SpecOps

SpecOps
A soldier of a special forces unit with the very best equipment and melee skills. Has ranged weaponry. Drops from the sky.
Main Stats
Type	Shooter
Rarity	Exclusive
Health 50 Ranged Damage 4 Melee Damage 6
Crit. Chance	0% (displayed, range only) 40% (undocumented, melee only)
Crit. Damage	1%
Speed	12
Prepare Time	45s
Courage Cost	30
Behavior Stats
Agility	60
Aggression	85
Detection Range	200
Agility Penalty	50%
Aggression Penalty	50%
Morale Stats
Charisma	400
Valor	600
Charisma Radius	80
Abilities
Perks
Knockback Strength	5
Special Ability	Spawns a random item on death.
Ranged Data
Firing Period	2.6s
Reloading Period	0.7s
Range	140
Bullet Spread	40°
Resistances
Bullet	90%
Poison	100%
Unlock Requirements
Price	500 (SpecOps Pack)
Player Level	Any

SpecOps is a soldier of an overarching governmental force. He is armed with an AK-47 and a pistol, and dressed in a green camo uniform with the sleeves rolled up, green camo pants, a flak jacket, and a green military helmet with a green mandible guard and a dark yellow visor. He carries a green backpack with a bedroll secured on top of it.

To unlock SpecOps, players must purchase the SpecOps Pack for 500 money.

Overview

SpecOps is a Shooter. He has average damage for his class, along with relatively high health, courage cost, and movement speed.

SpecOps fires his AK-47 in three-round bursts up to four times before having to perform a very fast reload. His firing speed is a little slower than on most shooters.

If confronted at melee range, he does a melee attack that consists of three closely-spaced hits, all of which cause knockback. Unlike most other ranged units, SpecOps prioritizes melee above shooting his targets.

SpecOps is immune to poison, and has 90% resistance to bullet damage. He won't turn into a zombie on death, and will instead fire three shots with a backup weapon, each dealing normal damage values. This attack is subject to the Fury buff, if he was affected before death. He will not be able to use this attack if his body is destroyed by incendiary sources or Energy Sphere.

Similar to rage abilities, SpecOps can be dropped on the battlefield anywhere. After selecting the desired position for him to land, it will take SpecOps around ~4 seconds before he becomes available. Until he lands, idle enemies are not alerted to his presence. This does not apply in a sandstorm, and instead he walks out of the bus like most other units.

SpecOps' level will automatically scale with that of the Bus

Special Ability

SpecOps' special ability guarantees that a random support item will be spawned shortly after his death. This excludes Drone, but includes Grenadier's Grenade (160 damage). Items will have the same level as freely usable versions in player's possession. Otherwise, level 0 values are used.

This ability is generally not useful, being questionable at best and outright detrimental at worst due to its randomized outcome. It's recommended to avoid buying it, as its benefits do not outweigh its downsides.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

SpecOps can be seen as an upgrade to Sonya to some extent. He has the same stats as Sonya but benefits from several more perks but costs more courage. He has additional resistances and his triple melee attack combo comes out quick while causing knockback on every hit. He also doesn't require any Power Points to upgrade, since he scales with the bus.

SpecOps' most unique perk allows for reactive deployment, since he can be placed closer to threats and does not have to walk all the way up. It can be used selectively to skip threats so other units could deal with them.

Possessing both bullet and poison resistance, SpecOps has a favorable matchup against poison/bullet-based threats like Robber, Epidemiologist and Slob, as well as being usable in Toxic Fog levels. In any case, it wouldn't be a bad idea to slightly improve his accuracy by dropping him closer to his targets. Additionally, his melee attack can keep such foes at bay as long as they are vulnerable to it.

Despite being a good ranged unit overall, SpecOps is considered to be less preferable in Main Campaign, if not outright useless, mostly due to his high courage cost, 4-second deployment animation and poor accuracy, which reduces his DPS in practice compared to other equivalents, most notably Carlos and Sonya, as raw DPS is often necessary to melt through enemies. It doesn't get better with his perks, as both bullet and poison-based threats are only relevant for so long. As such, he tends to be a poor investment until Austin has been acquired to reliably source coins.

Skirmish

In League, SpecOps is a very strong choice thanks to his high health, high rate of fire, and speed which make him a very versatile unit. His bullet resistance and speed greatly increase his survivability against enemy ranged units, even to those with strong damage output. His on-death attack could be useful to occasionally finish off enemies. However, his poor accuracy can hinder his damage potential against bullet-resistant enemy units. It should be noted that while his perks allow him to defeat enemy units even after being slain, this won't save his side from defeat.

With his special ability unlocked, SpecOps proves to be an unpredictable wild card in a fight due to the RNG of his items that can greatly aid or hinder his team. If Turret or Generator was summoned, units will always attempt to destroy it before attacking any enemies behind them, though enemy units can still miss their target and hit a unit behind it. However, Empty Barrel, Red Barrel, and Nitrogen will be ignored. Additionally, spawned Red Barrels can do more harm than good, as they can be detonated by any player.

Item Sets

Like any shooter, SpecOps benefits most from the Hunter set, as it provides him with highest increase to raw damage. However, in case his poor accuracy becomes a significant issue, using Military can also be fruitful, as extra bullets spawn with their own trajectoies, providing a safety net.

In context of skirmish, Hunter and Tactical are the best options, in a fashion typical for the mode. Hunter might be more preferable, thanks to access to legendary items. However, at top level play the best set for him ends up being Lucky Guy, as it can help SpecOps avoid getting two-tapped by maxed out Polina, alongside it synergizing well with Military's 2/2 power. In fact, LG can see use on SpecOps in missions with Insectoids too, should he be treated as a strictly secondary shooter. In that context, this set acts as an extra leyer of protection, allowing him to defend his teammates with less risk to himself.

SpecOps benefits most from flat boosts for damage. Percentages are only effective for health on him. Among books, +% health is the best option, since SpecOps poor accuracy makes critical builds even more unreliable on him in PvE, meanwhile in PvP any form of extra protection is always important. Being a ranged unit, a prep. time watch is the best option, especially with his parachuting animation delaying his appearance. However, it's also important to upgrade SpecOps agility to at least 80 through extra buffs, otherwise he will struggle to defend himself at close quarters. In case you are only plannning to use SpecOps in PvP, it's okay to give him an agility watch instead.

Cost reduction is quite important for Specops, as it compensates for some of his issues by making him easier to play. It's especially crucial in skirmish, as he is one of the key members of Military, and cost reduction is the only way his team can have access to the 5/5 power in that mode. Full reduction is highly advised for PvP, meanwhile in regular missions it shouldn't matter as much beyond -5.

Skins and Synergies

SpecOps is a part of the Military team.

Name	SpecOps
Skin
Unlock Req.	500 money
Team	Military

SpecOps is a decently powerful choice for his team, and shines the most in Skirmish with the Military 3/3 team power, which has 20% chance to spawn another copy of him when a military unit has been slain, sometimes turning the tides even with the worst RNG. Outside of that, he actually works much better in company of other units due to the terrible performance of military synergies in campaign.

Trivia

• SpecOps was inspired by the parallel universe Great Britain's Special Forces from Jasper Fforde's debut novel The Eyre Affair.
• He shares the exact same weapon, an AK-47, as Biker. However, Biker can fire an extra three round burst compared to him.
• SpecOps, Pepper, and Sonya all have the distinction of being the only three ranged units in the game who prioritize using their melee attack in close quarters combat, as other ranged units will fire at point blank range, only using their melee if approached very suddenly, or if they run out of ammo. This was likely done since all three of them have knockback on their melee attacks, and they wouldn't be getting good use out of the perk if they acted like any other ranged unit.
• SpecOps used to have a bug where if he summoned Empty Barrel in Skirmish on death, the game softlocks because units in Skirmish do not attack the Barrel, and since it is considered a unit, the fight never ends until the player quits.
• Due to the patch 2.8.2 in 2019 improving movement near fire and SpecOps' ability to drop a Generator in Skirmish, he can replicate the "fire bug", where a enemy unit is basically soft locked till the dropped Generator is destroyed or other, when there is a pool of fire nearby. The enemy unit will quickly turn left and right and is unable to go anywhere, utill the generator gets destroyed, the fire extinguishes or the unit itself gets killed. This bug can heavily affect the outcome of a round, but occurs rarely and only when using or encountering certain other units.
• SpecOps has the highest amount of perks in the game, for a total of six. This is tied with Dr. Kane.
• Before update 3.9.4, SpecOps used to have the 'o' uncapitalized is his name making it "Specops", this was changed due to a suggestion.