Units

Say hello to the 95th Rifle Division, and get used to never having quite enough units to get the task done. The troops and vehicles are necessary for the player to partake in any kind of fighting at all; while the player's level increases by making use of buildings to produce goods (or by completing quests ), the army is there to help protect the player's Outpost from the Raiders and wildlife.

There is no apparent maximum limit to the number of units that can be owned, but each one has its own requirements before it can be built, along with an associated cost in resources. When wounded in battle, a unit will not be outright destroyed but must be patched up at the Hospital for a fee. This means having a diverse and large force can be very important to the Outpost's safety.

Damage Types
Unit weapons and attacks have a damage type associated with them. Prior to 1.3 Patch, there was a table where certain damage types were more effective against certain unit types, as seen here: Pre-1.3 Notes.

Now the damage type is used to determine damage bonuses and penalties, normally listed with each unit's profile. A detailed explanation of damage types can be found under Damage Types.

Unit Types
Units consist of one or multiple classifications. As of this writing, it is not known if these play into the battle mechanics other than determining which weapons can attack which types. For example, some weapons can only affect Vehicles and Tanks, although certain unit types tend to have certain traits more often (Tank units have armor, Fast units have higher Dodge and Defense, etc.)


 *  Types/Classifications: 
 * Soldier
 * Vehicle
 * Tank
 * Fast
 * Metal
 * Critter
 * Security
 * Sniper
 * Artillery
 * Infected

There are icons associated with the unit profiles, seen in the upper-left of their respective build menus. These are carried over from prior to the 1.3 Patch, and it is not known if they have any meaning to their types now.


 *  Unit Type Icons: 
 * Class critter.png Critter (animal)
 * Class infantry-light.png Light Infantry
 * Class infantry-heavy.png Heavy Infantry
 * Class artillery.png Artillery
 * Class vehicle.png Vehicle (any vehicle that doesn't have the tank sign)
 * Class tank.png Tank
 * Class emplacement.png Emplacement
 * Class fortress.png Fortress

Promotions
See Also: Promotion

Units that participate in battle will become experienced and grow stronger. This is represented through ranks and promotion. Each rank will make each unit of that type stronger, for a price. And furthermore, additional weaponry might become available to research, in exchange for a nominal fee of Nanopods. The maximum rank is currently 6 as of Patch 2.2.

In order to promote a unit it needs a certain amount of Skill Points (abbreviated as SP and denoted by the icon, ). SP is accrued after each battle in which the unit participates, the amount determined by the quality of the enemies defeated. They may either not act at all, or even be killed, but they'll still receive some Skill Points for the effort (usually half of what they normally would receive as a share). Note that if there are multiple units of the same type, and one gets killed, they will still earn the same amount of SP.

Once that unit has earned a copious amount of Skill Points, the player will then be allowed to promote that unit one rank, which costs a lot of resources and time. It should be noted that only one unit can be promoted at a time at a time; if the player attempts to promote another unit, the player will be prompted to hurry the existing promotion (with Nanopods). A unit in the process of being promoted, or already at the maximum level will not receive additional Skill Points after the combat, but they will still count against the shares for other units to earn.

Post-Battle SP Allotment
The total number of SP earned is equal to the SP rewards from the opposing army. Whenever an enemy unit is defeated the SP and gold rewards float above the destroyed unit's head. These rewards are only collected if the battle is won. Losing or retreating yields no rewards, not even for the units that were destroyed.

The total SP is then divided amongst the different types of units that participated in the battle, NOT each individual unit (like Trooper or Gunner, not to be confused with unit types/classifications from above). The SP rewards are based on distributed as follows:
 * Units types that attacked (even if they miss or are ineffective) get their full allotment of SP (rounded up).
 * Units types that get attacked, even if they dodge, but do not attack will only get half the SP of those that did attack (rounded up).
 * Unit types that are completely destroyed, or did not act nor get attacked, will only get a quarter of what attacking units get (rounded up).
 * Units types that are not attacked and do not attack recieve a third of what the attacking units get (rounded up)

Weapon Research
In addition to improved stats, reaching certain ranks will unlock new weapon attack options for certain units. Researching these will cost resources and time. Like Unit Promotion, only one weapons research project can occur at a time.

These weapon upgrades must be assigned to a unit's ability slot. In some cases, the unit will only have one ability slot, and the player can choose to replace the existing attack with the newly researched one. The player can freely swap these weapons anytime outside of combat when viewing the unit profile. The player should be cautious about attacks researched or equipped, because some will change the unit's attack entirely.

Barracks
The Barracks trains Soldiers and Snipers. The Riot Trooper is the only one whose type differs, being a Soldier-Metal.

Animal Trainer
The Animal Trainer building will allow players to train 3 of the 4 available critters for their army. The other critter, the Allied Mammoth Rider requires a Prestigious Academy and stars to train unlike the other critters which require Teeth to train and heal. Note that the younger animals can be unlocked at level 1 as stated in the patch notes, but not the trainer itself.

Raider Training Camp
The Raider Training Camp will enable the training of Raider units for use. These are much more powerful than those encountered during quests or those in invading forces in the Outpost. The Allied Warrior alone is comparable in power to a Commando (although it is mildly inferior in statistics).

Skulls are required to build the Raider Training Camp and to train and heal allied Allied Raiders.

The Allied Mammoth Rider requires a Prestigious Academy.

Infection Test Facility
The Infection Test Facility is a building introduced in 2.3. Non-infected, non-nano units in the hospital can instead be "infected" at this building, turning into a semi-random infected unit.

Vehicle Factory
The Vehicle Factory is the production facility for vehicles, artillery and tanks. By the time it is available, infantry units will find themselves more and more challenged by new enemy units. The vehicles available to train early on lack armor, so are more prone to dying and costly repairs. Artillery have the safety of being far from the front lines, although they are still vulnerable to the dreaded Dust Walker. Upon arriving to level 18, Vehicles and Tank types which have armor will become available for training. A unit's Armor's bane are Armor Piercing attacks, but these are not found in normal critter or raider invaders.

Iron, Steel, and Oil are important resources to have stockpiles of, as missions in this range level may leave a few undesired patients in the Hospital.

Frontier Recruitment HQ
The Frontier Recruitment HQ will enable the training of Frontier units for use.

Prestigious Academy
The Prestigious Academy is the production facility for prestigious units. The player can spend Stars to build units not available anywhere else. These units are a cut above all the others as they deliver more powerful attacks and have different types of attacks, such as the Allied Raider Dustwalker's Backstab attack. Since these units require Stars, they are only available to players who have reached and exceeded maximum level. That is every 45,000 XP past maximum level for 5 stars, not counting the 146,000 XP after maximum level 45 for the first 5 stars (as of 1.4 Patch).