Nuclear Missile

The **Nuclear Missile** "Nuke" is a superweapon resembling the ultimate upgrade form of a Missile. Its behavior is almost identical to a Missile, but with a much larger damage and AoE. Its special quirk is the fallout, even if the projectile is intercepted, the fallout will damage the structures and cities within its Cloud Radius continually. Like a Missile, the projectiles obey the laws of gravity. The Nuclear Missile is the only Superweapon that can be defended by conventional Defense structures (without upgrades), in this case, an Ion Defense, although there is a 50% probability that it will leave a fallout cloud. Note that if the game has the setup "Superweapon Limit", the Nuclear Missile can only be built once.

## In-Game Description

*"Now that you know how nuclear power works, let's take a look at how Nuclear Missiles work. Turn to page 42 and - hey, Nasa, pipe down! I'm trying to teach here, so if you could quit disrupting the place, please? Ugh, kids these days…*

*All right, Nuclear Missiles. So, the "missile" part is just there to deliver the "nuclear" part, so let's focus on that for now. Nuclear warheads use fission and fusion as their sources of power. Fission power usually comes from either plutonium or enriched uranium. This "fissile material" is then assembled into a funnily-named "supercritical mass," which essentially means just the right amount needed to start a nuclear chain reaction that grows the way we want it to. This fission reaction is used to trigger a fusion reaction that uses hydrogen isotopes as fuel. Achieving this takes a lot of time, preparation and resources, so only the most advanced planets have access to interplanetary-scale nuclear warheads.*

*After Nuclear Missiles are successfully delivered to their destination, they usually leave behind this thing called "fallout." It mostly consists of radioactive dust and ash that "falls out" to the area, either as a cloud of sorts or as black rain. Radioactivity of that caliber tends to cause some… changes in the cells of animals and people that get close to it. You'll learn more about that in sixth grade, but for now, let's just say these changes make it harder for our enemies to build weapons against us. However, because the fallout would change US too if we went there, and..well, because the missiles cause quite a lot of destruction to the environment, using them too much is really impractical. It makes terraforming the planet harder and less successful.*

*This isn't covered in our materials, but I'd like to mention something else. According to some legends, in a planet known as the Green Giant, people started building more and more nuclear weapons. However, unlike us, they used them against each other instead of other planets. They made a bit too many of them, and many were afraid they could all be launched at any time, all around their planet. Basically, just a push of a big red button, and it'd all be over in a flash. When the danger finally subsided, they decided to hide the knowledge behind building them. That, as they say, is why we're not quite up to building them ourselves on an interplanetary scale. It's not easy to wrap your head around, I know, but you'll understand it when you're older. This is just a legend, of course, but it's still an interesting perspective to the whole matter.*

*And that's it for today's lesson. Next time, we'll talk about how solar plants are used to generate power and grow crops. Oh, um, and for homework, why don't you all give your parents a big hug, okay?"*

*- Vanpan Asona. Lector at the late Tomo Sona Elementary Schoo*

## Upgrades

Note: The global upgrades are excluded from this list.

### Fusion Stage Chaining

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +25% Building Damage (500 -> 625)
* -10% Population Damage (500 -> 450)

### Neutron Stages

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +25% Population Damage (500 -> 625)
* -10% Building Damage (500 -> 450)

### Optimized Detonation Altitude

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +30% AoE Radius (3.7 -> 4.81)
* -10% Population Damage (500 -> 450)
* -10% Building Damage (500 -> 450)

### Optimized Target Detection

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +100% Lock-on Range (30 -> 60)
* +10% Firing Energy (700 -> 770)

### Neutron Fluence Acceleration

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +100% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 100/t)
* -30% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 56/t)

### Bioactive Contaminants

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +100% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 160/t)
* -30% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 49/t)

### Atmospheric Contaminants

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +50% Fallout Cloud Radius (2.5 – 4 -> 3.75 – 6)
* -10% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 72/t)
* -10% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 63/t)

### Long-Lived Salting Agent

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* +100% Fallout Duration (3 -> 6)
* -30% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 56/t)
* -30% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 49/t)

### Secondary Payload

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* Fallout Defense Penetration
* -20% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 64/t)
* -20% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 56/t)

### Diversified Contaminants

* Cost: 50 Energy, 250 Material
* Fallout Not Clearable
* -60% Fallout Population Damage (80/t -> 32/t)
* -60% Fallout Building Damage (70/t -> 28/t)

### High-Emission Radiation

* Cost: 50 Energy, 200 Material
* +50% Fallout Clearing Energy Cost (120 -> 180)
* +50% Fallout Clearing Material Cost (60 -> 90)
* -10% Fallout Cloud Radius (2.5 – 4 -> 2.25 – 3.6)