unit-alpha

Alpha is a small, fast flying unit used by the player as the starting/core ship on Serpulo. It functions as a lightweight combat and recon unit with a short‑range, rapid‑firing weapon and very low building damage, and it historically traces its appearance and role back to the Dart ship from earlier versions of the game.

Alpha's primary armament fires two small projectiles at 1.76 shots per second (two-shot burst) that deal 11 damage to units but only ~0.11 damage to buildings (a −99% building damage modifier). Bullets have homing properties (added in later updates), a travel limit of 18 tiles before despawning, and their velocity interactions with the unit have changed across updates (at times being affected by unit velocity and at times not). The unit's base speed was standardized to 22.5 tiles/sec in recent updates. Alpha can be player‑controlled; when controlled it can mine sand if the "Double‑tap/click to mine" option is enabled.

Alpha has been reintroduced and reworked several times: in Version 6 it returned as the Shard’s core unit with Dart‑like visuals; later updates adjusted range, speed, weapon behavior (homing added, bullet lifetime changed to distance‑based), and removed a former command limit. In some builds the interaction between unit velocity and bullet velocity was toggled on and off, and firing backward previously caused extended bullet lifetime until that was fixed.

Practical notes and usage:

• Use Alpha for hit‑and‑run tactics and scouting due to its high speed but short weapon range. Keep engagements brief and avoid using it as a base buster because of its severe reduction to building damage.
• The weapon’s homing helps track small, nimble targets; however the 18‑tile travel cap limits effective engagement distance—close in but avoid prolonged trades with heavier units.
• When manually piloting Alpha, enable the sand‑mining double‑tap option to harvest sand tiles; this is a niche but useful utility when resources are sparse.
• Because its bullets have a fixed travel distance, positioning and leading targets matter: firing from too far will let shots expire before hitting, and firing backward no longer grants extra lifetime as it did in some older builds.
• Alpha’s role in multiplayer and tower/defense setups is mainly as a disposable interceptor or fast raider rather than a damage dealer against structures.