Goo Unit Analysis

This guide will take you through all the unit stats for the Goo faction and give effective strategies and tactics for you to use in battle!

Introduction

The Goo faction offers a very different playstyle to the more conventional build-and-conquer strategies which the Humans and Beta factions lend themselves to.

The versatility of the Goo, particularly in the early game, make them a faction that is quick to pick up but incredibly difficult to master. Their unparralled mobility and self-repairing units mean that only a killing shot can be considered effective, with Goo counter-attacks often forming an unexpected and very dangerous game-winning play.

All units spawn from the Mother Goo, which you must guard closely in order to survive. The ability to split off more Mother Goos and claim territory/ important catalyst sites needs to be balanced with their protection using units spawned from Small Proteans (Drover, Strider, Radiant, Tempest) and Large Proteans (Destructor, Cresent, Dweller, Bastion).

Emergency escape paths over mountains are a genuine life-saver if you suddenly find yourself on the wrong side of an offensive play and so catalyst sites next to mountains or brush cover ought be high on your priority list. Posting Radiants in strategic locations will help you to keep up to date with what's happening on the battlefield and prevent you being hit by a surprise army. Beware of enemy units with high speeds that can kite your Mother Goo all the way to the grave and remember that the Goo faction is the only faction without air units, so having the necessary anti-aircraft units in place is crucial to holding your territory and protecting your units.

Quick Notes

• The Mother Goo can spawn units after incrementally filling its four slots and splitting to give Proteans or more Mother Goos. It achieves this by consuming catalyst after you place the Mother Goo on a resources spiggot, and a Mother Goo will fill each slot every 40 seconds if properly managed.
  
  
• For anyone who doesn't know, damage done by a unit is calculated in the following way:
  
  Inflicted Damage = Unit damage - (Armour of target - Penetration)
  
  Therefore, a high armour score is desirable for meat-shield roles and a high penetration score is required for effective attackers. The inflicted damage can never be less than one.
  
  As a quick example:
  Commando attack damage = 4, penetration = 0; Bastion armour= 3
  Damage inflicted by Commado on Bastion = 4 - (3 - 0) = 4 - 3 = 1
  
  
• Rate of Fire (RoF) is given as the number of seconds between each attack. So a RoF of 1 is equivalent to one attack per second, a RoF of 5 is equivalent to one attack every five seconds and so on....
  
  
• All damaged Goo units will heal themselves after a short period of time out of combat (excluding Mother Goo, Small/ Large Proteans and The Purger). The units heal by a certain amount (proportional to the max health of the unit) every five seconds, and so in this guide, the heal rate is defined as the amount of health recovered after each 5 second period when the Goo untis have been out of combat for a long enough time for them to start the healing process

Right, without further adieu, let's get stuck in to the numbers!

Teir 1 Units

Teir 1 units are all units that are essentially available to you from the get-go in the early game. The Goo have an overwhelming number of options in the early game, allowing you to specialise your army in response to how your opponent behaves, and the early rush startegy from the Goo can be absolutely lethal with careful in-game observation.

Drover

The Drover is a fast, lightweight scouting unit. Their high numbers allow them to swarm targets effectively, but they are particularly weak against tanks and AoE damage due to their low health, complete lack of armour and close-packed attacking formations.

Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
65	N/A	5	200	0	0	1	200	550	145	1	5

Strider

Striders are balanced units, with good all-round stats to give a dependable early-game force. Use with Drover sacrifices early in the game to hastle enemy supply lines and in the later game as superior cannon fodder.

Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
115	11	N/A	N/A	3	0	1.25	320	600	125	2	9

Radiant

The scout role of the Goo faction falls on the Radiant. With relatively low health and a weak attack, you need to be very careful with their placement. Keep them concealed within brush to protect them from curious enemy forces and keep one guarding each Mother Goo you have to avoid unwanted surprise attacks.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	110	6	N/A	N/A	0	0	1	300	1000	150	2	9
Aerial Defence	Radiants can now target aircraft	6 (Air only)						400
Stealth Sensors	Radiants now aquire stealth
Veiled Surveillence	Radiants now detect stealth

Tempest

With the Goo having no aircraft, you need to be sure that your enemies can't take advantage of the sky to cripple your game from above. The Tempest is an anti-aircraft unit and should be a key member of any Mother Goo protection squad. They can be posted on top of mountains, providing some protection from enemy ground forces.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	100	N/A	20	150	0	0	1.5	800	600	110	2	8
Goo Corruption	Tempest shots do damage over time to aircraft		20
Catalytic Barrage	Tempest can now fire as an artillery unit on ground targets		13	75			5	550
Surveillance Virus	Tempest shots reveal map around target for short a duration								400

Small Protean

Small Proteans can move over any terrain, making them incredibly useful as early scout units that can quickly be switched to the appropriate unit to tackle your enemy. They are themselves very poor at attacking targets, due to their lack of armour, low attack penetration and short range, but can slow down retreating enemies by consuming them to allow support fire to kill the targets.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop
	160	N/A	5	50	0	0	0.5	50	600	75	4
Catalytic Residue	Consuming structures creates a burst of energy healing nearby units			100

Mother Goo

Whilst you need to take great care with your Mother Goo, it has offensive capability which no other faction HQ possess. Their ability to consume structures and units can be utilised in emergency situations or, alternatively, when you're confident they will not suffer too much damage in attack. Their health depends on the amount of catalyst previously consumed and their speed is quite low.

Keep them hidden in brush or around mountains in order to escape incoming enemies while they are processing catalyst (indicated by yellow region filling the Mother Goo mass bars), then instruct them to pick up more catalyst after processing each batch. Failing to run to and from resource spigots probably means that you will just have your Goo sat on the catalyst site - this is an incredibly dangerous and inefficient method of catalyst collection!

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop
	160 - 1600	N/A	8	125	8	0	0.3	125	800	75	0
Catalytic Residue	Consuming structures creates a burst of energy healing nearby units			200

Tier 2 Units

Teir 2 units comprise the more advanced units available to the Goo in the mid-to-late game. All require a Large Protean to spawn and are much more resilient than their Teir 1 counterparts, but you'll still want a balance of Teir 1 and Teir 2 untis. Having a few expendable Tier 1 units as a sacrificial frontline to your high-powered Teir 2 units can allow you to punch through enemy forces and wreak havoc on bases whilst sustaining minimal damage to the more expensive Tier 2 units.

Dweller

Dwellers are best suited to ambush scenarios and placement in choke points where they can kill a large quantity of rushing enemies quickly. With planning they can be used in both offensive (generally counter-attacking) and defensive (Mother Goo/ Protopurger protection) play and can also be used to help you to keep vision over strategic areas of the map as they are stealthed when armed. Placing them in brush will make them nearly impossible for the enemy to evade. Beware of enemies that can detect stealth and subsequently bring in long-range units to dispatch your Dwellers from afar!

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	125	N/A	150	250	3	0	1	100	525	110	3	10
Advanced Mitosis	Two Small Proteans are left behind when the Dweller explodes
Enhanced Cloaking	Dwellers gain stealth whilst moving

Destructor

The Goo tank unit has more health than the Human and Beta equivalents whilst maintaining a fairly high damage score and a strong penetration/ armour combo, making it a durible and hard-hitting unit. This will probably be the most common unit in your mid-to-late game army.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	150	33	N/A	N/A	6	3	1.5	375	600	105	3	12
Goo Splash	Destructor projectiles damage enemies around the target		15	50
Contagious Goo	Destructor projectiles bounce to nearby enemines up to two times

Cresent

The Cresnt is a fairly weak artillery unit, but it possess the ability to walk over and stand on mountains. This gives it a unique advantage as the enemy will require units with large sight values or, more likely, an aircraft group to counter your Cresents. Couple them with Tempests on mountainous terrain for protection. Their slow rate of fire means that they should be used in tandem with other units in over-the-top fire, bombing the enemy from long range from behind your forces. They can't soak up much damage before they die so watch out for flanking attacks.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	120	N/A	50	150	0	0	7	1000	400	85	3	10
Projectile Endurance	Cresent projectile can't be shot down		30	75
Symbiotic Pool	The corrosive pool left by Cresent projectiles heals friendly units

Bastion

Bastions walk into a fight and simply absorb firepower. Their primary purpose is to focus enemy units so that your army can operate safely, taking down key structures or demolishing enemy forces with minimal damage to the bulk of your army. They should always be the first units to meet any sizeable enemy, which will require some micro-management as they're so slow, and tend to work best when you have about three Bastions to distract enemy units as you counter-attack. Note that the critical health is 150 HP for the Bastion Volatility upgrade to take effect, which is quickly achieved when facing large opposing forces.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop	Heal Rate
	750	0	N/A	N/A	0	3	0	300	600	90	6	60
Bastion Volatility	Bastions periodically damage all nearby units upon reaching 150 HP and explodes on death. Cannot regenerate or be healed actiavted.	80 (explosion)	5	150	6		1					0
Progenitor Conversion	A Small Protean is left behind when the Bastion dies

When Bastion Volatility activates the Bastion unit will change colour. Make sure it is sent to key enemy structures or units in anticipation of its explosive death!

Large Protean

Large Proteans often feature in early-rush Goo strategies because they have high armour scores (making them difficult to tackle with light, early game units) and a relatively high penetration score (making them pretty efficient at taking down enemy structures too). They can move over any terrain and can be incorporated into an offensive force, where they can slow down enemy units by consuming them, preventing them from retreating.

Upgrade	Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop
	350	N/A	8	75	10	6	0.2	75	500	75	6
Catalytic Residue	Consuming structures creates a burst of energy healing nearby units			150
Progenitor Conversion	A Small Protean is left behind when the Large Protean dies

The Purger (Epic)

The Protopurger

The protopurger, like any pre-epic build, is an expensive late-game "structure" that requires lots of time, resources and care to grow. Once fully grown, the protopurger becomes the Purger and can be controlled by the player.

To create a Protopurger, you first need a Mother Goo that has consumed the maximum amount of catalyst possible. When this Mother Goo is sat on top of a resource spigot, you will be given the option to transform the Mother Goo into a Protopurger and hence start the journey towards producing the Goo epic unit. When the protopurger has grown to 5000 health it will become a Purger.

The Protopurger can not be controlled at all once formed and so you should think very carefully about where you place it and whether you have the forces necessary to defend it from hostile attacks.

Mother Goos and even Proteans can be fed to the Protopurger to speed up its development, with the the mass of the sacfricied Mother Goo/ Protean deciding how much mass is gained by the growing Protopurger. Without being fed any Goos, the Protopurger has the longest build time of any epic unit (approximately 13 minutes) and hence you should avoid building one unless you have a strong "Goo Economy" and can afford to sacrifice units regularly to the giant blob.

A "unit" in the table below is equal to one full slot on the Mother Goo UI being filled (320 health).

Mother Goo mass	Protopurger gain
Small Protean	50
1 Unit/ Large Protean	100
2 Units	200
3 Units	300
4 Units	400

The Purger

The Purger has some seriously impressive stats and claims the title of having the highest health of the three available epic units in the game. Compared to the Alpha and the Hand of Ruk, it has an intermediate RoF and an intermediate range, making it a fairly balanced unit but an extremly dangerous one nonetheless.

Health	Damage	AoE Dmg	AoE Radius	Penetration	Armour	Rate of Fire	Range	Sight	Speed	Pop
5000	N/A	300	400	10	10	10	1000	800	50	70

It has the special ability, Catalyst Siphon, which encourgaes the growth of Mother Goo units within close proximity of the Purger at a rate equivalent to a Mother Goo sat on a resource spigot. By setting a Mother Goo to Guard mode and then selecting the Purger, your Mother Goo units will diligently follow the epic and grow at a healthy rate. This often-overlooked ability is an incredibly powerful one. Provided you have some defensive forces left over from the growth phase of the Protopurger, you can select a good number of your available Mother Goo units to follow the Purger and provide Proteans ready to go at the front line of your attacks, effectively giving you the mobile factory that the Hand of Ruk provides, albeit in a more vulnerable form.


Purger with Mother Goos benefiting from the Catalyst Spihon ability

Tempests and Radiants should accompany any Purger/ Mother Goo combo to shoot down air-based assults and provide adequate warning of incoming ground forces, giving your Purger time to react and thwart incoming enemies. Radiants will also help to maximise the attack range of the Purger (1000), as the sight of the Radiant is 1000 whilst that of the Purger is only 800, meaning that the Purger on its own will have a blind spot which it could and should be attacking into.


When accompanied by the Radiant, the Purger can maximise its attack range and hit the enemy base


Without the Radiant, the enemy base is can not be seen and the Purger has to approach closer in order to attack

[Eyeflyer]

Really appreciate the guide. I had no clue the purger worked like an infinite catalyst spigot.

[Dzięcioł Infernum]

a thoughtful and well-made guide

[Komastro 2.0 (Aka Gunther)]

its kinda weird that we have the same logo XD

[Doom Squid]

Thank you! I love the Goo faction and this is very helpful!