Stardust

The Stardust is an anti-swarm turret.

Stardust (turretriot)
Anti-Swarm Turret
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Stats
Cost	220
Hit Points	1500
Vision Radius (elmo)	499
Weapons
Pulse Autocannon Damage 45 Reload Time (s) 0.10 Damage per Second 450 Range (elmo) 410 Area of Effect (elmo) 48 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 550 Heat Up Heat Per Shot (%) 3.80 Heat Decay (%/s) 14 Heat Max Slow (%) 50

Description

The Stardust sports a powerful autocannon. While it has a short range and is thus even more vulnerable to skirmishers than the Lotus, its high rate of fire and AoE allow it to quickly chew up swarms of lighter units.

Tactics and Strategy

You can think of the Stardust as a fixed riot unit. It is deadly against raiders and can destroy large swarms very efficiently. It also possesses enough firepower to give assaults pause, specially groups of light assaults that will take a lot of damage from the scatter. Its damage output at close range is very high, which will severely punish enemies that have to close to melee range or are trying to rush past the Stardust.

However, being alike a riot unit also means having the same weaknesses: the Stardust has a very short range for a fixed unit and not that much health for cost. Its very vulnerable to artillery, skirmishers, and even heavy assaults, who can destroy the Stardust efficiently by shooting from as far away as possible.

The Stardust is best deployed when you already know that your enemy is dealing in large raider swarms or in melee units. Use it to protect your other defenses and forward positions against such threats.

Lone Stardusts placed behind the lines can also be effective at closing potential pathways enemy raider forces could take to quickly reach your economically important areas before your mobile forces could react.