A Gladiator being used as bait.
The bait strategy is a strategy used in the game Stick Ranger. This strategy capitalises on the artificial intelligence of enemies, which causes enemies to always move toward the nearest character. This can be "exploited" by diverting the attention of an enemy to one character, hence the term "bait". In the meantime other characters can fight against the enemy without getting attacked. The Bait usually does not fight on its own. The Bait strategy can be used in a variety of situations.
Classic baiting[]
The classic type of baiting can be applied to any ground enemy without long-ranged attacks. The most typical example therefore are Wheels. For the classic type of baiting, hold a character above the enemy Wheel to divert its attention. Meanwhile, the other characters will be attacking the enemy from a small distance without taking any damage. Sometimes this works with melee characters, but there is a quite high risk that the enemy loses interest in the bait. This, however, should be exercised with caution on the Yellow Smiley Wheel due to its multi-directional attack.
Fire weapons[]
A Boxer being used as bait.
Fire weapon baiting is quite effective to groups of fast-moving enemies with melee attacks. With Fire type weapons (such as Fire, Volcano, and Fire Arrow), one may find that an enemy may move across the fire quickly, taking little damage and wasting the attacks. The solution is to use one character as bait to lure the enemies into the fire. Not only will the enemies take more damage from the fire, it also gives more time for the other characters to kill the enemy, before the enemy is able to execute its melee attack on them.
This tactic is especially effective on a group of White Skull Stickmen. By holding a character above a group of them, a player can divert their attention. Meanwhile, other characters can attack the whole group of enemies with fire, dealing serious damage. Watch out for the Red Skull Stickmen, because they can still attack the bait using their upward projectiles.
Baiting airborne enemies[]
The bait strategy can also be applied to any airborne enemy (such as Bats and Dragons). Melee characters are inefficient at attacking flying enemies, so instead of idling on the ground, they can be used as bait - if the character is dragged just above the enemy, the enemy will shoot at the character. Meanwhile, the character dodges the attack, and the other three characters attack the enemy from below. This is much more difficult in contrast to classic baiting with ground enemies, because the player constantly has to move the bait. The player has to avoid the attacks and drag the character near the enemy.
Baiting ground enemies with an indirect ranged attack[]
Ground enemies with an indirect ranged attack are shooting pellets or other projectiles in a high arc towards the player's characters. A typical example for this are X Walkers. Drag a character under the X Walker's range and wait for it to fire. To be able to quickly dodge the projectiles the player is constantly dragging the bait, therefore he can not attack on its own. While doing this let ranged characters attack the X Walker.
This type of baiting is very closely related to the dodge strategy. However for the dodge strategy the player doesn't drag the bait all the time, thus giving him a chance to attack the enemy on his own. Therefore the help of other ranged character is not mandatory as for the bait strategy.
Baiting ground enemies with a multiple direct ranged attack[]
Four Priests are fighting against Grey Boss Smiley Walker in the Opening Street by using the bait strategy. The red arrows are showing the direction in which the pellets are moving. The two pellets which get closest to the bait are still going to miss.
Some enemies have a direct ranged attack and shoot multiple projectiles directly towards the player's characters. An example for this is the Grey Boss Smiley Walker from Opening Street. If the player tries a direct approach to attack this enemy, many of its pellets will hit the player's characters and possibly kill them. To apply a baiting strategy, a player has to hold a character above the enemy at the maximum range of the enemies attack, which can be quite tricky. It's important to find this position because if the bait is positioned to high, the enemy won't be attracted by it, and if it is positioned too low, the projectiles will hit the bait. This strategy works because no attack is shot directly towards the bait and the closest attacks are still going to miss it. However, make sure the character does not dangle, because otherwise its feet might get hit.
This strategy works also with the White Boss Smiley Walker in Cavern 1, however it is more difficult because of the ceiling in the cavern, and the property of the pellets to roll on the ground or ceiling. Usually a player can not guarantee to get no damage there, but the bait usually gets only one hit once per attack wave. By using a character with a lot of LP or a good defense, the baiting strategy can significantly reduce the damage to the team.