Hawkeye Cruise Missile

A powerful smart missile that will actively seek targets and cause a massive amount of damage on impact.

The **Hawkeye Cruise Missile** is a grade 3 weapon block manufactured by Hawkeye. Like all Hawkeye blocks, it can be crafted with a Hawkeye Fabricator.

It has 3 attachment point(s) and takes up 3 cell(s).

It is highly explosive when destroyed.

## Usage

Despite being a cruise missile the range is pretty short and its damage is equivalent to the HG1 Cannon Turret. Its price is also pretty prohibitive, both when crafting and purchasing. The real advantage over most ballistic cannons, however, is that it has better tracking. Compared to, say, the GSO Megaton Cannon, it is slightly better since the movement of its target has less impact to its practical accuracy. Other homing weapons may have a higher DPS or better tracking against fast targets, but the Cruise Missile has a massive splash radius, allowing it to bypass shields and damage more blocks simultaneously. As a result, the Cruise Missile is good for wearing down large, tough opponents at range, especially because its effective range is higher than that of ballistic weapons, able to strike them while ballistics must get dangerously close to the enemy for their maximum effectiveness.

Bear in mind that the block itself is pretty weak so shields, fast repair bubbles and spacing are required to prevent it from being caught in splash damage, exploding if it gets damaged, and producing a chain-reaction when it gets destroyed.

The missile takes a second to be launched opposite of its attachment direction with some force (enough to clear 2-3 blocks vertically), while still being affected by gravity, before the rocket engine activates and it flies off in its orientation. Otherwise, if they bump into something, the missile will not fly off and instead it will just explode, not damaging the tech that launched it. The missile will also not fire if it was obstructed by a block attached on the same tech (For example, putting a rotor blade on top of it will prevent it from flying off).

It will require a clearance of 6 cells from the ground to be launched from a side-position.

## Trivia

* If the missile encounters an enemy that is too far from the player to be targeted manually (even when mid-flight, assuming that no enemies are nearby), it will chase that enemy. Since enemy techs stop moving and will not attack from a certain distance, the missile can be used to pick them off easily thanks to its slightly increased range and high damage. This is true as a part of version 1.4.6.
	+ Notable examples included Spider King from Crowntop Hill Fort, Wing-Nut from Rock Creek Bridge, the Watchtower from Charlie Watchtower, and the SAM Turret from the SAM Site Ridge. (The latter two must have their shields disabled, however, due to the massive size.)
* If this block was destroyed when the missile is absent, it will still explode. This is because the missile is a part of the block's animation and the entire block is programmed to be explosive.
	+ Despite not featuring any ammo refill system, this weapon is reusable.
	+ This implies that it is indeed capable of reloading itself with a supply of spare missiles and the explosion comes from the unseen missile cache.
	+ As with all weapons, when mounted on a tech, a short period of time identical to its fire interval must pass before the weapon can be actually fired. This makes a hilarious situation where a loaded missile cannot be fired.

* It is almost impossible to salvage Cruise Missiles from other techs. Not only rarity, they also have extremely low health, and their explosion when destroyed will destroy all other cruise missiles on an enemy tech. One will also have to get dangerously close. This means that in order to acquire one from an enemy, sufficient shielding is required, as well as a GeoCorp digger scoop and one of their other melee weapons to disable the tech carrying it, then use the drill and to slowly take it apart.
* Real-Life cruise missiles have very significant range in great excess of the in-game missile. The reason behind this is likely balance related, as it would make Cruise Missiles the apex weapon without counter-rocket defenses available.
* The Cruise Missile itself appears to be based off the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile developed by General Dynamics.