The Vek Bestiary

Know your enemy.

One of the biggest elements of the game that will help you, especially on higher difficulties, is recognizing even before you pick an island what's going to await you there. With this guide I hope to shed some light on exactly what kind of decisions can be made on what types of vek you'll be up against - especially if you're trying specific squads out for the first time.

-TIER 1-

Tier 1 Vek are the simplest vek varieties available. They aren't the weakest, and they remain dangerous even late into the game, but they are designed to be manageable by a starting squad.
When picking the first isle you want to visit, the selection of Vek enemies will be three of these varieties.

Firefly

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	2	1	-
Alpha	5	2	3	-
Leader	6	3	4	Fires in opposite directions

Strengths

• Durable
  
• Does not care about distance
  
• Solid damage growth
  
• The most damaging Leader by default

Weaknesses

• Slow, heavily impacted by blocked movement or mountain/rock cover.
  
• Prone to friendly-fire
  
• Narrow areas hit - so long as it's not the leader, a firefly can only ever deal up to 2 Grid Damage per turn.

Among the most straightforward of Vek, the Firefly lobs a projectile that makes contact with the first thing in its path. It can be thought of as a rough equivalent of a "brute" class mech, as an enemy. Most of the complications they create have to do with the nature of their shot - for example, they might take aim at one of your mechs that is in front of a building. If this is an alpha and you haven't upgraded your HP, this is likely to kill your pilot, so you might be inclined to move out of the way - except if you do that, their shot will just keep flying, and then just hit the building instead.

Squads that rely heavily on pushing enemies backwards will likely struggle against Fireflies, as will squads that have low damage output, or lack ways to control or freeze these Vek. Inversely, squads that excel at shifting either other vek, or the firefly themselves sideways from their attack angle can work wonders. A simple push to the side of their intended target can cause their straight shot to miss entirely - or better yet, help with dealing damage to other vek.

The Firefly tends to be a good choice for a first-island Vek for squads that have high durability or high speed mechs. Squads that have a science mech that can move enemies also work wonders in manipulating Fireflies to shoot their allies. Specific squads that Fireflies suit well as a first-island threat include:

• Steel Judoka - You probably can't get a better fit than this, given how many ways this squad can move Fireflies. The addition of their Pheromones passive also means that they will hit hard enough to take out 1-2 HP Vek. If you see a firefly paired with Hornets or Leapers, that often will be a great candidate for a first island for the Judoka.
  
• Mist Eaters - The Control Mech can finely tune exactly where a Firefly is, easily manipulating it to hit its allies. If this fails, their ability to smoke out Vek also minimizes their potential to harm things in the crossfire.
  
• Zenith Guard - The Laser Mech can eliminate a basic Firefly if they use their beam at point-blank, while the Defense Mech's shielding does wonders in stopping shots they fire that might not have a way to shove them out of position.
  
• Flame Behemoths - The Swap Mech's flexibility allows you to liberally manipulate what the firefly hits.

Hornet

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	5	1	Flies
Alpha	4	5	2	Flies, hits two tiles forwards
Leader	6	3	2	Flies, hits three tiles forwards

Strengths

• Fast, wide number of targets it can reach
  
• Does not care about obstacles or terrain
  
• Alphas and Leader can cause massive grid damage if they can hit buildings in all tiles

Weaknesses

• Melee, somewhat weak to displacement
  
• Fragile
  
• Low damage output on individual targets without any webbing - it's a blessing if they go after your mechs.

Though their stats are unassuming and they are often a minimal threat to your own mechs, Hornets essentially serve as an X-factor when it comes to how you need to control Vek. At best, they go after your mechs to place themselves front-and-center, where their poor health and the ability to just walk outside of their reach can easily be exploited. But at worst, a Hornet can potentially fly halfway across the map to hit a building that none of your mechs can keep up with, and if you don't have a long-ranged solution at the ready, then that can be some grievous damage you'll take - especially as ranks increase.

Hornets also might start out unassuming in their base form, but as you either proceed later into the game or play on higher difficulties, the improvements of the Alpha really begin to rear their heads, and unlike most other melee-oriented Vek, they cannot be as easily countered as just pushing the Hornet away from their target. All this taken together, hornets tend to be good as a first-island choice if you can handle their unpredictability, but they get disproportionately more dangerous to your grid as they increase rank, compared to many other alphas.

Most squads can fairly easily handle basic Hornets if they include a solid Ranged mech. Otherwise, your best bets will be decisive control or damage that can push them away or out of alignment of their target, or simply take them out before they get their attack off.

• Rift Walkers - Their artillery mech has a wide variety of ways it can both push and damage hornets, remaining fairly useful even against alphas. Meanwhile the combined shove and damage of their Combat Mech and Cannon Mech both have potential to simply take a hornet out in one shot, especially if there's a mountain to slam them against.
  
• Blitzkrieg - As a melee-oriented enemy with low health, they are prime fodder for circuitry formation for their Lightning Mech, the Boulder Mech has both the damage and displacement potential to nullify Hornet threat, and the Hook Mech can easily pull a hornet far away from its target, remaining useful even if facing an alpha.
  
• Rusting Hulks - One of the fastest teams, well-placed mechs can often keep up with the targets that hornets choose, and their combination of smoke and damage formed by the Jet Mech, and their Rocket Mech's powerful attack can nullify a basic hornet's threat easily.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - Extreme damage output out the gate means that these often are quick heal-sources for your damage-dealers. Unstable Mech's cannon can take a hornet out no problem, while the Leap Mech's reach and knockback gives it both the flexibility, pushback, and damage to deal with a badly-placed Hornet.
  
• Heat Sinkers - Consistent boost on their attacks and a wide variety of ways to push enemies means that Heat Sinkers can both one-shot basic hornets, while also shoving Alpha hornets out of the way.

Leaper

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	1	4	3	Leaps, Webs target
Alpha	3	4	5	Leaps, Webs target

Strengths

• Mobile - cares about the space it lands on, but not anything inbetween.
  
• Highest damage Vek with webbing - a major threat to your mechs if they are targeted by one.
  
• Will always do maximal Grid damage to the tile they hit

Weaknesses

• Melee only, only ever hits a single tile.
  
• Extremely fragile - basic Leapers can be countered and killed potentially by a single shove, spawn block, or fire.
  
• Limited threat to Grid

Depending on the situation and squad used, Leapers can be the deadliest or the simplest Vek to deal with, but regardless of where they land, they just about always need to be considered, and their ability to web their prey in advance means they can restrict your ability to do actual damage control. The one mercy they offer is that they are literally made of glass in their basic form, and they don't get much more durable as Alphas either.

They can be disabled easily if you have weapons that can reliably reach where they end up - Ranged units and high speed units work well in this respect. They also are more easily handled if they get paired with other melee-oriented Vek or fragile Vek - if your squad benefits from lots of knockback, the shove of a vek directly into a basic leaper can incidentally kill it while also dealing a bit of damage to the shoved vek in return. Even if you have these tools to deal with them, though, this also doesn't account for the siutations where they decide to go directly after your mechs - in which case, having abilities such as shielding can help.

• Rift Walkers - All mechs they have can deal basic damage, and include shove - leapers are very likely to be harmed by collateral knockback, and even without this, are still easily thwarted by a direct hit.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - Leapers are basically free healing fodder for this team, even without any upgrades. The self-knock and mobility of the Leap Mech and Unstable Mech also mean that even if a Leaper goes after them, they won't be at much risk of actually taking a hit.
  
• Zenith Guard - Laser Mech's laser falls off in damage, but even from across the map, it can still vaporize a leaper. Meanwhile, the Charge Mech's knockback can be used to shove other Vek into the Leaper, while the Defense Mech's shield can nullify the Leaper's powerful hit.
  
• Blitzkrieg - Melee enemies need to get next to their prey, and the Lightning Mech has just the thing to punish that positioning. With low maximum health, a fully-upgraded whip can even take out alphas with a single shot.
  
• Flame Behemoths - This squad's ability to coat the battlefield in fire means that they can lay fire patches within spawn points that guarantee that basic leapers show up dead-on-arrival. Though they still have some potential to gum up your mechs, this itself can be mitigated by the Swap Mech's techinques and a fair amount of shove.
  
• Arachnophiles - A prime victim and source for the Arachnoid Mech to leverage as a quick source of creating spiderbots, as well as a threat that this team's low damage and high shove can otherwise deal with admirably.
  
• Cataclysm - As with Arachnophiles, Leapers serve as a very easy way to have the Drill Mech's setup be used, and while leapers can leap to cross the gaps made, they are still vulnerable to falling down the gaps, and can't end movement there to attack from them either.

Fun Fact!

The game files also include sprites and assets for a Leaper Leader, though it is unused in the actual game. Considering the Leaper Alpha is already the most damaging enemy type in the game, that's probably for the best.

Scarab

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	3	1	-
Alpha	4	3	3	-
Leader	6	3	4	Attack pushes all adjacent tiles, only appears in Advanced Edition

Strengths

• Arcing shot can hit far-off targets with no concern for line-of-fire.
  
• Shot difficult to track and specific, hard to manipulate
  
• High alpha damage
  
• Leader's shot knockback can cause high collateral damage

Weaknesses

• Attack can easily be pushed off target or entirely cancelled if shot goes off the board, and cannot hit adjacent spaces.
  
• Fragile
  
• Slow

Whereas fireflies are the Vek equivalent to a Brute-Class mech, Scarabs are the Vek equivalent of a Ranged-Class mech, lobbing an arcing shot that can hit any far-off target. Though their attacks are difficult to track where they're aimed at a glance, it's more often than not that these bugs are easily countered in a variety of ways - they can be shoved off-aim if they are directed towards an isolated target, they are among one of the easiest enemies to sidestep if they aim at a mech, and their low health means they can be pretty easily squashed if they get cornered and shoved into others.

The threat that scarabs pose instead are much to do with what they pair up with. A scarab's single-tile shot is a joke if aimed at a mech - provided there isn't a scorpion or leaper pinning you down, and once scarabs reach Alpha status, they can hit hard enough to one-shot unupgraded mechs. Their single-tile hit area also seems easy to deal with until they are moved into a target-rich environment, either around themselves (limiting how much they can be shoved) or around where they're aiming (limiting the number of directions you can shove without ending up having their shot hit another building. Or you.)

If you have access to mechs that can quickly close in on enemies, Primes or Brutes that can shove, or Ranged mechs that deal high damage, these can all serve well to both leverage a Scarab's shot against their own, or to outright remove them as a problem.

• Rift Walkers - The Artillery Mech's shot can shove a target in just about any way, ensuring a Scarab misses. Meanwhile, the Combat Mech and Cannon Mech have mixed potential to do this, as well as squash a Scarab with sheer damage or with knockback.
  
• Rusting Hulks - Jet Mech can quickly close in and both disable and kill a Scarab, whereas the Rocket Mech's powerful missile can vaporize a non-alpha. The Pulse Mech also contributes with its up-close harassment and area denial to a Scarab.
  
• Steel Judoka - While not as unequivocably good for crossfire as the Firefly can be, Scarabs specificity in what they hit can be a blessing if they come alongside melee Vek. The Siege Mech's rockets with their damage and knockback do mean that the team shouldn't have issue one-shotting these bugs with combined direct damage and shove.
  
• Bombermechs - It's more likely than not that there will be something between the Scarab and its target, meaning the Pierce Mech will be in a great position to shoot through something to take one out.
  
• Heat Sinkers - Easy prey for boosted damage attacks and fire with their low health, and a surplus of shove on their Dispersal Mech and Napalm Mech ensures that their potential to cause harm is limited.

Scorpion

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	3	1	Webs target
Alpha	5	3	3	Webs target
Leader	7	3	2	Attacks in 4 directions with Webbing & Knockback

Strengths

• Durable and persistent threat to mechs with webbing
  
• High alpha damage
  
• Extreme immobilization threat from Scorpion leader (avoid deploying in a "plus" shape)

Weaknesses

• Melee attack, easily countered with pushback
  
• Much less mobile than Leapers.
  
• Average damage outside of alphas

Essentially the melee footsoldiers of the Vek, Scorpions get up-close and personal with their prey, webbing them in place, before striking. Similar to leapers, this poses the biggest inconvenience to squads that require precise positioning to do their work, but they operate in a shorter-range, slightly less unpredictable manner, and their lower damage does mean that it's quite possible to continue fighting even while a scorpion's bearing down on you.

Be extremely wary of fighting against these Vek if you lack decent damage output, good ranged attacks (from a Brute or Ranged mech), or reliable knockback. Otherwise, you can easily run into the problem of enemies clustering you and leaving very little room to navigate to get the right shots. Of all the enemies, owing to their melee approach, their high health, and their tendency to stick you in place, they punish poor crowd management perhaps the harshest of all Vek varieties. Inversely, if you have effective ways to deal high damage, knockback targets point-blank, or can keep cities safe while dodging out of their way, their threat is heavily reduced.

• Rusting Hulks - While not the most damaging, smoke is basically a Scorpion's anathema if used against them, limiting the spaces they can strike from. In the Hulks' case, it also serves to damage them at the same time. The only issue is ensuring that the area around them doesn't get too cluttered (limiting how much you can use Jet Mech), so in a sense, getting Rocket Mech up-front to use its reverse-fire smoke might be a good idea against these enemies.
  
• Frozen Titans - Aegis Mech can quickly flip a Scorpion around to nullify its attack, while the Freeze Mech can use its ice to protect itself from a webbing or to nullify a scorpion's threat and forming a barrier of attack against other scorpions to the city.
  
• Cataclysm - Scorpions are among one of the few melee-oriented Vek that cannot cross gaps. As a result, while they have high HP, they can be seriously hampered in what targets they can actually threaten if Drill Mech and its buddies have properly set up a barrier with holes.
  
• Blitzkrieg - This squad doesn't really have the damage they need to quickly take care of a Scorpion, but what scorpions do provide is a very easy way to form circuits for the Lightning Mech to create, and in addition, both the Hook Mech can potentially displace a Scorpion to a place far away from any important targets and the Boulder Mech's rocks can block off passages.

-TIER 2-

After clearing your first isle, the selection of enemies on other isles will add extra complications in the forms of these enemies, which have even more complex behavior in how they work. More often than not, their specific properties mean you'll have to work around the mechanics they introduce.

Beetle

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	4	2	1	Knocks target back
Alpha	5	2	3	Knocks target back
Leader	6	3	3	Knocks target back and sets every space it charges through on fire.

Strengths

• Most durable base Vek
  
• Powerful ramming attack that continues in a straight line, similar coverage to a Firefly
  
• High alpha damage
  
• Knockback can both increase damage dealt to mechs and cause grid damage complications.

Weaknesses

• Very liable to charge to their own death on maps with water or pits
  
• Also have numerous friendly fire possibilities
  
• Low movement speed, seriously hampered by mountains or other natural barriers.

What Beetles lack in webbing and mobility they make up for in terms of brute strength and knockback. Be wary of parking your mechs directly in front of cities when facing these enemies, because they can not just harm you, but they both increase the damage dealt to your mech and can hit the grid with the push anyways!

Because Beetles rely on their charge for mobility, they can easily get themselves into trouble if you choose to stop their charge at the wrong spots, or even if you choose to let them go onwards uniterrupted! Any mech squads that have good position-manipulation can quickly leverage these Vek to work against their own.

• Steel Judoka - These get a special mention, as while their damage output is dismal and can't usually deal with the sheer meat that Beetles have, beetles also serve as potentially the squad's most powerful weapon as well, with extremely damaging charges that can throw other Vek off-aim.
  
• Frozen Titans - If shoves can't get the job done, Aegis Mech's attack flip can, and the Ice Mech's abilities can serve to provide spaced blockage that can account for knockback.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - Their ability to apply A.C.I.D. on top of their already impressive damage often means that the high HP of a beetle usually isn't a concern. Because their Nano Mech also can fly, it can easily get an angle on a Beetle to lead it charging at the wrong thing as well.
  
• Bombermechs - Bombermechs can counter Beetles in two ways: Exchange Mech can send a beetle wildly off-target flexibly, and Bombling Mech has a quick, easy, and reliable supply of charge-blocking bomblings it can lay out to interrupt their charge, at no cost to any mech or grid damage.
  
• Cataclysm - If paired with other low-durability Vek that can readily create holes, the Cataclysm can prepare ample death-traps for these aggressors to simply fall down.

Blobber

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	2	1	Places 1 HP bomb that hits all adjacent spaces
Alpha	4	2	3	Places 1 HP bomb that hits all adjacent spaces
Leader	5	2	1	Only appears in advanced edition. Places a 2 HP bomb that hits all adjacent spaces, and explodes repeatedly doing 1 damage to itself each time.

Strengths

• Split threat between the Blobber and its Blobs - It can't be killed and have its attacked stopped with a single action usually.
  
• Can be extremely damaging to grid and units unchecked
  
• Can hit in unexpected nooks and block movement.

Weaknesses

• Bombs are easy to destroy, provides lots of leverage for on-kill effects
  
• Can be baited out by deploying in a "plus" shaped formation
  
• Slow and cannot target adjacent spaces

These disgusting cephalopod things throw weird growths around as time bombs, hitting in a wide formation that can cause massive damage to anything around them. What they lack in direct damage to mechs they more than make up for for how many tiles they can hit at once, and the fact that their attack often doesn't put themselves at risk at all. It's easy to kill blobs as they come, but getting the leeway to actually take a blobber itself out is a different matter entirely.

The blobber's blobs can be countered by giving the blobber "openings" in your formation to throw them into, as it will usually try and prioritize shots that let it hit as many targets as possible. When a blob ends up targeting spaces you can just walk out of, then that grants you more time to actually get to the root of the issue instead of having to play catch-up with bombs. To this end, squads that can deal high damage at long range tend to do well at eliminating the blobber. Meanwhile, squads that incorporate flight or lots of incidental damage do well to mitigate the impact that blobs cause from blocking off tiles.

• Zenith Guard - Laser Mech's long range allows it to potentially deal with a distant bomb while also dealing damage to closer enemies, while the Defense Mech's tools can either shield victims of a bomb (with a well-placed 5-tile shield being able to perfectly cover its threat radius) or use its pull beam to move a bomb out of position - or just hurdle a blobber into a pit.
  
• Blitzkrieg - The Blitz's ability to potentially damage a huge number of tiles works to their advantage here, paired with blobber's tendency to place their blobs inbetween building clusters. This can leave your other mechs more time to actually hurt the blobber itself.
  
• Flame Behemoths - Fire can serve double duty to both damage the Blobber and the Blobs it creates as well, while also severely limiting what spaces the Blobber can place its blob without it just burning up on turn end. Because of the Blobber's range, the Meteor Mech's Backburn upgrade can serve well to counter this.
  
• Frozen Titans - At long last, the Mirror Mech is provided a potential test subject for its cannon - provided there's no other obstacles in the way, its Janus Canon can unleash shots that can both hit the blobber itself, and the blob it laid down, with much less concern for collateral damage.
  
• Arachnophiles - As with the general strengths and weaknesses, Arachnophiles can use a blobber's bomb as a way to create a spiderbot, and over time, that surplus of spiders can be used to both work against other enemies as attack misdirection and additional push and options to deal with both the blobber itself and its blob.

Burrower

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	4	1	-
Alpha	5	4	2	-

Strengths

• Hits 3 tiles at once for massive grid damage potential
  
• Decent HP and immune to pushing makes them difficult to kill
  
• No concern for obstacles, teleports to where it wants to go.

Weaknesses

• Hard to kill, but easy to scare off - they burrow back down as soon as they take any damage from any source, cancelling the attack.
  
• Attack pattern can be manipulated by deploying or positioning yourself in straight lines.
  
• Melee attack often puts it front-and-center with other Vek

At least in the base game, Burrowers provide perhaps the most unorthodox and troubling challenge that can stop certain squads dead in their tracks - knockback immunity. Barring a couple of VERY specific tools, they cannot be moved manually by anything, instead forcing squads to come up with clever solutions that can actually deal damage - sometimes this involves options such as knocking another Vek into them to scare them off.

As with most Vek, Burrowers will attempt to find places where they can land a hit on the most things at once. If you can manage to deploy your mechs in a straight line without any other neighboring buildings nearby them, this can be a way to get a head-start in dealing with other Vek that might have spawned on the first turn as you freely walk out of its reach.

Extremely important to note is that attacks that rely on moving the opponent to damage them cannot even be used on Burrowers. Examples of what I'm talking about include Vice Fist (Judo Mech) or Hydraulic Lifter (Pitcher Mech). If you lack ways to deal damage directly to a tile, or don't have a way to shove something into a Burrower, you're going to have a very bad time dealing with these Vek.

• Rift Walkers - This squad's usual concern for using their weapons are lost on Burrowers, as they do not suffer knockback. Even if a building is directly behind one, a Combat Mech can go whole-hog on them and smash them without having to worry about it crashing into the building behind it, and it can also be used to knock other nearby targets into the Burrower as well.
  
• Zenith Guard - Being heavily oriented towards wide-area attacks and collateral damage, the Zenith Guard can deal with burrowers without much issue - a stray Laser can easily scare a burrower off, while the charge mech is much better suited towards directly damaging a Burrower as well.
  
• Blitzkrieg - Despite all their unusualness, Burrowers are still melee Vek, meaning they will be right next to buildings to create circuits. Not only this, but they often like to sandwich themselves between different building clusters, which can make Burrowers incredible at maximizing the number of targets you reach with your whip.
  
• Flame Behemoths - While Burrowers do put fire out each time they go back underground, the squad's ability to apply fire to many tiles at once does mean that they have an exceedingly easy time scaring Burrowers off.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - As with Rift Walkers, Burrowers represent a nice change of pace for targets you can just directly slam into without having to worry about collateral damage. To make matters even better, the fact the squad has such incredible damage potential with both A.C.I.D. and its attacks means that it's also perfectly capable of taking a Burrower out in one fell swoop.
  
• Mist Eaters - An effective mix of both smoke and fire from the Smog Mech gives them ample options to nullify the threat of a Burrower. A special call-out goes to the Control Mech, however, as being the ONLY unit that can actually move a Burrower to another tile.

Centipede

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	2	1	Hits 3 perpendicular tiles, applies A.C.I.D.
Alpha	5	2	2	Hits 3 perpendicular tiles, applies A.C.I.D.
Leader	7	3	3	Only appears in Advanced Edition, Hits 3 perpendicular tiles, applies A.C.I.D. on all spaces it both hits and travels across

Strengths

• Durable
  
• Long-ranged, guaranteed to hit something.
  
• A.C.I.D. can remove armor and drastically increase the damage done.
  
• Area effect makes it likely to hit unexpected targets.

Weaknesses

• Lower base damage - the first hit before A.C.I.D. is applied is easier to take.
  
• EXTREMELY likely to cause damage and problems to their allies, and are not immune to their own acid.
  
• Slow, countered by blockades.
  
• Can be baited to hit straight lines of your mechs.

An upgrade of sorts to the Firefly, Centipedes vomit up acidic shots that strip armor and leave puddles. The nature of their shot causes them to be able to potentially damage 3 targets at once - and if they place a shot well at a line of buildings (as people of earth seem to like to do) an alpha can potentially end up doing 6 grid damage. Keep in mind the maximum amount of grid power you can have at any given time is 7, so be careful if you see the Centipede show up.

That same massive destructive potential can be stopped easily if you're willing to position your mechs precisely to block a shot, but be wary of attempting to do it a second time. Even though the alpha's damage on the base attack is low, it will still match the strength of other alphas once ACID is applied. As with fireflies, you'll likely want to use squads that have some potential to create blockades or flexibly move Vek side-to-side. Doing high damage also helps in case a Centipede decides to stumble into its own ACID puddles, and because they tend to position themselves in the open, having some variety of crowd control also does wonders.

• Steel Judoka - Of all the swords that the Judoka can wield, the Centipede is perhaps the double edgiest. Provided other Vek clusters can be manipulated right, a Centipede shot can be redirected to cause massive ACID application and damage to their own ranks.
  
• Rusting Hulks - Because of many of the threats the Centipede's wide hit area poses, combined with their slow speed and tendency to strike from afar, Jet Mech's smoke generation can be a lifesaver and quickly simplify a lot of the complications that this Vek variety can cause.
  
• Frozen Titans - As with Rusting Hulks, but with a different approach centered on freezing either the aggressor themselves with the Ice Mech, or just having the Ice Mech precisely block their shot in the spot that will cause the least damage. Aegis Mech, also, provides an efficient way out of their attack.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - If using Centipedes on Steel Judoka was a double-edged sword, this would be like using a double-edged chainsaw. If you engineer situations where Vek begin stumbling into ACID from a centipede, your squad can capitalize to land tens of kills. Of course, this is also keeping in mind that ACID will also double self-damage...
  
• Bombermechs - The Bombling Mech's bombs can be used as an easy-way out to block Centipede Shots, all without having to deal with the ramifications of having ACID on your mech.

Crab

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	3	1	Hits 2 tiles in a line
Alpha	5	3	3	Hits 2 tiles in a line
Leader	6	3	2	Only appears in Advanced Edition, Hits every single tile between its targeted location and itself for 1 damage.

Strengths

• Practically an upgraded scarab - more durable, hits more tiles.
  
• High grid-damage potential.
  
• Not nearly as easily countered as a Scarab is owing to their hit area.

Weaknesses

• Slightly more liable to hit allies?
  
• Still cannot hit adjacent spaces

The Crab is a nasty artillery piece, posing a complete and utter improvement on the Scarab while retaining all its predecessors range and speed. Among tier 2 enemies, they are far from the flashiest, but they make up for it in their comparative reliability and range - they can still hit isolated targets much like the Scarab, and unfortunately, are much harder to counter with a single shove owing to the extra tile they hit.

As with other ranged attackers, a push to the side works better than a push forwards or back, and their set hit area does mean they can potentially be lured into attacking units rather than grid.

• Zenith Guard - Crabs will tend to aim further rather than closer, and their Defense Mech proves to be just the tool that can make a Crab overshoot, while also being able to use its Shield Generator to cover the exact spaces a Crab might be aiming at.
  
• Steel Judoka - Provided a Crab is paired with melee Vek, the Judoka's wide variety of movement options can allow a Crab to accidentally hit its allies instead of a stray building.
  
• Frozen Titans - Both Aegis and Ice mechs offer very quick and easy ways to entirely nullify a Crab's attack.
  
• Bomermechs - As with the Scarab, the Pierce Mech's positioning can be used to counterattack a Crab for high damage, and it's still very much vulnerable to a good Exchange Mech mixup.

Digger

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	3	1	Creates rocks in adjacent free spaces, then hits surrounding tiles
Alpha	4	3	2	Creates rocks in adjacent free spaces, then hits surrounding tiles

Strengths

• Massive mobility blockade for non-flying squads
  
• Very hard to deal with if you lack artillery weapons
  
• Can't easily be shoved or moved out of place

Weaknesses

• Low HP
  
• The more things it tries to hit, the less rocks it makes, leaving it more open to counterattack.
  
• Minimal mech damage
  
• Rocks can block their allies if they cannot leap or fly.
  
• Can be lured out with a "Plus" shape

Given the wrong squad, the Digger can become a huge obstruction conundrum owing to all the rocks it creates. In spite of its average speed, lack of HP, and light damage, it still proves to be a persistent threat that can disarm a lot of mitigation approaches that worked on enemies before it. If you only have direct attacks (such as those used by Primes or Brutes) you'll usually have to resort to damaging a Digger by knocking the rocks into it - which you'll have to do twice even for a basic Digger.

The Digger is yet another unit that you benefit from trying to make hit the most targets possible - the more spaces it attacks into, the less rocks it makes, and the more vulnerable it ultimately is.

This said, if you managed to get Force Amp (which increases all knock damage by 1) this makes Diggers mostly a non-issue aside from the rocks they leave in their wake, and any Ranged or Science abilities that don't require a direct line of sight are sure to make dealing with these rocky problems a lot easier.

• Zenith Guard - Starting from directly adjacent to a rock, the Laser Mech can still one-shot an encroaching Digger while also clearing all the space it takes up. Shield Mech can also be used deviously to shield the digger's rocks to make it more predictable and keeping itself walled in.
  
• Blitzkrieg - Boulder Mech can simply give the Digger a taste of their own medicine, Hook Mech can potentially clear a path through obstructive rocks, and of course, Lightning Mech rubs its hands together to create a massive circuit from the 5 total tiles a Digger can potentially occupy.
  
• Flame Behemoths - The Flame Mech's combined fire application and pushback makes short work of diggers, with low base HP making them all the more easy to burn away over time. Even failing this, the Swap Mech provides a very easy out for exposing a Digger once it has just a single range increase upgrade.
  
• Bombermechs - Pierce Mech was basically created for this kind of situation. Inversely, devious use of Exchange Mech can be done to lock a non-flying enemy into a tight spot.
  
• Arachnophiles - The rocks a Digger creates can be leveraged to generate Arachnoids, who can then just attack the Digger for a combined 2 damage from their attack and the collision.
  
• Cataclysm - Each rock can be hit by the Drill Mech to crack the ground, a great way to quickly create pits that a Digger can then dig out itself, potentially stranding it on a single tile.

Spider

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	2	1 (spiderling)	Throws out Spiderling Eggs that web surrounding targets, then hatches.
Alpha	4	2	1 (spiderling)	Throws out Spiderling Eggs that web surrounding targets, then hatches.
Leader	6	2	1 (spiderling)	Leaps, Throws out 2-3 Spiderling Eggs. These do NOT web.

Strengths

• Potential for massive number of targets hit per round if eggs hatch
  
• Can gum up teams badly that deploy wrong
  
• Difficult to directly target, not a direct threat.

Weaknesses

• Slow
  
• Fragile
  
• Low damage to mechs

The Spider represents perhaps one of the hardest 'control' units the Vek has, only rivaled by the Scorpion Leader in how many things it can web at once. Inverse to how you would deploy or position yourself with a Blobber or Digger to create an attack that lures out a useless mech attack, you do NOT want to do this when a spider is involved, lest you then just end up immobilizing all your mechs with a single egg as all the other Vek literally go to town. Instead, try to deploy in a tight clump, preferably next to natural barriers. At worst, only one will get webbed, and take advantage of the spider's low movement speed as well to make its shot a bit more predictable. Also note that the egg hatching does not deal any damage, so you would also want to have the spider prioritize placing eggs next to buildings instead of mechs.

As much as the Spider's threat can grow out of proportion if its eggs and hatchlings aren't regularly dealt with, the combined traits of the spider itself and its offspring means that teams that have plentiful knockback, wide-area attacks, and high mobility will do well to counter the Spider's techniques.

• Rift Walkers - Artillery Mech's wide-area knockback can easily take care of both other vek and stray eggs at the same time, and the team's general preference for knockback also extends to apply these rules a bit to Combat Mech and Cannon Mech as well.
  
• Zenith Guard - Laser Mech's damage falloff doesn't matter nearly as much when the line you fire down is filled with 1 HP targets.
  
• Blitzkrieg - Lightning Mech cackles maniacally at all the tiles it will hit at once.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - In the face of all the potential self-damage that it can take from collision, Unstable Mech can potentially wipe out 3 spiderlings/eggs at once with a single shot, and all the tiles hit by the Leap Mech's jump both make it ideal for eliminating spiderlings, while also potentially escaping the grasp of a web.
  
• Flame Behemoths - Owing to their rampant spread of flame, the Behemoths are great at dealing with spider's eggs and hatchlings before they even can become an issue.
  
• Arachnophiles - A massive supply of 1-HP targets means that Arachnoid Mech can go to town converting the Spider's children to its own, and for once, the Bulk Mech isn't much of a slouch either.
  
• Heat Sinkers - A combination of both wide ranges, flame, and a lot of knockback makes them excellent at damage control when spiderlings become involved.

-TIER 1 ADVANCED-

Much like with the other Tier 1 enemies, these can show up in the initial lineup of enemies you can encounter on an island on a new game. However these will also only show up if you have Advanced Edition content enabled.
In general, all Advanced Edition enemies are slightly more complicated to deal with, but simultaneously also have a bit more potential to have their own abilities backfire upon themselves in exchange. They can be harder to read, but if you figure out how they will move, their properties can be just as easily exploited by most squads.

Bouncer

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	5	1	Pushes target and self backwards
Alpha	5	3	3	Pushes target and self backwards
Leader	4	3	2	Has Natural Armor, Hits 3 targets in a perpendicular line, Pushes targets and self back

Strengths

• Chaotic knockback can cause unexpected collision damage
  
• Very high collateral damage potential in narrow spaces
  
• Attack can knock enemies out of place as well - or into place.

Weaknesses

• Melee
  
• Extremely liable to knock itself backwards into a threat - a bottomless pit, the ocean, etc.

Bouncers are perhaps the least threatening of the Advanced Edition update, though this doesn't mean they are harmless - compared to every other Tier 1 enemy type (without alphas factored) they have the potential to cause the highest grid damage if they position themselves to both hit a building directly and on their way backwards. All combined, in the right circumstances, this also means they can cause this type of damage across 4 different tiles in a row (if they knock another target into a building and themselves into one). The complications their self-knock imposes also means that simply shoving them away from their target isn't always the answer, either.

In spite of all this, their frankly awful HP growth means that they tend to be well-handled by teams that can both shove and deal knock, which can result in them landing a nice attack that just ends up killing them with an unintended shove into a mountain or the sea.

• Rift Walkers - The team has more than enough straight firepower to deal with a basic Bouncer, and the flexibility with which the Artillery Mech can knock can be utilized to send a Bouncer off-course.
  
• Heat Sinkers - Boosted damage can make quick work of just about any bouncer, and the ways they can shove targets around also helps put them in a bad spot.
  
• Cataclysm - This squad was frankly conceived to deal with this enemy type - creating a slew of pits that a Bouncer can stumble backwards into, with the tools of Pitcher's throw and Triptych's shove to get them right into the wrong spot.

Gastropod

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	2	1	Reels target inwards, or pulls self towards target if it cannot be moved
Alpha	4	3	3	Reels target inwards, or pulls self towards target if it cannot be moved
Leader	6	3	3	Sets all adjacent spaces on fire before attacking. Reels target inwards, or pulls self towards target if it cannot be moved

Strengths

• Can potentially pull mechs into death traps/pits.
  
• Durable
  
• Can't easily be stopped by distance

Weaknesses

• Mountains behind water will cause them to kill themselves
  
• Slow
  
• Extremely likely to cause friendly-fire

Gastropods are the Vek version of the Hook Mech, pairing that pull with a sizable amount of damage as well. Even though this can damage targets, it's obviously traded off with the lack of tactical insight to use it to set up any seriously advanced traps. Much to do with how threatening a Gastropod can be is largely based on the layout of the map - they are given much freer reign to cause issues on wide-open maps, but oftentimes are more likely to harm themselves in narrow maps with pits or water.

Owing to their infinite-range shot, they are always liable to hit and grab something. And much like its fellow straight-shooters, fireflies, beetles, and centipedes, this makes it an amazing candidate for friendly-fire with any squads that specialize in setting those situations up.

• Steel Judoka - A displaced cephalopod will usually provide leverage to move another Vek out of position if the turn order is right, and with their tendency to prioritize front-and-center mechs, the Judo Mech can often lure them into grappling each other without much difficulty.
  
• Frozen Titans - Aegis Mech's ability to turn a Cephalopod around allows it to create more situations where they will hit allies, or pull themselves to their doom. The Ice Mech can also use its generator to potentially leverage the Cephalopod's pull as added mobility without taking damage.
  
• Bombermechs - Bomblings give this squad a reliable way to block the shot of a Cephalopod.
  
• Cataclysm - While the Cephalopod's attack does give it some potential for this squad's main gimmick to backfire, it more often than not works in your favor to generate more pits for this enemy to pull itself into.

Mosquito

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	4	1	Flying, Generates smoke in the tile they attack
Alpha	4	4	3	Flying, Generates smoke in the tile they attack
Leader	5	4	9999	Flying, Generates smoke and webs in the tile they attack

Strengths

• Dangerous combination with web, can entirely shut down a mech caught in both the web and its smoke.
  
• Flies and has high speed
  
• Can litter the battlefield with smoke if they keep going after moving targets
  
• Leader's attack is a guaranteed full shutdown of a mech, and instakills regardless of HP.

Weaknesses

• Purely Melee
  
• Fragile
  
• Susceptible to their own smoke

The slower and more oppressive relative to the Hornet, Mosquitos trade raw mobility and their Alpha's range extension for the ability to puff out some smoke. For the most part, this makes mosquitos seem fairly innocuous - if they go after a mech, there's nothing that really stops you from moving them out of the smoke and out of danger, and even then, their damage isn't anything impressive. However, if left unchecked, their influence in smoking up the entire arena and making it difficult for units such as Ranged artillery to operate can begin to be felt, especially on maps without much space to maneuver in.

The Mosquito's big coup-de-grace comes in the form of if it's paired with a webbing enemy - if both the Mosquito and the webber decide to attack a mech, they are rendered entirely helpless. If the Mosquito is an Alpha and the thing that webbed it doesn't die in one hit, this can sometimes be unavoidable death. As a result, bringing a squad that has fair durability, effective positioning, and good stopping power can be the difference between a mosquito just being a temporary annoyance or a showstopping smog generator. That or just bring Camilla.

• Rusting Hulks - Their lightning generator will also trigger for any smoke that Mosquito's create. If they decide to go after a mech and there's space to work with, it can be well possible to cause the mosquito to damage itself by pushing it into the cloud.
  
• Blitzkrieg - Yet another useful component for creating big circuits, and with low health as well to quickly erase them with a single whip.
  
• Hazardous Mechs - Because these mechs excel at hitting just about everywhere around themselves and deal it in spades, mosquitos usually serve as free sources of healing if you can land decisive strikes on them.
  
• Mist Eaters - Probably the ultimate counter to a Mosquito - if one tries to attack any of these mechs, they basically just end up giving them a free heal without preventing any kind of counterattack.

Moth

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	3	1	Flying, attack pushes self and target backwards
Alpha	5	3	3	Flying, attack pushes self and target backwards

Strengths

• Essentially a better scarab in every way: more durable, causes more issues with collisions, and can hover over pits.

Weaknesses

• Still only hits a single target
  
• Prone to bumping into obstacles or other vek behind themselves once displaced

Flying Artillery. Moths are some of the more troubling Tier 1 enemies to face from Advanced Edition, owing to a lack of effective or reliable counters. Aside from the simplest counter of just moving the Moth off target, there's not much that can be done to solve the problems they pose if they attack badly - if they aim at tight clusters of targets, if they park themselves in front of another building that they'll damage with their backlash, or if they decide to maneuver somewhere you can't reach. Because they have high health, they can't as easily be gunned to death as Scarabs can, and they aren't vulnerable to the same types of traps that can be set for Scarabs or Crabs either.

That all said, they are still an artillery at heart, and their added knockback does mean that they can be leveraged by manipulative squads to hit allies and throw them off-target as well. As with bouncers or diggers, having the power of a Force-Amp will help make shorter work of them.

• Rift Walkers - This squad's use of both direct damage and push can be leveraged to both throw a moth off-target while causing it to take greater damage from being knocked into things.
  
• Steel Judoka - Liberal positioning tech allows this squad to put the moth's shot to work where it's needed to throw the Vek into disarray.

-TIER 2 ADVANCED-

Just as before, these show up on your 2nd island and later, and only when you have Advanced Edition content enabled.

Plasmodia

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	2	1	Places a single-shot spore with 1 HP, Knocks Back
Alpha	5	2	3	Places a single-shot spore with 1 HP, Knocks Back
Leader	5	2	2	Places a single-shot spore with 2 HP, Knocks Back

Strengths

• Excellent attack range
  
• Durable
  
• Not often in the line of fire

Weaknesses

• Spores are easy to disarm or leverage as blockage
  
• Extremely slow

These... Things attack by throwing out a summon that fires a straight-shot attack similar to a firefly, which then immediately self-destructs afterwards, non-explosively. They often do not pose a similar kind of immediate threat as other such summons do - certainly not as destructive to the grid as a Blobber Blob can be, but they still can be a persistent threat owing to their linear shot being sure to collide with something.

They are among some of the less threatening Tier 2 enemy types regardless, and while they can put out solid single-target damage, they also cannot pose much of a threat to your grid unless you let them. Teams that can deal damage in wide areas or maneuver other enemies into the firing line of a spore will find these strange creatures more helpful than harmful.

• Steel Judoka - Aside from Judo Mech just being able to absorb shots from a plasmodia, Gravity Mech can manipulate where it fires without destroying the spore, and if placed nearby other enemies, Siege Mech's attack can handily deal with a spore while displacing other targets.
  
• Flame Behemoths - Coating the fire in ground is a surefire way to ensure that any spores a Plasmodia fires are dead on arrival, and the Swap Mech also proves to be one of the best non-damaging ways to influence where it fires as well.
  
• Arachnophiles - Spores are Spiderling fodder, and the fragile but damaging nature of a spore also means that Slide Mech can harmlessly shift spores into a more advantageous position.
  
• Cataclysm - As with Arachnophiles, Spores are hole fodder for the Drill Mech, and because this thing doesn't fly, it also is susceptible to being tossed or pushed into one as well.

Starfish

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	2	3	1	Hits 4 diagonal spaces
Alpha	4	3	2	Hits 4 diagonal spaces
Leader	6	3	3	Hits 4 diagonal spaces, and knocks back the adjacent ones.

Strengths

• Huge and awkward number of tiles hit
  
• Very dangerous to grid in tight quarters
  
• Difficult to displace to prevent damage on stretches of building

Weaknesses

• Still Melee by nature
  
• Fragile and Slow
  
• Can usually be hit without any direct threat to the attacker.

As far as Vek go, the Starfish has the strangest of all hit patterns: it is the only attack in the entire game that hits nothing but diagonals, which means that any melee-oriented mechs you might bring at it won't usually be threatened by it directly. However this doesn't mean it's not a threat to everything else around it - which, by the way, it is. A massive threat in fact. It's notable for being perhaps one of the only Vek that doesn't care if it hits its allies when making its moves, and If it gets stationed in a chokepoint where there's buildings on either side (which its AI prioritizes strongly), it's going to be difficult to defuse a starfish without outright killing it.

Thankfully, as far as enemies go, the Starfish is among one of the less durable ones, and because it is a rarer type, your squad hopefully will now have the tools needed to take it out in one fell swoop - indeed, the best answer to the starfish is simply to overwhelm it with damage directly rather than trying to move it out of a threatening position, as unless it's only going after a single building or target, it's liable that a one-space shove won't be enough to save everything from it.

• Rusting Hulks - When all else fails, the Rusting Hulks have the solution - just stop the attack altogether. The Jet Mech's combined smoke lightning and attack will be enough to instantly take out a single starfish, and can still prevent attacks of alphas as well.
  
• Blitzkrieg - While it doesn't try to get directly adjacent, a starfish paired with other melee Vek will basically be guaranteed to generate a tight, circuit-rich formation that can shock the Starfish and anything else around it easily.
  
• Bombermechs - The starfish can be a chance for the Pierce Mech to shine, as it likes to often pack itself densely in with other Vek.
  
• Mist Eaters - The Mist Eaters have just about everything you could use to stop a starfish: Thruster Mech's smoke and damage, Smog Mech's combined fire/damage or smoke approaches, and Control Mech's flexible positioning can help simply move a Starfish out of a cluster.

Tumblebug

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Base	3	3	1	Attack can generate an explosive rock in the attack space in front of it, hitting all adjacent spaces for 1 damage
Alpha	5	3	3	Attack can generate an explosive rock in the attack space in front of it, hitting all adjacent spaces for 1 damage
Leader	6	3	3	Attack can generate up to 2 explosive rocks in the spaces in front of it, hitting all adjacent spaces for 1 damage

Strengths

• Powerful and persistent threat to buildings in the form of explosive rocks (as well as map blockage)
  
• Can still directly attack targets for higher damage (on alphas or leaders)
  
• Durable
  
• Attacks are not clearly telegraphed

Weaknesses

• Always takes damage from using its own gimmick
  
• Less of a threat to mechs than to the Grid
  
• Slow
  
• Thwarted by having their attacks directed away from their rock (typical anti-melee tactics).

The inversion of the Digger - instead of creating up to 4 rocks to shield itself as it attacks all around, the Tumblebug instead creates a single explosive rock that hits everything around it. When it goes after buildings, it creates not just an immediate threat of grid damage from the ensuing damage - but even after you get the Tumblebug away from its rock, it will still be there - waiting, blocking, still prone to explode if anything hits it. And while tumblebugs don't really have object-permanence know-how to try and blow the same rock up again, they instead do something worse potentially - create additional exploding rocks adjacent to old ones, that can begin forming chain-reaction blockades.

The best ways to deal with a Tumblebug include decisive killing power and disabling of either the bug itself, or its rocks. Because the rocks are guaranteed to explode, they cannot easily be removed or disabled without taking grid damage without the right approaches. Be extremely careful of choosing an island with Tumblebugs if your team focuses heavily on AoE damage or creating hazards such as fire or pits.

• Rift Walkers - It turns out well-applied knockback and damage can be used to either knock the tumble bug away from its exploding quarry, and the artillery mech's shove being able to clear the area around buildings of any dangerous rocks.
  
• Rusting Hulks - A combination of the Jet Mech's flight and smoke attack can prevent a Tumblebug's detonating strike. Meanwhile, the Pulse Mech's non-damaging shove can push a rock out of position so that it can be safely detonated later.
  
• Zenith Guard - Laser Mech can provide decisive killing power with its beam to the Tumblebug. Perhaps more importantly, though, the Defense Mech can not just shield buildings from resulting explosions, but can also shield the rocks themselves to prevent the explosion in the first place.
  
• Steel Judoka - Judo Mech's armor and the unique nature of its Vice Fist allow it to usually be able to safely displace an explosive rock away from any buildings in exchange for light damage. Otherwise, it has no shortage of other ways it can force a Tumblebug and its target away from one-another.
  
• Bombermechs - The combination of the Pierce Mech's cannon, which can shoot a Tumblebug through their own rock or harmlessly push it out of position, and the Exchange Mech that can effectively swap the explosive rock with another enemy to get punched by the Tumblebug, tends to deal with this Vek well.

-PSIONS-

	HP	Move	Notes
Normal	2	2	Flies
Abomination (Leader)	5	3	Flies

Psions are a special class of Vek that appear on each island. Each island will only ever have one of these varieties, also shown on the island-select screen, paired with their mechanic-specific buff they provide. Psion buffs extend to affect all Vek other than themselves - including unusual objective-related vek such as Volatile Vek or Vek eggs, and some of their boosts even extend to vek summoned by other vek!

For each mission you do, only a single Psion can ever spawn. Once it's killed, another one will not appear in the same mission.

The standard varieties of Psion include:

• Blast Psion (Orange and Tan) - Causes all Vek to explode in 1 damage around themselves on death. On islands with many low-health enemies, this can be a powerderkeg to creating disastrous chain-reactions and can cause LOTS of unintended collateral damage. Tread lightly, or have knock or pushback at the ready. Note that teams that rely on enemy death to create more units with 1 HP (all one of those squads, ARACHNOPHILES) will have said unit immediately get killed by the blast as well, so this is something of a hard counter to that strategy.
  
• Blood Psion (Red and Tan) - Causes all Vek to regain 1 health at the start of each turn (after taking any other damage such as from fire or electricity). The impact of a Blood Psion is felt most on teams with low direct damage, or on islands with lots of high-HP Vek. Provided a team can eliminate most Vek in one fell swoop, the Blood Psion's impact is fairly minimal.
  
• Shell Psion (Purple and Grey) - Grants all other Vek Armoring, reducing all damage they take by 1 point. If a team is dependent on dealing direct damage and lacks any way to deal 2 damage (cough ARACHNOPHILES cough), this armoring can prove to be a massive damper to effective threat countering. However, the armoring doesn't extend to any other damage than from direct attacks: collisions, fire, and stormclouds do not respect the armor offered. In addition, applying A.C.I.D. nullifies all benefits of armoring, so in general this tends to be a Psion you love to see on Detritus.
  
• Soldier Psion (Teal and Green) - This straightforward psion gives all its allies +1 HP. Teams that rely heavily on kills and precise damage output to thwart enemies will find their jobs a bit more difficult when their attacks fall slightly short. This psion is unique in that as soon as its buff is removed, any units with only 1 HP left (the 1 HP granted by this psion) will immediately die. This rule also applies if you use the Psion Accelerator passive, mind, and the Psion will always flee at the end of battle - so yeah that could kill your pilot and is yet another reason to not use that passive.
  
• Psion Tyrant (Yellow and Black) - This special Psion only appears on the finale island. Unlike all other psions, the Tyrant instead has an effect that affects you instead of its allies! At the start of each enemy turn that it's still alive (even before environmental effects!) your mechs and any of their allies (including the Renfield Bomb) will take 1 damage. Armor can nullify this damage.

There are also the following varieties encountered in the Advanced Edition:

• Arachnid Psion (Cyan and Pink) - Causes all Vek that die to generate a spider egg (save for other spiderlings or eggs). Normally these get placed directly in the space that the vek died in if it's solid ground, but for any enemies that die from falling into a pit or water, the egg will instead get tossed into a nearby free space. Arachnid Psions can help greatly with "kill at least x enemy" missions, and inversely are a huge complication to "kill x or fewer enemy" missions. More generally speaking, squads that can lay down consistent hazards or fire can help make the arachnids this psion creates a non-issue.
  
• Raging Psion (Black and White) - Boosts all Vek, causing them to do +1 Damage. Generally this is a poor choice if your team has an Armored mech on it, as it means that most normal Vek can now damage your previously invulnerable machine. It also means that all Vek that aren't accounted for against buildings will always be able to do maximal grid damage per tile hit. If you can consistently keep on top of threats, the Raging Psion's effects otherwise cause no complications, and on some teams that thrive on enabling friendly-fire, it also serves to make infighting all the more lethal to the Vek.
  
• Smoldering Psion (Pink and Dark Blue) - All Vek leave a spot of Fire when they die, and they also do not take damage from being on fire - note they will still appear to be burning, but they do not take the actual damage until the Psion is eliminated. For certain teams that directly leverage fire for other mechanics (Heatsinkers), the effects of this Psion can be more beneficial than a problem, but otherwise, fire can cause continuous damage to your mechs and the effect can be a serious problem if your team relies on the fire itself to deal the damage (Flame Behemoths!)

Lastly there is the Psion Abomination, an island leader/boss psion. This boss applies the effects of Regeneration, HP increase, and Explode on Death all at once, making it a high-priority target.

Other - Pinnacle Robots & Unique Bosses

Pinnacle Bots

	HP	Move	Notes
Basic	1	3	Equipped with one of three weapon types
Leader	5-6	3	Equipped with Rockets, and a regenerating shield. Is the only enemy in the game that varies in damage and HP based on difficulty.

Only encountered in the snowy Pinnacle island, these enemies are all glass cannons essentially, at most having below-average durability (usually only just one HP) in exchange for wide-area, hard-hitting attacks. And depending on the circumstances, your goal might even include trying to not kill them, for some added challenge. While they are enemies and aren't inherently hostile towards Vek, they also do not receive any of the benefits a Psion offers - frankly, that's a good thing.

Bots normally come in both standard Bot varieties (teal), as well as much more dangerous Mech varieties (purple) - while Pinnacle Mechs are no more durable, they deal massively increased damage.

The weapons that basic Pinnacle Bots can come with include:

• Cannon-Bot/Cannon-Mech - A straightforward Brute-style cannon that deals damage and sets the tile it hits on fire. The simplest of the bot varieties to manage, but still deceptively damaging.
  
• Artillery-Bot/Artillery-Mech - This variety fires arcing missiles that cover a 3-tile long perpendicular line in front of itself, capable of grievous grid damage.
  
• Laser-Bot/Laser-Mech - Mirroring the Zenith Guard's own Laser Mech, these robots wield a powerful and long-ranged continuous beam that drops off in damage the further you get - a top priority to be sure, as unlike a cannon bot, their shot cannot be blocked by one of your own mechs.

The counterplay to Pinnacle Robots is similar to that of basic Leapers - try and get them damaged and destroyed with any incidental knock, damage, or other effects you can while laying into more substantial targets.

Lastly, there is a chance that Pinnacle will choose to give you a Bot Leader as its area boss. This mint robot has 5 or 6 HP (depending on difficulty, with more HP on hard and unfair), and uses an Artillery-Mech style rocket attack. If it survives a turn with low HP, it will shield itself, then attempt to regenerate, requiring 2 separate attacks to both disable the shield, then deal the killing blow. The best bet you have for dealing with this boss is to either have a method by which to deal that much raw damage in a single turn (A.C.I.D. can be a solution) or a way to generate multiple hits while maintaining flexibility to deal with other potential threats.

The Goo

	HP	Move	Damage	Notes
Large	3	3	4	Erupts into two Medium Goo upon death
Medium	2	3	4	Erupts into two Small Goo upon death
Small	1	3	4	-

This unique boss (that resembles no other vek) provides a different challenge than most leaders offer - how well you can manage and redirect attacks to deal with a target-rich environment. While the Goo starts out as a single large target with high health, it splits into progressively smaller segments as you damage it - each one with the same mobility and damage potential as the original one, which can be extremely dangerous if you end a turn with 4 small goo on the playing field.

Goo attacks will attempt to move directly into the space of the target they attack - if they succeed in destroying it, they will enter the space. They also will enter the space if the space is no longer blocked, which can be exploited if several goos attempt to pile onto the same mech target. Because each individual goo has fairly poor HP, they also are quite susceptible to any attacks that hit or shove a wide number of tiles.

[jasmon]

amazing！

[TANKHammer]

This is a really impressive guide. I don't often play on advanced mode, so this is really helpful for figuring out what all of the weird new bugs do. Thanks a lot!

[Starry]

this is very well made. clearly lots of effort has been put into this.

[Artemis]

nice job im definitely awarding, this must have taken you an eternity

[SQUIGLONKER99]

Thanks, fixed that.

[BustNcaps]

Found a mistake in your guide. The Alpha Burrower does 2 damage, not 3.

[trenchmarian]

this is amazing !!

[Lunira]

amazing work