Ghoulish Gourd

Similar Article

This article is about NoobsAreCoolAndCoolerThanCasual/Ghoulish Gourd. You may be looking for the Infernal Gourdian's variant, the Ghoulish Gourdian.

Ghoulish Gourd
"Don't you just hate the feeling when something you dread to happen...happens? First the Pumpkids, now the Hallows...what next, the Gourdians...?" -Enemy Description
Mode Appearance	Haunted Harvest
Wave Debut	22
Statistics
Base Health	1,200 (Easy) 2,250 (Hard)
Defense	20%
Speed	Average
Cash Given	$1,250 > 1,800 on death (Variable)
Spawned By	Corrupted Conjurer The Harvester Pumpking Ominous Cucurbita Coffin
Hidden?	Variable
Flying?	No
Ghost?	No
Lead?	No
Attributes	Stun Immune Mutation (Variable) Slime (Variable) Bloated (Variable) Nimble (Variable) Lantern (Variable)
Abilities
Ability 1	Overflowing Obliteration - The Ghoulish Gourd will be stationary, winding up a 360° slash within a medium range, stunning any tower within the radius for 7 seconds and granting the Ghoulish Gourd the Lantern attribute for 5 seconds proportional to the amount of towers hit. If a maximum of 5 towers are hit, the Ghoulish Gourd will be permanently granted said attribute.
Ability 2	Rallying Rush - Upon reaching 50% of the Ghoulish Gourd's maximum health, it will strike a lancing pose and attempt to plunge its sword whilst running for 10 seconds. While in this duration, the Ghoulish Gourd is granted the Aggro attribute, and its speed will go from Average to Above Average. However, the Ghoulish Gourd will unequip its shield forcing it to lose 20% defense. This ability cannot be performed whilst in Spectral Spite.
Ability 3	Spectral Spite - Upon being granted the Lantern attribute, the Ghoulish Gourd will be given the attribute and 50% more speed. If the Overflowing Obliteration ability is preformed whilst in this form, its stun duration will be increased from 7 to 10 seconds.

Overview

The Ghoulish Gourd is an enemy that appears in the Haunted Harvest gamemode. debuting on wave 22, It can prove a detriment to your unprepared defenses and possesses the ability to stun nearby troops via its sword and enter an "Ethereal" phase. Additionally, the Ghoulish Gourd can rush past your defenses upon reaching half its health.

Due to its high health and quick speed, towers with high firerate like the Minigunner or simply high-damaging towers like Ranger can deal with the Ghoulish Gourd effectively.

Appearance

The Ghoulish Gourd takes similar appearance to the Hallow Gourd, with a few major distinctions. For starters, the Ghoulish Gourd takes on a primarily black appearance along with the magmatic orange accents being replaced with a neon violet. Unlike the Hallow Gourd, the Ghoulish Gourd lacks eyes yet possesses a gaping mouth. Most of its armor is exposed, and various bulging veins plague its outfit. The Ghoulish Gourd wields a medium-sized shield along with a purple flaming sword, and its stem on top is instead replaced with god cube fragments. The Ghoulish Gourd possesses 4 legs, moving in a spiderlike fashion. Additionally, it emits a purple lightning effect whilst moving.

Analysis, Ranking, and Strategy

Jennifer Lennox

Yo...so turns out, Noobs MAY or MAY NOT be able to contact and give tips for a while, so I've decided to tap into TDS' communications for a bit. By the help of Commander and Dispatcher, of course...

.

.

Dispatcher

...This is true. Commander is currently DOTT (Dying on the Toilet), so he probably won't be here to analyze Ominous' forces. We will, though!

.

.

Jennifer Lennox

.

...What she said...anyways, looking at the Ghoulish Gourd, this enemy is a solid 6/10 for threat level. While it isn't crazy hard to kill, it's rather tanky for its debut. Because of this, there are a few things to note.

• The Ghoulish Gourd is a rather simple enemy to counter. Towers with high DPS like Minigunner or even Accelerator can deal with this enemy quickly.
  • With its debut on wave 22, you should have more than enough cash to afford such defenses.

Jennifer Lennox

This enemy is swift, too! Remember the Evil Elves from the Cold Ambush operation? Well, think of the Ghoulish Gourd like one of those guys. They're quick, tanky, but vulnerable to stuns (maybe). This is especially due to the Defend-the-Center gameplay of both maps, in which most enemies are densely spammed early on.

• The Ghoulish Gourd is a fast enemy, especially when taking into consideration for the Rallying Rush or Spectral Spite ability.
  • However, the Ghoulish Gourd is quite prone to stuns due to the lack of the Boss attribute.
    • Take advantage of this by using stun-effective troops like the Electroshocker to counter this enemy.
      

Dispatcher

...Wait...h-h-how do you know about the Cold Ambush operation...that's redacted information...!

.

.

.

Jennifer Lennox

...No comment...anyways, ensuring your troops are immune to the Ghoulish Gourd's Overflowing Obliteration ability is vital. Towers like Ranger or even Engineer can easily counter this enemy.

• The Ghoulish Gourd relies on the Lantern attribute to pose a threat.
  • If it unsuccessfully stuns a tower, the attribute will not be granted.
    • Because of this, towers that can deal high damage quickly and possess stun immunity like Brawler are the best options in countering the Ghoulish Gourd.
      • While slightly unrelated, the Turret will not yield the Lantern attribute, so take that with what you will.

Dispatcher

In summary, the Ghoulish Gourd is a tanky enemy that while somewhat daunting at first with its ability to rush towards the base at concerning speeds, can easily be countered by stunning troops and dealt with by high dps towers. While this enemy does indeed get densely spammed later in the gamemode, I wouldn't say the Ghoulish Gourd is too much of a threat.

Trivia

• The Ghoulish Gourd's design was originally intended to be a recolor of the Hallow Gourd.
  • However, there was a certain user who encouraged me to give them a more corrupted design, so I took the advice.
• The Ghoulish Gourd statwise, takes inspiration from the Evil Elf.
  • However, designwise the Ghoulish Gourd takes inspiration from the scrapped enemy, Heinous Harvester.[1]

Update History

NiL.

Notes

1. Keep in mind that the Overflowing Obliteration's stack assumes each tower hit applies the effect for 5 seconds, in which 5 successful towers hit = 25 secs which tops at an infinite duration.