Command and Conquer 4

In this tip we will look at how you can use the Avenger's mine to kill your enemies or how to avoid the mine when playing as GDI.

How the mine drop works

The Mine:

Avengers drop mines when they die as one last final attempt to do a bit of damage to the opposing GDI player. The mine lasts for 60 seconds and is stealthed. When stealth detection is nearby the effectiveness of the mine is drastically reduced, since GDI would easily be able to detect and destroy/avoid the mine.

The Blue Core Upgrade

Avengers with the blue core upgrade will leave three additional mines when they die (one in the middle with three surrounding it). This can cause some serious damage in battle. You can regognize these units by their thicker cannon or the circle on the back of the tank.

The Damage:

Units of all armor types take an initial 50 HP (Hit Points) damage when they first step into the mine. After this the unit starts to burn for a few seconds leading to another 20 HP loss in armor (totalling 70 HP). Direction also counts when it comes to mines, meaning your units will actually suffer more when they reverse over it (because of the weaker rear), leading to a total amount of 82 HP loss in armor.

The mine versus different armor types:

Lighter units will suffer more from this mine since you get less Hit Points per Command Point with them. Medium units will suffer less and Heavy units will barely feel the mine when they step into it.

Using the mine to your advantage as Nod

In most cases you're probably just going to hope GDI steps into the mine by accident, but there's still ways to improve your chances. Firstly, never sacrifice a Avenger just to get the mine. A good, healthy and breathing Avenger can do much more damage than a little mine lying around somewhere. Still, when it dies, it won't hurt to put your Avenger in a good position to try to get the enemy to walk over it.

Narrow gaps or choke points:

You can try to block a passageway to an important part of the map with your Avengers. Should the enemy succeed in killing your tanks they will be likely to proceed forward and walk right over your nodes. A good example is blocking the passageway to Node 1 on the map Withered Fracture.

The Crawler's Exit point

If an Avenger's death is unavoidable you can try and send it towards the "exit" of an enemy Crawler, which is the place where all newly-built units leave the Crawler. If an Avenger dies in that spot, you can be sure that the next unit that rolls out of the Crawler will step right into the mine.

Surrounding an enemy army...

If your army consists mostly of Avengers then you can try to surround the enemy. This can help you hit the weaker rear and plant mines all around the GDI units when they succeed in killing your Avengers.

Still it's important to remember that keeping Avengers alive is a much better idea than sacrificing them for the mine. When playing as GDI however, there is a few things you can do to prevent your units from stepping into these mines.

How to avoid the Avenger's mine when playing as GDI:

Stealth Detection:

The best way to ensure you do not walk over these mines is to keep some form of stealth detection nearby. Examples include the Engineer and Bulldog, both of which can detect stealth in a large radius. When the mine is detected your units will fire at it to destroy it. Before it's destruction your units will make no attempt to avoid the mine themselves, even if they can see it. Keeping at least one unit with stealth detection in an army is always a good idea.

Hover Units

GDI hover units can hover over enemy mines, which can make units like Sandstorms a good option when chasing after low-health Avengers. When they die and leave their mine behind you can simply hover over it without a care in the world. Sadly nearly all hover units will lose in direct combat against Avengers, so choose when to use them wisely.

Look for scorch marks!

If you don't have stealth detection nearby and just had a rough battle against a few Avengers, you can look for scorch marks to try and see where the mines were left behind. By driving/walking around the scorch marks can ensure you avoid stepping into one of these little $#*@& and proceed safely to where you wanted to go.

Beware of the core upgrades

Green or blue core upgrades left behind by Avengers will be protected by the mine. When you try to collect one with a low-health unit you can end up killing it, instead of making it stronger. Here's how to deal with it:

• Blue upgrade cores:
  This one's for GDI Offense players. Unlike green upgrade cores, blue upgrade cores do not heal your units when collected. If your unit has less than 70HP left, it will die because of the mine. Rather select units with a high amount of health, or Heavy units since they have a lot of HP. Having healing units around can also be useful when collecting these cores.
• Green upgrade cores:
  Even though they give you some HP when you collect them, your units will still suffer from the blast and fire afterwards. What can help is to collect these cores only with units with a Elite veterancy. When they reach the Heroic level after picking up the core, they will start healing by themselves.

When it comes to the classic Hunter vs Avenger battle, crates with a mine underneath them can make life for the Hunters a pain. Avengers will be able to collect these crates without taking any damage, thus helping them against the Hunter's ability to gain veterancy faster.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that these mines will have a deadly effect on Light units, it is always a good idea to keep stealth detection nearby when fighting Avengers and to choose wisely when to collect upgrade cores dropped by dead Avengers. It also helps Avengers to collect upgrade cores when fighting against Hunters, since Avengers can collect all of the crates safely, while Hunters will have to suffer some damage when collecting cores dropped by Avengers.

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