Arc

Arc is a compact 1×1 electric turret that consumes power as its ammo and fires short-range arcs of electricity at ground targets. It cannot target air units and is optimized for close defense where dense coverage and high area damage are valuable. The Arc inflicts the Shocked status on hit and has strong synergies with the Wet status on enemies, which can significantly boost its effective damage.

The Arc's ammunition is power. Its base damage per hit is 20, but building targets take -75% building damage (effectively 5 damage to structures). The turret fires roughly 1.71 shots per second (recent versions adjusted fire rate between ~1.66 and 1.71) and requires a high power input to sustain continuous firing—current documented consumption for construction-era/standard ammo is 198 power units/sec. Boosters reduce power draw to a steady consumption of 6/sec when applied; Water boosters increase fire rate to 120%, and Cryofluid boosters raise it to 145%. Build cost and time in later versions are increased (copper cost listed at 50, build time 1s in changelogs).

Practical use and interactions:

• Place Arcs in tight clusters or at choke points where many ground enemies pass; their area coverage and status application give them excellent value for a 1×1 turret slot. They are widely considered one of the best 1×1 turrets for general-purpose ground defense.
• Because Arcs cannot hit air, pair them with anti-air turrets such as the Scatter (and use Scatter’s air-priority targeting) to pull or eliminate flying threats while Arcs focus on ground targets.
• Arcs apply Shocked; hitting a Wet enemy increases the Arc’s damage output substantially. The Wet status can be applied by enemy contact with water tiles or by using water-based effects (e.g., Waves, Tsunami). Placing Arcs near shallow water on a path increases the chance enemies are wet when struck. Naval units are immune to Wet, so this synergy does not apply to them.
• Shocked piercing behavior was changed so that only 30% of the Shocked-related damage pierces armor while 70% is standard damage affected by unit armor. This reduces the previous full-piercing interaction.
• Arcs consume a lot of power; back them with Batteries to avoid blackouts that can disable electric defenses and support blocks (Menders, production, etc.).
• Avoid using Arcs to snipe distant infrastructure; their short range and reduced building damage make long-range or structure-focused roles inefficient.

Tactical notes and miscellaneous facts:

• The Arc is unique among power-as-ammo turrets in that it does not require Silicon in its build cost.
• Although the visible arcs appear to point away from the target, their projectiles curve toward enemies and have effectively zero inaccuracy.
• Recent patch history removed ineffective 2× ammo multipliers and adjusted fire rates, booster consumptions/potencies, power usage, and costs; these changes emphasize continual power requirements and balance against building damage and piercing on Shocked targets.
• Against enemies with greater range or flying units (e.g., Daggers, Novas, Flares), Arcs are vulnerable because they cannot reach or target such threats; prioritizing power infrastructure defense or pairing with anti-air can mitigate this weakness.