Missile damage and effects

The exact effect and damage values of missiles are never stated in the game or its manual. The following effects have been calculated by reading the game code and testing.

1. Explosive
2. Area Explosive
3. Napalm
4. Hellfire
5. Nuclear
6. Scatter
7. Virus
8. Mega
9. Stasis
10. Vortex
11. Antivirus
12. Alien missiles

Explosive

The Explosive missile deals 10 damage to buildings in each of four contiguous squares.

Internally, the game considers this a 2x2 square area. However, it maps onto the asteroid’s coordinate system in the shape of a Z-shaped or S-shaped Tetris block.

Like all area effects, the missile can strike a four-square building multiple times if it hits more than one of its squares. It may hit fewer than four squares, if part of the area is covered by rocks or the edge of an asteroid.

The Explosive’s 2x2 area in particular appears to only spread down and right from the start point, meaning that one which strikes the very bottom-right of an asteroid will affect only one square have nowhere to spread. Asteroid edges are always marginally safer because there are fewer adjacent squares for missile effects to spread from.

See building hitpoints and the individual alien articles for how much damage each building can take before it’s destroyed. Most buildings have more than ten hitpoints, although they don’t normally regenerate damage without a Repair Facility, so damage is cumulative.

Area Explosive

The Area Explosive deals 10 damage, same as Explosive but over a larger area. It strikes a 5x5 area, hitting 25 squares. Internally that’s a 5x5 square, but in practice that renders in a wide spread approximately six horizontally and four vertically (in default asteroid rotation). Take that into account when firing them, and when placing buildings, since all aliens except Tylarans use this missile. Fire one at an asteroid to get a sense of its blast shape.

Napalm

Napalm strikes the same 5x5 area as the Area Explosive. Fire one at an asteroid to get a good sense of what the game’s 5x5 area looks like.

Napalm deals 5 damage on hit to each square. Fire continues to burn, dealing 1 point of damage 9 times, for a total of 14 damage.

Swixarans have weakness to fire, taking more damage from Napalm. It deals 8 base damage against them instead of 5, and 2 damage per tick afterward, for a total of 26. The increased damage also applies if you fire Napalm against your own asteroid while Swixaran is the current alien.

Hellfire

Initially, this is a weaker version of Napalm: 3x3 area, 5 initial damage and 6 damage over time, for a total of 11 damage.

Its special ability is that its fire can spread. If it spreads to a new building, that building takes the 5 initial damage, followed by the fire damage over time. However, testing suggests that the Hellfire’s ability to spread is unreliable, and the missile may be overrated.

Like Napalm, Hellfire deals additional damage against Swixarans: 8 base damage, and 2 fire damage per turn, for a total of 20.

Nuclear

Nuclear missile deals 7 damage to each building on the asteroid. Four-square buildings are only struck once each.

Every square occupied by a building is then set on fire, as Napalm, dealing 1 point of damage 9 times. This fire does affect every square of a 4-square building. In total, every one-square building takes 16 damage, and every four-square building takes 43 damage. Without Screen Generator or Building Armour, this is enough to destroy every four-square Terran building including the C.P.U., which will instantly destroy an underdeveloped colony.

Nuclear also has a 25% chance to destroy each ship in orbit. If the background radiation level is 70% or less, it increases background radiation by 70%.

The Rigellian version of the Nuclear deals 10 base damage instead of 7, and only increases background radiation by 30%. It does not destroy ships in orbit. These traits only apply to nukes fired by the Rigellians, not your own.

Scatter

Strikes a random pattern of up to 25 squares, dealing 10 damage to each square hit. The same square can be hit multiple times, and some hits will be wasted on rocky squares.

The drawback to Scatter is that since it’s spread out, it’s less likely to hit four-square buildings multiple times.

Virus

Strikes with a 3x3 square blast, instantly destroying any buildings in the area. All flat ground tiles (2d, 2e, and 2f) become green goo, and unbuildable.

Once every six days, the green goo can spread, destroying any building it touches.

Ax’zilanths have the ability to adapt to Virus. Every Virus missile which hits them after the first has no effect.

The Ore Eater equivalent of Virus has the additional effect of slowly transforming the asteroid’s ores into Selenium.

Mega

Mega causes an asteroid to explode completely, as if by collision with another asteroid.

Stasis

Freezes the asteroid in stasis. It has a 30% chance to unfreeze on each of three times per year, on days 32, 64, and 96. The following table shows the odds of duration:

Vortex

Vortex spawns a wandering electrical storm. Each game tick, the vortex will do the following:

The only alien which uses Vortex missile is the Ax’Zilanth, although the Ore Eaters and Tylarans do have ships with Vortex Mines. This may be because each Vortex storm counts toward the maximum of 700 ships, so heavy use of Vortex by aliens would quickly fill those.

Vortex is especially effective against Rigellians, dealing 5 per hit instead of 2 per hit. This also applies if the player fires a Vortex at their own asteroid while the current alien is Rigellian.

Antivirus

Antivirus turns all green virused squares into blue squares, which eventually cure into normal squares. No aliens have Antivirus, making Virus quite powerful, although the Ax’Zilanth are capable of adapting to it.

Alien missiles

Aliens each have their own unique missiles, as well as using standard missiles:

Missile	Kll	Ore	Axz	Tyl	Rig	Swi
Explosive
Area Exp.
Napalm
Hellfire
Nuclear
Scatter
Virus
Mega
Stasis
Vortex
Antivirus

In addition, each alien has their own unique missiles:

Kll-Kp-Qua

One unique missile, which reduces the population by 20 and produces a blue flash.

Ore Eaters

Three unique missiles. The first deals 14 damage to every building. The second destroys a single building if it hits one, then randomly gives the asteroid 100 to 299 additional ore of a common (red) type. (This can increase radiation if it gives you Asteros.) Their Virus also converts ores other than Nexos into Selenium at a rate of one unit per 6 days.

Ax’Zilanths

Two unique missiles. One intercepts and neutralizes incoming warheads. The other causes a Static Inducer effect against all ships.

Tylarans

They do not use missiles at all. An unusual quirk is that while using the Telescope cheat, you can hit Tylaran asteroids with missiles before you’ve formally discovered them, which normally you can’t.

Rigellians

Two unique missiles. One drains power, reducing the asteroid’s power generation by half for 20 to 39 days. The other is a bioweapon which kills 20 population and causes an immediate viral outbreak. Additionally, their Nuclear is more powerful, dealing 10 base damage instead of 7.

Swixarans

Three unique missiles. One is a bioweapon which kills 50 colonists. The second dissolves all Sensor Array buildings on the asteroid. The third causes ongoing sabotage to buildings, dealing 10 damage every 4 days to a random building, and triggers 4-9 times.

See the individual alien pages for specific information on each alien’s missiles and the precedence of building each missile.