Gunner

Overview
The Gunner is a Soldier unit which has the useful ability to spray fire into a three-block wide target area, up to two rows deep. They are unlocked at Level 8, and are useful for clumped, unarmored enemies, such as Raiders and most Critters. The Gunner is most efficient against clumped enemy formations.

At Rank 3, a new attack option is available for research which allows the Gunner to put out a whopping 6 attacks as opposed to its original 3. The primarily limiting factor to this attack is the fact that it can only be used twice before the Gunner's ammunition is expended. Besides the extra ammo expenditure and negligible accuracy reduction, the attack has the same cooldown as the normal attack. It is recommended that players spend the and research this weapon upgrade.

On their own, Gunners are extremely fragile. They have low defense and only 70 HP. That means that if the enemy can target them, the Gunner will die quickly. Placing a Gunner in the first row is feasible if the player can afford to lose the Gunner in order to maximize its potential damage. A more conservative play is to play the Gunner in the second row, shielding it somewhat from Direct Line of Fire. As a Piercing damage-type unit, the Gunner will do negligible damage to heavily armored units. Against lighter armored units, such as Riot Troopers, the Gunner can quickly degrade their armor.

Attacks
Machine Gun=

Updates
2.2 Patch
 * Rank 2-4  promotion requirements not reduced.

1.4 Patch
 * Weapon upgrade option, Heavy Fire, added.

1.3 Patch
 * Weapon changed from single attack to burst (x3).
 * Maximum non-crit damage potential increased considerably, from 20 to 27-33.
 * Healing costs reduced: 950 gold and 6 iron to 570 gold and 4 iron.