Arknights has a wide variety of enemies that all exist to get into that blue base as soon as possible. But there are certain kind of enemies that are just annoying, do specific things to bug your operators otherwise, and sometimes do not even have the redeeming quality of being rare. In particular, any of these will ruin the day of any doctor:
- Invisible variants of enemies as a whole tend to fall into this lot. Their ability to remain intangible until being blocked allows them to casually slip past ranged firepower and close the distance between your units, even if there are other targets in range since they notably avert Splash Damage Abuse. However, the annoying part is when said invisible enemies are ranged units like casters - now, they can snipe your units freely, while operators can't even do anything but sit there and take it unless they are under a comparatively-rare induced True Sight note or blocked. To make matters worse, any means of detecting them are far and few between, and skills do not see these enemies either, so to hit them with one means they have to be uncloaked first. Certain level modifiers and Contingency Contract Risk tags will also give this trait to Demonic Spiders (especially those that are in tricky areas of the map to begin with), turning already threatening enemies into hair-pullingly frustrating ones.
- Airborne Soldiers. These jetpack-equipped mooks can suddenly appear and land from the sky during their scripted waves, often appearing near the objective point itself. If the player hasn't deployed any nearby operators to anticipate these airborne soldiers, they can just casually walk their way into the objective, preventing you from a perfect run. In later stages, these soldiers can also appear in numbers at once, sometimes in multiple directions. Talk about ambush tactics...
- In Chapter 7, they return as Guerilla Siegebreakers, whose defenses and HP have increased substantially. In addition, the presence of a Herald or Patriot himself will jack their attack through the roof, making taking them out all the more harder before they eliminate key units and stroll straight into the objective zone.
- Chapter 8 also introduces a variant with similar stats as the Siegebreakers, but equipped with a crossbow for ranged attacks. Fortunately, they don't get any active buffs like the Siegebreakers do.
- Metal Crabs are irritating Stone Walls that have extraordinarily high DEF and RES for such an early enemy, which is offset by their major weakness to being pushed into holes and a tendency to appear on levels with obvious ones. This is not the case in Integrated Strategies, where the level layouts may not offer convenient holes or you may not have a shifter to move them. Suddenly, their glaring damage resistances become a lot more glaring, especially since they tend to appear on relatively early levels where you may lack the DPS to punch through their defenses and defeat them in time. Although their low ATK means they won't be taking out units any time soon, they can hog block count for painful amounts of time and make sure that melee operators can't retaliate against other enemies that can damage them, as well as letting other enemies slip past blockers, if they don't do it themselves first.
- Bombtail Drones and the stronger Bombtail-G models. These drones occasionally spawn on some maps and like the regular drones, will not be able to attack once they drop their payloads. Whether less durable operators can survive the area blast from the bomb payload, however, is another question. There are only two effective method in dealing with them, which is to deploy somebody or summons as bait, or deploy extremely long ranged operators to take them out. If a map happen to allow the deployment of Jammers, then that will lessen their threat considerably, though this would not stop them from blowing up the Jammer from outside its range. Furthermore, even if operators survive their bomb, their speed increases significantly once they've dropped it - combined with their above-average HP, they can easily slip through defenses and cause a leak.
- In Chapter 6, a variant called the Oneiros appears, which has its payload replaced with an ice bomb. While this variant deals less damage, it inflicts unmitigatable Arts damage while also potentially freezing player operators in a freezing AoE blast if they're already under the Chill debuff. Fortunately, they don't get a speed boost upon dropping their bomb.
- A Flurry to the Flame introduces Serrant/Daimoserrant Fowlbeasts, which are normally just flying shooters with above-average stats, but can occasionally spawn holding an Oxmane carcass that doubles the range and massively boosts the damage of their first attack like a Bombtail. The carcass can deal upwards of 2-3 thousand damage, enough to evaporate nearly any ranged unit and potentially even melee units without enough HP and DEF. They also come in large numbers, which not only creates a risk of squishies being pelted to death by their normal attacks, but also makes it harder to single out any who are carrying a payload. Fortunately, crowd control will force them to drop their carcasses while downing them for some time, and their event just so happens to provide a hefty supply of Flash Grenades.
- Crossbowmen and Molotov Throwers. Their only job seems to be strutting around your squishy Snipers or Casters and pelting them to death using their disturbingly-powerful weapons. At least Crossbowmen are slow and come in small numbers, but the Cocktail Throwers are mob-type enemies, meaning they'll rush you in large numbers and quickly burst down your ranged units unless you have a Medic going on overdrive. Both of these types will typically be the death of you in Supply and Annihilation maps early on (though Annihilation often gives you rather convenient pits with which to deal with them).
- Defender-4 Drones. These guys do not do anything to player operators except perhaps loiter around for a while and increase the defense of every enemy around it by 300, thus making them harder to kill. With their increased defenses, player operators will have a hard time taking them down fast enough to prevent leaks within their defenses, especially if they happen to buff Mighty Glacier type enemies.
- Frost Drones. They are rare, but whenever they show up, they will most likely ruin your day. Like Defender-4 drones, these drones do absolutely nothing except hover around in places where players most likely deploy their operators to hold the line. However, their means of annoying players is the fact that they drastically reduce the temperature of a large chunk of the map around them, which halves all operators' attack speed in that immediate area. This, of course, causes operators to sometimes not being able to take down their enemies fast enough to prevent leaks. It is in player's best interest to destroy these drones as fast as possible, however, these guys are not exactly easy to take down compared to the Defender-4 due to a combination of the aforementioned attack speed slow and their surprisingly high defense, which warrants the use of either high attack power or Arts Damage to pierce (and the operators that specialize in dealing Arts Damage will have a low attack speed by default already).
- Mortar Gunners. A type of enemy that will usually appear at the other end of the map from the objective. However, that poses no problem for them as they have nearly global range with their mortar rounds, which will rain down on player defenses and deal physical AoE damage. Since they usually appear in isolated corners of the map, dealing with them usually requires dedicated Specialists or duelist Guards. They are thankfully rare, but the times they do appear will require players to ensure their aggro is maintained on defensive-oriented operators, while other operators beside them are durable enough to withstand their AoE explosions - otherwise, their Medics will be bum-rushed to maintain everyone's health on top of having to deal with the squad's constant damage from the enemy waves.
- In Chapter 7, Guerilla Mortars start showing up. These variants have been upgraded with higher stats (including significantly higher DEF) to make sure assassinating them will not be as easy as before, and if they are inspired by a Herald or Patriot, they'll get a ton of attack speed to bury your operators under a barrage of AoE shells.
- Wraiths and their event-variant Ergates. They actually do no damage and just pass through your units, but dealing with them is bothersome because while ranged folks can hit them, melee folks get incredibly limited damage uptime against them due to their property of passing through all character blocking. There's a couple ways of dealing with them, depending on the map, but you still need to do it and they're fairly zippy, meaning you need to pour on the damage in time (or have a comparatively rare AoE slow) to hit them while they're in range. While the regular variants are annoying, the Leaders pack increased HP and DEF that makes killing them in time quite difficult.
- Acid Originium Slugs, who have rather low stats but a trait that causes each of their attacks to inflict a temporary DEF debuff on their target (-10 for a regular Slug, -15 for a red variant). The problem arises with the fact that the debuff stacks indefinitely and lasts permanently, and that the Slugs are sent out in large numbers alongside other units. If enough of them pile onto an operator, they can quickly whittle down their DEF until it's literally 0, making their pitiful damage a genuine threat or allowing other physical attackers to send your operators into a world of pain.
- Introduced in Darknight's Memoir are Sarkaz Sentinels, who are harmless but carry flags that they will plant when harmed, permanently buffing the ATK and DEF of all living enemies at the time and causing all Sarkaz Bladeweavers and Grudgemasters currently in their standby state to instantly turn hostile. They have 4000 HP, not much, but the catch is that they will remain at 1 health momentarily just for the express purpose of planting that flag and dicking everybody over. This is regardless of how much damage you're bursting them down for, even taking into account the ATK buffs you'd get from the air vents on those tilesets. Due to the way Arknights handle attack intervals, your operators will not be able to strike them down in time to prevent their flags from going up; while you can snipe them down using operators that deal damage instantly when deployed, such as Projekt Red or Waai Fu, this strategy requires a lot of careful timing to pull off, and won't work as well when setting up for the already-wonky Auto Mode. Unless you're prepared to deal with a colossal wave of buffed Sarkaz, you'll usually just have to carefully plan your strategy around when or when not to trigger the Sentinels, especially in Operation Cinder where their buffs are enhanced and their Sarkaz cohorts are too powerful to defeat with brute force. And before you ask: No, Lappland's Spiritual Destruction won't work on them.
- With Obsidian Festival, comes an especially annoying new type of enemy: Snipers. Unlike the bog-standard crossbowmen, these snipers deal moderate damage...that stuns your operators after three hits (signified when their rifles crackle with red electricity), just like those pesky Defense Crushers of 5-10. And unlike those guys, these buggers have very long range and will come in very large numbers just to mess with your unit lineup. With enough of them on the field, aiming at one operator, they can just casually stun-lock that poor soul in place from halfway across the battlefield - and if they happen to be a Sniper Leader, their range is increased and the stun now lasts for 15 seconds, allowing them to stunlock a target all by themselves from even further away. It's probably a good thing that the welfare operator provided by the event just so happens to have a stun reduction skill, so get busy. Lappland's talent can disable their stunning ability, though she is very likely to get stunned herself before she could do anything if you do not put her right in front of their spawn point so she hits them as soon as possible. Really, the only real tactic for dealing with these guys is to assassinate them before they approach the bulk of your defenses, since they tend to enter the map from isolated points.
- The Twilight of Wolumonde event brings us two irritating enemies called Leithanien Whisperers and the stronger versions, Leithanien Psalmists. They are your typical arts caster, with slow ASPD and defense piercing Arts damage, albeit with much longer range. However, with the heavy usage of Gramophones in the event to deal with Colossi and prevent enemy healing, their capability to hijack the towers makes them a high priority threat. Due to the way the Whisperer's skill works, they'll sometimes stop barely out of operator attack range to begin their hijacking once they get close enough to the towers, giving them a good amount of time to try and hijack the towers without the player's interference. Not to mention they usually don't come alone, making hijacking the towers even more easier for the enemy. The best way to deal with these casters is by usually using the age old method of spawn camping to minimize their channeling time and prevent them from building up.
- Patriot's Guerrilla troops show their military-like professionalism and precision compared to other Reunion troops in the form of Guerrilla Heralds and Herald Leaders. These guys are the bread and butter of the Guerrilla troops, coordinating their movement and therefore granting global buffs (+10% ATK and +100 DEF). Nothing special, except that the Heralds presence also activates the special skills of nearly any Guerrilla troops if they have any, and the buffs the Heralds give will stack additively for each one present. With multiple Heralds present, even the most common Guerilla troops will pose a significant threat in large enough numbers due to their activated abilities and inflated stats. Getting rid of these battlefield coordinators are a priority, but that isn't easy because of how they tend to spawn/camp in places that are mostly out-of-reach of operators, or just spawn in large numbers in quick succession.
- Apprentice/Elite Roar Knights from the Maria Nearl side story seem seem to have been created for this exact purpose. Their stats are genuinely awful, being pretty much incapable of killing anything with even a bit of healing support, except they spawn with one gimmick. They start with a 3000 DEF and 95 RES shield (to put it into perspective, they have even higher damage resistances than even Patriot except for HP for as long as the shield is up), meaning that unless you have debuffs or penetration, every attack you throw at it while it's up will deal the minimum (5% of ATK) amount of damage note - and it lasts for an utterly obnoxious 30 seconds. The only time they become remotely threatening is when they start eating up player operator block count and when your operators are too busy wastefully shooting at them than at something else.
- Although not exactly an enemy, the Ursus Civilians will be by far the biggest source of rage in Episode 8. The premise is simple - most missions in the chapter will be Escort Missions where you must safely get Civilians to the blue box, or suffer a life loss for each one that dies. The problem arises with the fact that Ursus Civilians are simultaneously some of the clumsiest and frailest units in the game, with relatively low HP and pathing that borders on Too Dumb to Live with how they'll gleefully run headlong into danger. On top of that, nearly every enemy in the chapter can outspeed the civilians and will prioritize them if they're in range (including the bog-standard mooks that show up in droves), meaning not even decoys will save them unless you can outright block the offender. And not only do they tend to spawn on maps with roadblocks to stall them for longer (forcing you to clear a path for them), even with a clear path, the Civilians will take their sweet time stumbling to the exit, which at best will waste your time, and at worst cost you the level if enemies manage to catch up to them and pelt them to death.
- Ursus Raiders coming in hot from Chapter 8 are basically the two-block version of Bully and Bulldozer, in that they immediately take up two blocks of anyone sent to stall them. Anyone with a blocking power of one will find that they cannot stall these enemies. They don't exactly have the highest stats especially compared to the likes of Bullies and Bulldozers, but the Ursus Raiders are a far more common sight in Chapter 8, and are made even more complicated that the most common ground tile operators have only 2 block already, so they won't be able to block anyone else if they happen to stall a Raider. If they are not handled quickly, they can easily take up operator block and let other enemy types including other Ursus Raiders pass unobstructed, beginning the cycle again.
- Caster Prisoners from Mansfield Break are annoying caster type enemies that provide a global ASPD buff to other enemies and start off with increased DEF, but can't attack any operators in range. But if other inmates or the event's boss liberate them, then the trouble starts. They have the same (massive) range of Leithanien Whisperers but attack much faster on top of attacking two targets at once, so they can bring down your squishier Operators surprisingly fast, and will quickly demolish Imprisonment Devices so you can't re-secure the casters. However, Caster Prisoners are pretty much harmless if you don't let Hardened Criminals or Infamous Recidivists attack too often, since they only attack if liberated and can't liberate themselves.
- The Blindeys and Indefatigable Blindeys from Who is Real can only be blocked by Operators of the same Hui/Ming attribute, and have an annoying tendency to travel along paths that don't have appropriately colored attribute seals to match them, or alongside enemies that can forcibly change the attribute of Operators. However, they're even faster than Wraiths, along with packing comparatively huge amounts of HP, ATK, and DEF that ensure that not only will you not be able to burst them as easily, anything blocking them is at risk of being rammed to death. Not helping is the fact that they take 40% reduced damage from Operators with the same attribute as them - the only thing that can even block them in the first place. The firecrackers that let you change the attribute of enemies or tiles help a lot, but they're generally only given in very small numbers not enough to convert all the Blindeys, requiring you to tactically use them on your own Operators to anticipate as many Blindeys as possible, something that can generally go wrong if an enemy that can change alignments like Envy or Free is active.
- Originiutant units in general from Operation Originium Dust. Whenever they are killed, they split in a certain number of smaller Originiutant Excrescences. While they aren't particular threatening or tough, they can multiply very rapidly and overwhelm defense lines with their sheer numbers, enabling a few of them to slip through. Originiutant Tumors in particular are especially frustrating, as they massively debuff the attack speed of whatever operator is blocking them - and the Elite versions of the Originiutant units spawn these on death instead of Excrescences. This makes them pretty much a hard counter to melee operators, as their ability severely cuts down their DPS, and since Tumors are typically accompanied by a number of Excresences, that means any player foolish enough to rely completely on melee operators will be in for a rude surprise when Tumors shut them down.
- Also from Originium Dust are the Redmark Infiltrators, which have moderate stats but the ability to spawn a decoy when first damaged. Not only does the Infiltrator become less likely to be targeted when the decoy is alive, they'll be able to pass through Operators; combined with the fact that their stats and speed are higher than those of the usual Wraiths, it's easy for them to leak through unless you kill the decoy quickly. On top of that, they'll also gain 40% physical and Arts evasion when exposed to a sandstorm, making it nearly impossible to blow them up with ranged units if you can't force them behind cover quickly. Their only saving grace is that unlike many unblockable enemies, they'll actually stop to attack nearby units.
- The Divers from Dossoles Holiday are relatively bog-standard ranged units at first glance, but all of that changes when High Tide rolls in, upon which they gain a significant ATK boost and become invisible. The buff to ATK allows them to deal serious harm to squishier units, while the invisibility means that unless you have someone with True Sight, you're not going to be attacking them back until the tide recedes or they get blocked. What really sets them apart from other invisible units is that you can't even deploy any units during said High Tide to block them, meaning that if you hadn't anticipated them beforehand, all you can do is watch as they stroll straight past your lines and possibly outright into the blue box (unless you brought a specific Sticker to circumvent this).
- The Dublinn Phalanx Infantry introduced in Episode 9 are rather unassuming at first, but have a passive which will cause their DEF to increase by 200 if any other Phalanx Infantry are nearby. The real kicker is that this stacks without an upper limit, meaning that if enough of them stack on top of each other, they'll become Nigh-Invulnerable to physical damage alongside their Arts Refraction making them resistant to Arts damage as well. And the game starts sending a lot of these things at once as the chapter goes on, meaning that they can casually shrug off all harm and overwhelm your blockers before walking into the blue box if you fail to eliminate them before they group up.
- The Armorless Union Assassins from Near Light are standard soldiers that constantly increase their ATK power when they are in an area with no visibility, which also turns them invisible and immune to damage unless True Sight is utilized or they're forcibly lit up. The only saving grace is their accumulated ATK power resets after they strike once, but they usually come in large numbers and are somewhat hard to gun down before they nuke the first melee unit they run into, which they almost certainly will since they're usually programmed to stand still in the darkness for as long as possible before engaging.
- Icefield Hunters have average stats but throw the regular targeting mechanics of the game out the window, as their attacks have nearly global range and will always target the unit with the lowest DEF rather than the last deployed one. Since the units they're targeting are usually ranged units who will die very quickly to their attacks, several of them at once can destroy a DPS unit with no way to draw their aggro away, and it'll take some time for them to get into range of your DPS units to shoot them down.
- The Derisive Audience in Crimson Solitaire functions like Junkmen, but they have the very nasty gimmick of dealing Nervous Impairment with every hit they land. They also tend to come in groups, and are often accompanied by other enemies that deal Nerve damage like the Scarlet Singers, just to make sure that anyone who they stun, remains stunned. On top of that, they have relatively high HP and DEF for how many show up at once, so without anyone who can deal Arts damage, you'll be forced to bite the bullet if these guys swarm your frontline. During 'Absurd Trickeries', they also team up with Sarkaz Lancers, whose already annoying presence becomes a larger threat due to there now being a chance that you won't be able to block them in time.
- Most of the Waregeists from Invitation to Wine are a colossal pain in the rear due to transforming into various furniture objects upon defeat, which are unblockable foes that require a certain number of hits to destroy instead of just taking damage normally. This throws conventional strategies out the window, as Mighty Glaciers are now pretty much useless since their high damage per hit is irrelevant against them; however, some of the Waregeists themselves are very bulky, meaning you'll have to pack both heavy damage and fast attackers. And not only do some of the enemies spawn these items en masse (necessitating area damage on top of all of this), some of them take dozens of hits to take down, while others take it further and only take Arts/True damage, further limiting your options. Units that can deal Arts Damage Over Time like Blue Poison, Ethan, and Ifrit are a godsend when facing them.
- The bog-standard Durin enemies from Ideal City can be a huge nuisance due to them having conditional 100% physical dodge, completely neutering all physical damage and making them liable to either walk through bombardments unharmed or overwhelm physical blockers. The Alcohol Lovers gain the buff for the first 20-30 seconds of their lives and usually show up at the start of the level to pressure an early defense. Meanwhile, the Lakeside Volunteers are brawler-type enemies with higher offensive power, and although they have a shorter buff of 10-20 seconds, they'll activate it at half health to make sure you can't just stall it out before engaging. The only real solutions to these drunken baddies is to utilize Arts damage or sources of dodge ignore to blow them up before they clog up your lines (which conveniently includes the self-driving cars provided in the event, although said cars are unlikely to be able to one-shot them), or by Silencing them to disable their evasion.
- The Touches of Benevolence from Chapter 10 are quite annoying in that they will immediately spawn after certain units are killed and begin swarming towards the blue base. While any Operator can block up to 6 of them, the Touches of Benevolence have extremely high damage resistance, making it difficult to destroy them quickly, which is a large issue because they can artificially increase the block count of whatever Operator is blocking, thus possibly baiting the Londinium Defense Cannon to shoot into your main formation. Stronger enemies will instead turn into Gifts of the Sanguinarch which, while also having the same mechanics and damage reduction, have surprisingly high ATK that often lets a group of them nuke anything less than a Defender,.
- Nethersea/Nourished Predators from Stultifera Navis are tremendously annoying units that have 80/90% evasion against Physical and Arts attacks, which makes them deceptively hard to take them down before the next group arrives. They're made even worse if Nethersea Brands spread all over the ground tiles, which will also make them unblockable on top of their deceptive bulk from the dodge; considering how much Nethersea Brand is present in the event, this will often let them slide right past even the toughest defenses. Their only saving grace is that Silence and most forms of hard crowd-control will disable their dodge, so you best hope you have some on hand.
- Pretty much every Spy-type enemy from Episode 12 can be annoying due to the way the revealing mechanic works. In order to verify if a Norport Civilian is a friendly who will increase your precious DP cap or an enemy that will ruin your day, you have to keep them blocked or in range of a friendly unit for a prolonged period of time. You cannot attack a disguised enemy nor recieve DP from a real civilian until the process is completely finished, which not only wastes your time, but also leaves operators doing the verifying vulnerable to other enemies accosting them or sneaking by while their block count is taken up. Out of the enemies that can spawn from revealed Spies, all of them qualify as a major pain since they'll generally only be vulnerable when they're right in your face - Pathfinders have a massively damaging first hit that can instantly wipe out a scout sent to verify them, Sentries are invisible to shut down using ranged units to gun them down early, and Armed Spies are simply Mighty Glaciers that are disproportionately strong for something that can spawn directly in the middle of your defense.
- Sarkaz Absurdist Operatives in Episode 12 are relatively unassuming units who enter battle with 3 special bolts loaded into their weapon, each of which will give them a ranged attack that steals 2 DP on hit. There's pretty much no way to prevent this without spawncamping them with long-ranged units (which isn't always possible depending on the map), and Episode 12's DP cap mechanic already makes DP management incredibly tight, much less if you have multiple Operatives sucking up all your DP. It's especially infuriating when you've finally increased the DP cap enough to deploy an expensive unit, only for an Operative to take away the last bit of DP required at the last second - doubly so if this slight delay ends up costing you the level.
- Rebellion Instigators and Agitators from Episode 12 are relatively non-threatening enemies who make up for this by making all Civilians unblockable as long as they are unblocked themselves, causing them to beeline unimpeded to the blue box. Mind you, blocking Civilians is the dominant way to verify their identity, so an Instigator showing up at a bad time can rob you of precious DP, or even a 3-star victory if that agent happened to be a disguised enemy. It's even worse if they spawn on tiles where they can't even be blocked to begin with, as now you'll be forced to spawn-kill them or use ranged units to reveal them early if you don't want the Civilians running through your lines.
- The Collapsals from Expeditioner's Joklumarkar are all over the place in the mode, and will be a severe pain due to their emphasis on ridiculous movement speed to rush down an unprepared defense. Tainted Carcasses have stats only a bit higher than the usual cannon fodder enemies, but can quadruple their speed for 2 seconds when attacked (making them over twice as fast as a Hound); considering how early they tend to show up, they can easily catch you off guard by blitzing early Vanguards, or just running straight into the blue box faster than your ranged units can gun them down. Distorted Casters also have relatively unassuming stats, but flip this around and instead get the movement speed steroid when they haven't attacked for some time, which can let them instantly close the gap before going on the attack; they also have a fairly fast attack speed and a slow natural movement speed, meaning that they'll rush you down when they're far away, but once they're just out of your range, they'll take their sweet time pelting you with Arts before actually becoming able to be shot down or blocked. Finally, Collapsed Constructs are flying units and analogues to the already annoying Arts Masters, but trade off some of their damage for insanely fast speed that lets them easily evade Snipers that can't finish them off in a single barrage, along with an attack animation so fast that they can move and attack simultaneously to perform fly-by assaults. The Collapsals also tend to come in huge hordes as well, necessitating both heavy blocking power and AoE to cull them before they just rush through your entire defense.
- Bloodborn Spawn from Episode 13 are similar to the Touches of Benevolence seen in previous chapters, being swarm-type enemies that appear en masse and can spawn from defeated foes. Unlike Touches of Benevolence, they come in even greater numbers while not increasing your block count, making it nearly impossible to hold them off with blocking alone, and are deceptively powerful in combat owing to their rapid Arts chip damage combined with a powerful lifesteal and their ability making them deal more damage depending on how many units their target is blocking. Using area damage to thin their numbers will just leave behind extremely defensive Blood Ambers which, if there's a Bloodcalling Altar in range or the Sanguinarch is present, will be resurrected back into Bloodborn Spawn, making things a race against time to neutralize whatever's causing their resurrection before they almost inevitably overwhelm you. On top of this, they can attack the payloads that you need to destroy the altars, stalling their progress and potentially even destroying it.
