Swarm Missiles

Swarm Missiles are an early game aggression and harassment weapon, unlocked by the Workshop.

## Stats

### Cost

500 metal and 2500 energy (Marine version: 700 metal and 3000 energy)

### Reload time

20.32 seconds (5 second delay before launch)

## Characteristics

### Pros

Effective at destroying early-game weapons and wind turbines. Can destroy energy shields and portals. Sets the structure on fire. Relatively difficult to stop with anti-air. Can shield other attacks from anti-air.

### Cons

Silo occupies space that could be used for Mines. Damage is distributed over a large area, lowering the direct damage. Requires a Sniper in order to fire. Sniper's targeting laser will warn the opponent of an incoming attack. Can be shot down with mass anti-air. Can be stopped with EMP rockets.

### Special

Sets the structure on fire. EMP rockets disrupt guidance. Aiming at a smoke cloud causes the missiles to lose guidance mid-flight.Seep: 59% reduced launch delay. Targeting laser is invisible to the opponent. During active: Swarm Missiles have 32% greater thrust and are armoured against 1 hit.

The Swarm Missile silo launches a large volley of small, highly maneuverable guided missiles. It delivers moderate damage distributed over a large area, and ignites fort structure on hit.

The weapon requires a foundation rock space in order to be placed.

It requires a Sniper to aim and "paint" the target with a targeting laser. The laser is visible to the opponent (unless playing Seep commander), and may expose the location of the Sniper, and will warn the opponent of an incoming attack.

Note that the AP Sniper *cannot* paint the target for Swarm Missiles (unless playing Buster commander).

Swarm Missile silo costs 500 metal and 2500 energy to build. It takes 70 seconds to build. Each launch requires 40 metal and 1800 energy to fire, and takes 20.32 seconds to reload. Note that the launch is not immediate - it has a delay of 5 seconds, during which the silo will slowly open and prime the volley for launch. The reload timer does not start until the missiles are actually released. Seep commander's passive ability reduces this delay by 59%.

Swarm Missiles will destroy Energy Shields and Portals on one hit, being one of the rare weapons capable of directly destroying the latter.

Swarm Missiles can be blocked and disrupted by an EMP rocket. An EMP blast will confuse the guidance of the missiles and cause them to get stuck continuously looping around the spot of explosion. This maneuver is made all the more easy by the large size of the swarm. Seep's passive ability makes the EMP explosion instead redirect the Swarm Missiles back to the sender.

Caution must be taken when using the Swarm Missiles in conjunction with the Smoke Bomb. Aiming the Sniper's targeting laser at the smoke cloud will disrupt the guidance of the missiles and cause them to diverge in random directions on the way to the target, instead of focusing on the intended point.

Swarm Missiles can be upgraded into a Warhead after an Upgrade Center is built.

### Marine Swarm Missiles

The High Seas DLC introduced a variant of Swarm Missiles, called Marine Swarm Missiles. This version behaves exactly the same as the regular Swarm Missiles - the only difference is that the marine version can be placed exclusively on ships - anywhere on the structure like a normal weapon (as opposed to being limited to a foundation spot) and has an increased build cost of 700 metal, and 3000 energy. The fire cost, launch delay, and the post-launch reload time are all the same as with the standard variant.

## Strategy

The Swarm Missiles are primarily an early game offense and harassment weapon. Typically they are used in the opening stages of the match to attack the opponent's Wind Turbines or Smoke Stacks, which at that point are often still lacking adequate defenses.

The Swarm Missiles salvo is also effective at destroying enemy anti-air defenses, unless faced with mass amount of Machinegunners, and/or Flak.

Past the early game stages, Swarm Missiles remain relevant, as they can be launched and followed by heavier interceptable weapons, shielding it from opponent's anti-air and ensuring the highly damaging attack connects. This is typically done with Warheads. This application is boosted by Seep's passive ability, which makes every missile in the swarm capable of surviving a single hit without being destroyed, making such an attack incredibly difficult to stop.

Swarm Missiles are also viciously effective at destroying Energy Shields and Portals. Because even a single missile will destroy these materials on hit, protecting them from such an attack requires an absolutely impenetrable anti-air defense.