Pick by cash, not by name
A starter is the tower you can place before the first leak. The right one changes with your opening cash.
| Unit | Deploy cost | What the tests showed |
|---|---|---|
| Sand Creature | Low budget | Clears early Hard and opening Davy Jones waves. Testers pair it with Pursuit for range. Stagger a second copy so their attacks do not land on the same beat. |
| Elastic Waistband | 400 coins | Solo endless test reached wave 336. Four copies were maxed by wave 19. Max upgrade in that test: 3,818 damage, 0.5 second cooldown, 39.9 range. |
| Pearl | 400 coins | Solo test reached wave 266. A level 100 max hit 279 damage, 0.5 second cooldown, 38.5 range. Upgrades did not add range. |
| John | 1,200 coins | The published solo test used a Season 12 Shiny Wumbo copy. Full AoE, 26 hits per cycle, past wave 616, with about 39,200 to 55,223 DPS depending on Secret Formula versus Sea Bear. |
| Ice Spice and Captain Sack | Ice Spice at 1,200 coins | Used as full AoE openers on Davy Jones raids such as Bubble Bowl. |
| The Rodent | 3,000 coins now | An older solo test reached wave 784 and cleared a tier 5 Lionfish in about three seconds when the deploy cost was 1,250. The cost change removes it from wave-1 starter duty. The Raid Shop copy is a different purchase: 35,000 Golden Spatulas, or 50,000 for Shiny Wumbo. |
How to place them
- Put the cheap tower at the front of the lane.
- If you place two of the same unit, wait until the first starts its attack, then place the second.
- Stop upgrading the starter once the wave is stable. Save cash for the exotic or prismatic that will actually carry the late waves.
- On 7x or 10x speed, watch for fast enemies slipping between attacks. Slow the match if that happens.
Carl, Helen the Felon, and Mama Bass are the other early clearers named in tests. Mama Bass is the usual macro opener on maps such as Patty Vault. Dr. Hartman can clear the same early waves, and traders have priced it far above those cheaper mythics.
Tutorial SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward stay in the common pool. Later superstar upgrades can raise their damage, but the first-day choice among the three does not lock your account.