Fortress is a heavy artillery ground mech that appears as a mid-to-late game enemy unit and can also be fielded by the player. It is designed to deliver long-range, high-area artillery strikes against ground targets, trading anti-air capability for powerful ground-focused splash damage and survivability. Over several updates the unit has been buffed in health, speed, damage and range, and its role as a long-range bombardier is emphasized in its descriptions.
The Fortress mounts a pair of slow-firing, Hail-like cannons that fire two shots at a rate of 0.5/sec (2x) and deal 20 direct damage plus 80 area damage in a roughly 4.3-tile radius, with a small knockback of 0.8. Its weapons cannot target air units, so it functions strictly as an anti-ground artillery platform. Its durability has been increased across patches (noted increases to 800, 820 and later 900 health in tracked updates), and its movement speed was adjusted to a tiles/second value in recent builds.
Because the Fortress excels at outranging many medium and high-tier defenses, it is effective at sieging enemy bases and clearing clusters of ground units. Its long reach lets it exploit gaps where shorter-range turrets cannot retaliate, making it useful for poking at fortified positions. On defense, Fortresses outperform Hails against dense ground waves due to higher per-shot damage and a larger area of effect.
However, the unit has weaknesses worth noting when using or facing it. Its AI (in campaign contexts) may sometimes push it into close-range threats such as Scorch, Lancer, or Fuse turrets, negating its range advantage; careful micromanagement can mitigate this. Several turrets—Ripple and Hail among them—can outrange or effectively counter Fortresses: Ripple often guards cores, and Hail-style turrets out-range and can focus fire more steadily because they fire single shots rather than a spread. High-armor turrets (or those that ignore armor reductions) may also chew through Fortresses unless supported.
Practical tips and interactions:
Use Fortresses in groups when sieging to maximize area denial and to allow damaged units to be repaired behind healthier ones; Repair Turrets or manual micro heal-repair behavior help keep them alive under focused fire.
Pair Fortresses with units that handle anti-air or softening of point defenses: Zeniths are complementary (Zeniths can clear anti-ground units and support against aerial threats), while Megas can airdrop Fortresses into position but are more fragile and less damage-efficient than Zeniths.
Don’t rely on Fortresses against bases packed with Ripple or long-range Hail turrets without first dealing with those threats; their focused single-shot fire can out-duel Fortresses over sustained engagements.
On defense, place Fortresses to cover chokepoints or to target marching ground waves where their splash advantage over Hail is most pronounced.
Keep command limits and deployment logistics in mind; earlier builds tied production to a Fortress Mech Factory (later removed) and command cap changes have historically affected how many can be fielded at once.
