You’re 10 turns into a game of Prismata. Both you and your opponent are pumping out attackers as fast as you can, but nothing seems to be enough to penetrate their Defense Grid. They buy a Wall, you buy a Wall. Tit for tat.

What’s the best move in this type of situation? To stop buying defense in favour of burst attackers? Risky! Switch your tech to a more offensive play? Inefficient! Wait for them to run out of defensive unit seeds? There isn’t a clear answer in situations like this, especially for new players who aren’t sure how risky each option truly is.

Until now.

Let’s talk about our latest two units, and the new game mechanic that’s going to change everything about turtle defense builds in Prismata.

Introducing: Deadeye Operative

Deadeye Operative gives players a radical new ability: to snipe Drones without first breaching their opponent’s defense. In games like the one shown above, it often feels impossible to breach high-health defenders like Defense Grid. Your opponent can continue to make Walls each turn that offset your attack seemingly forever.

Deadeye Operative lets you be offensive without breaching your opponent’s defense. This can lead to crazy game states. For example, “last man standing”-type races where players still have attackers and Walls but lose all of their production. Deadeye is so resourceful that it’s even a blocker once it has finished wiping out your opponent’s Drones.

Note: This unit doesn’t snipe Drone variants such as Trinity drone, so you can still rely on those. Or you could be extra tricky and keep all your Drones back on defense so that Deadeye has nothing to snipe…

Apollo is Here

Meet Apollo, Deadeye Operative’s big brother. We decided not to limit the sniping mechanic to just Drones: Apollo can snipe any unit with 3 or less health! This includes units that are attacking you, so you can hide behind Apollo and limit your opponent’s attack. Other potential strategies involve sniping their Walls for a well-timed breach, or sniping an Animus to mess with their build. Even Deadeye Operatives can be sniped by Apollo! The possibilities are limitless, and Apollo can even the field with a single well-planned click.

I’ll finish with one cool trick: you can assign 2 damage to your opponent’s Gauss Cannon in combat, and then use Apollo to finish it off on the same turn. Watch out for this!