Elude

Elude is a fast, hovercraft-class Erekir unit that floats over liquids but does not have true flight. It is the only ship-related unit in Mindustry that behaves as a ground/hover unit rather than an aerial ship. Eludes were added in Build 136 and are the quickest ground units in the game. They are available early—before tungsten is typically obtained—and can be manufactured using resources accessible to mixed-tech games, though some fabrication methods for ship production require Erekir-exclusive materials such as Beryllium.

Elude is lightly armored and optimized for hit-and-run and skirmish roles. Its armor was reduced from 3 to 1 in a later patch. Its primary weapon fires homing, spiral-pattern projectiles: each barrel fires at a base rate equivalent to 1.5 shots/sec (weapon cycle shows two shots at 1.5/sec), dealing 12 damage per projectile. Weapon stats recorded from game data include a reload of 40 ticks (0.6667 s), muzzle offset of 3, no rotation on the mount, recoil of 1.5, turn speed 20, projectile speed 5, lifetime 30 ticks (0.5 s), homing strength ~0.19, and the projectile spawns multiple shards (9) in a spiral. The weapon is not piercing and has no splash; its projectiles home with a wide arc.

Elude has a hidden cosmetic Movement Effect Ability (MoveEffectAbility) that emits a particle trail while moving; this is purely visual and does not grant additional combat effects.

Practical usage and strategy:

• Use Elude for scouting, rapid responses, and harassment. Its top speed and hovering ability let it cross liquids and respond to threats faster than other ground units.
• Favor hit-and-run engagements rather than brawling: Elude’s low armor makes it vulnerable to concentrated fire and heavy turrets.
• Maintain distance when attacking; its homing projectiles follow a wide curved path and are unusually unreliable at very close range, making it hard to hit small nearby targets.
• Pair Eludes with Avert (air) units to form mixed ground/air forces that can selectively disable dangerous turrets without needing late-game resources; pairing with Stell tanks lets the tanks draw fire while the Eludes flank to destroy ammunition or support structures.
• Eludes perform well against Merui due to their mobility being able to dodge slow-moving area attacks. They fare worse versus Stells because Stells’ 6 armor reduces Elude damage significantly (Elude damage is halved by high-armor targets).
• Defending against Eludes is best accomplished by sealing bypass routes and choke points; because Eludes are blocked by solid terrain, well-placed walls and chokepoints deny their mobility and neutralize their primary advantage.

Known balance history and notes:

• Introduced in Build 136.
• In Build 141, Elude’s armor was decreased from 3 to 1 and its main weapon damage was reduced from 18 to 12.
• The unit’s visual trail is produced by a hidden MoveEffectAbility and does not affect gameplay.