Vela

## Purpose

### Description

Fires a massive continuous laser beam that damages enemy targets, causes fires and repairs allied structures. Capable of flight.

## Research

### Research Cost

83000  Silicon
73000  Titanium
62000  Plastanium

The **Vela** is a Tier 4 support Ground Unit on Serpulo obtained after upgrading the Quasar through the Exponential Reconstructor. The Vela loses the ability to mine as well as the force shield when upgrading, instead shooting a large Meltdown-like beam that burns and rapidly damages enemies while repairing friendly buildings. It is capable of boosting and also has two unit-repairing beams.

The Vela can be upgraded into the Corvus through the Tetrative Reconstructor directly or by being dropped in by a unit with payload such as the Quad.

## Strategies

### **Against**

Vela's laser is incredibly powerful and will devastate your entire defense if it penetrates through your walls. You must use Plastanium Walls to stop this from happening, then stop the laser from tearing through it by putting out fires with Waves and mending it constantly. High-damage turrets can destroy Vela very easily, with the cheapest option being Blast Compound ammo from the Swarmer or Ripple with the extra freezing synergy of Cryofluid Waves. If the Vela comes with other high-damage units, keep in mind that other walls are far more durable than the Plastanium Wall and so should be put in front, only allowing the lasers to damage the Plastanium Walls inside.

### **For**

In the campaign, Vela has an interesting niche in that Plastanium Walls are very rare among enemy bases. If the enemy water turrets, Menders, and any Megas get destroyed, then the Core will certainly fall. That being said, despite its boosting capabilities it is still very slow and thus has poor survivability under fire compared to the nimbler Quad or the self-healing Arkyid. You will have to build up to the unit cap for the repair weapons to out-pace any damage from turrets like the Foreshadow or Spectre (see table.)

When using Velas on defense, they can be treated as healing Meltdowns that do not require any Surge Alloy to build. This makes it well-suited for extreme and eradication-threat bases as it deals with swarms and lets you buy more time to handle early guardian attacks.

Under player control, Vela can be used as a Core Unit as it has triple the build speed of a Gamma allowing you to quickly build infrastructure.

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## Trivia

* The Vela is named after the constellation of the same name, which is Latin for the sails of a ship. Vela also means "candle" in Spanish, which may be the inspiration behind its melting laser attack.
* Vela, Mace, Atrax, and Navanax are the only units that are immune to *Burning*.
	+ Spiroct previously had this immunity, but it was removed in Version 7.0.
* As of Version 7.0, Vela is the only ground unit that can heal other units via repair points.
* Vela has received the most stat changes out of all units introduced in Version 6.0.
* Normally, units with boosting capabilities cannot fire their weapons while boosting. However, thanks to Vela's laser charge up period, it is possible to have Vela become airborne while is firing its laser if timed correctly.