Universal Tower Defense leans heavily on passives. Damage numbers and upgrade paths matter, but late-game clears in Nightmare, Infinite, Challenges, and Virtual Realm are mostly decided by how well you use each unit’s built‑in abilities. Many of those effects are hidden behind Evolutions and Etherialize levels, which makes it hard to plan a team if you do not own every character.
This breakdown goes through the key passives and actives on notable Secret, Mythic/Evo, Legendary, and Epic units, what they do in practice, and why they’re valued in current tier lists.
Secret units passives (Jinoo, Dragon Guy, Lulu)
Secret units sit on top of the game’s power curve. Their passives are built for long, difficult modes where scaling and control matter more than early cost efficiency.
| Unit | Role | Core passive kit |
|---|---|---|
| EVO Jinoo (Monarch) | Hybrid DPS / summoner | Shadow Legion spends 70% of his Mana to summon 15 Shadow Soldiers at the back of his full range, each with HP equal to 75% of his Damage. Shadow Domain then burns 40% Mana to amplify all of those soldiers by 200% damage for 20 seconds. A large Mana pool (6000 base, +20 per takedown) lets him re‑cast these effects repeatedly. |
| EVO Dragon Guy (Silverite) | Hybrid DPS / freeze control | Frostborne freezes enemies on attack and leaves them with an extra 30% slow afterward. His active, Resolve, self‑stuns him for 30 seconds while he gains 0.5 Fury per second; at 120 Fury he enters Silverite Battle Trance, becoming Hybrid, gaining +120% Damage, increasing cooldown to 15 seconds, and passively freezing enemies in range every 20 seconds. He is unsellable in this state and after 120 seconds stops attacking for 20 seconds. |
| Lulu | Air/Hill stall support | Lulu does not attack. Instead, he issues Orders whose cooldown controls how often a new command can be placed on an enemy. Stand Still! stuns a target for 4 seconds and causes collision with other enemies, Retreat! makes the target walk backward for 40% of the time they are in eye contact with Lulu, and Attack! forces a 2‑second backwards walk with collision. |
In practice, Jinoo (Monarch) is a scaling engine for Infinite and long Challenge runs. His soldiers inherit his stats, so every improvement to his damage indirectly buffs an entire summoned army. Dragon Guy (Silverite) is a hybrid of hard crowd control and burst; his passive freezing plus Battle Trance make him especially strong in modes where bosses or elites need to be locked down. Lulu’s orders turn entire lanes into moving traffic jams and are the backbone of many meta stall compositions.
Mythic and Evo passives: core late‑game tools
Most of the meta units you see recommended for Nightmare, Infinite, and Virtual Realm live in the Mythic or Evo category. Their kits layer permanent scaling, debuffs, and conditional damage that transform them from decent carries into mode‑defining pieces.
| Unit | What the passives do |
|---|---|
| EVO Spade (Donut) | Applies Burn on hit for 60% of his damage over 4 seconds and completely bypasses all armor damage reduction. Each time he burns an enemy, he gains +0.5% Damage and +0.5% Range, up to +30% each. This turns him into a long‑range, true‑damage style air/hill DPS after enough procs. |
| EVO Shunks (Conqueror) | Cannot be stunned while actively attacking. When he kills a boss, nearby allies gain +20% Attack for 20 seconds (but he does not benefit from his own buff and multiple Shunks do not stack the effect). His stun aura becomes stronger the farther the enemy is from him, scaling both stun duration and its cooldown up to +100%. |
| EVO Cyborg (Fearless) | Every hit applies Burn and increases his damage against burning enemies in stages (0% → +20% → +30% → +40%), resetting when the Burn ends. Every 5 waves he spends one full wave self‑stunned and unable to attack; on the following wave he removes the stun, gains a free upgrade, and permanently gets +15% Damage, stacking up to +75%. |
| EVO Berserker (Enraged) | Ignores 50% of elemental restrictions on Armor and Hyperarmor, which dramatically improves his performance against heavily resistant enemies. While attacking, his Spirit Aura slows enemies by 20% and increases all damage they take by 15%, making him both a carry and an all‑purpose damage amplifier. |
| EVO Admiral (Magma) | Every attack leaves a magma pool for 5 seconds that Confuses enemies (they walk back briefly) and applies Burn for 40% of his damage over 10 seconds. If he hits an enemy already standing in one of his pools, he does not create a new one and instead deals 50% more damage for that attack. |
| EVO Sasku (Chakra) | Each hit has a 50% chance to Stun and a 50% chance to dodge incoming attacks. When he stuns an enemy, he generates a Blackfire Essence. At 30 Essence, he consumes all of it to inflict Black Burn on all enemies in range, dealing 85% of his damage over 7 seconds. |
| Scarlet Maid | Gains up to +25% Range and up to 10% faster cooldowns when standing near Royalty allies (+5% Range and −2.5% cooldown per Royalty, capped). Each defeated enemy fills a Time Gauge; when it reaches max, she fires the selected time ability. After 10 full gauges, she adds a DoT effect that deals 15% of her Damage per second for 10 seconds to enemies in range, while also improving her time abilities’ stun/slow tuning on affected enemies. |
| EVO Footballer (Ego) | Right before each attack, he gains bonus damage equal to 50% of the strongest enemy’s missing HP percentage, then loses the buff once the attack lands. If he attacks but does not kill, he grants the strongest ally in range +10% Damage on their next hit. |
| Psycho | Inflicts Wind Shear, a 60% damage over 7 seconds DoT. Enemies under a confused lockout take 15% more damage, so he pairs well with units that apply Confuse. |
| Virtual Idol | Does not attack. Instead, provides an aura buff based on the selected track. The Damage track grants +5%, +7.5%, and +10% Damage at upgrades 0–2, while the Range track gives the same numbers for Range. |
| EVO Kriatu (Cheater) | Changes behavior based on Virtual Realm Path. Lovers increases buffs per card up to 1.5×, Emperor gives +400% Damage, halves his active cooldown, and ignores stat debuffs but disables normal attacks, Death doubles Crit Damage and nullifies AoE debuffs, Fortune grants damage scaled to Yen saved up to 2000%, and Magician applies a 200% Critical Bleed for 5 seconds. He also has a fixed 50% Crit Rate that can only be modified by traits, gains stronger follow‑up attacks at 15 and 50 critical hits, and deals +25% Critical Damage to bosses. |
These passives explain why certain units dominate tier lists. Berserker (Enraged) brings reliable armor bypass plus global damage amplification, so he fits into almost every serious team. Spade (Donut) and Cyborg (Fearless) are the primary air/hill damage options once evolved, with strong burn scaling and, in Cyborg’s case, free upgrades baked into the wave cycle. Scarlet Maid and Kriatu (Cheater) are heavily skewed toward long modes and Virtual Realm, where their ramping mechanics have time to reach full strength.
Legendary passives: early‑game carries and budget tech
Legendary units usually bridge the gap between starter Epics and Mythics. Their passives are simpler but still offer real utility, especially before you complete multiple Evos.
| Unit | Passive effect |
|---|---|
| Admiral | Leaves a lava puddle for 5 seconds on attack. Enemies entering it are Confused for 2 seconds and Burned for 30% of his damage over 10 seconds. His Evo version, Admiral (Magma), extends this concept with stronger pools and conditional bonus damage. |
| Gen | Gains 1% additional Attack for every point of Range. This makes Range upgrades and Range‑boosting Relics disproportionately valuable on him compared to other units. |
| Greybeard | Deals 65% more damage to Armored enemies, functioning as a budget anti‑armor option before you unlock Berserker or similar Mythics. |
| Pebble | Each time he applies knockback, he gains +0.5% Attack, up to +40%. On maps with long lanes and dense waves, this lets him stack into a respectable DPS over time. |
| Ruka | Deals 20% more damage to targets afflicted with Freeze, making her a natural partner for Dragon Guy (Silverite) and other freeze‑heavy units. |
| Shakumira | Whenever she slows an enemy, she gains +0.10% Range, up to +25% total. At Etherialize level 6, the Range gain per slowed enemy rises to +0.15% and she unlocks an active ability, Complete Shadow Possession, that further improves her control potential. |
| Zorus | Places up to three traps that trigger different effects: a Stun Trap that freezes enemies for 3 seconds, a Nuclear Trap that applies 20% Radiation damage over 10 seconds, and a Confusion Trap that sends enemies walking backward for 3 seconds. |
Admiral and Zorus are the standouts here. Both create positional control on the map—Admiral through lava pools that double as damage and crowd control, Zorus through traps that pre‑stage stuns and debuffs. Shakumira’s passive Range ramp also makes her far more threatening in extended fights once Etherialize 6 is unlocked.
Epic passives: economic and niche support
Epic units rarely define late‑game metas, but a few passives are so efficient that they remain staples well into endgame teams.
| Unit | Passive effect |
|---|---|
| Fastcart | While Fastcart is on the field, every new unit you place reduces the cost of his next upgrade by 5%. Upgrading him resets the discount back to 0%. This makes him the core farm unit in the game, as you can chain placements into large one‑time savings. |
| Masked Ninja | Provides an aura that gives all Team 7 units in range +12% Range and +12% Damage. The buff is locked to that tag, so it shines in themed compositions built around those characters. |
| Nejo | Grants allies in range +5% Crit Chance, a simple but useful boost for crit‑centric Mythics and Secrets. |
Fastcart is the clear outlier; as the only farm unit, its passive effectively multiplies your economy whenever you optimize upgrade timings. Masked Ninja and Nejo are more situational, but their buffs are still efficient when you stack the correct tags and crit traits.
How EVO and Etherialize change passives
Evolutions never strip away a unit’s original passive kit. When you evolve a character to an Evo form, they keep the base passives and gain additional ones layered on top. Admiral, for example, retains his basic lava puddles and then extends them into stronger magma pools with a conditional 50% damage boost after evolution.
Etherialize (often written as E‑levels) is a separate progression path. By merging duplicate copies of the same unit up to six times, you increase its Etherialize level. Several units have explicit thresholds where their passives change or unlock new tools:
- Shakumira’s Range gain per slow increases, and the active Complete Shadow Possession unlocks at Etherialize level 6.
- Scarlet Maid’s Time Gauge payoff, Maiden’s Time “The World,” only triggers after filling the gauge ten times, making additional stats from Etherialize important to reach that point consistently.
- Virtual Idol’s buff percentages scale with upgrades rather than Etherialize, but extra stats from Etherialize help keep her in safe positions on higher waves.
Traits and Relics then sit on top of all this. Relic sets like Laughing Captain (cooldown reduction and active ability cooldown) are often paired with Lulu or other active‑heavy supports, while Berserk Shinigami’s armor damage fits cleanly on Berserker (Enraged) or your main carry.
Why these passives matter in current tier lists
Tier lists for Universal Tower Defense consistently place certain names at the top because their passives solve specific problems the game throws at you:
- Sustained scaling — Jinoo (Monarch), Kriatu (Cheater), Scarlet Maid, and Cyborg (Fearless) all get stronger the longer you stay in a session, which is exactly what Infinite, Nightmare, and Virtual Realm demand.
- Armor and resistance breaking — Berserker (Enraged) and Spade (Donut) neutralize armor restrictions and damage reduction, which is crucial for late bosses and armored waves.
- Map control — Lulu, Admiral (Magma), Psycho (through Confuse synergy), and Zorus manipulate enemy pathing or status in ways that give your DPS extra cycles to attack.
- Team‑wide amplification — Virtual Idol, Miku (Super Star), Nejo, Masked Ninja, and Footballer (Ego) directly buff allies’ damage, range, or crit, often stacking multiplicatively with traits and Relic sets.
Understanding what each passive actually does, and how it behaves when combined with Evolutions, Etherialize, traits, and Relics, is what separates a functional team from a meta one. When you plan your pulls and upgrade priorities around these effects—rather than just raw stats—you can cover specific game modes more efficiently, from quick Challenge clears to deep Infinite pushes.
