Gamma

Gamma is a mid-tier flying combat unit introduced in Version 6.0 of Mindustry. It continues the naming convention of using Greek letters and is the third in that sequence. Visually, Gamma's sprite closely resembles the discontinued Glaive ship from Version 4.0, which was a player ship upgrade that fired high-damage missiles. Gamma is grouped with Alpha and Beta in that its projectiles have a fixed travel distance rather than an unlimited lifetime.

Gamma is armed with a homing secondary-style weapon whose projectiles deal moderate damage and have constrained building damage. The weapon features noticeable inaccuracy and homing capability, and its bullets despawn after traveling 30 tiles. Over several updates its range, movement speed reporting, player-control mining behavior, and how bullet velocity interacts with unit velocity were adjusted; these engine and balance changes affect how Gamma performs both under AI control and when directly controlled by a player.

Key practical details and behavior:

• Introduced in Version 6.0. Range was adjusted from 31 blocks down to 30 blocks in a later 7.0 build.
• Unit movement speed was recorded as 26.62 tiles/second after conversion in Version 7.0 (build 128).
• When controlled by a player and the "Double-tap/click to mine" option is enabled, Gamma can mine sand.
• A previous command limit (5) was removed in Version 7.0 (build 136), allowing more simultaneous orders.
• Weapon projectiles initially had velocity independent of Gamma's motion (Version 8.0, build 154), but that was reverted so bullet velocity is again affected by unit velocity (Version 8.0, build 157.1). A further tweak (build 157.3) fixed an edge case where shooting while moving backward caused an unintended extended lifetime.
• Weapon details from the published table: listed shots/sec as "2x 4" (indicating a multi-shot pattern), damage 11 per hit, inaccuracy 3°, homing behavior, and reduced building damage of 1% (so 11 damage becomes 0.11 vs buildings). Bullets despawn after traveling 30 tiles.
• Because bullets have a fixed travel distance, Gamma is best used at ranges within that travel limit; firing at targets near the gust of its maximum range will guarantee projectiles disappear at the 30-tile distance rather than persisting indefinitely.
• The homing and multi-shot pattern make Gamma effective against small, maneuvering targets, but the very low building damage means it is not intended as a primary structure-busting unit.
• Sprite similarity to the old Glaive is purely visual; Gamma’s armament and mechanics differ from the discontinued ship upgrade.

Use Gamma as a nimble, short-to-midrange interceptor that excels at hunting mobile enemies and supporting mixed air/ground compositions, while avoiding reliance on it for base destruction due to its negligible building damage.