Scathe

Scathe is a late-game long-range artillery turret that fires unit-style missiles instead of conventional bullets. It appears as a heavy, high-cost defensive structure whose main role is to snipe and devastate ground forces from extreme distance; it cannot hit air targets. Scathe's missiles spawn as temporary missile units that travel toward the turret's aim point, explode for large area damage, and then spawn multiple frag missiles. The turret has one of the highest ranges in the game and a very slow base firing rate, making each shot impactful but costly in resources and time.

Scathe requires advanced materials to build and is expensive in both silicon/tungsten/oxide/carbide depending on build version. It consumes ammo types that change its projectile behavior: Carbide, Surge Alloy, and Phase Fabric. Each ammo type uses multiple units per shot and modifies range, fire rate, missile health, explosion damage, frag behavior, and special effects.

Phase Fabric ammo uses 3 ammo per shot, lowers fire rate by 20%, and spawns a durable missile unit with 500 health, a speed of 30 tiles/s and a ~6.1s lifespan. That missile carries a Force Field ability providing an additional 2000 shield (no repair speed) and effectively guarantees the projectile reaches or survives long enough to detonate. The Phase Fabric explosion deals 400 area damage (15 tiles) with a heavy building damage penalty, then produces 7 frag artillery shots (~164 area damage each, ~7 tiles) that travel over targets and deal negligible building damage. Phase Fabric excels at forcing through enemy fire and filtering or protecting other long-range effects; it is uniquely useful for guaranteeing hits on ground units, catching logistics blocks or deep backline targets, and pairing with unit-based tactics.

Surge Alloy ammo reduces effective range slightly and lowers fire rate by about 10% while spawning a faster but shorter-lived missile (approx 33 tiles/s, 1.4s). The primary burst has extremely high point damage (1800 area damage in current data) with a small radius (~5 tiles) and a -90% building damage multiplier; on detonation it spawns 5 frag missiles that themselves spawn homing secondary missile units which carry multiple lightning strikes. These frags travel in a spread and their secondary missiles each produce explosions with additional lightning arcs. Surge Alloy gives the highest single-target damage window when the primary and frag explosions overlap (notably around ~46.2 blocks), making it ideal for destroying high-health ground targets that survive to be struck by both layers.

Carbide ammo produces a faster missile (approx 34.5 tiles/s, 5.5s life) with reliable area damage (1000 area damage main explosion, 8.1 tiles) and 7 frags that deal smaller area damage (100). Carbide is the most consistent for steady ground-slaying; its frags and primary are weaker than Surge Alloy in raw peak but maintain a broad effective radius. All Carbide projectiles have heavy building damage penalties in recent builds, so they are poor at crushing structures relative to unit damage.

Scathe has a long wind-up and the slowest base fire rate among turrets (base ~0.1 shots/sec). Its rotation is slow and there is a notable delay before the first shot after placement. Shallow Water boosts increase Scathe's fire rate substantially (current boost multiplier 250%), improving its cadence when placed on water. The turret also reveals fog around its shots: its fog-reveal radius was reduced in updates and is currently a fraction of its range (reported reveal ~67.5 tiles in a recent build).

Practical usage and interactions:

• Scathe is best used as a long-range anti-ground artillery snipe turret or as an anti-army support piece that disrupts and filters advancing forces. Place it well behind frontlines where its extreme range and frag pattern can hit chokepoints and high-value targets.
• Choose ammo by role: Carbide for consistent area suppression, Surge Alloy for maximum burst on high-HP targets (position so primary and frags overlap), Phase Fabric to guarantee hits and shield the missile from point-defense fire while denying incoming projectiles.
• Scathe missiles cannot target air and are vulnerable to high-rate point-defense that can shoot down the missile unit before detonation. Tecta, Anthicus, and other fast-firing turrets or units with good range can intercept Scathe missiles if positioned well.
• Static defenses such as Shielded Walls or Regen Projectors can soak Scathe's area damage and protect key ducts or buildings; the missile's building-damage multipliers heavily reduce its effectiveness against structures.
• Scathe is ammo-hungry and its specialized ammo requires advanced production; spike demand can quickly starve other turrets if not planned. Phase Fabric ammo is particularly expensive per impact despite its shielded reliability.
• Use fog-reveal and the Scathe's long sight to safely screen unit artillery (Quell, Disrupt) or to locate enemy turrets for snipe shots. Disrupt units can ferry Scathes into position for forward deployment in some tactics.
• In campaign and multiplayer, convex formations and light screening units can reduce Scathe effectiveness; using bait units to soak shots or building small sacrificial walls will mitigate missile damage.

Scathe has seen multiple balance changes since its addition (damage, ammo costs, reveal radius, and ammo behavior have been altered across builds). The turret remains a specialized, high-cost option that trades firing speed and air incapability for unmatched long-range ground damage when supported by the correct ammo and defenses.