Toxopid

Toxopid is a tier-5 ground unit that resembles a large spider and combines long-range artillery with short-range piercing lasers. It is named after the Toxopidae family of spiders native to Australia and New Zealand. Among units on Serpulo, Toxopid has the most legs, with eight, and its appearance and offensive capabilities have earned it informal nicknames like "big spooder" or "giant enemy spider."

Toxopid mounts two primary weapon systems. A close-range laser pair delivers high single-target piercing damage with a fast burst pattern. Its main artillery is a large electric cluster-shell cannon that fires slow, fragmenting projectiles: each shot produces multiple fragile fragments that travel over blocks and explode on impact, dealing area damage and applying the Sapped status for about ten seconds. The artillery cannot hit air targets, but its fragments will traverse terrain and ignore cover in their path, making defenses vulnerable even when the unit is behind walls. The unit’s legs themselves also deal collision damage in melee range.

Toxopid can step over most terrain and climb, which allows it to bypass typical ground chokepoints; it is only deterred by strong knockback effects. It is capable of drowning when all its legs are on deep water tiles; it drowns at a rate three times slower than a Dagger. Over development builds it has received multiple adjustments to capacity, range recalculations, movement speed units, size, and build/control behavior; at one point it lost the ability to be built and had a command limit removed. Fuse cannon projectiles and other small balance tweaks have also altered its combat behavior across updates.

• Strengths: excels at clearing clusters of ground units because its electric cluster shells inflict Sapped, severely reducing enemy offensive output; its fragments travel over obstacles, bypassing walls and some structures; leg collision damage adds a close-range threat.
• Weaknesses: artillery cannot target air units, leaving it vulnerable to dedicated flyers; it is outclassed in many roles by other tier-5 units such as Zenith for efficient damage or Quad for mobility; susceptible to powerful single-target knockback and focused high-damage anti-ground options like Cyclones, Swarmers (especially exploiting Surge Alloy + Water synergy), and certain air units like Antumbra and Eclipse that can snipe it safely.
• Combat notes: because the artillery’s fragments inflict Sapped, sending ground units against a Toxopid is usually fatal; keep air units on the front line to avoid sapping. Turrets that deal knockback or outright high burst damage can interrupt or kill a Toxopid before it reaches critical range. Stationary defenses like Segment can neutralize artillery clusters, though conveyors and lighter structures remain at risk from fragment explosions.
• Micro and counterplay: Foreshadow sniper turrets can score safe kills from distance if placed far from enemy spawns. There is a narrow safe zone between the two fuse cannons that can allow very small flyers to slip through, but exploiting this reliably is difficult in standard modes. Groups of Antumbra or a single Eclipse can destroy a Toxopid without support if allowed to engage from range.

Toxopid remains a specialized siege-oriented ground behemoth that dominates clustered ground engagements and base assaults when unsupported by anti-air, but it requires careful support and positioning to avoid being neutralized by focused high-damage or long-range counters.