unit-arkyid

Arkyid is a heavy tier-4 ground unit that functions as a durable frontline attacker in Mindustry. It mounts multiple sapping laser weapons and a powerful artillery-like shot from its body, allowing it to both sap enemy units and self-heal from the damage it deals. Arkyids can step over most terrain and inflict the Sapped status on targets, which reduces their effective health while granting the Arkyid lifesteal from each hit; this combination makes it especially effective at killing other units and fragile attackers. The unit’s design and name reference the Arkys genus of spiders, and its body sprite is reused from the Scepter.

Arkyid’s armament consists of three pairs of sapping lasers with different firing rates and an artillery-style shell from the legs/body. The sapping lasers each fire two beams and deal 40 damage per hit while applying Sapped for about 3 seconds; they heal the Arkyid for roughly 85% of damage dealt per hit and have laser-style piercing. The outer artillery-like attack deals 65 area damage with 8.7 tile splash, produces up to three linking lightning effects (each ~12 damage, 5 tiles length), applies Sapped for about 10 seconds, and travels over blocks with an effective maximum reach (range + lightning length) up to about 22.5 tiles. Legs also deal area leg damage (32) in close range.

In practical use, Arkyids excel at shredding other units and applying Sapped to air and ground targets alike, making them very effective at countering guardians and fragile unit swarms. They are less optimal than more mobile tier-4 attackers (such as Vela or Quad) when mobility and base-bypassing are primary concerns, but they outperform many units in sustained duels due to their lifesteal and sapping. Some reports note that a tier jump into Arkyid’s tier can be a dramatic increase in durability versus earlier units, so they often require focused, high-burst countermeasures.

• Defensive counters: sustained low-damage turrets (e.g., Ripple) are inefficient because the Arkyid’s sapping lasers and lifesteal negate steady chip damage. High-damage combinations — for example, blast-compound ammunition paired with cryofluid freezing — are recommended to kill Arkyids quickly. Tsunami turrets loaded with water and cryofluid can also stall or knock back Arkyids long enough for turrets to focus them.
• Mitigating artillery/ball attacks: Arkyid’s artillery shells create an electric ball that can bypass and explode beyond walls, potentially damaging or disabling supply lines and defenses. Using bullet-absorbing blocks such as Segment and Force Projector to shield front lines helps catch stray shells and protect critical infrastructure.
• Offensive role and team composition: Arkyids are powerful when stacked together to clear enemy units and to reliably inflict Sapped on air units (an advantage over some other heavy units). They struggle in one-on-one matchups against certain high-tier or niche units (notably Sei, Toxopid, Omura, and Navanax in some encounters), and they have less mobility than alternatives, so pairing them with faster units can cover their weaknesses.
• Unit stats and changes: over multiple builds Arkyid’s range, size, speed, and firing rates have been adjusted (range reduced from 18→17 in earlier updates; size and speed tweaks and sapping damage increases occurred across several builds). It was originally added in an early build and later had build-speed and command-limit changes (it can no longer be built by factories in some builds and previously had its command limit removed).

Because Arkyids heal from damage they deal, neutralizing them rapidly with concentrated burst damage or disabling them with freezing/knockback effects is generally the most reliable defensive approach.