Overview
This guide is your guide to creating the Immune System. This vital squad member is immune to practically everything. When you combine this with any Immobilize weapon (as of writing very rare) and very long ranged allies, enemies won’t even make a dent.
The Unit
This section is the first part of your journey: what unit shall be your Immune System? Generally, the Brigandine is the best unit in pretty much the game for the Immune System. The Brigandine’s defensive upgrades can heavily improve your survivability. Alternatively, the Arawen has a few more defensive upgrades than other units (except the brigandine) and can be used as well. Other units are important too! For an early Immune System, it’s best to take other units like the Viper A which have defensive utility you can swap to your Immune System. The Oppressor B can have both of its items removed; a return fire build can work quite nicely considering that the initial fire didn’t do anything to your unit, because it’s invincible.The Oppressor can then be given the Brigandine’s weapon, or ideally another status-effect weapon.
The Items
Now, the most crucial part: the items you’re going to equip on your unit to make it invincible.
Starting off with Armour values, Armoured Plating is of course very helpful and obtainable early game, being a starting item for the Brigandine A and B, and the Oppressor B. Bear in mind that the Brigandine A’s armour is more powerful than the B counterpart. The Viper A’s Biosteel Armour is a more versatile option that protects a little against Heaters and Orions. Once you reach Tier 3, you can find Reinforced Frame, which not only provides armour but also a large hull increase.
Once you have armour, status effects are your biggest enemy. Although it’s impossible to cleanse Corrupted Data and Lingering Heat, you can still get rid of Armour Breach, Prop. Damaged, Interference, and other pesky things. Once you reach Tier 2 you should start seeing a few blue Nullifiers waiting to be taken. Although Corrupted Data and Lingering Heat can’t be cleansed, you can counter them by have repair items like Repair Gel or have a Mechanic on standby. Also, kill the freaking pretorian first. Lingering Heat can be countered by the wonderful act of Liquid Cooling and Improved Cooling and Standing Next To A Cooler.
The Enemies
Enemies still are going to try and break through your Immune System. Unsurprisingly, the devs have made some that are quite good at their job. But we can fix that.
The Acarids are only really your problem in the early to mid game. In Tier 3, you probably have a unit with range 9-11 and enough armour to counter the Pests on your Immune System. The big problem with Acarids is their high base damage and stacking damage upon hitting. Status effects will kill them quickly, and they have no way to mitigate one hit crit builds. The best way to get an Acarid away is forcing it to use both moves to get in range, leaving it open to fire.
The Heaters are most likely your worst enemies as a budding Immune System constructor. Although Liquid Cooling is effective, and so are other cooling items, the Orions and Hellspawn Hellkites’ Lingering Heat doesn’t care about your nullifiers. So, how to counter? Damage, my friend. Kill them quickly. Additionally, if your Immune System has cooling items, Heater type units will generally target other units instead.
The Pretorians aren’t really a distinguished line of enemies, but for this guide they’ll include the Pretorian, Pretorian Mk. II, Bulwark, and Overlord. All these units have some annoying utility that blocks out damage and three of them have ways to give out damage in respectable amounts. The Bulwark is easy and only a problem for your frustrated sniper. The two Pretorians are much more problematic. They should be targeted with burst fire weapons, to get around the Dominator Armour. Pretorians also have much more range than you’d expect, so watch out. Status effects also work well on them due to the status effects damaging across many turns. Overlords have return fire, so get as far away as possible before attacking.
The Suppressor demands its own special mention as a unit. This guy and the Sentinel single-handedly make a blue nullifier necessary in tier 2. To counter Suppressors, you obviously need a nullifier, and armour penetration will help greatly too. If you only have a white nullifier, that won’t be sufficient, as the Suppressor’s weapon applies 3 status effects.
Wrapping it all up
Congratulations, you’ve reached the near-end of this guide. In case you don’t know exactly what to do, here’s some extra tips to help you:
– You should never have more than one piece of non-defensive utility. At best, one piece and a weapon, or two weapons only.
– You need a good mix of defensive utility.
– Applying Imp. Interference indirectly helps survivability. Enemy attacks that might be 4 or 5 damage over your armour could be crippled by Imp. Interference and not penetrate at all.
A good Immune System, late game, might look like this:
Unit: Brigandine A
Upgrades: -5 heat per turn, +2 Imp. Interference on hit, +5 armour
Weapon: Nemesis (Blue)
Item 1: Reinforced Frame
Item 2: Repeater (Yellow) OR Improved Cooling (Blue)
Item 3: Nullifier (Blue)
To top off this guide (or bottom off I guess), remember that enemies will prefer attacking allies with less armour, nullifiers, and all-round invincibility. Force them into a scenario where they can only attack your Immune System, like by standing in a doorway. Enemies either attack you or make holes to attack allies. Either way there’s no damage from the enemy. Or, send your Immune System to chase a last Acarid. High levels of armour makes them deal no damage, or none of significance.
Thanks for reading!