Aphid

"Low weapon range is compensated by high damage. Missiles can easily fly over low obstacles but are ineffective against fast-moving robots"

Aphid (Light Homing Missile)
Aphid is a homing missile weapon.

It is a versatile close-range weapon. Like the Spiral, the Aphid requires time to lock onto its target. However, once fired, the missiles will automatically home in on their targets, generally guaranteeing a hit. Because the missiles are fired into a ring following an arcing trajectory, they are able to hit a target that is hiding behind cover. On average, about 4-5 of the 8 missiles fired will hit the target.

The Aphid begins to lock on opponents at 600m, although it can only be fired from 350m. This is most likely because the Spiral, Hydra, and Zeus also lock on at 600m. When locked onto an opponent, one can aim between the 2 green brackets that appear to the left and right to curve the missiles in the aimed direction. However, the missiles do not curve as much as the ones on the Spiral.

Once fired, Aphid missiles follow a predictable trajectory. Fast, agile robots (e.g. Gepard) and jumping robots (e.g. Cossack) in particular can time their movement or jumps to minimize the damage done by an Aphid salvo.

Aphids are some of the deadliest close-range knife fighting weapons due to their ability to clear cover. In addition, with a relatively fast reload time of 10 seconds, a robot can fire salvos over and over again, gradually weakening the target.

Due to the low-flying trajectory of the Aphid missiles, it should generally be used in open ground, where the enemy cannot hide. However, if you are lower than the targeted enemy, missiles will launch at a much steeper angle. For example, on the Yamantau map a robot on the ground below either enemy spawn can launch missiles near vertical.

The missiles fired by the Aphids, unlike those of the Spiral, are not guaranteed hits. Often some of the missiles will hit the ground next to the robot if it is moving. Jumping robots can easily negate large amounts of damage if jumping, and sometimes they can even dodge an entire salvo. Aphids will most likely miss fast moving light robots but they have a large chance to all hit if the enemy remains still.

The Aphids do well in groups, as 3 or even 4 of them can do heavy amounts￼ of damage to opponents. The Gepard and the GL. Patton are the most common robots to see Aphid groups on, the former of which can quickly get in and out of cover to fire the missiles while taking as little damage as possible, and while the latter is slower, the damage it delivers is absolutely brutal. A single salvo is sometimes enough to temporarily destroy a Carnage's Ancile shield. It has also been seen more on the griffin due to the location of the light hardpoints, getting the name "Stuka" Griffin.

Note that due to a bug it is not advised to mount Aphids on top light hardpoint on the Leo; some of the missiles explode instantly on launch. Possibly due to close location of Heavy hardpoint armament.

Update History

 * 1) The EE Aphid was originally a silver weapon and cost 250,000 silver rather than the current 750 gold.
 * 2) Since update 2.2.0, the missiles travel in a tighter spiral, greatly improving their accuracy.
 * 3) In update 2.5, the prefix of Aphid was removed, changing from "EE Aphid" to "Aphid", and the accuracy was slightly decreased.

Trivia

 * There is a Russian short-range lightweight infrared homing air-to-air missile weapon with the same name, the AA-8 'Aphid'; however it is not certain that these weapons are related.
 * Aphid seems to be related to Spiral, both being light hardpoint weapons with the similar mechanics (like Pin is related to Pinata, or Molot to Punisher).

Cycle damage in brackets above is only possible under the best circumstances, namely:
 * 1) The target is unshielded.
 * 2) If any of the missiles hit a shield, then each individual missile will do the displayed single-round damage until the shield is destroyed. If shield is destroyed, any remaining missiles damage the intended target based on how many missiles remain.
 * 3) The target is hit by ALL 8 missiles fired.
 * 4) Heavy/Medium bots are going to be your main target, as they have big hull and a slow speed.
 * 5) Light robots will often dodge many or even all of the missiles fired, depending on the target’s movement speed, size and trajectory. Much like the Spiral, aiming is more important than it looks.