Phantom

The Phantom is a cloaked skirmish/anti-heavy artillery bot from the Cloakbot Factory.

Phantom (cloaksnipe)
Cloaked Skirmish/Anti-Heavy Artillery Bot
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Stats
Cost	750
Hit Points	560
Movement Speed (elmo/s)	42
Turn Rate (deg/s)	435
Vision Radius (elmo)	400
Transportable	Light
Abilities
Personal Cloak Upkeep (mobile) (E/s) 5 Upkeep (idle) (E/s) 1 Decloak radius (elmo) 155 Can ignore unidentified targets
Weapons
Pulsed Particle Projector Damage 1500 Reload Time (s) 17 Damage per Second 88 Range (elmo) 700 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 850

Description

The Phantom's energy rifle inflicts heavy damage to a single target. It can fire while cloaked; however the shaped explosion of its projectile betrays the direction from which a shot was made. It requires quite a bit of energy to keep cloaked, especially when moving. The best way to locate a Phantom is by sweeping the area with many cheap units.

Tactics and Strategy

The Phantom has low damage-per-second compared to its cost, but since it remains cloaked even while firing it can deliver its damage very safely. Try to kill enemies with a single attack (from more than one Phantom, if necessary) to deny your opponent the opportunity to repair their unit. The enemy can still decloak and kill your Phantom by bringing a unit nearby (such as a Flea or Glaive), so make sure you have forces ready to protect your Phantoms' retreat if necessary.

Since Phantoms have a low rate of fire and high damage per shot, you might want to set them to hold fire mode (or return fire mode) if you want to conserve their shots for use against enemy striders and assault units. Moreover, setting them to hold fire against unidentified radar targets should help ensure that their shots hit more often (since targeting unidentified radar targets imposes accuracy penalties in general), though do keep in mind that, when used in conjunction with attack move orders, it might also result in the Phantoms stopping in front of unidentified targets.