Worker

*"Sure, it's a pain to keep saying 'At once sir' this and 'I stand ready' that, but better be happy about it or else you're the first one pulled to fight off +5/+5 Soldiers. Now help me build this Watchtower."*

## Description

Workers are the backbone of any match in LittleWarGame. They mine gold, which is used to purchase all other units and buildings in the game, and also construct all buildings in the game. A standard match in LittleWarGame starts with 1 Castle and 7 Workers. They can also deal a small amount of damage and sustain a decent number of hits, which makes them effective at repelling small raids (such as wolves).

## Abilities

**Mine Gold**

Lets Workers automatically Mine Gold from a Gold Mine and return it to the closest Castle or Fortress.

When the Castle or Fortress is placed as close to a Gold Mine as possible, it takes about 10 Workers to "saturate" the mine. After that, adding additional workers will not increase income. However, after about 4 Workers, additional Workers will mine at reduced efficiency, so it is usually better to spread Workers evenly among all bases.

At maximum efficiency, Workers mine about 48 Gold per minute, generating up to 192 Gold per minute per Gold Mine. At maximum saturation, Workers mine about 40 Gold per minute, generating up to 400 Gold per minute per Gold Mine.

**Construct Building**

Lets Workers construct a variety of buildings, which enable you to train additional units, research upgrades, and defend your base. As of patch 2.1, a building may only have one Worker building it at a time.

**Repair**

Lets Workers restore hit points to a damaged structure or mechanical unit for a cost in Gold. As of patch 3.0, a building may only have one Worker repairing it at a time.

Workers can restore 8 hit points per second to any building or mechanical unit - even neutral structures which on some maps defend bases from attack. The cost is 1 Gold immediately when the Worker begins repairing, then 1 Gold per second thereafter. This is far cheaper than building a new unit or structure, and in the case of mechanical *units* (not structures) is much faster as well.

## Upgrades

**Attack Upgrade**

Increases the attack damage of your Human units.

(Grants Workers +1 damage per upgrade, up to +5)

**Defense Upgrade**

Increases the armor of your Human units.

(Grants Workers +1 armor per upgrade, up to +5)

## Usage

**Defense**

Workers can be quite effective in defense, especially in the early part of a game against Wolf and Tower rushes. Five Workers are roughly equal to two Soldiers. As such, good Worker micro is essential when going for a more economical build. For example, if one decides to expand early and the enemy produces Wolves, Workers can often be used effectively to repel the attack.

**Unique Micro**

*Mineral Walk* - Workers can *mineral walk*, which means that when a Worker is told to move towards a Gold Mine they ignore unit collisions as they march towards the Gold Mine. A common tactic is to mineral walk a group of Workers towards a Gold Mine in the direction of enemy units and then issue an "Attack" command to the Workers. The Workers will then separate due to collision sizes and interfere with the micro of enemy units while attacking those same units. Used effectively, mineral walking can allow Workers to completely surround an enemy army. Mineral walking can also be used to save weakened Workers.

*Worker Priority* - If Workers do not attack nearby enemy units and those same enemy units are under attack by other structures or units, the enemy units AI will automatically attempt to close the gap and ignore the Workers. This unique feature enables Workers to form a capable choke point. For example, if three enemy Soldiers attempt to attack a Watchtower but the Watchtower is surrounded by Workers that do not attack and are not on Hold position, the Soldiers will endlessly circle the Workers attempting to attack the Watchtower. Abusing Worker priority can force opponents to spend extra time and attention on microing their units to kill your Workers.

However, Workers are melee units, which makes them weak in choke points offensively and means they can be kited by ranged units.

## Development

1.73: Worker build time goes from 25s to 30s

1.74: Hp from 55 to 65.

1.80: vision range increased by 1.

1.84: changed worker attack / repair / mine animation

Workers now construct buildings from outside of the building
changed the repair-construction speed for buildings while being under construction: now every additional worker speeds up the construction by 66%

1.9: Players now start with six Workers instead of five.

1.931: Repairing workers now have the attack priority of the building / unit that they are repairing

1.95: Reduced used cargo space from 2 to 1

2.0: General unit cost lowered

2.1: Removed the ability of multiple Workers to construct the same building

2.3: "Repair" can now be set to "Auto"

2.5: Workers now mine faster the less are on each base

3.0: Buildings can only be repaired by one Worker at a time

3.3: Reduced Hit Points from 65 to 60