Squad

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This is the unit you will find yourself controlling the most, especially in the beginning half of the game. This is your program created to directly battle the virus threat, outfitted initially with the Laser but can later utilize various secondary weapons.

The Squad is one of the Program type of units that you as the player can execute at any given time near a controlled Control Tower. This is the most often used program throughout the game, and also the one you find yourself most directly controlling. Using the right click or unit action button causes the Squad to fire lasers in a constant stream, while holding both mouse buttons will fire whichever secondary weapon is currently selected. You will have to find the research items before unlocking the corresponding secondary weapons.

The Squad is first used in the first level Garden, and is usable in every mission. While under your control, they will not perform any actions you do not directly command them to, however if you deselect a squad, it will automatically fire it’s lasers at nearby viruses, although at a slower rate than if you were controlling them directly.

A tactic I have found useful is to command a squad to charge through a group of enemies to draw their fire and attention while leaving them deselected to cause them to fire upon these aggressors. Follow this first Squad closely with a second Squad and fire your lasers constantly directly over the front team. This works as a bait method, allowing you to clump enemies together over the advance squad while clearing many with single shots. This works especially well on the Virii.

An important ability of the Squad is to serve as a mobile spawn location for Engineers, as they provide the ability to do so within a radius of their location. This serves many uses, for one allowing quick soul collection and capturing of structures recently liberated from infection control. They also seem to be able to take moderate damage before dying.

Squad Research

The Squad begins at Version 1.0, and each subsequent version researched up to 4.0 grants one extra squad member to a spawned Squad. Version 1.0 grants 3 members, 2.0 is 4 members, 3.0 is 5 members and the final version 4.0 caps out at 6 member squads. There are no additional benefits, and this research is less useful later in the game when the Darwinians take over as the primary fighting force.