon choices?

No. You can close the menu without buying, but the same three options stay until you purchase one of them.

How do you unlock Ultimate Weapon Plus?

Own all nine Ultimate Weapons. You can then buy plus abilities in any order. The first costs 500 stones and the ninth 3,800, for 14,650 stones to unlock all nine before upgrades.

Which Ultimate Weapon costs the most stones to max?

Spotlight, at 53,486 stones for its three stats. Black Hole is the cheapest at 9,723. All nine together cost 244,552 stones, not counting unlocks or UW+.

Can Chrono Field be active all the time?

Yes. It is the only cooldown weapon that can be. Its cooldown goes down to 60s and its duration reaches 40s from stones, with up to 30 more seconds from the Chrono Field Duration lab.

Sources and credits

The numbers on this page come from the community-maintained The Tower - Idle Tower Defense Wiki and were reorganized and rewritten for Towerstats.org. Wiki text is available under CC BY-SA.

• Ultimate Weapons
• Ultimate Weapons/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Which UW do I select?
• Golden Tower
• Golden Tower/Basic Upgrades
• Golden Tower/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Black Hole
• Black Hole/Basic Upgrades
• Black Hole/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Death Wave
• Death Wave/Basic Upgrades
• Death Wave/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Spotlight
• Spotlight/Basic Upgrades
• Spotlight/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Chrono Field
• Chrono Field/Basic Upgrades
• Chrono Field/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Chain Lightning
• Chain Lightning/Basic Upgrades
• Chain Lightning/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Smart Missiles
• Smart Missiles/Basic Upgrades
• Smart Missiles/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Inner Land Mines
• Inner Land Mines/Basic Upgrades
• Inner Land Mines/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Poison Swamp
• Poison Swamp/Basic Upgrades
• Poison Swamp/Ultimate Weapon Plus
• Lab Category/Ultimate Weapon Research
• Currency/Power Stones