User:Aquanim

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SHIELD

Disarm enemy units with Racketeers, then send Bandits in to slay the helpless opposition.

Protect your other units from cloaked attackers by setting an Outlaw to "always fire" mode.

Protect your units or those of your allies with the shields of Convicts and Thugs. For offense, add a Felon to draw on the combined shield strength. Later on, add an Aspis to the group.

Rogues contribute significant ranged DPS, but they are not tough and their rockets are slow. Protect them with Thugs and/or Outlaws.

Roaches are innately strong in defence, but to attack they need some help getting close enough to the enemy from Valkyries or an Eraser.

Outlaws can damage enemies through solid ground. Change the terrain with Convicts or Dirtbags to fully exploit this.

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It's better to circumvent enemy shields rather than defeating them directly. Raiders and assault units can simply run through the shields. High-power attacks like those of the Spectre can penetrate some shields.

At the very least, try to deplete the enemy shields before the fight with artillery at long range. The Shield Bots do not have an artillery unit to shoot back with, although they can switch to another factory easily enough.

Gauss or flame attacks deal bonus damage to Shields as well.

Avoid reliance on a small number of high-value units, since these will be neutralised quickly by Racketeers. At the very least, maintain an escort force of less costly units which can protect your big units while they retreat and rearm.

If your opponent has a tightly-packed shieldball, consider an area-of-effect attack which can penetrate the shields such as Roaches, a Skuttle, a Thunderbird or a Wyvern. A truly humongous ball might call for an Ultimatum or a Shockley.

LIGHT VEHICLE

In the early game, scout with Darts to find good attack paths for your Scorchers.

Move a few Levellers with your Ravagers, Slashers or Dominatrices to protect them from raider attack.

Wolverines will slowly ground your enemy into dust... as long as you don't lose them. Protect your Wolverines with Scorchers, Levellers and Ravagers.

Similarly, make sure your Impaler is protected while it cleans up opposing static defences, then send your army through the gap.

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Scorchers are possibly the most fearsome raider in Zero-K, especially in the early game. They are capable of dealing absurd damage to Commanders and factories in a very short period of time. Make sure you see them coming with radar, and if possible position your Commander and structures on high ground which the Scorchers cannot easily access.

You have two main choices when dealing with Wolverines: (1) go around them, or (2) outrange them with even bigger area-denial artillery like a Firewalker, Tremor or Catapult. The third option (charging straight through the minefield) is not to be recommended unless you have a really tough army. A closed Gauss will keep Wolverines occupied for a long time.

Light defences (Lotus and Defender) are less effective against Light Vehicle than against other factories; Scorchers will frequently run past them, Ravagers defeat them easily, and Impalers can destroy them from extremely long range.

HEAVY TANKS

Strong defences and skirmishers can be a big problem for your main fighting units like Reapers, which rely on charging directly into battle; use one or more Pillagers to fight these enemies instead.

Mix a few Banishers in with your Reapers to deal with raiders and deliver more damage. Make sure the Banishers are protected, since they are MUCH less tough than the Reapers.

Reapers and (later on) Goliaths should be the backbone of your army. However, you'd like some lighter-weight escort units to deal with anti-heavies like a Skuttle or an Ultimatum. Glaives from the Cloaky Bot Factory or Bandits from the Shield Bot Factory (or Athena) will solve that problem. Switching to one of these factories will also give you more utility units to complement the raw strength of your Tanks.

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Depending on your factory, it can be difficult to stop a Heavy Tank player's early expansion, since Welders are both tough and armed. A Scorcher should be fine on its own, but other raiders will need to be moved in groups to destroy a Tank constructor quickly.

When fighting one or more Kodachis in the early game, make sure your units are spread out, and try to surround them. You don't want the Kodachis setting fire to lots of your raiders, then escaping and healing up for another fight.

The key to defeating Tanks is actually killing their units. If they get to retreat and repair without taking losses, they will build up an advantage in army size. Try not to fight unless you're confident you can actually get some kills.

In general, Heavy Tanks are lacking in light-weight units, and as such are weak to anti-heavy units. Making an Ultimatum is a far higher priority than it would usually be.

Tanks aren't especially fast either. If a Tank army is out of position, try your best to punish it. A Thunderbird or two will allow you to take full advantage of any such scenarios.

Convict
Shield Bot Constructor
Basic Stats
Hit Points	650
Cost	140
Vision Radius	375
Movement Speed	2.0
Weapons
None
Abilities
Construction Build Power 5 Energy Shield Strength (HP) {{{strength}}} Regen (HP/s) {{{regen}}} Regen cost (E/s) 0 Radius (elmo) 80

Glaive
Cloaky Bot Raider
Stats
Hit Points	200
Cost	65
Vision Radius	500
Movement Speed	3.8
Weapons
Pulse MG Damage 36 (12 x 3) Reload Time (s) 0.31 Damage per Second 116 Range (elmo) 185 Area of Effect (elmo) 8 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 500 Napalm Mortar Damage 80 x 10 Reload Time (s) 12 Damage per Second 70 Afterburn (s) 2 (15 DPS) Range (elmo) 900 Area of Effect (elmo) 64 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 320 Inaccuracy (deg) 5 Sets the ground on fire (DPS 20, Radius 64 elmo, Duration 16s) Homing Missiles (anti-air only) Damage 72 Reload Time (s) 2 Damage per Second 36 Range (elmo) 880 Area of Effect (elmo) 24 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 850 Homing (deg/s) 346