Sublimate

Sublimate is a liquid-fueled continuous flame turret that fires a straight jet of damaging gas. It appears as a mid-tier defensive building that consumes volatile gases as ammo to deliver sustained area damage and high pierce along its firing line. Sublimate integrates into factory and base defenses by using conduits/tanks for its ammo supply and complements other turrets by providing instant-on, no-windup damage in a narrow but long reach.

The turret has two primary ammo types with distinct behaviors. Ozone consumes 15 liquid units/sec and deals 540 damage/sec (60 damage per tick at 9 ticks/sec) with reduced building damage (-70% to buildings, effectively 162 DPS vs buildings), 1 knockback, 2x pierce, and armor-piercing behavior. Cyanogen consumes 18 liquid units/sec and deals 1170 damage/sec (130 damage per tick at 9 ticks/sec), also with -70% building damage (351 DPS vs buildings), +8.7 tiles range (increasing nominal range from 16.25 to 24.95), 2 knockback and 3x pierce, and armor-piercing. Both ammo types use a ContinuousFlameBulletType, producing a persistent beam that penetrates multiple units along a line.

Sublimate is extremely cost-effective: ozone alone provides enough DPS to shred groups of low-tier units and bypasses unit armor, making it effective against armored targets where some other turrets struggle. Place Sublimates along chokepoints or where ground units funnel to maximize pierce and line damage. Because ozone can be supplied directly from vents without complex item inputs, Sublimate serves as an emergency defense against sudden attacks and can outrange or keep pace with many attacking units that cannot outrange the flame jet. The flame jet cannot be targeted by point-defense missiles, making Sublimate a reliable counter to swarms such as Cleroi.

Equipping cyanogen significantly boosts Sublimate’s threat level: increased range and DPS allow it to contest higher-tier units, and extra pierce tears through unit missiles and clustered targets. Cyanogen Sublimates synergize with other turrets like Lustre and Disperse by covering gaps in range or firing behavior without the drawbacks of heavy turrets (no wind-up or slow rotation). Because Subliamate lacks slow aiming mechanics, it is straightforward to pair with other defenses to create layered protection.

Operational notes and cautions:

• Both gases are volatile: tanks or Reinforced Liquid Containers holding these gases can explode catastrophically if destroyed. Avoid large exposed stockpiles and use Reinforced Bridge Conduits to limit fire propagation along supply lines.
• To maximize effectiveness, orient Sublimates where enemies approach in a line so the jet pierce can hit multiple targets. A line of Sublimates along choke lines creates lethal corridors.
• Against organized assaults, targeting conduit lines feeding Sublimates is an effective counter; destroying a supply line or triggering a chain reaction of explosions can disable multiple turrets.
• Low-tier units generally outrange an ozone Sublimate, so pair ozone Sublimates with other short-range defenses or barriers. Cyanogen increases range enough to reduce the number of threats that can safely outrange it, though certain units (Tecta, Conquer, Collaris) can still outrange or counter it under specific tech conditions.
• Sublimate’s input rates have changed over versions; ozone input was raised to 15 u/sec and cyanogen to 18 u/sec in later builds. The turret has had several bug fixes and improvements since its addition.

Design trivia: cyanogen uses a non-integer ammo/item multiplier (1.5x) to produce its distinct higher input rate; this is unique among turret ammo/item values.