How I reverse-engineered Universal Tower Defense X damage formulas (and built a DPS calculator)

I've been grinding Universal Tower Defense X for about three months. One thing drove me crazy early on: the game gives you unit costs and rough stats but never tells you actual DPS numbers.So I started doing what any developer would -- tracking it manually.## The Problem With In-Game StatsUTDX shows base damage and attack speed separately. But "320 damage, 0.6s cooldown" doesn't help when you're choosing between a Legendary splash unit and a Mythic DPS carry at wave 18.What I actually needed: effective DPS against armored bosses, at each unit's real range value.## Reverse-Engineering the FormulaAfter logging around 200 test runs I mapped out the damage calculation:

DPS = base_dmg x (1 / attack_cooldown) x type_multiplier

The type_multiplier for Mythic units runs roughly 1.15-1.30x vs Legendary -- baked into animation speed, not surfaced in the UI.Here's the real DPS data I extracted:| Unit | Type | Rarity | DPS | Range ||------|------|--------|-----|-------|| Alpha Devil (Omega) | Boss-killer | Mythic | ~980 | 23 || First Emperor (Greatest) | Boss-killer | Mythic | ~2026 | 20 || King Sailor (Unrivaled) | DPS | Mythic | ~860 | 27 || Ancient Shinobi (Reawakened) | Splash | Mythic | ~790 | 22 || Devil Hunter (Mercenary) | Splash | Legendary | ~520 | 19 |## The DPS Calculator I BuiltAfter logging all this I built a quick calculator: select towers, input upgrade level, get projected damage output for wave 20+ content. Pure HTML/JS, nothing fancy -- but it saved me probably 40 failed runs by letting me theory-craft builds before committing resources.## What the Data Reveals About Build DiversitySplash beats pure DPS on most maps once you hit wave 15+ due to enemy density. Three Devil Hunter (Legendary splash) out-clears three King Sailor (Mythic DPS) on multi-lane maps despite the stat gap.Range matters more than I expected. 27 tiles (King Sailor) vs 19 tiles (Devil Hunter) changes placement flexibility -- on some maps the longer-range unit covers two lanes from one position.## Practical TakeawayIf you're stuck optimizing your UTDX lineup:- Go splash for mid-game waves (15-25)- Bring 1-2 boss-killers for boss phases only- Don't ignore range when planning tile placement- Mythic does not always mean better -- a well-placed Legendary splash beats a poorly positioned Mythic DPS unitI'll keep updating the calculator as new units drop. The current DMC banner has some interesting additions in the pipeline.Happy grinding.