unit-spiroct

Spiroct is a tier-3 ground unit that attacks by firing sapping laser beams which both damage enemies and heal the Spiroct for a percentage of damage dealt. It appears on Serpulo and functions primarily as a durable frontline or defensive unit: it can step over most terrain and even walk through walls, allowing it to reach targets other units might not. Over several updates it has had its size, speed, health, weapon stats, and item capacity adjusted; it no longer has build speed and can drown but retains its sapping lasers and mobility.

The unit mounts two pairs of sapping lasers with different ranges and stats: an outer pair (faster, higher damage and lower knockback) and an inner pair (slower, lower damage, lower knockback). The outer beams fire roughly 2.14 shots/sec each and heal the Spiroct for about 50% of damage dealt, while the inner beams fire about 1.66 shots/sec and heal for around 80% of their damage; both beams pierce like lasers and apply a sapped status for roughly three seconds. Across builds the outer damage has been raised (notably to 23 in later builds) and the inner to 18, and the unit’s health and speed were increased several times (reaching four digits of health in later builds and speeds in tiles/second).

In practice Spiroct excels at sustaining itself while chewing through groups of enemy units or defending chokepoints. Because its sapping effect applies to units, it benefits from attacking opponents that amplify the amount healed or damaged — sapped targets cause the Spiroct to restore more health and deal more damage. Its ability to cross terrain and overrun slower targets makes it effective at surrounding and finishing off other ground units. However, the sapping lasers can be shut down or mitigated by ranged defenses and water-based control: Wave and Tsunami water projectiles can keep it at bay, and several turrets counter it very effectively. Scorch is an inexpensive, safe option against Spirocts (no slag puddles to worry about from Atrax-style weapons), while Fuse concentrates high damage at close range. Liquid turrets using water combined with Arc can stack large damage through wet/shocked interactions. Against higher-tier AI units (for example Zeniths), the Spiroct can struggle if the enemy maintains distance or rotates quickly; microing with specific targeting in command mode or using its mobility to walk over and force rotation can help.

Because many same-tech defensive turrets hard-counter it, Spirocts are generally not recommended as primary offensive units against bases at equal tech level — production resources are often better spent on more direct assault units such as Fortress or Zenith. They are most valuable as defenders or as part of mixed forces where their self-healing and terrain-crossing give tactical advantages.

Additional notes: Spiroct’s size and range were changed in earlier updates (size increased and range decreased), it can drown, and at one point it lost earlier immunities to burning and melting. The name comes from the spider genus Spiroctenus.