This is the second comparison I'm doing so far and this time it's not really really late so I might respond to comments. Special thanks to Mentin for the idea for this one. a lot of this info will be info I gathered from my brief time using them in the beta when the gold crates were cheap and other info will be stuff on paper, so I am bound to be wrong on some of these.
DPS:
Gold scout: has a DPS of 20, which isn't too high, but judging how cheap this can be and how many gold scouts and be placed easily, it makes a good early game DPS and almost competes mid-game.
Gold soldier: has a slightly higher DPS for a higher price. This makes it work slightly better mid-game but is less cheap and easy than gold scout.
Range:
Gold scout: nothing too special about the range, so there isn't a lot to talk about here. it could be higher, but this is not a big issue
Gold soldier: his range is lower than gold scout, even at level 0, so this might make it harder to kill early game Ombies if they slip past but again, this isn't a big deal.
Price:
Gold scout: Incredibly cost-efficient, costing only 4000 to upgrade to max. This is very cheap and is what makes it such a good early game tower. Only having four levels subtracts from the total price. Its placement price is also a very low 200 making it spammable
Gold soldier: Is marginally more expensive, but can still be classified as early-game and has a below-average placement price. Using these for early-game is more of an investment, but has slightly more firepower overall.
Placement:
Both troops are ground units that are cheap to place with no placement limit. Since gold scout is slightly cheaper to place it wins slightly in this category and is easily spammed.
Defense busting:
Gold scout: at low levels, its damage will always be cut in half by the slows and abnormal bosses, etc. but at LVL 3 and 4 it gets an increase in DPS. Still it gets defeated by higher defense zombies and this shouldn't be used for its defense busting. Spamming this troop can aid in killing defense because the slows in early game can't handle concentrated groups very well.
Gold soldier: because of how his bursts of fire work, in the early levels he completely ignores defense, because his damage is already 1, so It cant get cut in half. He shoots them with small amounts of damage all at once which kinda bypasses the defense. later in mid-game with the higher defense zombies and with higher lever soldiers, his DPS will eventually decrease but for early game defense busting, it's a decent option. It's low DPS still keeps it from doing super well against enemies with defense unless it is spammed at lvl 0. Do keep in mind that early game defense is rare in molten and beginner modes and is most significant to fallen.
Consistency:
Gold scout: The slower fire rate means no ROF bug, and they keep a steady DPS of 20 at max. They are vulnerable to stuns, however, because they are a ground unit.
Gold soldier: The mini burst attack can make calculating DPS a little tricky, and getting stunned can stop a burst while it's still ongoing, and because of this his DPS is less consistent. Not really an issue for early-game anyway.
Crowd control:
Gold scout: it has a decent fire rate at max with two laser pistols but doesn't excel in CC. its high damage per shot does mean it spends less time on each zombie, but its CC is nothing to brag about, especially in very early game. Like other towers, placing in big groups remedies this.
Gold soldier: Since its bursts allow it to switch to a different zombie when the previous one dies, it loses less DPS when it hits a weak zombie. This also means that it has a faster fire-rate for a short period of time and therefore does slightly better at crowd control, especially as the amount of bursts increase. Still doesn't compare to minigunner or splash towers.
Hidden defense:
Gold scout: It gets to hidden detection after spending 900 dollars, which is still rather cheap, but it's low DPS at that level can make actually killing hiddens harder. once again, spamming the gold scout can make killing them easier, and for gold scout hiddens don't tend to be an issue
Gold soldier: like golden scout, it gets to hidden detection at LVL 2, but it spends less money to do so, for a higher DPS. if hiddens are an issue for you, golden soldier can take care of them easily. I was actually surprised when I figured that its hidden detection was more cost-efficient than gold scout.
Skins:
The tower itself is a skin so ima skip this category.
Unlock prices:
Both of these towers cost 50,000 coins to unlock. HOLY FRICC that's a lot of rounds. This takes a long time to get with only a small chance to get what you want and takes more time to get than accelerator. probably not worth it but if you already own everything then give it a shot.
Overall both of these towers are good early game, and I think soldier gets a pretty bad wrap despite the fact that it isn't terrible. Now both are rather insignificant late game and the insane unlock price makes these towers rare, but still very cool and good early game options. I think next I will probably compare Pyro, to Freezer, to Electroshocker, but if I see a better idea in the comments then I might do that instead. Lemmie know if I'm wrong on these because I probably am wrong is some sense
