Minke

The Minke is a Serpulo faction tier-2 naval unit introduced in Version 6.0. It is a heavy, amphibious combat ship designed to combine long-range area bombardment with close-range anti-air suppression. The unit has high durability for its tier, sharing the largest health pool among Serpulo T2 units at 600 HP, and carries an internal item capacity for resupply and repair. The name is derived from the minke whale.

Minke fields two distinct weapon systems: paired anti-air gun mounts and paired artillery cannons. The anti-air guns fire two synchronized volleys at a rate of 2 × 3 shots/sec with an inaccuracy of 8°, dealing 3 damage per bullet; these bullets are specialized and cannot strike ground units. The artillery cannons fire slower at 2 × 1 shots/sec with 2° inaccuracy, deal 40 area damage, have a knockback of 0.8, and travel over obstacles; the artillery cannot hit air targets. Artillery splash has a useful radius (reported around 2.8 tiles) that lets Minke damage clustered ground structures and units from beyond many defenses.

Practical usage and interactions:

• The Minke excels at harassing and dismantling static infrastructure from range because its artillery shells travel over obstacles and inflict area damage; this makes it effective against fragile conveyors and tightly packed turrets.
• Its anti-air guns provide defense against enemy flyers attempting to intervene or repair, but their bullets will not damage ground targets, so Minke cannot substitute for direct anti-ground rapid-fire suppression.
• Keep Minke paired with repair support such as Retusa or with mobile healers in naval compositions; although its range improved over earlier equivalents, several enemy naval units (for example, Ripple) still out-range it, so healing and positioning matter.
• When used offensively, Minke can safely threaten turrets like Cyclone and Meltdown without entering their firing arcs, relying on artillery area damage to soften or destroy them.
• Minke performs poorly against fast, long-range counters that can avoid its splash or overwhelm repairs; units with concentrated single-target damage and long reach should be prioritized.

How to counter a Minke:

• Destroy Minke early with fast, hard-hitting units such as Hail and Ripple before it can snipe infrastructure; its artillery can bypass block-based cover and target vulnerable conveyors.
• Force Projectors (shields) can absorb much of the Minke’s area damage without overheating if no additional sources join the fight, since most incoming damage is splash.
• Air units must keep distance because anti-air bullets inflict significant damage; avoid sending Polies or other light air units into its anti-air firing range without support or distraction.

Notable changes over versions:

• Introduced in Version 6.0.
• Item capacity was increased later from 40 to 50.
• Range was adjusted from 32 to 30 blocks.
• Movement speed unit was standardized to 6.75 tiles/sec.
• The status-field support that granted Overclocked to allies was removed.
• Anti-air guns were made slightly more accurate (inaccuracy reduced to 8°) and their fire rate increased to 2 × 3/sec.
• Artillery had its area damage raised and radius increased (area damage reported to 40 and radius to ~2.8 tiles).
• Command limit restrictions (previous limit of 8) were removed in a later update.

The Minke occupies a niche as a resilient, artillery-focused naval support-platform that forces opponents to respect indirect area damage and to plan counters that either neutralize it quickly or exploit its limitations against ground targets.