Tarantula
Heavy Mech
Tarantula is a 200-cost short-ranged tank that serves as an early-game chaff clear unit and scales well with heavy investment.
Cost 200 
HP 14773 
Speed 8m/s 
ATK 496 
Splash Range 5m 
Attack Interval 0.6s 
Range 80m 
Target GROUND Unlock Cost 0 
Upgrade Exp 1500 
Rotation Speed 80deg/s 
Technologies
300Fires 2 Spider Mines with 750 HP every 15 seconds. The Spider Mines will charge at the enemy and self-destruct, dealing 4,500 damage to all units within 9 m. Spider Mine's attributes enhance with Tarantula's level, HP increases by 750 and damage increases by 4,500 per unit Rank increased.
300Increases range by 40
400Increases the units' movement speed by 4 and reduces attack interval by 0.2s
150Increases ATK by 50%
200Increases HP by 30% and automatically restores 4.5% of Max HP per second upon taking damage
200Increases HP by 50%, and blocks 60 damage when attacked. The damage blocking effect increases with the Rank. And for each Rank, blocks an additional 60 damage.
150Can be used against aerial units
300Increases splash damage range by 7m but decreases ATK by 45%
Strategy
In the early game, Tarantula is paired with Void Eye, Marksman, or Phoenix as the tank/chaff clear for their DPS. While its low Range Enhancement and relatively slow crawler/fang clear hold it back in the early game, these problems can be mitigated in the early game by positioning aggressively and solved in the late game with a sufficient number of Tarantulas and technologies. The most common tech combo is Range Enhancement + High-Explosive Ammo, to vastly increase the Tarantula’s speed at clearing Crawlers and Fangs. Instead of High-Explosive Ammo, Mechanical Rage can turn the Tarantula into more of a DPS unit against mid-sized units while still improving chaff clear somewhat. With enough Tarantulas, Spider Mine creates regular waves of late chaff that also deal immense damage if unchecked. In the late game, Tarantulas can even defeat air chaff with the Anti-Aircraft Ammunition upgrade. If tankiness is what you are looking for, Field Maintenance and Armor Enhancement can be an effective gutshot.
