Fig 1Heron: anatomy2,433 hp · 4,480 per slug · range 14
Hover the unit to take it apart
The Heron is a single power-armored sniper that deploys for 75, the joint cheapest price on the roster, and its job is reach: one rail slug every 3.1 s, 4,480 damage with a 0.8-tile splash, out to 14 tiles (140 m), at ground and air alike. That makes it a killer of single valuable targets and of anything that flies: in the launch balance runs at 400, 800 and 1,600 it beats the Rotor swarm, the Mirage and the Seraph at every budget and wins most fights with the Aurochs tank. The slow cadence is also its weakness. One slug kills one small body, so the Skitter swarm, the Hexguard and Ridgeback lines and the Cutter beat it at every budget once they close in, and its 2,433 hp won't buy much time. Deploy it at the back behind a frontline that holds the swarms off (Varek Strand opens with exactly that, a Hexguard line and a Heron), facing the side where the enemy's air or heavies will come. Escort brings its own screen (4 Hexguards around it on deploy); Twin Barrel trades cadence for weight (8,960 every 4.2 s) to break tanks; Long Barrels stretches its reach to 18 tiles (180 m); Brawler Frame changes its role entirely, a 14,598 hp brawler that fires standing at 7 tiles for 7,168 a slug. On the stand it walks the treadmill at the clip's 0.9 s stride with its feet planted on the moving belt, while the aim chain (spine and chest, ±90° at 135°/s, the body bladed 30° off the aim) keeps the rifle on the target bug; Fire stops it, drops it to its right knee in 0.7 s, plants the bipod and fires on the true 3.1 s cycle. The tracer is drawn short.