Spiral

"Never miss the target. Need some time to capture the target, don't shoot when the target's not captured. Long reload time"

Introduction
The Spiral is given to you on your first Destrier. It is essentially a triple homing missile launcher.

It should be noted that the Spiral (like the Hydra and the Aphid, too) does NOT have a splash damage effect.

The Spiral is probably one of the most cost effective medium ranged weapons for lowest leagues due to its:


 * Damage: It does decent damage, and when upgraded high enough and used with other Spirals, it packs a serious punch.


 * Accuracy: As long as you or enemy don't fit under these conditions, it is a sure hit: <1>. You or your enemy is not under something. <2>. An object isn't directly in front of you or your enemy. <3>. Your enemy is not the Stalker, who keeps on running while activating it's special ability while being tracked down by missiles. In this case the missiles fired will hit the ground where the Stalker has activated its ability.


 * Range: At 600 meters, it's a decent mid range weapon.


 * ROF: It takes a medium time to reload (12 sec), but fire all three missiles in a second.

Once a target is locked on, a robot can turn slightly and fire from behind cover, or fire in a certain direction. Because of the fact the missiles track their opponents, experienced players use this to their advantage and hit other players from behind cover before the target notices. This is essential in places with many tall obstacles such as Dead City.

After locking on to a target, two green brackets appear to the left and right of the screen, and 4 triangles will slowly close around the target, indicating that the target has been locked on. By aiming to the left or right, you can fire the Spirals to curve around obstacles to the left and right respectively. This allows the missiles to hit opponents around a corner or even hit Rhino's in assault mode. This technique can work with an Hydra and, to a lesser extent, an Aphid.

However, Spiral does have some disadvantages. The main one (like mentioned above) is that they don't deal splash damage. This means if can be blocked by any form of shielding. ECU shielding can block them. It is hard though since the missiles travel in a unpredictable flight pattern. They do however, travel straight to your bot and when they close in, they decrease in altitude to where you can block them with an ECU shield. Ancile shielding is way more effective since the ancile HP vastly surpasses Spiral's damage output. Also, the Ancile shielding surrounds the robot 360. This means that there is no chance the missiles will hit unless the shield somehow gets disabled. The second disadvantage is that in urban areas (like dead city), the missiles need room to launch. If there is a obstacle in front of your bot, the Spiral missiles may hit the obstacle.

There is a chance where the Spiral missiles actually directly hit one of your hardpoints. This means that all of the damage is transmitted to the hardpoint and not the bot itself. It is unknown if its a glitch or not.

Trivia

 * AT Spiral's prefix was removed in version 2.5, for convenience.
 * A Spiral will not penetrate Ecu's and Ecu-like shields. It will also be blocked by Anciles.
 * Stalker's special ability allows it to dodge the missiles fired, as long as it keeps on running. In this case, the missiles will hit the exact same spot where the Stalker activates its ability.
 * The Spiral is rarely seen, as it does not penetrate any type of shielding, and does minimal damage. Experienced pilots can curve it around obstacles, but the low damage makes this weapon more of a nuisance to most players. Aphids, while they cost more, do much more damage and have a shorter reload time, at the cost of range.
 * When used in the higher leagues, the Spiral is commonly paired with Hydras on a Griffin, as this is possibly the most damaging all Homing Missile setup.
 * Like the Trident, while reloading, it's possible to see the three missiles being set into position on a revolver. When fired, the revolver spins, with each missile being rapidly seen shot out of the weapon.
 * It got its first buff after version 2.9.1 with a +15% damage buff.