I have played about 600 matches in this game, using every character dozens of times. Some might need a nerf (Leon's slow), some might need a buff (Yuri's time bubble), but each is very good in at least one domain.
Except for Clunk.
I've tried many builds to make him viable in anything, but I didn't succeed, and I still haven't met a single Clunk player who did. What can he do ?

Push turrets ? His damage is ridiculously low.
Defend turrets ? Lonestar and Yuri are light years above him for this.
Attack in 1vs1 ? He gets dominated by Froggy at any level, by Lonestar once he gets his 3 dynamites and missiles, and by Leon and even Voltar end-game. Also, he can't reach Yuri.
Attack in team ? He slows his partner and makes them an easy target.
Early game he's not a threat (he needs at least bite, ensnare and explosion to be slightly dangerous) and end game he's the worst of all characters.

So the question is in the title : Have you found anything he can do that another character can't do better ? Also, are Ronimo developers serious when they say that he's the character who needs the least tweaks in the patch ? He needs major buffs to become remotely useful.

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Time to kick tobacco and chew butts !

Keep in mind that if most of the other characters are nerfed, he may not need additional buffs to be on the same level as them.

He can soak up quite a bit of damage and take bigger risks as a result, and in combination with a healer he can become quite hard to kill, but I agree that Clunk seems the least useful of the Awesomenauts. In the current build of the game he does not really excel at anything.

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Team Awful | Comrade Yuri
FROM MONKEY WITH LOVE ♫

I've had some of my highest kill games as Clunk. He does really good on the map with the gravity jump in the middle at the start of the game. Get self-destruct, sit up above the turret lane and drop on the opposing team mid-destruct. It's amazing how long it takes for people to realize what you're doing. You can also do drops on the worm level, you can hang out on the ledge above your turret and drop down on people assaulting the turret below. If you can find places on maps to jump out and surprise people to where they can't get out of the destruct you can do fairly well I've found.

The best Clunks I've seen run the bite that extends his life to ridiculous levels and uses the combo of his stun bite with his explosion, it's an insta kill on pretty much everyone. I've seen a ton of kills with that. It works great. As anyone you have to make sure you don't get bit (which can be done), but it recharges fairly quickly so you have to be careful. Let alone if clunk is playing with a capable teammate.

Also Clunk with Voltar is still a very dangerous combo as it is so hard to kill them

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GT: PLAYERAchilles
Main: Leon or Lonestar

Suck brick kid!

I use this combo too, but it's nowhere near as good as Froggy's splash-tornado combo :
- Bite is way easier to dodge than splash (you can avoid the bite by walking !)
- Splash stuns you, while ensnare still lets you attack Clunk
- If you didn't kill the enemy, you can chase and finish him with Froggy, not with Clunk.

Overall, his mobility should make him a defense character rather than an attacker, but he isn't good at defense either. That's a serious design problem.

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Time to kick tobacco and chew butts !

Clunk is good at the very beginning of the game, thus making him good for rushes. Despite what most people may think clunk is not made to tank or defend, he is meant to attack constantly. Once the enemy team gains more solar though, clunk is doomed, any good team can easily stomp clunk making him a useless free kill if they work together. With clunk you must try your best to thrive early game to stay ahead of them in levels by killings players, creeping, and harming/killing turrets.

I recommend getting piggy bank, boots, and self destruct at the beginning of the game, followed by bite once you can afford it. After this immediately put points into making your self-destruct a more constant and considerable threat, a clunk without proper self-destruct use is worthless. Make sure not to get any health upgrades (including bite health increase) until you actually need them, this shouldn't be a problem assuming you life drain often with bite.

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R.I.P. Awesomenauts, 08/01/2012

If you are on the 360 play a game or two against HoodSquirrel he is a god damn ninja with that clunk he might even share some secret (I think hax are involved :p) or two

Use the upgrade that bites multiple enemies - 90 health regained in one bite is great, with the stunning bite it's great to follow with SD or my personal favourite is the lock on missiles. Never stray too far from your turrets if playing solo though and DON'T get overconfident just because you have a massive life bar.

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Dishwasher avatar denied

Main: Anyone but the monkey guy

My biggest problems with Clunk is team mates. Much like the bot version, they are so * stupid.

They always push turrets by themselves thinking that because they're tanks they take less damage than other classes. They always decide that 12 hp is enough to survive a self destruct with no titanium hat. He's already terrible to aim with, especially against evasive players.

Also, Clunk doesn't get proportionately better compared to other 'Nauts. While 100 damage is always a lot, late game characters can survive the blast and finish Clunk off. With Clunk, you really have to be better then the enemy always.

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But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
tabdoesn'tworkthis'lldofine -Robert Frost

My first impression of Clunk was that he was just designed to be a beginner's character and I found him too boring to use for a long time, but I've been using him a lot more recently.

Self-destruct is useful against gullible players but overall I found it to be too much of a money sink to be worth it. As you find better teams, downtime (from getting killed or going back to heal) becomes a much bigger issue, and 'splody Clunks are usually dead weight between SDs. If you invest in bite instead, the only time you have to teleport is usually for upgrades.


Not sure where you're getting this impression unless you're using SD for turrets. His missiles do full damage against turrets, which is 14 right out of the gate. They outrange most of the attacks coming from defenders, and if they step forward to reach you, Clunk's bite can reach most of the way through the turret.


Lonestar isn't a good comparison since he's just flat out broken. Still, Clunk's missile range makes him able to retaliate without constantly getting hit through the turret by explosions or the bull. Yuri can defend well with mines, but Clunk's health lets him just march through several of them. If he's one of those immobile laser spammers, the threat he poses doesn't make up for him acting as a turret accessory instead of a team member.

Early game, Froggy can't do enough damage to Clunk to win 1v1 unless you're just sitting still and shooting (or worse, SD spamming).
Lonestar, as already mentioned, outclasses everyone at nearly everything, but Clunk also has easy access to homing missiles and excellent mid air control.
Leon's going to be dangerous to most players in 1v1, but he loses a lot of effectiveness in the air.
Voltar's also going to be lethal to anyone late game, his drones are ridiculous. Snare bite can prevent him from floating back and forth above your team, and SD can wipe out all his drones at once (although he'll usually spawn more right away).
If you can't reach Yuri, he's almost always in a spot where he isn't a threat to you. Yuri is my main, and matches where the other team jumps up and down desperately trying to hit me are usually the ones where I end up with a K/D of 15/0 or better, while my team shreds their turrets unopposed.


They're not chained to Clunk, they can still evade just as well as they could on their own. Unless Clunk doesn't bother with the speed upgrade, slowing the team down is a minor issue, and I always find a slow team more effective than having everyone recklessly charge ahead. Clunk is also one of the best (if not the best) at pinning other players.

Some other points on Clunk:
-If you bite creeps, you get the lifesteal recovery on top of the usual 30 health.
-I originally shrugged off homing missiles thinking they were training wheels, but now they're the first missile upgrade I get. Not going to bother listing all the advantages, just try them a few times.
-Clunk is usually at an advantage in the air. He'll last a lot longer there than he will if he sits in one spot waiting for SD to cool down. This applies to turrets as well, he can attack from long range and force the turret to turn farther to track him, or drop down from above, shoot, and fly back up before the turret can aim at him.
-Once your missiles are upgraded, if you're not fighting you can fire them to cycle through and have your best one ready.
-You can move faster while shooting by hitting the attack button for each shot instead of holding it down all the time.
-The upgraded fourth missile is an exploding/AoE attack.