Cyclone

Cyclone is a 3x3 turret that fires explosive clumps of flak and serves as a versatile anti-air and anti-ground defense. It shares ammo types with the Scatter but improves on accuracy and can target ground units, allowing it to function as an all-rounder turret. Cyclone benefits strongly from coolant: supplying water or cryofluid increases its fire rate substantially, making coolant-fed Cyclones among the highest-rate flak turrets.

Cyclone uses several special ammo types with distinct roles and tradeoffs. Metaglass provides a cheap, fast-to-produce, safe-to-store option with consistent DPS and seamless transition from Scatter production lines. Plastanium rounds deliver higher burst damage by spawning many frag bullets, but they are expensive, slower to produce and dangerous to store because Plastanium rounds can explode and ignite on destruction. Blast Compound offers wide area coverage suited to hordes; it pairs exceptionally well with Pooled Cryofluid freezing effects to increase armor-piercing performance, but it is the slowest and riskiest ammo to store due to high explosiveness and flammability. Surge Alloy gives the highest average direct damage and synergizes with Wet status (water/tsunami) to apply multiple Shock hits per shot; it is costly and can delay higher-tier production, and its shock effect no longer pierces armor fully in recent versions.

Practical considerations and strategies:

• Coolant greatly increases Cyclone's sustained DPS; cryofluid grants a larger fire-rate bonus than water but consumes coolant faster. Ensure coolant supply is sized for expected firing periods.
• High fire rate means Cyclone can exhaust ammo quickly. Use Containers or Vaults and Plastanium Conveyors to keep ammo throughput steady, particularly when overdriving or when using coolant.
• Choose ammo to match the threat: Metaglass for safe, consistent defense; Plastanium for high frag DPS against lightly armored targets; Blast Compound for crowd control and synergy with Pooled Cryofluid freezing; Surge Alloy for raw single-target output and synergy with Wet effects.
• In enemy sectors, Cyclones are commonly supplied with Blast Compound or Plastanium and often paired with Tsunami to apply Wet or Pooled Cryofluid effects; approach such emplacements cautiously and prioritize long-range sniping or heavy long-range units. Fortresses, Minke, Corvus or Omura can outrange or snipe Cyclones when the map permits. Ripples or Foreshadows can also snipe if Cyclone sits outside the no-core-build zone. Quad bombing is effective when enough bombers are available.
• Barrel mechanics: Cyclone barrels now move separately when firing, affecting its visual firing pattern and targeting behavior.
• The Cyclone has undergone multiple nerfs and buffs across versions: its fire rate, ammo multipliers, and area/frag damage values have changed over updates; the Shock affinity and piercing behavior of Surge Alloy have been adjusted to reduce armor-piercing effectiveness.

Cyclone’s name references the weather phenomenon, reflecting the turret’s progressive scattering pattern as its flak spreads outward.