Mechabellum Scorpion Guide
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How to play Scorpion
The Scorpion's best use case is to counter Steel balls. The second best is to counter Sledgehammers, but sometimes in that scenario the enemy has a very easy switch into Overlords and that's usually a very scary situation. The scorpion is also good vs enemy shields/barriers.
The key of using Scorpions is to pair them with good chaff clear; Vulcans or mustangs. I find it to be a big mistake to overcommit into this unit too early. It's usually best just to get one of them without any technologies and chill for 1-2 rounds and see what the response is. Later in the game you can mass these and go range+acid and it's very strong. Even one scorpion will tank a good amount of damage early game and kill the one unit you have a problem with (f.e. lev2 balls/sledge).
The scorpion is also very good against the War Factory. The attack damage from the scorpion destroy all the summons and the acid attack will deal with the factory itself.
The scorpions can counter giants but are not that good against them, you usually lose to fortresses and melting points if the enemy masses them.
Mechabellum Scorpion counter
First of all you shouldn't commit too heavily into Sledgehammers or Steelballs in the early game to give the opponent a very easy out to buy a scorpion.
The biggest counter of the scorpion is the Overlord. Scorpion is also very weak to crawlers. The moment you see scorpions, it is a good idea to start looking into how you can get to overlords. Either build them immediately or delay a round by buying a bunch of crawlers to distract the Scorpion.
Scorpion Builds
Listed below are all some highlighted Scorpion builds.
Surrey's Scorpion build
I mostly use scorpions without buying any technologies. Just chill with them so the enemy cannot commit into steel balls or sledges. Then it's time to sell the scorpion and go giants. If you want to be more into the scorpions, don't tech the range before they start dying too quickly. It's important to be a frontliner and tank some damage as long as you can.
Scorpion Technologies
Listed below are all available technologies for Scorpion, their viability and how to use them.
Armor Enhancement
HP is increased by 35% and 60 damage is blocked when attacked. The damage blocking effect increases with the level, and each level blocks additional 60 damage.
200
Field maintenance is better.
Field Maintenance
Automatically restores 4.5% Max HP per second upon taking damage
300
This used to be the best technology but they removed an HP buff from it so now it's a little bit sad. It's good if you have itemized or leveled scorpions and want to force the enemy into a melting point.
Doubleshot
Each attack fires 2 shells in succession but increases reload time by 12%
300
Good vs rhinos, mech div steel balls and does something against shielded fangs. Very good vs giants. It's a very niche technology though. I wouldn't use this ever. I think it's the best vs rhino pushes but against rhino pushes you want steel balls and not scorpions.
Range Enhancement
Increases attack range by 40m
300
Range is always good and most of the times the range is needed on the scorpion. Don't tech it too early, since the investment makes you very vulnerable to a overlord switch. It's usually better to use your scorpion as a frontline tank at least in the early game. Consider teching field maintenance instead of range.
Siege Mode
Scorpion enters siege mode, increasing range by 70m, decreasing ATK by 35% and it cannot attack enemies within 75m around it. the attack interval of the Scorpion is increased by an additional 1.5 seconds.
300
In theory this technology seems very nice. And in late game, having a bunch of long range scorpions throwing acid on the enemy feels like a good idea. However, in reality I don't think you have enough time to tech the siege mode. For this to work, I think the enemy has to make some serious mistakes to allow you to commit so heavily into the Scorpions. But when the time is right, it is pretty good.
Acid Attack
Scorpion's attack will create an acid area with a radius of 15m at the hit point. The acid area lasts for 40 seconds, units within the acidic liquid lose 3% HP per second and will suffer 250% damage when attacked.
300
It's a very late game tech usually. But if you have survived to the point where you have a stable board with ranged scorpions, the acid attack is going to be very good.