Antumbra

Antumbra is a heavy Tier 4 airborne combat unit introduced to Mindustry as the Lich and later renamed. It functions as a durable, long‑ranged bomber that hovers at a set distance from targets and combines homing missile salvos with large bullet cannons. Antumbra is designed to punch through clustered defenses and reactors while carrying a large cargo load, making it useful for both assaulting fortified sectors and transporting resources in dangerous airspace.

Antumbra has very high health (noted at 7200 after adjustments) and substantial armor, which makes many standard anti‑air defenses less effective. Its AI maintains a fixed standoff distance from targets and it prioritizes attacking reactors. It was reworked to fire missiles at a steady pace rather than in bursts and had large bullet‑firing cannons added; homing missiles were adjusted to apply the Blasted status effect. Speed is reported as 6 tiles/second in recent versions. Antumbra carries the highest item capacity of all Tier 4 units at 180 items.

Antumbra’s armament consists of multiple missile mounts and large bullet mounts. The missile mounts are homing and inflict Blasted; individual missile stats reported include two mounts with firing rates around 1.5/sec and 0.85/sec respectively, each missile dealing 18 damage with an area damage component of 37 over roughly 2.5 tiles. The large bullet cannons fire two shots at about 2.5/sec and deal 55 damage per hit. These combined weapons allow Antumbra to engage both individual high‑value targets (reactors, core structures) and groups of smaller units.

Practical usage and counters:

• Antumbra excels where enemy anti‑air is sparse or weak, able to devastate bases with low dedicated AA tiers and to chew through shields and reactors. It performs particularly well against sectors where many shields are present but anti‑air turrets are limited.
• It outlasts smaller air units such as Zenith and absorbs sustained fire that would kill lighter bombers, but it lacks the mobility and utility of faster units like the Quad, so Quads remain preferable when speed and utility are priorities.
• Antumbra’s standoff behavior lets it avoid triggering some turrets unless they have range‑pulling mechanics (for example, Parallax). It can damage Barrier Projector shields because its weapons are not purely area damage, allowing it to break shields for subsequent direct hits.
• Effective counters include high burst or sustained heavy anti‑air: the Fuse is highly effective in groups, while Cyclone and Swarmer provide sufficient concentrated damage, especially if using Surge Alloy ammo. Foreshadow pairs well against Antumbra when Surge Alloy is available. Salvos loaded with thorium or graphite can also bring it down quickly if protected by other defenses.
• Because Antumbra is slow relative to nimble craft, combining high damage per shot with continuous tracking or crowding (multiple anti‑air turrets, missile batteries, or units) is the most reliable way to defeat it before it wrecks critical infrastructure.

Historical notes drawn from updates: Antumbra was introduced as the Lich, then renamed and had multiple stat and behavior changes across versions (range reductions, item capacity adjustments, health tweaks, conversion of speed units, removal of command limits, and weapon damage rebalances). Its description was refined to emphasize firing a barrage of bullets at enemy targets.